Oh hey, I got hooked on another ongoing series. Wasn't I going to STOP DOING THAT? But when you read this review, I'm sure you'll see why I couldn't resist it. Guys. It's a manga about trans kids!!!

Hourou Musuko (Wandering Son) is in many ways a very typical slice of life manga. Except the main characters are Nitori Shuuichi (aka Nitorin), who is mtf and Takatsuki Yoshino, who is ftm. There is also Ariga Makoto (Mako), another mtf kid in their year at school, and Yuki, a trans woman they meet and become friends with. The story starts when the kids are in 5th grade and they are currently in 8th.

I love this story so, so much. Unlike with IS, I really have no reservations about this and love it wholeheartedly. (I mean, I could wish for it to be more queer, yes, but I'm not afraid the eventual ending might disappoint me, the way I am with IS.) I have never read another manga like this. Japanese media often features okamas (a term that can be applied to trans women, drag queens, or just (usually effeminate) gay men), but they're usually comic relief or bad guys. Even when they are sympathetic, they're likely to be very minor characters, and like in western media, it's much, much harder to find representations of trans guys.

As I said, this is your basic slice of life manga, just following the characters as they grow up. While the main characters are trans, it's not really an issue manga. It's about growing up. And some of the people growing up happen to be trans. I really love the art, too.

I pretty much devoured this over the past couple days, and I just argh! I don't want it to end! I want to read more! Why does it have such a slow release schedule!? (Seems like so much seinen is on super slow release... Why!?) There are just so many little things that ring true. I think one of my favorite bits has been Chii-chan, a new girl they meet in 7th grade, who occasionally comes to school in a boys' uniform, or wearing a tie with her girls' uniform instead of the ribbon she's supposed to. She's not trans or genderqueer, just likes doing what she wants to do, and I love how Takatsuki envies her, because for Takatsuki it's not that easy because it actually means something to wear boys' clothes.

This been completely scanlated, to the most recent chapter available in Japan (download here or read online here). If you read Japanese, you can order from Amazon Japan or download the first eight volumes here. There are currently 8+ volumes, with vol. 9 scheduled to come out this autumn (sadly, this one is released only one volume per year). Unfortunately I've so far not been able to find Japanese scans of the chapters that will eventually be volume 9, only scanlations. Really bad, since vol. 8 ended on a cliffhanger...

This is not a proper review, since I don't like to review before a series is finished, but I mainlined these ten volumes over the past few days and I wanted to talk about this manga.

If you missed my previous posts on this manga, it's a josei series that has a serious, realistic take on intersexuality. Scanlations of the first eight volumes can be found here (though sadly it appears to be discontinued by the group who was working on it). The author has worked closely with an online intersex group to make sure she has her facts straight and isn't getting offensive or appropriative, which shouldn't impress me as much as it does, because it should be how everyone approaches fiction, but we all know that's not how it works, so I do admire her for how respectful she's been with this topic, especially considering the fact that her original idea was for a generic fantasy story that had a "hermaphrodite" hero/ine and it was only when she started poking around online for research that she realised, hey, this could be offensive, and then trashed that idea and wrote this story instead.

( An outline of the story )

( There's a lot I love about this story )

( but what I really want is a queer story, and this is often depressingly heteronormative )

I just...in so many ways this manga is awesome and is showing a better way, rather than unthinkingly regurgitating society's wrongness. But I want it to question more. I want the characters to realise that there's a better way than what they're told. And I don't know if they will. I don't want to come to the end of this manga and be disappointed, but I'm so afraid I will.

Title: Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Chidamari no Ma Satsujin Jiken/Fudou Koukou Gakuensai Satsujin Jiken
Author: Amagi Seimaru/Satou Fumiya
My Rating: 3.5/5

This is a single volume with two short mysteries, both centered around Kindaichi's school. In the first one, Kindaichi and Miyuki go to Go competition because their school's team doesn't have enough players, and of course someone gets killed while they're there. The second takes place at the school festival, where a member of the photography club is killed. Both were okay, but I think I prefer the longer format to short stories for these. When they're this short, only one person gets killed in each! XD

There's a new mystery running right now which is titled Kenmochi Keibu no Satsujin Jiken (The Murder of Detective Kenmochi). DDD: I am almost afraid to start reading it!

1. I managed not to be totally dead tired last night even though I got maybe 4.5-5 hours sleep all day, spread over two naps. (In fact, I should be going to be soon and I'm not that tired now, oops?)

2. I only had three chapters to translate last night because D.Gray-man is on hiatus again. I'm still annoyed it's on hiatus, but I'd forgotten about it, and the scans were really late getting to me and I was tired, so I was very glad to have only Bleach, Naruto, and Bakuman to do.

3. Speaking of Naruto. I am really loving Nagato's backstory. Danzo again. I always knew he was trouble. I really loved the bit between Jiraiya and Nagato, and then Yahiko's death. Good stuff! Also, I remember when Pain first attacked Konoha, I was thinking Sasuke would reach the village at the same time and there would be this converging of baddies. But now I guess he probably won't show up until Nagato is dead (he is sympathetic, but he will surely die...though I would love him and Naruto to join forces). So it's still Sasuke left and then the Big Bad of Madara. There's a lot to wrap up still.

4. In the past I have tried using Technorati and stuff to search for my username(s), but they never turn up much. Yesterday I tried a new (to me) one called Icerocket and found some neat stuff, including three people reccing my fic. One of the recs was really, really awesome and pretty much made my day.

5. The other day when we were at whatever the bookstore in Mitsuwa is called these days, I saw they had new volumes of Nana and 7 Seeds. I didn't buy, since I was already buying $50 worth of manga and I knew they'd be scanned, but now every day I've been checking to see if they're up and finally last night 7 Seeds was posted! :D I...actually still haven't read vol. 14, so that will be a nice treat. (I am taking a break from Inuyasha to read a few shorter things.)

Man, I know there was other stuff I wanted to post about but I can't remember. :-/ I should make a note of stuff during the day so this doesn't happen!

Oguri Saori "Darling wa Gaikokujin" - 4/5

This is an autobiographical manga about a Japanese woman married to an American guy. The introduction starts off with her saying she thinks it's not so much an issue of cultures as it is individual personalities, but that she sometimes finds herself thinking, "Wow, so this is the difference not being raised on tamagoyaki and The Drifters can make." Indeed, while there are some issues in her anecdotes that arise due to cultural differences, many are just personality-based (and she acknowledges that). It's not a manual on how to live with a foreigner, nor is it full of the typical stereotypes Japanese tend to have about foreigners (Americans especially). The art style is cute and even when it's not outright funny (which it often is), it's always interesting.

And wow, that makes 79 manga I've read so far this year. ^_^;;

So today I discovered this cute manga called Darling wa Gaikokujin (My Darling Is a Foreigner) about a Japanese woman married to a white guy. As soon as I came to this panel, I had to scanlate it*, though, because it is pretty much exactly me and Bruce (though I am not the primary cook, nor do I object to pizza's calorie count):








*I am actually considering doing the whole manga, since it's just one volume, but if I do, it will be after I've made more progress on the series I'm already working on (and I'll probably release it as a volume rather than by chapters).

Naruto: I'm really liking Nagato's story. I can't wait for the next chapter (which I guess is in two weeks because of Golden Week) to see what happened to turn Nagato into Pain (obviously Yahiko dies, but I want to know the details). /spoilers

Bleach: Back to everyone's battles on Earth. Kinda boring. :-/ I'd rather see Ichigo & co. vs. Yammy. /spoilers

Bakuman: Noooooo! I can't believe they got a new editor. I've been worried about it ever since it was brought up a couple chapters ago, but I thought maybe Hattori would just be worrying for nothing. Waah! I love Hattori. This new guy seems okay, but it's not the same. Hattori's been working with them for so long! /spoilers

D.Gray-man: Fuuuuck. Kanda is some sort of superweapon type thing? Does this mean he's not human, period? Or he was a human who was experimented upon? This is not the time to break indefinitely, argh! /spoilers

(Highlight each for spoilers.)

Okay, so I'm trying to read primarily finished series, especially finished series that I'd already started at some point. I'm also trying to start with ones I have physical copies of rather than just scans, since that way I can combine reading stuff with getting stuff out of the house (or at least up on BookMooch and thus hopefully out of the house at some point).

So I decided to tackle Inuyasha next.

Pros:

1. I'd already read up through 26.
2. I find it fairly easy to pick up even though it's been ages, and thus don't have to reread those 26 vols. before reading vol. 27. (I read 25 and 26 in 2006, and God knows when I read earlier than that. I started keeping track of my reading in 2005 and there's no Inuyasha listed for that year.)
3. There's generally not a lot of text per page, making for fast reading.

Cons:

1. Even starting with vol. 27, that means I still have THIRTY VOLUMES TO READ! DDD:

Why is this thing so long!? Anyway, I have actually read up through 30 now and am trying to read 2-3 vols. per day, but I don't want to read much more than that at a time because I also have a library book due on Wednesday, and lgbtfest is running and I want to read some of those fics, and I also have a ton of non-reading stuff I need to do.

Anyway. Anyone else reading Inuyasha? Anyone actually finished the series? Anyone read her newest? Wikipedia had no info on it yet that I could see, and I was too lazy to actually google, but I'm curious. I can't say she's one of my favorite authors ever, but I do tend to enjoy her stuff fairly well.

Fujita Kazuhiro "The Black Museum Springald" - 1.5/5

I bought this one-off because of the awesome cover, which looks like a worn old book, but unfortunately the actual story isn't that good. The main story is about Spring Heeled Jack, and it's interesting enough except for the part where the bad guy is drawn as really effeminate and he's upset (to the point of being murderous!) that a woman has changed the man he admired/is obsessed with. Of course he's not stated outright to be gay, but he doesn't need to be. It still comes off as homophobic, and left an unpleasant taste in my mouth. The second story (an adventure featuring the niece of the guy in the first story) is just boring. (The art was also considerably worse than the main story (whose art I did like quite a bit).)

There doesn't seem to be any translations of this, fan or pro, but you're not missing anything, really.

Mutou Hiromu "Never Give Up!" - 2/5
I think the best thing I can say about this series is that it wasn't as horrible as I thought it was going to be after reading volume one. Obviously, that's not a huge compliment, which is why it's got a low rating.

The plot is that Kiri is a very masculine-looking girl, tall and skinny and angular, and Touya is a very pretty, short boy. Kiri has had a crush on Touya since she was four, when she vowed that she would grow up to be a princess suitable for Touya. Now they're in high school and she's still not very feminine-looking (though is not really tomboyish personality/interests-wise) and Touya is still short and pretty. They both think they're unsuitable for each other, so they can't admit they like each other. Things only get worse when Touya starts modelling, and Kiri ends up modelling with him...as a male model called Tatsuki.

I always read stuff like this that plays with gender in hopes that it will be interesting and different. This wasn't. It spends the whole series reinforcing gender stereotypes, with a liberal dose of homophobia along the way. Plus, it was one of those series where you're told they like each other, but never really shown a reason why (especially why Kiri likes Touya). Overall it was just cliched and annoying. And the ending, oh God... Not only do they get married at eighteen, but they get married at eighteen after him spending two years overseas. So they haven't seen each other in two years, and as soon as his plane lands, it's off the plane and to the church to get married. D: That was kind of ridiculous.



I have also started reading Girl Friends by Morinaga Milk. My determination to only read finished series is apparently not very strong, because this only has two volumes so far (though I read all the chapters that have been released, which is most of what will be volume three as well). I really, really love it.

I've never read any yuri manga before, because, well, like yaoi, it's more about the fanservice and fantasy than anything realistic, and that's just not my bag, baby. But for some reason when I saw this, I couldn't not download it. The art is very sweet (and really good, too), and that ended up being my impression of the whole thing. It's just a really sweet, fumbling romance between two high school girls. And despite the cutesy art style, the fanservice is low and it's actually quite realistic. It's also slow. Like, the whole first volume or so is building up their friendship, and while there are hints that something more (as of yet unrecognised by either girl) is going on, it's really just about them and their friends hanging out and having fun.

Anyway, I love it like burning and want to check out other stuff by the author. Also I want the rest of the series to be magically done now so I can read it.

Kawahara Kazune "High School Debut" - 5/5

I loved this so much! *_* This is the fastest I've read a manga in ages. Usually I haven't been reading more than a few volumes a week because I'm trying to read more books, and I always have a ton of stuff on my to-do list, so I feel bad when I'm just reading, but I couldn't resist! I blew through all thirteen volumes in about three days.

As I've mentioned before, I've been a fan of Kawahara Kazune for a long time. While Sensei! was running, it was one of my very favorite manga, and I'm really glad to see that things haven't changed much in Kawahara Landa. High School Debut feels more modern than Sensei! (not that Sensei! is really old, but it started running in '96), but I'm pleased to see that she's still writing the same sort of feel-good story as always. The innocence of her stories is always part of their charm.

The story starts off with 10th grade tomboy Haruna deciding that after devoting her jr. high years to softball, she's going to devote her high school years to romance. Except she has no idea how to go about it. Then one day she meets You, a really cool guy who has good fashion sense and knows what it takes to be popular, and she has the bright idea of asking him to coach her so she can get a boyfriend. The fun thing about this is how it totally doesn't work. It's not My Fair Lady, and Haruna doesn't get transformed, but she does end up falling for You, natch.

I loved Haruna's character, how oblivious she is and how cheerful. I loved You and Assa and Fumi and Asaoka and Mami (and all the minor characters like Matsuzaka and the Houjou siblings and the 10th grade boy who's obsessed with You (I can't remember his name!) and Haruna's little brother Kentarou). I loved pretty much every plotline, although I found it really hard to believe that You fell for Miyabi's trick so easily. Oh, and Haruna's weight gain was pretty ridiculous considering it was only a few days. I also thought maybe my wish was going to come true and Mami's "betrayal" was going to be that she liked Haruna, not You. I knew it was 99.9% wishful thinking, but when she said it wasn't about You, I was really hoping! *sigh*

But really, I loved it. Whole-heartedly. Definitely one of my favorite school romances ever.*

Only up through volume 8 has officially been released in English, but the entire series has apparently been scanlated.



*That said, I couldn't help but thinking about the story...not the story I wished it could be, because like I said, I honestly did love every minute of this, but the story I wished it could have been, too. The story where Haruna and Mami are baby dykes and don't know it yet, and You is a bit more like Justin from Ugly Betty in his fashion advice, and there's romance, just not between You and Haruna. I want that story! I know it would be playing into a lot of stereotypes, but I still want it! I want it like burning!

I feel like I haven't been talking about manga much, and the reason for this is that despite my determination to not start new ongoing series and just concentrate on reading a lot of the short series/one-offs I have sitting around, I have instead got sucked into rereading two series (Naruto for reread_no_jutsu and Please Save My Earth because I want to read the sequel and don't remember anything), plus I started two new series, so I have been reading a lot of manga, but have no reviews. D:

But! Even though I cannot properly review these, since the series are incompete, I did want to talk about them, because they're both interesting and God only knows when they'll be finished.

First off is a new one by Yoshinaga Fumi, Kinou Nani Tabeta? (What Did You Eat Yesterday?) Baka Updates shows there are two groups scanlating it, with several chapters done so far. If you liked Antique Bakery, I'd definitely suggest checking this out. If you would like manga about queer characters, but don't really like the tropes that go along with BL, I would definitely suggest checking it out. I would also suggest checking it out if you are a foodie and/or like cooking, especially typical homecooked Japanese meals with lots of sidedishes. You see, this your typical seinen slice of life/foodie/cooking magazine (complete with detailed directions on how to cook everything), except the protagonist is a gay guy in his 40s who live with his (same age) boyfriend. They are written as realistic gay guys, not as the usual BL fantasy, and while the fact that they're gay informs their daily life and is thus mentioned to some degree in every chapter, it's not a romance or a story about being gay. Which is why it's so unique and lovely and I really hope it will get picked up for the US (I think her other stuff's been pretty popular?).

The second one is Kodomo no Jikan (Children's Time) by Watashiya Kaworu. It appears to be scanlated up to the current most recent chapter (which is actually further than I've read in Japanese). This one I have more mixed feelings on. The story is really great: disturbing and compelling and really hard to put down. But the fan service makes me uncomfortable. ( moar, not really spoilery )

So I don't know. I am enjoying it, and am really curious to see where it goes, but I really, really wish it were being told in a different fashion.

I just got caught up with One Piece. ( spoilers )

( Naruto 436 )

( Bakuman 26 )

reread_no_jutsu is a comm for group rereading* and discussion of Naruto. Here's an intro post and here's the claims post for discussion.

I'm looking forward to it!



*You could be reading along for the first time, but as it's geared towards rereading, there will be spoilers.

I've been reading a lot (for me), but have been slacking on reviews, so here's what I've got so far. I'm pretty damn pleased with myself that I've read eight books and it's only the middle of February. :D

Tanuja Desai Hidier "Born Confused" - 5/5
This is the story of Dimple Lala growing up and finding herself over the summer between 11th and 12th grade. There is romance in there, and there is friendship stuff, but really it's about Dimple. I've been reading more young adult books lately (so many of the interesting books I see recced are YA...) and a lot of them really feel like it. This did in some ways (the feel of the POV felt more like a novel aimed at teens), but it wasn't dumbed down or anything. I really enjoyed this book a lot, and I'm sad to see Hidier hasn't written any other novels.

I did have some frustrations with it, namely that because it's first person and Dimple doesn't really speak up when people blame her for stuff, it comes off feeling like we're supposed to think she was the one in the wrong. (With Gwyn, it kind of came around at the end (though I still felt like she never admitted/realised what an ass she'd been to Dimple), but by the end of the book I was still left feeling like Dimple was blamed for the mixups with Karsh, even though it would be ridiculous to read his behaviour any other way than she does. In fact, I was shocked that he said he had never been dating Gwyn. I was sure that he was dating her, but still had feelings for Dimple, and I am just so confused as to what the fuck he thought he was doing if not dating Gwyn.) Also Gwyn seriously bugged me. Like, the whole time. I loved um, the lesbian cousin, whose name I can't remember right now. And Zara! ♥ And Dimple's parents were awesome, too.

Very highly recommended.

Shaun Tan "The Arrival" - 5/5
I almost feel like it's cheating to including this on my reading list, since it's a story told entirely in pictures, but I will anyway. :p And it's really, really awesome, so you should read it, too. It's the story of a man who leaves his wife and daughter behind in order to find work in a foreign country. The book follows him in his new life there as he meet people and tries to figure things out, and ends with him eventually sending for his wife and child to join him. The story is set in a fantastical world. The land he comes from has shadow dragons flying through the sky. The land he arrives in has...well, just about everything weird you could think of. One man he meets escaped to this land from a different country, where he and his wife had to run for their lives from giants with blowtorches. Another man tells of the war he fought, and when he returned, he found his entire village destroyed. A young woman tells of how she escaped slavery to come here. I love these tales as much as the main character's. And I love his little book, as he tries hard to figure out what these strange foods are and how to read maps. Tan's beautiful drawings really get across the confusion of being somewhere where you don't understand anything and are trying your best to get by.

M.T. Anderson "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" - 5/5
Okay, everyone needs to go out and read this right now! And anyone who read all the racefail about "zomg poor white me, I could never write people of color, wah wah, damned if I do, damned if I don't" really needs to read this even more. Because M.T. Anderson? The man who wrote this awesome, amazing story about a slave boy in the American Revolution? Yeah. He's white. And believe me, you'll forget that as you're reading.

Anyway, this is the story of Octavian, a slave who has been raised like a prince for the purpose of an experiment. The book follows Octavian as he grows up, becoming bleaker and bleaker as the years go by. It's such an interesting premise, and a very interesting look at the American Revolution as well, and the hypocrisy of the people who wanted to be free from the "slavery" of a monarchy, but clung so tightly to their own slaves, even as slavery was declared illegal in Britain. (And oh, the moment when Cassiopeia hears of that and realises that if she'd only gone to England with that asshole, she'd be free now!)

More spoilers (highlight to read): I'm so glad Trefusius was a good guy! I really liked him and was hoping that he wasn't as bad as the rest, so I was mentally cheering when he drugged Sharpe and Gitney. That was brilliant. But argh, when Octavian got dragged back after running away. As I was reading um, what's his name's letters, I was so afraid that it was a trick at first, but then I let my guard down as it seemed to be a legitimate job offer for Octavian...and then it turned out to be a trick after all! D: This book was so frustrating and angering to read, not in a bad way, but just the attitudes of people like Sharpe who were determined to see everything as proof that blacks were lesser beings, and the knowledge that not only is that not fiction, but it's not something of the past, either! Ugh, it just left me wanting to go around and punch random people in the face.

Hamasaki Tatsuya "One Piece: Chinjuutou no Chopper Oukoku" - 2.5/5
I grabbed quite a few manga novels at one point because I'd so enjoyed the D.Gray-man novel, Reverse. Alas, this did not live up to that at all. It's the novelisation of one of the One Piece movies and as OVAs and films of manga and anime often are, it's vaguely AU. It takes place just after Chopper joins Luffy and the others, but Vivi is not on the ship with them for this adventure. The plot here is that the crew sets sail for an island that's supposed to have a great treasure, only when they land there, Chopper gets separated from the others. The island turns out to be inhabited by weird animals and a little boy named Mobambi, and they mistakenly think Chopper is their new king. Of course a baddie appears and lots of fighting happens and stuff. It was a fun enough read (and very quick), but not anywhere near as good as the manga itself.

Azuma Kiyohiko "Azumanga Daioh" (4 vols.) - 5/5
Azumanga Daioh is a 4-panel manga that follows a group of girls from the start of 10th grade through graduation. I was pleasantly surprised at the continuity, as I'd expected each strip to be separate and random. The humor is what I'd expect from the author of Yotsuba&!, that is, absolutely hilarious. Everything is silly about this, from the ten-year-old genius who skips ahead to 10th grade, to the skeevy male teacher who says he wanted to become a teacher because he likes high school girls, yet it's also very emotionally realistic. Most of these girls are not friends when the new school year starts, but by the end of high school, they're inseparable. I especially loved Sakaki and Kagura, but it's really hard to pick favorites because they all have their charms.

At the beginning I didn't like it quite as much as Yotsuba&!, but by the end I think they're almost tied.

I am now completely caught up on both these series, woohoo! Though I had to read the two most recent chapters of Tegamibachi as photos rather than scans, as no one seems to have scanned them. They were readable, though, so I'm glad they were available (unlike the Weekly Jump cam stuff which I don't know why people even bother with as they're always tiny and illegible and only partial chapters).

Now the only series I want to catch up on that I'm not just waiting for tankobon are One Piece (caught up on tankobon, but 20 chapters behind) and Reborn (also caught up on tankobon, but 14 chapters behind). Because I translate Naruto, Bleach, Bakuman, and D.Gray-man (though that's on hiatus) weekly, I don't have to make any effort to catch up on those. The only other series I'd really like to follow chapter by chapter is Nana, but there don't seem to be any scans of it. :(

Does anyone here read Tegamibachi? There are scanlations of everything up to chapter 24 (25 and 26 are the ones with no raw scans available) and apparently it's been licensed by Viz. It's such an awesome series and the art is absolutely beautiful. (Asada Hiroyuki is probably my favorite artist after Obata Takeshi, though it's only with Tegamibachi that I've been a fan; he's improved a lot since his previous series.)

Fullmetal Alchemist really seems to be winding up. ( Spoilers up through chapter 92 )

Ueda Miwa "Ura Peach Girl" - 4/5
I was on the fence as to whether to rate and review this series yet or not, because it's not finished, but I'm not sure when it will be, if ever. Technically it's on hiatus, though it has been on hiatus for a couple years now. Volume three ends at a good place, though, so if it never does come back, it's not like it's a cliffhanger. There's some stuff unresolved (SaruKan and Sae are obviously meant to get together eventually and there's more backstory to be revealed), but it works well as it is.

Basically this is a sequel from Sae's POV (though there is also a chapter or two retelling some of the events from Peach Girl from her POV, too). I hated Sae at the beginning of Peach Girl, but by the end of the series I really liked her, so I was pleased to see a new series from her POV. She's just as prickly and obnoxious as before, but now we start to see some hints as to why. Touji is off at uni somewhere else, so the only returning cast is Sae, Momo, and Kairi, but there's also the addition of Sae's childhood friend Sawatari Kanji, who's moved back to town after being away for several years.

I highly recommend this to anyone who liked Peach Girl. All three volumes are available in English from Tokyo Pop under the name Peach Girl: Sae's Story.

I actually had these chapters sitting on my hard drive for a while, but just haven't got around to reading them yet. Then last night I saw vol. 21 had come out last month, so now if I read them I could put them on my reading list (I never list chapters even if I read them individually, just wait for the tankoubon to come out and put it on the list then). So I did.

( Spoilers )

I have the next four chapters, too, so I might go ahead and read those. I have a few manga and books I need to read first, thought. More stuff I put up on BookMooch before I actually read it. :p

So it's a new year and I'm going to try and be a little more thorough in both my book and manga reviews.

The first thing I've read this year is four short story collections from Kawahara Kazune (Sensei!, High School Debut). It looks like there's a full scanlation of Ai no Tame ni (you need to create an account to download, but it takes five seconds) and a partial one of 500 Mile. The scanlation of Ai no Tame ni is actually a translation of a translation (Chinese) and thus kind of iffy (they got the main character's name wrong in the title story!) but better than nothing.

( Ai no Tame ni - 5/5 )

( 500 Miles - 3.5/5 )

( Muteki no Love Power - 3.5/5 )

( Shiawase no Kanzume - 3/5 )

So I had this crazy idea to see how much manga, exactly, do I have in the "to read" queue. This includes both stuff I have physical copies of as well as stuff that's on my hard drive, but obviously doesn't include volumes that are not yet released (so like, this is not technically all the manga I need to read, because I follow many on-going series).

Underline means that series is complete (huzzah). I am going to be concentrating on reading completed series, I think, aside from the main ones I follow, and get caught up on any on-going series I've already started but am behind on (so I will try not to start any new on-going series).

( Fuck, this is long. )

So that's 79 titles, though of course some are one-offs, so it's not 79 series, at least. And 54 of those are completed, so that's a big plus in my mind. According to my calculations, there are some 660 volumes in these 79 series. D: That's a bit more daunting! But I did read 200 volumes this past year, so I think I can make a dent in these. (And of course I may try a series and not like it and decide not to continue, so 660 is only theoretical.)

And just for fun, here's a list of the on-going series I'm still following that I'm either all caught up with (to the most recent tankoubon, or in some cases most recent chapter) or nearly caught up with but need to buy one or two more volumes to be fully up to date.

Amano Akira: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
Arakawa Hiromu: Fullmetal Alchemist
Asada Hiroyuki: Tegamibachi
Chiya Toriko: Clover (two volumes behind)
Kishimoto Masashi: Naruto
Kubo Taito: Bleach
Nakamura Hikaru: Saint Young Men
Oda Eiichirou: One Piece
Ooba Tsugumi & Obata Takeshi: Bakuman
Sadamoto Yoshiyuki: Neon Genesis Evangelion (only one volume left in the series! Please publish it now so I can be done with this!)
Tamura Yumi: 7 Seeds
Yamazaki Takako: Ppoi! (one volume behind)
Yazawa Ai: Nana
Yonezawa Rika: Miso.com (I'm actually five volumes behind on this one...)

...Wow, is that it, really? Only 14 series, one of which will be finished with the next volume that's released. That's not bad at all.

I know there are other series I want to check out that I haven't even got any volumes of yet. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles is apparently a must if I'm going to read xxxHolic, and there are some more Jump series I've been meaning to try out.

Anyway, I'm definitely going to work on those completed series first, starting (after I finish Honey & Clover, which I already started last month) with the one-offs and other really short series.

Total books read: 20

I didn't set out to read any specific quota of books by PoC/queer/female/etc. authors so let's see how it shakes down in terms of diversity.

10 books by authors of color. That's fully half of what I read and seems like a decent ratio, though I wouldn't mind doing better next year. I also read 2 books by Jewish authors, which is sort of a grey area.

2 books by queer authors (or out authors, anyway; it's entirely possible some others may be and I just never saw it mentioned anywhere). That seems awfully small, but it is 10%. I had a lot higher percentage than that last year, though, I know, and I'd certainly like to do better next year. I have a bunch on my shelf and more coming from BookMooch, so that shouldn't be hard.

6 books by female authors. That's pretty low. Ideally I'd like to have at least half. Unfortunately, I don't really like the genres that it's easiest to find female authors in (romance, chick lit, fantasy), so left to my own devices my reading tends to be mostly male. (If you have any recs for female authors who write literary fiction or just mainstream/non-genre lit, lemme know!)

5 books in Japanese. That's a quarter of my reading and considering how much reading in Japanese I do with manga, I'm not worried about trying for more. I have a pile of Japanese books here and so of course I'd like to read them, but in terms of reading practice, I get plenty without even trying.

4 non-fiction books. That seems pretty high for me, as my preference is definitely for fiction. I don't feel a particular need to read any more non-fiction, though, so I'll read books if I have them and if not, no worries.

5 young adult books. That seems high, too. I don't normally read a lot of YA or children's lit (I've lumped them all in one category on LibraryThing because it's easier to just have one category to denote stuff that's aimed at a younger audience, plus I have no clue what makes something YA vs children's and don't care to have to poke around and find out), but a lot of the Japanese books I have are light novels, so that contributes.

No books this year were rereads.

You can see the full list here on LibraryThing. The links below go to my LibraryThing reviews for each book.

( Full list with ratings and links to reviews )

Total manga read: 200

That's a lot! XD That's the most manga I've read in a year since I started keeping track of my yearly reading in 2005. I attribute that to the fact that I haven't been in much of a fanfic mood the last half of the year, combined with the discovery of manga scans, meaning I'm no longer limited by what I can find for affordable prices at Book Off.

I didn't count it up, because I don't tag for genre and thus it would mean counting by hand, but I'd guess that half or more were shounen. Not surprising considering how frequently Jump series get released and how many Jump series I follow.

You can see the full list here on LibraryThing. The links below go to my LibraryThing reviews, however, I only review and rate series I have either finished or stopped following, so on-going series (or finished series I simply haven't finished reading) have no links.

( Full list with ratings and links to reviews )

I also read 314 pieces of fanfic, which is probably less than I read last year, since I hardly read any the past couple months.

Well, I finally finished reading Beck the other day. A couple weeks ago I realised the series was now complete, so I went and downloaded all the volumes I was missing (I had about ten or so misc. higher volumes that I'd grabbed whenever I saw them on the dollar shelf at Book Off) and started reading. I had twenty to read, but I always zip through them so it didn't take long.

I really enjoyed this series, and I think one of the things I liked best about it was ( vaguely spoilery ) All in all, it's a really, really awesome story.

I heard it kind of got dropped in the US after like, vol. 12 or so (though perhaps may have a new volume coming out), which really sucks. I think even more than the super slowness of US releases as compared to Japan or the steep prices, the thing I would hate most if I had to read in English is the way these companies seem to drop half the series they release. I mean, I realise that if they're not making money from a series, they don't want to continue it, but it would make me really wary of trying anything for fear I would like it and then it would get cancelled.

Also, the final volume of this made 198 manga I'd read so far this year. D: Maybe I should read two more just to make it an even 200...

When I first heard there was an anime/manga called Emma, I just assumed it was based on the Jane Austen book and didn't give it a second thought. When I realised it wasn't, and read a few reviews that made it sound like it might be cute, I put it on my list to try and then finally got around to it this past week.

Once I started, it was hard to put down. The story is very slow-paced, but there's not a lot of dialogue and it's a very quick read. The story itself is rather stereotypical and predictable maid falls in love with a gentleman and his family is against their love, etc. etc. But it's charming and sweet and the characters are all quite likable (though my favorites by far were Hakim, and Wilhelm and Dorothea).

The main story is the first seven volumes, with two volumes of shorts about various supporting characters, and then the final volume being a bunch of 4-panel shorts plus the epilogue to the main story. While some of the shorts were cute, I really didn't need two and a half volumes of them. A lot of them were very self-indulgent and plotless, just an opportunity for the author to draw lots of Victorian stuff.

Speaking of which, her love for Victorian England really shines through in every page of the manga, even if you don't read the (adorkable) author's notes in which she rhapsodises about Victoriana and maids and how cute Emma is when she blushes. I'm not an expert on the period by any means, but it seems quite authentic to me, and apparently after the first two volumes, she even employed a historical expert to make sure she had things right. (I do wish, though, that with all that attention to detail, she could have spared a bit for the English language. It's one thing to see bizarre romanisations of western names in a manga where the author obviously doesn't care about accuracy, but in something like this where she's otherwise so meticulous, could she not have spared two seconds to find out that it should be Jones, not Jounse, and Stoner, not Stownar.)

1. I have actually been quite productive today! I did my weekly Jump stuff, plus got five pages of Saint Oniisan edited.

2. None of the Photoshop replacements I've downloaded are really doing it for me. They are good for some stuff, but not really the stuff I actually need to do. But! The Photoshop CS3 portable that I have been limping along with since I got this computer seems to be working better this time? I was having such trouble with it when I did the last chapter that I just gave up and did all my editing on my old laptop, but that's out of the question now, since said laptop is on its way to gairid as we speak. Anyway, there's still some wonkiness, but it's been usable, yay.

3. Speaking of weekly Jump, ( Spoilers for Bakuman )

4. I got an email from my mom this evening and she said Tom was lucid quite a bit today, really for the first time since this all happened. He can't talk with the breathing tube, but was aware of my mom and his daughters, who'd come down the other day from Oakland and Sacramento, and was able to communicate a little bit. He's still been sedated most of the time because of the breathing tube, but his kidneys are doing better, the fever's lower, everything seems to be improving, though slowly.

5. I have a music post coming in a bit! :)