some 積読 clearances from the first week or so of 2026:
(Note: links are to the raw notes on my notion site, not to anything actually informative)
I finally finished the last three volumes of ゲゲゲの鬼太郎. These are physical 積読 probably predating when I learned about Bookwalker (and by extension how easy Japanese ebooks are to come by)? I’ve been reading this edition of Kitaro over the last year or two and dearly love it - it’s extremely up my alley, the most Japanese manga have reminded me of silver age Superman comics, in the sense of being about a profoundly weird protagonist less having tense conflict and more getting out of jams and wrapping up stories via his weird creative powers and enjoying the strange mythology slowly develop around him. And like, that with spooky yokai, what’s not to love? His dad is an eyeball who lives in his eye socket, his fingers are also guns, his vest and geta can save him independently in a jam, it’s weird, it’s great! It only took this long for me to read through them I think mainly because I enjoyed them so much and wanted to savor them.
From what I (belatedly) understand, this edition I read collects mainly a couple of specific runs of Kitaro comics, but there’s other runs in different venues before and after that Mizuki did (and of course it’s all famous enough that Kitaro media continues long after his death also), so I’m not sure exactly where I would want to go from here, but I think probably the only thing to do is to slowly pick away at the Shigeru Mizuki complete works editions over time.
I also read a very interesting related manga called 水木先生とぼく about a longtime assistent of Mizuki’s, which gave a lot of insight into how manga like this was (is?) made and what that kind of assistant lifestyle is like (which is difficult for me to make a value judgment about from such an outsider perspective on it - and its not presented asking for one). Really interesting context to cap off the Kitaro reading (although I got the impression the specific assistant took over after the Kitaro comics that I read).
The next thing that came up in my backlog system along that line is to clear out the backlog of AX issues I’ve accumulated. AX is an alternative manga magazine that inherited the legacy of the influential ガロ, and I’ve been reading issues for a while after I realized how easy it is to get a hold of them (although they aren’t available digitally). And even if I haven’t 100% vibed with the magazine it’s not like “yes, please send me a chunk of cutting edge alternative manga for a surprisingly small amount of money” is the kind of prospect that stops being cool, you know? So I have volumes in a pile backed up to roughly the current day, and may or may not start speedily churning through them.
Anyway, I especially enjoyed issue 151 to the point that I still hope to get around to quickly translating one of the stories in it to share with a friend before their birthday, just since it seemed like the kind of thing that would be nice to be able to do.
サマー・ボーイ・ブルー is a short-term 積読 since it came out in 2025 and I read it on Booklive. It’s a one volume BL from an author (遠野みやこ) whose 読み切り I especially enjoyed in Harta, and whose debut 連載 is going to start up in the next issue of that magazine in Harta, so it’s a very auspicious author encounter to me, and I was excited to see her other work here.
Both in art and story I think the Tono has a knack for like - a slightly plain feeling that then is deceptively well-executed. As I wouldn’t especially say there’s that much of a specific hook that makes this stand out from (what I understand of) other BL, but it’s nevertheless a very effective story about two guys reconnecting and learning to accept what they want and let go of guilt after their first tryst was walked in on by a disapproving parent. I think as a first series it’s very promising, although again I don’t really know how it stacks up to the rest of the genre.
… And it’s full-on BL too so uh, watch out for that I guess.
And finally, I suppose this counts as both physical and digital 積読 since I bought a DS copy in Japan but ended up playing it on Switch via the “Egg Console” line of very nice old パソコン ports, but I played through the first JB Harold game, 殺人倶楽部 and greatly enjoyed it despite (or because of?) it largely being a game about tediously going through menus over and over. It’s like if a linear visual novel adventure game like Ace Attorney or Portopia Serial Murder Case had a billion options at any given time, and it’s both extremely engrossing and at times frustrating because of that, I found.
… Since I spent so much of the new year’s break getting caught up on my media notes and everything, getting caught up again now feels like a new year all over again! Hopefully 51 or so more of those in store, I guess…
Honestly not bad, but solidly a three out of five. The plot was interesting enough, but the writing style did nothing for me and the very light details of the cases were rehashed far too much. I promise I won’t forget the circumstances of someone’s murder in 20 pages, please don’t treat me like I will. I think with some better editing it could have been really good, but as it stands it was just fine.
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