What have you been reading this week? - July 17, 2023

I chanced upon this unassuming series by the name of Haraiso Days. The art's a little dated, but that just adds to the charm, and this story just exudes charm! It's cosy and endearing, it's mellow and melancholic. I highly recommend this little gem if you're looking for a good seinen slice-of-life to indulge in.

I have been catching up on manga of some anime series I have enjoyed so far this year. The latest are:

• Oshi no Ko: I absolutely binged this series after the final episode aired. I am now caught up with the most recent chapter and I do not regret binging this at all. It has also made me appreciate the extent to which the anime actually elevated the source material. This is a story that just hits in both mediums so, so well.
• Tomo-chan is a girl: I had been working my way through this series since the anime finished airing and it has been fun. I just finished it yesterday. I feel like the anime did a good job with the adaptation, retaining all the important bits.
• Heavenly Delusion: I haven't actually started this series yet, but the anime came out of nowhere for me last season, so it is top of my list to start next. Really looking forward to see how the manga compares to the anime.
• Atsumare! Fushigi Kenkyuubu: I absolutely adore this SOL comedy manga about a Mystery Research Club. It is really wholesome and full of interesting characters. If you like a series full of weird characters like Komi-san, but just want the SOL rather than the romance, it is a great read.

Combini de Kimi to no 5 fun kan (5 Minutes With You at a Convenience Store).

It's a wonderful SoL/maybe-romance about a shy and earnest part-time convenience store clerk and a shy and earnest office lady who stops by most days on her way home. The chapters generally alternate - first recounting something from the POV of one of them, then recounting the same event from the other's POV. They're both adorable and it's just so nice to watch the two of them slowly come to realize that there's something special between them.

I just stumbled across it the other day, browsing the latest updates at Mangadex. I read the most recent chapter (76), then went back and read the first chapter, then just kept going and read all the rest.

This past week I read:

• [My S-Rank Party Fired Me for Being a Cursificer] (https://anilist.co/manga/118519/Akuyaku-Reijou-Level-99-Watashi-wa-Ura-Boss-desu-ga-Maou-de-wa-Arimasen/), another story of a protagonist being kicked from his party, this one is not edgy and its really short right now but I found it hilarious, lowkey it managed to make it make sense why the party of the protagonist rejected him when he was so OP, the protagonist is of course an oblivious idiot at recognizing his own standing, but it has been funny seeing him fight with varied tools.

• Villainess Level 99, another villainess on an isekai rpg, here the protagonist reincarnates as the hidden last boss in a game and takes the chance to level up to guarantee her safety, she manages to reach max rank before school even starts which became a problem. This manga has some charm, I really like how the protagonist became sort of an adrenaline junky at leveling up.

• Classroom of the Elite, I decided to stop reading at ch 58, I just havent found it interesting, while there are some 900 IQ plays nothing has really felt that exiting, I did like the protagonist personality at the island test.

• Chio's school road, its kind of a surreal comedy where we follow a girl going to school who gets into crazy situations, I was really enjoying it but the author started putting on some weird ecchi and weird jokes about sexual harrasment (for example the trope of the predatory lesbian, also an oji san that ends up homeless after groping high school girls on the train), which are played for laughs but felt weird and mismatched.

I also finished two of the manga I had started last week, being Helck and Transfer Student Storm Bringer (transfer students has a really wild ending, I loved how it ended)

• With One Day Left I'll Break All the Destruction Flags: "Serves You Right!" RTA 24 Hour Record - otome game villainess isekai. Fast-paced story about a villainess preventing her own doom. Most of the appeal is to watch how the villainess is breaking the heroine's plot.
• Kajiya de Hajimeru Isekai Slow Life - isekai, slow life. MC gets himself killed by protecting a cat, and a god decides to reincarnate him. He chooses to become a blacksmith in the new world. The main focus is on his interactions with other characters, specially the girls who start gathering around him. There's no actual romantic development whatsoever, mind you (at least for now - dunno about the future), but it's a fun read.
• Rakujitsu no Pathos / Sunset of Passion - romance, drama, adult. A young mangaka and his former teacher stumble upon each other, after graduation. She's married already, but... let's say that they do feel quite a bit for each other. Frankly I'm considering to drop this, due to overall lack of development; the first chapters were a joy to read, but the last ones have been fairly repetitive.
• Call Girl in Another World - isekai, adult. Same premise as JK Haru in Another World, but this one is comedy all the way, since the interactions between the girls and their clients are funny.
• Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything / Hazure Waku no Joutai Ijou Skill - MC gets reincarnated with only status debuffs as cheat power, while other heroes get amazing abilities. So the goddess decides to dump him in the middle of an extra-hard dungeon so he hopefully ends dead. Not only he manages to survive but he's smart enough to use his abilities to their full proficiency. Frankly it's better of a story than it looks like.
• The Other Side of the Secret - It's from Hideaki Yoshikawa, so as usual there are tentacles and groping and stuff like this. MC finds a door to another world, and is looking for clues on his older sister who went completely missing. In the process he discovers another world that is parallel to ours, full of hunters looking for stuff with magical properties.

Been reading Oshi no Ko after watching the anime. Thoroughly enjoyed both anime and manga. Not a big fan with the most recent romance development, and hope it doesn't go down that path. But, something's building up in this arc and can't wait to see the results.

Just also finished One Piece 1088. Next chapter looks like we're gonna go back to the Strawhats and finally see what's been going on in Egghead. Seeing Garp go ham for the past few chapters have been amazing. Can only imagine how insane he was during his and Roger's heyday.

A Useless Idol and the Only Fan in the World
All hail Urumin. We're slowly getting close to the end of pre-serialization parts and I can't wait to see how things expand from there.

Power Antoinette
Story about a buff Marie Antoinette who escapes her execution and bashes her way through Paris. It's silly, it's fun, it's only 4 chapters long (translation that is, original version is on volume 2).
Not a huge fan of muscles being a temporary buff (even if they're active for most of story so far) but it is what it is.

Got into Sakamoto Days last weekend. Loved the first volume; going to pick up the next few later this week. For how goofy the story is, the art is actually really stunning, and it's one of the few fighting-based shounen manga where I can actually follow the action without getting confused. Also, looking forward to picking up Dandadan vol 4 as well!