You know friends, ive been thinking about it and I kinda miss cohost
I keep tabbing over to it and being like AHH!!!
I keep tabbing over to it and being like AHH!!!
THEY CANNOT STOP US FROM POSTING
ILL KEEP POSTING! Theres a new Oshi no ko on Wednesday that ill need to yell about - the season finale and all that!
im pretty sure i read a scanlation of this but its been so long it might as well be all new. The arts real cute and you gotta love an idiot that cant tell that her crush is a girl
Since my last recommendation went over well, here's another one: https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/talk_dirty_to_me/
It's a Korean smutty yuri manhua about two girls in a kpop idol duo thing who form a toxic bdsm relationship together. It is also hot trash, but the latest chapter was weirdly touching? (I hope I don't become known as "the toxic yuri guy" I'm actually mostly into fluff, I promise!)
So yeah- GOOD TOXIC YURI MANHUA I’m like 12 chapters in, out of 51 (which fair warning it’s on the Lezhin comics app so that’s a lot of coins) and I’m having a great time! Manga about idols having a secret relationship is one of the best genres- and heck this is a twisted secret relationship! That said, there is a real soft core hidden under the verbal abuse just beginning to peek out I feel. good recommendation thanks LOTTE OUT
Since my last recommendation went over well, here's another one: https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/talk_dirty_to_me/
It's a Korean smutty yuri manhua about two girls in a kpop idol duo thing who form a toxic bdsm relationship together. It is also hot trash, but the latest chapter was weirdly touching? (I hope I don't become known as "the toxic yuri guy" I'm actually mostly into fluff, I promise!)
So yeah- GOOD TOXIC YURI MANHUA I’m like 12 chapters in, out of 51 (which fair warning it’s on the Lezhin comics app so that’s a lot of coins) and I’m having a great time! Manga about idols having a secret relationship is one of the best genres- and heck this is a twisted secret relationship! That said, there is a real soft core hidden under the verbal abuse just beginning to peek out I feel. good recommendation thanks LOTTE OUT
this probably makes for a good last yuri manga post on this site (well.. manhua - its chinese) ITS BEEN GOOD COHOST
https://mangadex.org/title/8b34f37a-0181-4f0b-8ce3-01217e9a602c/please-bully-me-miss-villainess
Its one of thoes 'two girls slowly open up to each other about their home lives and find solace in shared trauma, and slowly draw closer tougher" kinda highschool yuri but uhhhh.... so toxic its radioactive - deffo check out the content warnings on the first page of chapter 1, but like heck good book im sure these kids will end up totally fine and well adjusted and nothing bad will happen whatsoever
https://mangadex.org/title/eac0159f-2768-49d7-8891-4202f3e9fb8c/destroy-it-all-and-love-me-in-hell
Kurumi Yoshizawa, the student council president, has excellent grades and an inviting, friendly personality… on the surface at least. In reality, her days are spent struggling against her domineering mother and agonizing over her teachers’ expectations.
One day, Kurumi reluctantly goes to meet Naoi, her truant classmate, at her homeroom teacher’s request to look after her. The situation sours quickly as Naoi sees through Kurumi’s facade and makes her animosity clear. On the verge of a meltdown, Kurumi is barely able to stop herself from shoplifting, unaware that she’s being recorded by Naoi…
This is a violent story about two young girls struggling every day with no escape.
From a new yuri harem timeslip villainess manga reincarnation manga, which you know- fantastic genre imo, gotta be one of the top genres out there. I quite liked the first chapter and have been waiting for more - and heck was not disappointed by chapter 2. Who would have guessed she’d become such a useless lesbian so fast. I’m rooting for this gal
I WAS ENJOYING THAT YURI MANGA IT DESERVED MORE VOLUMES HECK IT ALL!! I, Lotte May, am an idiot and i love manga about idiots, i love manga about mangaka/editors, i love manga about idols having a secret relationship and i love manga about ladies falling in love. This book, is all of these things
https://mangadex.org/title/62ea0d5e-b6d8-4391-a919-02d217410f18/amateur-e-girl-streaming-a-space-war
Who dosn’t love watching Yanagi suffer, this book is obviously still incredible- one of the best shojo ever published and I’ll die on that hill 300%
The class reunion chapter is particularly good, seeing how far these idiots have come since being kids- how they have grown as people but are still fundamentally the same morons- super heartwarming. The sidebar says it’s an interlude chapter, essentially filler between two arcs, but I think it’s secretly one of the most important structural chapters yet.
also wow we have had some WILD cliffhanger episodes over the past few weeks but this one??!? THIS ONE?!?
I feel sick it’s so good
I love this show so much friends.
End of an era
I've read a bunch of the stuff in your top picks already, but I do want to say I am so glad to see someone else recommending Even Though We're Adults. God they are such disasters and I love each and every one of them
Even though we’re adults is probably one of the best yuri manga ever published and I’d wholeheartedly a billion percent recommend it to anyone who loves women, messy relationship drama and just like reding comics about the realest shit
This is an index post of pretty much every manga and light novel I've posted about on this site. Ive left out some stuff where I've not posted any notes.. but other than that its pretty exhaustive. Ive posted about some 230 series and 500 odd volumes on Cohost over the past few years which is pretty wild. Thanks to anyone who's ever read any of my weekly posts and left comments, it meant a lot 🩷
in no particular order
# A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
Pretty cute tbh! It’s about two childhood friends beginning to date. It’s not full of big dramatic plot twists or anything, but more short, lowkey moments - most chapters cover a short 15 minutes slice leading up to some event in their blossoming relationship. It’s quite and quite beautifully drawn- with Super gentle atmosphere to the characters interactions. Super recommended
Ohhh yeah I picked this one up on a total whim, and HECK what an incredible book for fans of total idiots. I, Lotte May, world famous idiot, am a BIIIIG fan of idiots. ITS SO GOOD! We have the two biggest idiots, totally antisocial dweebs, incredible introverts working in the planning department of a travel agency - but disaster strikes our stupids hero’s company, they are going to open a new branch in Russia and someone from the Tokyo branch will be sent to set it up. Who knows how many years you might get stuck in Siberia! It’s cold there! There’s only one way for these two to protect their precious, single loner Tokyo lifestyles, and that’s pretending to get married. No big deal right? It can’t be that hard to fool your coworkers, it’s not like they are going to make a big deal of it… right? Right? Ahhh.
https://mangadex.org/title/553e781b-9b27-4520-aa6a-a98c7d749c9f/konbini-de-kimi-to-no-5-funkan
Real engaging take on the whole non-isekai villainess time skip sub genre - I’m having a great time slowly understanding how this world works and how our main girl is going to survive. The first volume spends a LOT of its pages in her first life which was really neat- if very abusive and violent. Really makes you feel for her. 10/10 good book - the only thing that would make it better would be if it were yuri. Also, check out these beautiful shiny covers
Absolute garbage 6/10 enjoyed it.
“wow, this has quickly become a favourite series - It's a real good entry in the isekai villainess genre. As much as i hate capital, capital owners, the pursuit of capital, and the concept of hereditary peerage DANG i do love manga about princesses and noble ladies starting businesses using knowledge from a previous life - that shit OWNS. She wants to invent health insurance and banking... and chocolate? Girlboss. 10/10”
Very beautiful book, an interesting and quiet story about the death of local gods. I really think this one is worth a read.
It’s published by Titan Comic’s ‘Titan Manga’ brand, which I guess is new? It’s the only book I have by them at least, and I’ve got thousands of these things! Anyways their copy is weird, right on the inside cover it says “PERFECT FOR FANS OF MAGICAL GIRLS” which is of course, a weird way to advertise a book, especially one like this! Maybe for madoka fans, people that want to read a slow meditation on the death of gods… this ain’t for precure fans, you know. It’s just strange.
As sugary sweet as the anime, and super pretty. I’ll be honest, the anime was a super big guilty pleasure of mine back when it aired,it’s deffo NOT good but it IS good if you know what I mean, real junk food.
“Dang, this book is incredible- this is a straight romance comedy that has SO much yuri energy - like a straight romance story written like a yuri, if that makes sense. these are some of the softest characters I’ve read in ages. it’s also incredibly funny, I loled out loud, at 2 am like an idiot. 10/10 (THEY EVEN GO ON A DATE TO IKEA. that's the most lesbian kind of date, in my experience)”
this e-girls about to get internet famous with her exclusive UFO alien attack vidoes - if she survives and YouTube doesn’t- what’s even the point
https://mangadex.org/title/62ea0d5e-b6d8-4391-a919-02d217410f18/amateur-e-girl-streaming-a-space-war
A pretty good hospital-based romance story forming here - obviously not as good as Pulse (which is a yuri and therefore infinitely better), but still pretty dang good!
The characters are pretty interesting, even the asshole male romantic lead. Protag-chan herself is particularly good, she’s a newbie nurse straight out of university and the depictions of her struggling to learn how to do the job for real are pretty dang good - it’s the kind of work that feels like there must have been a bunch of research interviews done before the storyboard were drawn you know? Will deffo pick up more sometime
Maomao makes some wonderful disgusted faces at flirty men, which really speaks to me imo
Maomao is SO FUCKING CUTE when she’s ingesting deadly deadly neurotoxins. This girl just LOVES poisons. I LOVE HER.
I really like the structure, which is half an episodic continuous storyline, with kinda standalone pages that are disconnected from the main story but have some small (and usually very funny) slice-of-life thing - its just plain good and is a real inventive way of deepening the relationship between our two ‘leading’ ladies, it creates a great sense of time
I say ‘leading’ because after the first bunch of chapters (and specially from the second volume onwards) things really open up. This isnt a story about two gals, its an ensemble cast of multiple different couples whose lives all interact and cross over - they all face different issues that tend to be mirrored and reflected in different ways. Its cool how rich each relationship and set of characters end up feeling. This - is a good book
“I think maybe Asumi chan is a raging homosexual? She sure does like sleeping with girls that's for sure. Im sure the real perverts would love this one - but its super sweet too.“
Ayaka is in Love With Hiroko is incredibly good - recommend to everyone whos a fan of useless women.
Very silly book, feel like I’ve never seen a fantasy hero’s power level get so inflated so quickly. I wonder if there’s going to be anything interesting here going forward or if it’s just revenge fantasy, but ehh it’s fine I guess? Not the best thing I’ve ever read
Vol. 4
”Remember that tweet from a few weeks ago from some lady that really wanted to make chilli for some students that lived in the same building, cos they just looked like really hungry boys and cooking for other people made her happy? This is a book about exactly that”
Intensely silly, the title says it all. Recommend for those who like to see boob and girls kiss, and fans of stupid isekai. There’s an interesting brothel magic system in here, for some reason all the brothel ladies have magical kisses? This was deffo written by an idiot (complimentary)
“I've never seen a yuri manga where two ladies beat each other up so lovingly. incredible work. Seven Seas is publishing so wild stuff these days its great.”
You know, for a 4-koma style manga it’s real good? I’m not the biggest fan of that style of manga usually but you know, Bocchi is great. Is it as good as the anime? No. Categorically no. One million percently no. But there’s a cool spark here- it’s kinda amazing to see the source panels that sparked some of the standout moments of animation in the show… actually it’s kinda like reading an early storyboard that’s a few drafts off what ends up in the show? Which normally source manga doesn't feel like that? But yeah, it’s good, it’s interesting but wow that anime is incredible - it really elevates whats on the page, but you can still totally get how this inspired the animation team to go wild.
All im saying is that i think its KINDA obvious that the mangaka has experience drawing yuri manga, and that like 999% the correct direction
Another girl is secretly super strong but abused and bullied by her family for being a disappointment manga, kinda like my happy marriage. Has all the same supernatural tropes in it too. Unlike that book, protag-chan isn’t a wet blanket pushover, she figures out who she is and has an inner strength and knows what she wants, which is nice. It was a fun read
I was reading this this morning too, it’s pretty cute
When I saw this in the store I was like “ohhh heck, this is either one for REAL perverts or for REAL GENRE PERVERTS. I hope it’s for genre perverts” and I’m 3000% happy to report it’s for Genre Perverts! rejoice! Incredible my funny and incredible unerotic lol.
This is a pretty neat concept- it’s a fantasy isekai by way of science fiction. The titular Captain Corinth gets stranded in a fantasy world after his spaceship is mysteriously ambushed in hyperspace and crash lands on a nearby uncharted planet. All the usual isekai tropes are justified though advanced technology - all your cheat skills are nanotechnology and AI - stuff like that. it’s just a neat implementation of all that junk isekai genre perverts adore, 10/10
Top scientists have toiled away for YEARS doing complex lab experiments and they finally did it, the built the ultimate idiot yuri girl. The world’s biggest idiot. She’s so stupid. She is perfect. She has zero thoughts (apart from GIRLFRIEND HOT). I love her.
Anyways, what’s Cheerful Amnesia about? Well our perfect idiot yuri girl wakes up in hospital… with amnesia.. oh no! She can’t remember the last 3 years of her life! But there’s a hot lady in her room?!? Who says she’s her girlfriend?!! “WOW” she thinks to herself - “go past me I picked up a hottie”
And it just gets stupider from there. 10/10
Basic bitch isekai bullshit. Some weird shit theology in this one. Apparently you can become a god of you beat up another god real good? I think? Who knows. This is garbage. I will continue to read it
So, Citrus is real good. Screw the haters and all that. Yeah, it deals with weird abusive relationships but it knows what it’s doing, I feel. I had a good time with these two messed up kids, I'm sure things will go really well for them.
You know that massive feeling of disappointment when you get to the end of a yuri series and all the angst is over and it’s just like… ending where the relationship starts? IT SUCKS! Well for Citrus, Saburouta sensei decided to fix that with a sequel series.
There’s a panel early on when Yuzu’s mum is looking at Mei blush about the idea of going on a date with Yuzu and like, smiling warmly at the whole situation. That panel is great. Only someone with a truly, incredibly, amazingly massive brain could have drawn that.
These two morons, these idiots, these absolute buffoons, these cretins, these not very smart people BOTH make much cuter girls than boys. Anyways wow what an incredibly complex, messy book. I think “kid with a case serious of the genders working in a cosplay cafe” has to be one of my favourite genres, right up there with ‘generic isekai’, ‘villainess but yuri’ and ‘idol but with a secret partner’. All great genres imo.
One of the BEST things about this is the main characters do have friends that immediately 100% clock them and just don’t do ANYTHING with that information- it’s just like huh cool I guess my best friend makes a hot girl I’ll leave them alone/watch from afar because this WILL BE funny. That kinda rules heh
Reading straight women’s romance manga is a funny experience - his plain clothes boosts his sex appeal? uhhh, okay sure thing buddy, I really don’t understand that but I think you look lovely. You do you though, go get him girl.
What’s really neat about this is that is TOTALLY doubles down on the mechanics of “being reborn” - our protagonist is a literal child. Sure- a child with an adult mind, but still a child. She can’t communicate, she’s 2 months old. Of course she can’t communicate! she can barely sit up by herself! And that kinda rules?
Dang this series was just incredibly readable - like the opposite of some other stuff I’ve been reading this week I just couldn’t put it down, and I could get through a volume in like 45mins - this yuri manga is just smooth as butter~
It’s got all the good things going for it, it’s about adult women (mostly) with adult problems… it’s not as good as the doughnut yuri but yeah, it was for sure short and sweet. It does suffer from that main yuri manga sin of ending when the protagonist’s finally get together. Ughh. That should be a beginning not the end!
Pretty cute shoujo manga that’s so far ticking off all the tropes
✅ countryside girl moving to her uncles place in Tokyo due to her parents work
✅ hot girl in her class acting all innocent but bullying her for being a bumpkin
✅ love triangle forming (including a guy who is irresponsibly too old)
✅ whole class going bowling
“This is a super good isekai villainess story about a woman who dies (truck) and is reborn as one of her OCs in an AWFUL novel she wrote as a TERRIBLE teenager. Obviously, she's not the super beautiful author insert character, but rather her villainous little sister and OH NO all the hot boys DEFFO want her dead, probably. Watching our poor girl struggle through the pain of remembering her own terrible plot and dealing with the world changing as she continues not to get killed by the hot boys is super fun... the books do suffer a bit from the art not being super clear at times tho. Still, if you like villainess stories this has a really interesting twist to the formulae.”
ehhh, magic school battle manga. If you’ve read one, you’ve read like a billion of these. Genre perverts only.
a new yuri harem timeslip villainess manga reincarnation manga, which you know- fantastic genre imo, gotta be one of the top genres out there. I quite liked the first chapter and have been waiting for more - and heck was not disappointed by chapter 2. Who would have guessed she’d become such a useless lesbian so fast. I’m rooting for this gal
Isekaied (heart attack) - pretty good. The anime was pretty trashy (also good), I’m surprised by how much effort went into the art on this one. For genre perverts. One of the many, many isekai thats like “wow! owning slaves! must be a good replacement for an actual family!”
Its one of thoes 'two girls slowly open up to each other about their home lives and find solace in shared trauma, and slowly draw closer tougher" kinda highschool yuri but uhhhh.... so toxic its radioactive - deffo check out the content warnings on the first page of chapter 1, but like heck good book im sure these kids will end up totally fine and well adjusted and nothing bad will happen whatsoever
https://mangadex.org/title/eac0159f-2768-49d7-8891-4202f3e9fb8c/destroy-it-all-and-love-me-in-hell
Some weeeeeeeird stuff going on here. It’s an okay book, but hmmm. Like, why do you require your fiance to be under 14 my dude? This time slip story has a cannon, evil pedo incestuous prince on the other side of this conflict, they need to stop beating around the bush on this point and make it clear that this is NOT weird VERY quickly in the next volume, like heeeeeeck
Vol. 4
”Ughhhhh stories about yuri office ladies slowly falling in love get to me like nothing else ughhh I love this book I love it so much”
A good one of these. Deffo just one for the genre perverts though, there’s nothing really to differentiate it from any other reborn as an aristocrat style story. Junk food. The titular Production Magic didn’t even show up in the first volume! Gimme something to work with here!
Its real good?! I do love these characters a LOT and it's a shame it just ends at what seems like a significant turning point in both of their lives... Even more so as the last chapter spends a good number of pages building up Ibuki's friends. There's a cool second arc hook being set up that just never happens. It's sad, but like, at least these 6 chapters exist!!
https://mangadex.org/title/24b47819-83c7-4627-8b33-b35e7fc47340
“Picture someone who isn’t the main character or the antagonist, someone who manipulate events behind the scenes and flaunt their overwhelming power. That’s the kind of shadowbroker I’ve always dreamed of becoming“ - that’s the opening line, it’s a fucking strong mission statement! ITS GOOD! yeah yeah its an isekai so its obviously 100% my shit, but i just love everything about how this stupid story is structured. The whole gimmick with our protagonist just making fantasy shit up as he bumbles though the world and not realizing that every single tropey made up story he acts out in the world actually textually really exists IN REALITY, is real fun.
I’ve read a few volumes of the light novel (well, all the audiobooks that currently exist- same thing) and really like this dumb story, it’s a slow life Isekai about a guy and his dog in another world, I mean what more could you possibly want?!? Turns out ART. you want DRAWINGS. ITS LIKE A MILLION PERCENT CUTER WITH DRAWINGS. Leo (the dog) is SO CUTE in her massive wolf form, there’s a gentleness and joy that the art captures so well. As for the human cast, Claire is SUCH a cutie in the manga version, they capture so much of her character in her facial expressions, it’s just real good fluff
THIS BOOK IS INCREDIBLE - incredibly readable, if you get it you too will be howling in pain at the terrible adult love triangle thats forming. If your not violently nodding along and thinking “yeah! what the heck! keep going girl!” when one of our two main protagonist ladies shouts “Give me a break Ayano… you idiot. YOU’RE MARRIED!” at her phone - you must be dead inside. If like the idea of reading a series where a lady shouts “I CAN’T BE CHATTING WITH MY CRUSHES HUSBAND!” Whilst lying down in bed in despair this is the series for you!
[Notes based on some Line messages I set to @Nex3 whilst reading volume 6 in a cafe]
So it’s a Romance manga published by Shojo Beat, which are normally pretty by the numbers, about a regular office lady who’s dating a celebrity, which is a pretty by the numbers subgenre. Despite having ZERO interest in celebrity culture in real life ohhh heck do I LOVE this genre, cos you always have to have that dynamic where they have to keep the relationship hidden, which is fun right?
Anyways, the main character lady’s brother just found out who she’s dating- and normally in this kinda thing there’s a lot of stupid bullshit like “wow you’re dating them?!? They are famous!” That kinda stuff. In this her brother flat out doesn't recognise the guy or give a single shit - which is an INCREDIBLE twist
The boyfriend is a news presenter. Her brother just does not watch the news. That’s genre innovation right there. I was really impressed lol
I fucking love scumbag women! Someone should give Flowerchild a medal for her services to scummy women
https://mangadex.org/title/9f78bb87-b2d9-4e2c-b9fe-7e07b481d8ca/a-face-you-shouldn-t-show
I simultaneously like this series a lot and also find it really empty heh. It’s a hella cute and pretty ride, and the initial popular gal adopting a weird nerd and teaching her how to be pretty arc was REAL good… but the main story line… it’s like this plot is two shades two mean to its main characters? It’s not tasty! I dunno just feels like there’s a more delicious story that could have emerged over the last volume and a half… it’s like all the elements that make this ending are good! Just maybe not with this particular weighting.. and in this particular order? still good tho.
So yeah it’s a pretty regular shoujo story about nobility, romance and ballgowns - but I really like the characters here, especially the embroidery obsessed protagonist- she’s just super cool? Its really neat how that character theme of "shes an embroidery pervert" gets woven in to so many things, its what she does in her free time, its what she pays attention to at the igh society parties, heck her magical powers are that she can do embroidery real good. Just a real cleanly structured story & world
Yet another reincarnated as a Nobel lady story, this one is pretty good if you a pervert for the genre. The first half make it seem like it’s going to be super heartwarming so seeing how much of a antisocial jerk the wizard kid is when he grows up was pretty neat, like oh I guess this will have some bite to it after all
About a university research associate meeting one of her students in a Lesbian brothel, you know, the way you do. was reallly good apart from the gross sexual assault bit in the middle. Its very sweet & messy apart from that. worth having a read
standard for one of these- a very good one though.
The isekai mechanics and the time leaping is all really interestingly implemented- it’s like the “real world” is some weird ghostly plane protag-chan can only visit in a dreamlike state, and the isekai world is the concrete real place. The opposite dynamic to usual. It’s very strong I like it
“This book somehow manages to depict the passage of time more beautifully than any other manga I've ever read, really beautiful art and a very unique fantasy tale”
“Pretty cute stories about two girls running away from work and disassociating from society for a bit.”
I do love me some manga about making manga. This does have a weird supernatural background story to it, but its still nice to see people struggling their hardest to make beautiful art and slowly fall in love at the same time
Single Volume
pretty simple straightforward school based yuri story with a basketball theme… it’s cute. Does have that thing where like all plot progression is gated behind misunderstandings and miscommunication but luckily things tend to be cleared up the next chapter so it’s never annoying
It’s garbage and there’s a billion books like this- but usually there’s SOMETHING there to grab on to - I don’t expect every romantic manga primarily aimed at young boys to be a masterpiece but like… there’s gotta be something redeeming!! This is just empty
It’s a pretty light and fluffy school romance manga about a girl who has scary eyes but is actually real sweet when you get to know her, and some boy she likes. So/ kinda nothing but still pretty entertaining to read though. The real big draw here is that it’s full color and beautiful, like 5000% some of the prettiest pastel comic pages you ever seen. I know I can go on a bit about how nice a book physically is whenever I come across a particularly nice one - but wow heck this is one of the nicest presented manga books you could ever hope to find. Denpa did a real good job on that front.
Yet another isekai, this time a sales guy dies of a sudden heat attack and gets reincarnated with the potential to learn healing magic and hand to hand combat skills. But oh no, healers in this world are ALL MASSIVE JERKS. Like, the biggest jerks! And our poor protag-kun? hes just a normal nice guy that would never want to charge anyone 30 gold for a healing spell. He just wants to charge 1 silver. Thats how nice he is! But first, hes gotta get good.
https://mangadex.org/title/685db91e-a8ab-4de3-9738-9d3f883bd179
The arts real cute and you gotta love an idiot that cant tell that her crush is a girl
A classic boy meets demon-lord girl, boy beats up demon lord girl, demon lord girl becomes boys pet cat, boy gets a job as a staff member at a small normal adventurers guild. You know, one of them. It’s always nice to see really abnormal characters getting obsessed with being “normal” (whilst having zero clue what normal even is). There’s lots of fun fantasy tropes and found family themes running all the way through. Simple but solidly executed “I can’t believe it’s not isekai” junk.
Incredibly stupid
It’s a cute manga but fucking hell these girls need a break
Wow incredibly beautiful art and a double isekai? Like we got a boy being summoned isekaied into a magical world (and dying), and then a princess time slipping to the future… possibly meeting the isekai boys reincarnation 1000 years in the future?!? Double isekai and a time slip this rules genre perverts get hyped that’s like 3 genres. And yeah - theres a lot of manga with really low detailed panel backgrounds but this isnt one of them. I bet it had a monthly serialization or something cos heck the amount of pencil time this would need to draw is wild!
Incredible line work- this mangaka can DRAW! Anyways, its a fun slow romance with some interesting magic system stuff. If you like shoujo fantasy it’s highly recommended.
There’s deffo a cool genre trend here with stories about young lonely women who are super super smart, world-leading in their craft witches living isolated in forests being discovered by hot Nobel boys - I’m pretty sure more of that exact girly fantasy trope has ended up on my pile lately than other sub-genres (like villainess, for example) I guess it’s a real smart way to merge your shoujo romance into a fantasy setting so you don't have to write about a dang school. I’m a noted genre pervert so I’m glad manga publishes have found a new one to mine for translation content
Cute fluff
Vol. 5
I adore our beautifully honest protagonist and her evil ghost aunty. Such a great dynamic, and oh heck the art is beautiful…. But gosh dang the world and literally EVERY SINGLE other character is horrible and it kinda makes it a real chore to read.
Its an isekai shoujo romance about a lady reborn in a magic world except her magic is very week but shes real good at controlling it and invents all sort of domestic uses for it and calls it housekeeping magic..... and like, yeah i would like to read that very much thats some of my favorite genres right there.
this manga is so fucking stupid (complimentary)
https://mangadex.org/title/cb98bd40-a903-4416-bdd0-dab93d8f36ad/r15-ja-dame-desuka
Dang I adore this book. Adult women doing their best - I love that for them! It’s the kind of book where there are just SO many panels when you read it and then just gaze into the art and feel all warm inside and just tuck yourself onto a little ball of pleasant feelings I SURE DO HOPE NOTHING GOES WRONG FOR THESE TWO.
I love idiot girls!! “what do you mean Endo san is a vampire? Sure she’s kinda weird and old fashioned and I invited her into my home and she just kinda lives there now and she doesn’t eat human food apart from tomato sauce and then she bites my neck every night and I guess she drinks my blood when she does that and she hates the smell of garlic and is incapable of walking passed churches… but vampires arnt real duhhh she can’t possibly be one” solid logic.
I think the first volume is pretty incredible and the second volume is... not as good but wraps things up pretty okay. I mean, it gets weird, in a not great way but it works well enough. Nice little two book arc i guess. If you wanna read about some yuri vampires have at it.
Pretty fun isekai about a dude going hunting with his wife, who is a hot and also an elf. A hot elf wife, if you will. 10/10 good for genre perverts.
My favourite part is actually the little omake at the end, which is a fun little chapter with the goddess that isekai's our protag-kun - and shes just doing research in Tokyo on how to pick a good ‘hero’ to summon. Lady just reads a hell of a lot of isekai light novels and bases her whole summoning ruleset based off that. 10/10
ISEKAI DEATH REPORT: mauled to death by a brown bear whilst hunting
incredible title, incredibly stupid
A short, messy yuri about a fuckup game developer and her hot younger landlady. So yeah, lets ignore the problematic aspects of your landlady forcing “favors” from you because your behind on rent, at its core this is a sweet story about a useless oneesan type character relying on a anxious and unstable little sister, who in turn needs her for emotional support. they grow and heal together, and thats always heart warming. i just WISH they had another volume for post confession adventures WHY DO THESE THINGS ALWAYS END AT THE START OF A RELATIONSHIP IM GUNNA SCREAM.
Scanlation - now avalible offically
Yuri anthology by the same mangaka as Assorted Engagements, it follows the same kind of pattern with most of the stories being about messed up women doing messed up things - for various values of messed up. Its not as good as Assorted Engagements, that's for sure! Some of the earlier stories in the collection are flatout unpleasant IMO - “I’ll never fall in love with you” in particular was just.. a bit too much. I think “I Don’t Know What Love Is” is by far the stand-out story in the collection, it tells an incredible little tale for its page count, feels like the character actually went somewhere, its a really good one-shot. “A day off from Work” was also really good.
This is an incredibly heartwarming autobiographical manga essay by Kazama Ayami about (obviously) her trying, failing and then finally succeeding in having a kid. This book is full of warmth, the art is really pretty, and this lady portrays herself as a massive idiot and OHHH GOSH i do love me a good idiot. You really can't help but adore this lady as she works her way through pregnancy.
At the end of each chapter there’s a one-panel comic and write-up by her husband (who is a ero mangaka) and daaaang that dude is the world's biggest supporter of women and a massive wife guy it’s very funny.
Wow this book has wildly high energy levels! It’s 200% a yuri harem manga, and it’s pretty great. Each girl is attracted to something unique about the protagonist, and it’s all built around the five senses. One is crazy for her voice, another loves her gaze… you know there's a girl who is totally smitten with how good she uhhh…tastes?!? Like I said it’s high energy. Neat book!
Weird, lots of fucking about and finding out
Yet another book in the “fake marriage with my best girl friend (thanks shibuya ward) that accidentally turns real oops” yuri sub genre. It’s a GOOD sub genre I like it a lot. The arts is real pretty and it’s a cute book. There’s an infection point half way though that always makes my heart burst a little bit. Recommend
So glad this finally has an official English translation! I think for sure this one will go down as a modern Yuri classic when it's finished. The first volume is super well plotted and there's a really neat relationship arc right from the get-go, Its super satisfying watching Kurumi slowly clock that the relationship means a lot more to her than she realises and that Ruriko is someone she actually wants to settle down with. 11/10
Fairly typical story in the non-isekai “receptionist at the adventurer guild is secretly super powerful actually” fantasy subgenre. It’s competent? Like, we’re not winning any awards here for anything but I enjoyed my stay. I liked the conceit that she didn’t want anyone to know she’s severely a strong adventurer because receptionists aren't allowed side jobs and she doesn't want to lose the cushy government paycheck. It’s simple but works well. You can turn your brain off for this one
IRL I am not into celebrity gossip or drama at all, I could barely identify any IRL celebrity types - I just do not care. In manga tho? Ohhhhh heck manga with idols, actors and other celebrities is one of my favourite genres. This is a really good implementation of that genre, we got a whole bunch of entertainers spread through three idle groups at various stages of their careers all interacting and it’s great, delicious drama. It’s fantastic. Our heroin, Maha is particularly good. Her arch of being a kind of over-eager newbie to crushed by the industry despite her innate talent shining though is super good and I can’t wait to see her grow.
That said, what the fuck is up with the whole scene where she’s working through her first acting job with the more experienced guy who is deffo the main love interest? He fucking hates her at this point in the story (for stupid reasons) and essentially physically assaults her on set? WHAT HE DOES IS LITERALLT AN ACTUAL CTIME. Like, he’s playing a murderer and ad libs a scene where he chokes her so hard she gets bruises on her neck? HE ACTUALLY CHOKES OUT THIS POOR GIRL. And everyone’s like “wow you did a great job of guiding her through her first job she’s acting so scared! It really sold the scene!” And NOBODY HAS A PROBLEM WITH IT!?! It’s messed up, and a lot of the drama over the next hundred pages are that dickhead trying to decide if he should apologise for committing an act of grievous bodily harm and traumatising the poor girl. It’s messed up and I wish someone would have said something. He has to go though a whole "am i a baddie?" arc, WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN WAY BETTER IF SOMEONE WAS AT LEAST LIKE "WOW THIS IS A PROBLEM MAYBE WE SHOULD GET THIS YOUNG GIRL SOME MEDICAL ATTENTION SHE WAS JUST ASSAULTED"
Anyways other than how that’s handled, the books good.
by FAR the best part is just how much of a little gremlin Kotoko is. DANG shes such a little bitch I LOVE HER
Uta is probably the SADDEST girl ever committed to paper. Its actually cool just HOW sad this work is, somehow without collapsing into depression
What a weird and cool look into an idol fandom community, the books are very silly but a lot of fun, like this is pure idiot character territory with some light yuri themes at the fringes.
It's hard not to notice that a lot of the chapters to chapter dialogue plot beats and driven by misunderstanding, which usually SUPER HYPER annoy me, it's the WORST way to drive a story but I think that it’s actually kinda real neat here? There’s such a disconnect between being an idol and a fan and the way these characters talk past each other captures that really well.
You can’t point at a page here and shout “JUST TALK TO HER ABOUT IT JEEZ” because that’s the entire point. They can't ever talk! well, not for more than a few seconds at a handshake event... if there are enough tickets... Anyways , good book
The crossdressing witch manga. It was okay I guess? Its cute and pretty short, but deffo not queer which is always disappointing. i mean 'crossdressing witch manga' sounds like it should be queer as heck, but it aint!
Vol. 4
”DAAAANG what a stupid book 10/10 I fucking love isekai. It does that thing where the Isekai world has a bidirectional link with the real world, I LOVE IT WHEN THEY DO THAT. YEAH, SHOW ME A GUY WHOS FANTASY WORLD POWER LEVELING GAINS MAKE THEM MORE POWERFUL AT SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN MODERN DAY TOKYO GIVE ME THAT SLOP ILL EAT IT UP SO FAST”
PLOT SUMMARY: Wizard cop gets fired from the wizard FBI for being from a poor family, so he moves back home to become a wizard teacher at wizard school teaching the poor idiot dropout wizard kids who probably wouldn't be allowed to join the wizard FBI no matter how good they get at protecting whatever the wizard equivalent of capital is.
Now he has the time to self-reflect enough to realize that doing state-sanctioned wizard executions as a wizard cop is bad actually. He tries to reform & repent by teaching poor wizard kids not to be stupid (and poor, presumably). Luckily, his hot childhood friend who is cute (and hot) isnt bothered by him being a ex-wizard-fbi-state-sanction-wizard-murder-cop and will probably hug his very manly pain away or something, cos shes cute and hot. The book's trash. 10/10
Vol. 1 - single volume
”Dang I love yuri about older women -Real nice to be reading something and wishing the best for these ladies - strong good warm feelings”
A lot of the time for new series, I have no idea what I’m getting into, I’m just buying new shit based on a title… maybe sometimes I’ll look at the cover… but usually I’m not thinking that deep. So a lot of the time with fantasy manga these days I’m 100% thinking “wow I can believe this isn’t an isekai” - it’s the opposite here “wow I can’t believe this is an isekai”. I thought it was just going to be some silly high fantasy dungeoneering… but nope it’s an isekai about how actually combat sucks, the dungeons are cool but the day to day business of adventuring sucks… but dang isn’t dungeon diving aesthetically romantic~ also wow this books world is HELLA misogynistic. It’s kinda impressive how gross it is
I read a scanlation ages ago but yeah, this is still SUPER CUTE, also the way the colour pages are incorporated into it is amazingly nice- it’s an incredibly nice book to behold. Yeah, it’s just real cute.
“Painfully straight (complimentary)”
it’s a “I can’t believe it’s not an isekai” fantasy manga that somehow manages to fit a whole 6-year magic school education story arc into a single volume. That’s efficient!
Uhhh this book is kinda incredible. Reading the bonus page at the back we learn the mangaka and her editor was trying to solve one major editorial problem with this work. How do you transfer from working on a series serialzied in a shoujo magazine to a series in a shonen one? The answer they stumbled up is just incredibly genius. Just draw a complete by the numbers stereotypical shoujo manga, make the protagonist a REAL loser girl, put in a HOT boy love interest, draw it alll HYPER feminine, so many sparkles, make it real fluffy and flowery…
Now finally make protag-chan turn into fucking Godzilla whenever she’s embarrassed. Like, skyscraper sized. Big girl shit. It’s absolute genius space brain stuff over here.
Feel like a lot of you nerds would like this manga.
https://mangadex.org/title/4a086028-7977-4da6-a4c2-b659a4de29c6/kasane-to-subaru
Vol. 1
”super sweet yuri story about a vampire hunter and the vampire that’s in love with her. Only one volume is available, as it seems this manga got cancelled after one volume. WHICH IS SAD AT THIS IS HELLA CUTE. Akiyama seems to be still working as a manga artist which is nice, but drawing straight vampire stories now rather than gay ones - oh well can’t win them all!”
A sweet story of a young page boy who yearns to grow up quick and become a fully fledged knight in shining armor - she’s just keeping the fact she’s a girl hidden from all the rest of the castle’s inhabitants. This book really captures a sense of childlike glee that I don’t see often in manga, and it’s super beautifully drawn as well! Seeing young ladies blush at how gallant this lil squire is is reallllly adorable
It’s fine guess? Maybe? idk? Actually, it kinda sucks? but in an 'its fine I guess' kinda way?? Yet another royalty/noble romance story (for someone who’s staunchly anti-monarchy I sure do buy and read a lot of this trash huh). The twist here, if you can call it that is that the noble lady/princess is the prince's knight captain of the guard, and she’s been training to be a knight since a young age so she doesnt know how to noble lady. She keeps saying she’s “trying to be the best man she can be” and when she first has to wear a ball gown she’s like “I couldn’t possibly wear drag” - it could be funny in a story that wasn’t so deplorably straight…
In this book it just doesn't work. They don’t fully commit to her not knowing how to be ladylike - it’s just shallow and not executed at all well. It’s super disappointing actually! Worst of all, there’s only 3 relatively short chapters in this book! A full 50% of the page count is unrelated one-shots by the same mangaka… which are fine? But daaaaang usually when they do filler one shots it’s like… one of them. Not 3 of them taking up half the dang volume!
About two freshly single nerds who hook up a bunch and eat good food - just generally doing whatever the heck they want with no strings attached. Tomoka is a beautiful cheery idiot and totally makes the series for me
https://mangadex.org/title/051ce60f-bf16-432a-89a5-a8d52bd16de6/kou-iu-no-ga-ii
Incredible book 100/10. I’m a big fan of the anime, it’s stupid isekai bullshit, but it’s just so lighthearted in a pitch-perfect beautiful bright silly kinda way- yuna, the protagonist is incredible I love her, I love that she’s forced to wear that dang stupid bear Kigurumi which is stupid overpowered and cute and I love that people keep petting her in the manga version it’s so good. I love her two bear summons. I love her stupid bear house. I love that all her magic spells are bear-themed. This is a book that knows how to commit to a bit. Recommend (for genre perverts? But like, “cute girls doing cute things” genre fans too, not just isekai perverts)
So, this one has a pretty weird main framing device but its still pretty funny and worth a read
https://mangadex.org/title/87367eda-a69e-4079-9f4b-0d396dc645fe/kyou-eki-de-mita-kawaii-onna-no-ko
I love manga about idiots. Protag-kun is a very smart rich idiot that’s always losing out at being number one in academics to the same poor girl- “DANG SHES SUPER ANNOYING ALWAYS BEATING ME, I know I’ll make her notice me and acknowledge me by making her fall in love with me and then I’ll reject her and THAT WILL SHOW HER WHO IS THE TOP DOG IN THIS CLASS” - these are the thoughts of a true BRAIN GENIUS what could possibly go wrong
I first read this a scan like a billion years ago, and I remember liking it but ohhhh heck I forgot how funny it was. THIS IS A REAL FUN TIME the exact blend of these two similar but different genius morons is delicious and if you read this a don’t end up with a smile on your face you are dead inside.
There’s a lot of isekai stories that are totally absolutely stupid, but this might be the absolute most stupidest. There are some neat ideas but like, it’s mostly just stupid ones. Dude fishes up a mermaid bride in the first 30 pages - it’s daft, it knows exactly what it is and heck it doesn’t waste time.
Its not great
This is a thai webcomic about a doctor that gets reincarnated as a little girl with magic healing powers in a world where like, everyone FUCKING HATES healers, and his adventures getting used to being a girl and hanging out with a cool catgirl lady that DEFFO has a crush on them. The scanlation on mangadex has a real low effort feel to it, but that just kinda adds to the charm, and heck this is a real charming little gender bent isekai. recommended to genre perverts o7
Scalation - official eng version on MangaUp
"Wow! just like me!" she says whilst reading the manga at 5:15am. "Shes sleeping properly and is always incredibly physically exhausted. that's 100% what happens to me! wild!”
https://mangadex.org/title/6204ff54-c3d5-4645-b21f-f83f6fa303d0/ani-no-yome-to-kurashite-imasu
Really cute 4 koma about a delinquent gang leader boy and a blind girl doing that whole romance thing and it’s VERY good. It explores this core theme of society not really wanting them in it, because of the precived trouble their existences cause and how that shared experience brings them together. Sure being a delinquent with a scar on you face from a knife fight is VERY different from being partially sighted, but like, it works very well in the text and that thread drives some interesting chapters…
Vol. 3-5
”It’s the enby maid manga! ITS TOO CUTE FOR WORDS. “
I would die for Mogumo (and ive made that fact ABUNDANTLY clear).
It’s another isekai, but this time with a lady that used to work in an electronics company reincarnating into a fantasy world as the daughter of a magical artisan, and does the whole isekai modern Japan Knowledge thing to make cool magical inventions. SHE IS COOL, STRONG AND I LOVE HER. at it’s core, the first volume is a story of familial loss and romantic betrayal, but there’s a real warm core and hope for her, she’s so much stronger in her second life and I love her for it. Good book.
“This is National-Treasure level sewing! I haven’t seen anything like it in ages” - this is a direct quote from the text, if the concept of national treasure level sewing doesn't immediately sell you on this, you are not a genre pervert and why are you even reading this post? 9/10 good book.
Apart from that, we have a lot of generic bullied young Nobel lady who has amazing powers but not being given the opportunity to shine until she’s rescued by a hot guy energy- which you know- is whatever these days. There’s a billion books like that, but this one does it very well and has some good ideas. Not to get all problematic-age-gap discoursey or anything but where the book ends up is a bit weird - this kids 15 she should not be getting forced into marriages with the (ex?) king - but you know, books pretty good regardless. Enjoyed my stay
Idiot yuri girls play final fantasy together, get into drama over it. Pretty good one shot give it a read maybe
Idiot yuri women ‘accidentally’ meet up on a dating app (whhhhhhat women can match on this app? What are the chances?!) - get drunk about it
Apparently this is a spin off to some other thing I’ve always just skipped over on Crunchyroll? Maybe I’ll give the source material a chance, because this was a pretty delightful read
Like the title says, it’s a modern take on dungeon diving, like solo leveling or d-genesis. I enjoyed it more that solo leveling (by a lot!) and it’s nowhere near as good a d-genesis (by a lot!) the arts kind as weird and cool, has a very sharp angular look to it. The story is whatever but has some genuinely cool moments trying to negotiate with a big scary (path blocking) angry killer dragon by trying to sell it asset management and wealth investments services is a genuinely good bit
A great new entry in the “yuri but with a landlord” AND the “yuri but with an idol” subgenres (also the “yuri but one of the girls works in the manga business because if your writing what you know, and all you know is kiss girl/write manga, your gunna get yuri mangaka yuri manga” genre. I do like that genre a lot) - and YES all landlords are bastards does NOT include this girl. She’s way too pure and stupid to actually be a landlord. Shes more like an adorable pet. At its core it’s a pleasant slow life, slow relationship building kinda thing... yeah these two girls are thrust together and have great chemistry but like, they take their time. It’s sweet
Incredible book, delicious school yuri, and yet another entry in the fast-growing ‘romance drama but with disabilities’ genre… it ticks a looooooooooot of good book genre boxes right there!
If you like a good yuri story with a character struggling with obvious yet currently unaddressed queer feelings, this has you covered. I read scans a while back and I think this translation is really good in this print version - It’s a story that’s real good at hooking you in to its world. I wish more volumes were out NOW. I WANNA READ MORE
Print-wise, it’s beautiful. it’s published by Kodansha, so it’s one of thoes larger form factor manga prints - which works real well as the manga has a really detailed artstyle - were talking lots of linework, so the larger size just makes everything resolve really well. Anyways, good book.
This is the kind of isekai fantasy manga that has a page of character bios and portraits on the very first page of the book, like in volume one. One of the portrait boxes is slightly bigger than all the rest and is labelled “protagonist”. Its that kind of book. I just think that speaks to the confidence they have in how memorable and unique their character designs are.
“Dweebnerd woman gets a normal ass boyfriend” is a real good heterosexual romance manga subgenre, and this is a pretty good implementation of it. There’s also a pretty good cross-dressing guy in it who really owned all the pages he showed up on- it’s just a light amusing romcom and I’m deffo going to get more.
Also- this is good anti-landlord propaganda. Landlords suck
Vol. 2
”Oh no is Milk Morinaga drawing cute fluffball airhead girls again? And this time they have a cat? Terrible news. 10/10”
This was a random pick up from a local bookshop and turned out pretty good- if your into the whole “Loli vampire having oversized one sided feelings for some random guy who may or may not have super powers but 100% for sure has amnesia and they go vampire hunting together whilst a shadowy government organization monitors their every move” trope. I feel like there’s been lots of this exact story lol
Every bit as good as the (incredible) anime. I rewatched it like two weeks ago so it’s very fresh in my mind- so being able to contrast how it adapted and changed scenes from the manga has been real interesting. One change i really noticed is how they introduce that Gojo kun is kinda a friendless loser right at the beginning, the anime adds an incredible visual joke that’s not in (and probably wouldn’t work as well) in the manga. Yeah, it’s been real interesting! ALSO FINDING OUT THAT SWALLOWTAIL WIGS IS A REAL SHOP IN IKEBUKURO WAS KINDA WILD the afterword pages in these volumes are great.
“Painfully straight (derogatory)”
So there's an anime adaption of My Happy Marriage airing RIGHT NOW on Netflix and its REAL GOOD. Being a Netflix exclusive sucks though - I don't have Netflix (fuck em). DANG i super wanted to watch that show though! How else am i supposed to experience that story?!! Well turns out I've already got 2 volumes of it on my shelf and i just never got around to it. Turns out, books good.. Not as good as the anime though. The anime seems to be a lot slower and that really serves the source material really well. For example, when Miyo leaves her fathers house and travels to her fiancé place, its like a page in the manga but much longer in the show, giving you a much better idea of the distance shes going and the loneliness she must feel. Like, its an AWFUL thing to be put through, being sent off alone and unloved. I hope they do an audiobook of the light novel so i can listen to that version too... anyways long story short the books are pretty good, but the anime is incredible. (you should just torrent the Netflix anime, I'm not a cop i won't tell anyone)
Some idiot genre pervert isekai fun. You do not need to bring your brain into this book (which is good, I was so tired when I read it)
Mangamo, print books now avaliable
You can probably guess what this is like based on the title, but this is the story of a young girl who is the illegitimate child of a noble family moving in with her stepmother and stepsisters after her mother dies. Each chapter is a set-up for some stereotypical ’evil’ stepfamily plot beat, which totally gets inverted in a cute funny way. These step-ladies LOVE their newest family member.
It’s funny how even though you know that the book is going to subvert the genre trope it’s building up to- it STILL somehow still manages to surprise me exactly how, and every dang time I’ll be chuckling like a fool. 10/10 recommended, a great light little read
https://mangadex.org/title/c15bcb19-8aa3-4fef-acaa-6d5b54ca90e7/neko-no-te-datte-yaku-ni-tatsu
https://mangadex.org/title/3169544f-4b87-4a14-917b-f73600941f55/noa-senpai-wa-tomodachi
What if Zetsubou Sensei was hit by a truck and got isekai’ed? 10/10 good. I published a Isekai Death Report here
This one has NO SEWING RELATED CONTENT! There is one case of what can charitably be described as ‘clothing adjacent drama’ but to be honest, I don’t think that counts. Incredibly disappointing. 10/10 books good
World's saddest man finally finds the motivation to live better after talking to chat GPT for literally one day- also sells all his worldly possessions and embraces minimalism to fund his chat GPT micro-transaction addiction. I’m sure he is very mentally well. 8/10
Gotta wonder where this is going to go, the old sns web version was SO SLOW with plot, I’m hyped.
Its a cute romantic comedy about two dweebs in modern-day japan who just really, really love 80 music & idols and SUPER can't let anybody know about it cos it would be like, hella embarrassing. im about half way though and having a GREAT time. its got this real nice soft art style to it, its clearly inspired by that 80s manga look, but still feels fresh and new too. The writing is fun, These two protagonists are massive idiots so you cant help but root for them. 10/10
https://mangadex.org/title/32d0b857-24b2-4c3b-8dc6-aa6d0739aa79/slow-motion-wo-mou-ichido
It’s so refreshing to read a villainess story with an actual villainous villainess. She’s so hot I love her
https://mangadex.org/title/6df29d13-2dab-4ca6-a0b5-74070abf3e1d/the-one-within-the-villainess
Ahhh heck it’s so good it’s so good it’s so goooood! The pacing is so good?!! Beautiful art too. I DO NOT WANT TO WAIT MONTHS BETWEEN VOLUMES THOUGH!
Every time I finish a volume of this I’m really impressed how well designed it is? Like, this guy is deffo writing this story to be published in paperbacks, which feels kinda unique? Obviously - all manga published in serial magazines is, but this reads like its ALWAYS in mind Like, each arc is perfectly wrapped up in one volume and the next one set up and ready to roll, it’s just some super impressive craft. I've read so much stuff that's kind all over the place, this is so intentional with its chapter layout. Good stuff.
The worlds most normal lesbian.
I hate real world military shit but if you throw a fully equipped marine into an isekai world come on I’m going to eat that garbage up. By the end of the first volume our main character has disposed of all his modern weapons (by getting a merman to hide them at the deepest trench in the ocean, naturally) because he understands the MASSIVE power disparity between modern firearms and like, adventurers with swords and shit. What if he loses control of his stash? It’s just not safe! And that’s a real cool, interesting narrative and character choice! But without his clear monopoly on deadly force afforded to him by a rifle and handgun, grenades and plastic explosives, I’m not sure where this story is going to go
And I quote “They’ve made designing part of the Paralympic facilities into contest and nabe-san (my boss) said we should enter… but 2020? That’s five years from now.” “I wonder what’ll be going on then”
UHHHH THEY DONT KNOW THEY LACK FUTURE INFORMATION OH NO. this is a beautiful lil romance manga about a dude in a wheelchair and a lady that likes him. Pretty good imo
Wild how in like a 20 chapter arc we’ve come from “Elsa might l-l-l-like me romantically!?! Oh no she couldn’t possibly the VIDEOGAME plot wouldn’t allow it and besides - we’re both girls” to “I WILL LITERALLY BEND TIME AND SPACE TO PROTECT MY GIRLFRIEND FROM CHILDHOOD SO THE DEMONS DONT GET HER”
a pretty funny deep dive into “okay so we reincarnated as a princess in the world of a boys love novel… how does Nobel society function of all the hot Nobel dudes are trying to bone each other?” And the answer is your brother (the crown Prince) is kinda a misogynist? Makes sense, let him cook. Fortunately our heroin is kinda a complete fricking moron, so I love her unconditionally and pray for her heteronormative success.
“By the same person as Lily Love and its also VERY good and VERY gay. These books that seven seas have put out are incredibly printed, full colour and everything. Super cool to see a webtoon presented in a book so well. The story so far is cute, seeing the doctor slowly open up is a real treat. ”
It’s a fucking game developer isekai - essentially what if sword art online, except your a wimpy QA tester that’s REAL good at hiding. Maybe if you report all the bugs (whilst hiding from all the other QA testers that have given up on work and gone rouge) they will finally let you log out and go home? Prepare for t pose jokes
Also? The monster design in this book? It’s got dragons. Huge terrifying dragons. Dragons that will make even the mightiest NPC quiver with fear. They look like heckin ginormous frogs with goofy lil eyes. Terrifying. 10/10
What if you isekai'ed into Eve online? Huh, what if that- except now eve online has hot space elves. That’s the thesis we shall explore in this ground breaking work of speculative science fiction.
A pretty fun read, it’s got this cool super angular art style that makes heavy use of inky blacks and dark thick tones, the writing is real sharp in a goofy way - they clearly had a lot of fun adapting this isekai. The punchline to the human transformation skill is very good, the friendship between our protagonist dragon hatchling and his weird tiny lizard friend is cute as heck.
Spinoff manga from reincarnated as a sword where both sensei (the sword) and Fran the cat girl both get isekai’ed together into a parallel world (Isekaied again?!? In this economy?!). It’s fucking stupid, the dang sword guy gets held hostage and really enjoys getting to be the damsel in distress. 10/10 genre perverts only tho
hella pretty and quite interesting romance isekai that dosnt really go anywhere special
Villainess stories will never get old, it’s amazing how many variations you can get on “there’s a king and queen, the king is a shit husband, some scheming harlot gets between them and everyone thinks it’s the queens fault- go”. I’m not the biggest fan of the art in this one (it’s very pointy rather than rounded if you know what I mean) but it’s a hella engaging tale and OH GOSH the cover is beautiful, with golden embossed lettering and every. As an object- it’s incredible.
Pretty simple korean reincarnation webtoon, dude helps beat the demon lord but oh no! gets time reverted back in time like 10 years or whatever (i forgot to take notes) to adventuring school. Guess its time to get even more buff than before and beat the demon lord guy back up, this time with future knowledge. Oh, also everyone in school is real classist and nobles get all the goodies
Ahhh hot dang Kanata might be the BIGGEST idiot yet committed to a manga page. SHES SO SINGLE MINDED IN HER DESIRE TO PET FLUFFY CREATURES it’s wonderful and she’s such a fucking idiot 100/10 this is SO aimed at me
our hero is a lonely 40 year old office worker who REALLY wants a friend, so he goes to a pet shop. Dogs and cats are too big and expensive… but that weird little bird? 100% within budget… and it can talk… THE BIRD IS A MAGICAL SAINT THAT GOT ISEKAIED TO EARTH?!? And he can do teleportation?!? Wow Sasaki’s daily commute just got SO MUCH faster. 10/10 Commuter Isekai is a fascinating subgenre
Straight, but interesting. Dang i love isekai, and how they are all the same but different. “You have been summoned to a magical world! you MUST become a savior, a hero in this place! i shall grant you MASSIVE amounts of magical power and grant a wish” - okay thats all normal nothing weird here - “ehh that sounds like a hassle can i own a little café bookshop on the outskirts of a capital city and just kinda rest there and do nothing??” 11/10 PERFECT use of isekai powers LOVE IT for you girl please do exactly that.
VERY GOOD ACTUALLY
A really strong entry in the kinda-loser-dweeb-but-real-powerful-witch-girl-meets-hot-guy fantasy subgenre there’s a little bit of a villainess twist thrown into this one, which I love for sure (ahh, Villainess stories, Gotta be a top 10 genre!). Real easy read, nice panel flow, and pretty art. Just some good shoujo fantasy going on here - Recommend.
It’s a isekai. Are you a genre pervert? Did you watch the anime? Then it’s for you.
Dweebs eat incredible food together and think “huh this is nice if only we could keep hanging out together like all the time lol just kidding or am I haha just kidding what if we spent Christmas together” it’s a VERY real feeling lesbian tale
An incredibly gripping and intense depiction of a girl absolutely suffering though her early high school days due to MASSIVELY crushing social anxiety exacerbated by bullying and her stutter, and the ups and downs of her one friendship. It’s a gripping tale with some beautiful art, and Denpa’s English release looks incredible, and is printed on that really nice soft paper, beautiful book!
SPOILER TALK: Maybe I’m just WAY too lesbian pilled but dang, Shino is GAY how can this have any other reading other than SHES FUCKING GAY and she’s REPULSED that her GAY crush is hanging out with some doofus nastylad like EWW you can feel it the text is SO GAY so getting to that ending, like, I know there are ways for lesbian couple to get kids but the heteronormativity hit me like a fucking truck lol. Like it’s a cute ending but daaaaang don’t you realise you accidentally wrote a yuri here? Commit to the bit
Wow I gotta say this books got some amazing typesetting. So, this is a romance story about a deaf girl and a guy who is basically a language pervert, who get’s interested in her because sign language- it’s real good (if het) but the MOST INTERESTING part is the typesetting. Sometimes manga plays with the type to show when characters are speaking foreign languages or something, this book goes even deeper on that kinda trick and uses type to convey lip reading. It’s really elegant and gets SO MUCH detail across. Yuki, the main character is almost totally deaf, she can’t hear speech at all- so if a speech bubble has has regular solid black text, she can’t hear ANYTHING thats been said in that bubble even if she could like, conceptually "see" the bubble - that dosnt matter. black text means words that are spoken out loud and its something she cant perceive- she’s oblivious to any black word. Grey text is stuff she can lip read. If she’s having difficulty lip reading but mostly gets something- some of the characters in a word are printed tilted sideways - sometimes when she’s lip reading she misunderstands words so that’s just the normal grey color.. but its nonsense words so she gets confused - it’s wildly cool, just some real simple rules but they add such a richness to the text and I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s SO MUCH you can do in a graphic novel medium and I love that this book does something so unique and interesting
Yet another isekai were owning slaves is poggers and cool and good really. Not great I’ll probably get and read more because I hate myself o7
probably the best new series published this year? deffo got a lotte recommendation. Clueless useless middle-aged salary man get relentlessly bullied by a young convenience store worker. its one of those nothing ever happens yet hella compelling kinda reads
Screenshots from the scanlation
Oh yeah this one is genuinely really sweet and good AND trash, it’s a true masterpiece. If you love reading about messy, truly terrible selfish people slowly bettering themselves, making friends and finding solid, heartwarming relationships this is the one to read. Heck it’s messy! It’s got a real unique art style to it as well that feels hella fresh.
Very silly & cute isekai (truck - isekai death report is avalible here) it’s very easy to read, you can just turn your brain off for this one. Recommended if your a genre pervert.
Another Korean villainess story, again with a time leap, it’s just as good as literally any of the other ones of these
I’m a big fan of manga about writing manga, and I’m a big fan of yuri vibes and girls getting along and slowly getting real close and girls keeping secrets that gradually come out and like yeah good book.
Specifically, it does SUCH a good job of depicting the pain of not being able to do the work you love, getting stuck in a rut... and the healing power of someone elses joy i guess? its great stuff. Burnout sucks, these girls are cute, this book rules.
Cute and soft, inoffensive trash about a boy picking up an angel and letting her live in his studio apartment. It’s not the best apartment but it does get good natural lighting. I don’t know why that’s such an important feature of protagonist-kun’s home that it deserves to go in the title, seemed pretty throwaway in the book.
So this series is just kinda empty, inoffensive fluff. Very mid, 6/10 level stuff. The do go to mr donut (twice) in volume 2 so now it’s actually my favorite manga ever - I love mr donut.
Pretty interesting- sets up a time leap and then does nothing with it in volume 1. Have to get more to see how it goes I guess
I do love me a reincarnation tale (im sure you have all figured that out by now), especially when the main character is a fucking idiot. Oh daaaang I love fucking idiots. Idiots rule. And this specific idiot? Shes so stupid!
GOOD TOXIC YURI MANHUA I’m like 12 chapters in, out of 51 (which fair warning it’s on the Lezhin comics app so that’s a lot of coins) and I’m having a great time! Manga about idols having a secret relationship is one of the best genres- and heck this is a twisted secret relationship! That said, there is a real soft core hidden under the verbal abuse just beginning to peek out I feel.
https://mangadex.org/title/d9fb52cd-50b4-476a-87ee-eef4f6d83972/terminator-sharehouse
Vol. 4
gosh just beautiful- it feels like 99% of yuri manga is about a budding relationship, taking painstaking amounts of time to get to a love confession - getting to that starting point and as soon as that happens, THATS IT end of serialization, that’s you 6 chapters HOW DARE YOU WANT MORE. it sucks! I wanna read about women in love, I wanna see stories about their home lives, their hopes, their dreams, their years. This is a little bit of all that, and it’s perfect. Wako and Ellie have been going out for two years and living together for one year at the start of this story and that so unusual and weird for a yuri manga I LOVE IT
Look, I’m a simple girl. If I see a manga called “this girl is probably committing tax evasion” OBVIOUSLY I’m going to read it instantly. I mean come on what a perfect title - it’s that use of ‘probably’ that shifts it from a really good title into the realm of incredible. Probably committing tax evasion. Probably. Delicious.
This could only have been drawn but a true pervert.
Pretty incredible revenge fantasy one shot.
https://mangadex.org/title/60309abd-3552-4824-bab6-20086eade196/kono-yo-wa-tatakau-kachi-ga-aru
I love villainess?!? I really enjoyed watching Raven of the inner palace last anime season, so seeing a villainess story with a similar setting was an instant pickup. Turns out this is very very good! The main character and her ladies maid have a great chemistry together, I can’t wait to see how this evolves over time. Body swapping from a sick, frail (but loved) persona to a healthy, strong (but universally hated) one is a super interesting setting as well, this is genius space brain level trash I love it
A girls love series about a a lady that LOVES jackets and T-shirts with tiger prints being kinda forced to work in a super trendy fashionable cloths store in Shibuya - much to the distress of the stores assistant manager. The gap between these two, board line delinquent and prim and proper is pretty delicious. I hope they hug about it some day.
Wtf this is so good Ribbon’s putting out some amazing stuff
https://mangadex.org/title/35bf0c4f-491b-4914-8342-5378e878a865
So I’ve just been reading though this, just absolutely mainlining it- put that shit right into my bloodstream. Lemme tell you, reading this page some 40 of chapters in, low on sleep, low on energy, low on mental defence, I cried like a baby. 11/10 this, is an incredibly good book. Someone! please pick it up for English localisation. Wtf.
https://mangadex.org/title/a781de8e-0935-45bd-bc33-cbc76ea8c6f9
Yuri vampires! Again! I like this book, like… a lot? The art is incredible and the printing and binding job Denpa have done is fantastic.. they are a small publisher but I really love the feel of their books! It’s a nice object?
The work itself is very cute and very unsettling and perfectly stupid at moments, it’s a tale of a vampire that’s had enough and just wants to die and a young girl that just fell in love with her at first sight. Not much happens in the first volume but the stories pacing just delivers this perfect balance of unsettling creepiness and yuri first love… good book
yet another villainess isekai, mostly by the numbers but pretty good as these things go… I mean they are all good. I love this genre. It’s got very pretty art and has a nice texture to the story - it really likes shoving a character archetype in front of you and giving them a subtle twist which really enriches them - very well executed
If you’ve ever read a villainess story and though “I like all this Nobel high society intrigue but it would be WAY better if the protagonist was actually a villainess evil bitch” then look no further
Heck! What an incredible book! What an incredible start to a story that feels MASSIVE! There’s a lot going on here, it’s drawing on a lot of the best reincarnation and villainess tropes and like turning them up to 11. It opens up with a real economical villainess backstory, setting up who the ‘heroes’ that killed our vileness are and then confidently starts playing with our expectations. I mean… that’s kinda what every villainess story does but this one just does it SO dang well, and then even in volume 1 its pulling all these little threads together SO well. I am real impressed and cannot wait for more. I wrote a little about it here if you wanna see a lil more.
Vol. 3
”The colours in this book are incredible! DANG HER HAIR. she’s wonderful. 10/10 Its great to see more Korean stuff get printed in full-colour books. These things are just beautiful to behold sometimes. There's a real fun gimmick early on to this villainess story - our main character starts off mute and can only ever talk when given options that were in the original game shes been reincarnated in - which was an interesting twist for a while. be cool to see where this goes.”
The set up here is kinda insane? We have a shared house for single people who want to find love, like it’s set up like a reality tv show but it’s actually a research project run by a fucking dating app? To like… spy on people to gather… data(?) to make the dating app better? Capitalism has gone too far. Also all the character in this are tedious it’s just not great not recommend
It’s by the Futari H guy, and seems to be way less cringe than that was - it’s a fairly cute exploration of polyamory. It’s got a very 90s art style for something that was originally published in 2019, wild to see characters that look like this using smartphones! Anyways it’s pretty neat, lotsa drama but the relationship has a strong believable (ish) core to it.
This is one of those books where I say “Wow what an incredible book!” Just because the printing is interesting - so, yeah. Wow, what an incredible book! This is a (het) romance manga about trying to stop destiny and escape the red string of fate.
Im sure most manga/anime fans will have seen or read something with the concept of the red string of fate in it before, but basically it’s being connected to your soulmate via a red string - it’s often a non-visual metaphor in manga but in this book it’s real, and only Kosuke (our protagonist) can see it, and heck dang his doesn't connect with his crush, a hot coworker lady who ONLY believes in fate and is waiting for her destined true first (and only) love to appear.
The story is pretty good tbh, but WOW the presentation is amazing?!? It’s printed on Seven Seas high-quality paper stock, it’s thick and pretty smooth to the touch, and VERY bright bleach white. It’s not that regular cheap manga paper stock. The black ink contrasts really well- but more importantly, the red string is ALWAYS printed in red and it’s such a stunning look. Like, having this single splash of colour thrown in is such a great look!! Think of the green used in “The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All” but even more restrained. It’s incredible.
The layering is also really interesting- it looks like the red is printed first and the usual manga black outlines and hatching on top - so they really carefully lay out gaps so the dark never (unintentionally) spills over the red strings. It’s just a beautiful bit of craft, it almost looks hand-drawn, Like someone’s had to ink all the red lines by hand. FUCK I love it 10/10 should win an award for layout and print quality
Super good, two babies (one noble and one commoner) get switched at birth and high society fantasy manga tropes ensue, if you’ve read any of these you know what’s going to happen (heck if you’ve read the title!) - it’s just real dang good
Vol. 4-5
”Super cute school yuri story about a girl falling in love with her senpai, who is the lead singer in a school band. Real pretty art… These print volumes are really nice, Kondansha comics seem to be publishing things in a larger page size than most other publishers, makes the art look super nice with this book. Big clear faces and all that!”
On the surface, this shares a lot with “Daughter of the Emperor” - its a Villainess isekai, where the main character is reborn as an infant princess to a weirdo freak genocidal emperor who didn’t understand emotions or love or the value of human life and is DEFFO destined to be killed by that emperor when they hit 18 so they have to somehow teach them that love is good actually and not get murderkilled by dad. So yeah in broad strokes, these books are the same book heh - it’s closer in plot than most of these villainess stories tend to be.
That said, It’s a realllly pretty book with an enjoyable plot. The way our protagonist wriggles her way though this situation is interesting and neat even if it’s similar. Also dannnng this is a heavy dense book. There’s a lot to like, literally! I just love villainess stories so much 10/10
I can see why people love this series- the main thing I couldn’t stop thinking about whilst raging out was how wonderful the idea of paring an ink based magic system with that art style is. Like, I think it’s rare for manga to have an art style that is almost part of the narrative theme, if that makes sense? The lavishly hyper detailed line work and the deeply inked hatched shading just work real well for a tale about ink magic. I just think that’s neat?
Stupidly cute! One of my favourite things in manga is seeing capable strong smart women being reduced to incoherent blushing messes by cute girls. That’s all this manga is. Over and over. It rules.
kind of incredibly beautiful? It’s got such a cute sketchy feel to the characters, you can’t help but thing “dang they really did draw this huh”
Ughhh this is also farrr too straight. Seems like we’re doing the whole aloof kinda twisted awful guy to loving perfect boyfriend gap moe pipeline thing- and you know what it fucking sucks. Every character in this sucks and is just incredibly toxic. I had to put the book down SO many times as it was making me mad how toxic it was lol. Do straight girls really like this shit?!? Absolutely awful
I was minding my own business on the tram this morning looking for a new manga to read, tapped into “Yonezawa-san is Done Being Human” without reading a synopsis - the dude is rolling around his apartment dressed up in a full fur suit and barking with in 4 pages. Absolutely wild stuff, I was not mentally prepared. Anyways I just read the first few chapters and it seems cute and funny. I mean, the guy works for a dog food company.
“Two hundred years ago, Yokohama station, which had been under constant construction, developed the ability to self-propagate.” Well that’s a weird premise! The station is alive(?) and slowly grows to cover all of Japan, apart from small “hollows” where it can’t get a foothold, maybe due to water or uneven terrain (the books say flat land was easier for the station to concrete over, but changes in elevation arnt impossible. the entirety of mount fuji in now covered in the stations escalators). People living inside the station need a ‘suika’ identity card or the automated turnstiles will eject them from the station, and people outside the station survive on garbage ejected from the station. This story follows a young man living in a small seaside village in a hollow who comes across a mysterious 5 day travel pass and is finally able to enter the station. BOOKS COOL AS HECK
wow some real pretty ladies playing some fighting games right here. It’s an interesting twist on a classic catholic school style yuri set up, our main characters are both transfer students that are plopped into that rigid prim environment and handle fitting in differently - and contrasting the ultra refined young lady performances with the fighting game manic inner personas is just REAL GOOD. I love it in media when a woman gets to shout “FIGHT ME” with all her heart
This series had a biiiiiig impact on me when I first read it back in 2006, was kinda wild to see such a brazen work about crossdressing and messed up gender feelings and relationships at the time. Re-reading it now in 2023, heck the relationships in this are REALLY messed up, and the book manages to capture specific feelings of despair and self disgust in a way that’s just kinda rare- it’s a good, messy work. Glad my copy is still safe and I can read it again after what… 17 years?
There’s a characterisation reveal in the second chapter (well chapter 1 part 2- weird numbering) that’s just incredibly executed- the panel layout leading up to it is so good, there’s a tiny bit of foreshadowing in the first chapter but it’s just waaay more intense that you can guess, and then the book luxuriates in it for another 4 perfectly laid our pages. Worth reading just for that imo - an incredible bit of manga. Still blows my mind that Tokyopop somehow managed to survive into the 2020's and put out some actual great books. how did they manage that turn around?
The novels are every bit as interesting as the animated series. Compared to how gross The Saga of Tanya the Evil leaves you feeling, theres a lot of good here. I really like how these volumes contrast the neoliberal democratic paradises of The Federacy and the fascist Republic state we spent the first volume in... like, its the same place, with a lick of paint! Its the kind of book you can imagine a nerd defending for "not being political" despite being THE MOST POLITICAL thing. Neat stuff.
I think out of all the light novel audiobook series im following (which, i think is literally all of them lol) this is BY FAR the worst. Its isekai where the protagonist gets reborn into the mechanics of his favorite 4X stratergy game, but in a generic fantasy world, and there seems to be other players reborn their with different game rule systems. Which is kind of interesting? But its just kinda not
Vol. 1
”I love Villainess, i love Villainess who are smart enough to try and game the systems they are reborn into, and i love it when they are too dumb to realise everyone loves them and they are in zero danger of being executed.”
This is just by far my favorite light novel series right, its so good. I wrote about how incredible the latest volume is here
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/1198754-finished-it-real-go
real silly shoujo romance - protag-chan is a common-born girl adopted into nobility, and goes through the whole engaged-to-a-royal-prince-but-dennounced-for-a-prettier-gir villainess style intro arc in the first chapter. pretty normal. The twist here is she has some kind of spirit defence magic that makes mushrooms sprout on any man who touches her - which is WEIRD. Luckily for her, a more handsomer and more royaler prince happens to find out post denunciation... HE HAPPENS TO BE A MASSIVE MUSHROOM PERVERT. Pretty cool premise. Theres some fun between chapter breaks where you get little factoids about different types of mushrooms that have featured in the previous chapter as well as uhhh, the mushroom's internal monologues and motivations? That rules.
Cross Infinite World has this amazing ability to pick the most chill, low energy light novels for translation. Like, this is a 7 hour audiobook that essentially nothing happens in, and im 100% there for every second of it
pretty good misery porn that pulls every trick possible to try and make you cry. Im real glad that Yen Press is just putting out so much stuff these days and not just like, anime bullshit (as much as i LOVE anime bullshit) - its just a well written tear jerking teen romance that will leave you having a nice little think about stuff at the end - and sometimes thats exactly what you want from an audiobook
This is a direct sequel to "Even if This Love Disappears Tonight" which is a book i thought "Theres NO way she can write a direct sequel to that its all tied up so well" TURNS OUT I WAS WRONG. This is a REAL good book digging into love and loss. I love it when media shows you the same scenes from multiple points of view, and this book REALLY is that, all the time. It takes a lot of the key scenes and themes from the first book and flips them around so you can see how they deeply affected Izumi's life. She's a good girl and deserves to heal. 10/10
So I listened to both volumes of this, and you know its pretty good junk food. Whats wild to me is the evil queen protagonist herself is SO GAY for her amnesiac childhood friend slash ladies maid. HER MAID IS ALSO SO GAY FOR HER. like, this book reads like a yuri. THEY LIVED TOGETHER IN A TOWER AND DID DIY TOGETHER. ITS JUST YURI... until the last 10 pages worth of content where its like "and she married the prince and lived happily ever after" ITS INSANE. YOU WROTE A FUCKING YURI. YOU CANT JUST TAG THAT ON AT THE END. THATS NOT HOW THIS WORKS
woooooow this book is incredibly good. Ive always like the anime, but yeah the source novel is incredible. 1000% recommended. Real good production too
isekai bullshit, i remember the anime being kinda ehhh but the light novel is way more interesting, and does a better job of expressing the themes of moving forward and not stagnating - real young adult fantasy stuff you know, btu yeah its a much better piece of work i think. The audiobook is well produced and the narrator is pretty good - its not the worst way to spend an audible credit
Vol. 1 (audiobook)
”ITS SO FRICKING STUPID. this is like popcorn for me, stupid dumbass isekai game system bullshit”
better than the anime. Also, i 100% thought this was "The Genius Prince's Guide To Raising a Nation Out of Debt" which is basically the same show. oops
Vol. 2
Just look at that title and tell me that its not the greatest thing you've ever laid eyes on? 11/10. recommended.
I didn't like it. Like, I found it INCREDIBLY tedious.. which is wild? i love this kind of light novel trash usually.. i just didn't get on with this one. Its trying to hard to be an epic fantasy I think, but its just kinda.. nothing? maybe it will get better.. its nearly 11 hours long. (hardly light I guess), these books rarely get longer than 6. Im a good 4 hours in, and i am liking it more as it goes on... but i still just flat out don't like it.. not sure im going to finish it tbh.
Ive always found the show tedious whenever i try to watch it, which is weird because terrible isekai is my thing - this audiobook was way less annoying to me than the anime for some reason?
[Vol. 2(https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/3432622-october-30th-novem)
UGHHHHH WHYYY do I like this stupid book so much Rudeus's internal monologue is so SLIMY and GROSS I hate him
ehh fine? kinda the opposite to solo leveling, this is the most unoffensive light novel audiobook you could hope to listen to. If you wanna listen to 5 hours 11 mins of a daddys girl complaining about missing her dad and her dad being like "wow sure is lonely now im all alone better go pull weeds out my fields and do other old people things" then this is the book for you!
Its okay I guess. Ive read a million light novels like this, and ill read a million more GLADLY
FINALLY! A isekai reincarnation light novel about the 2008 global recession! Turns out it’s not fun! It’s real dense and full of business bullshit… I should have guessed lol, it’s hard to root for the billionaire noble woman child… I can get there it just takes a lot. It’s just a slow hard book
Gosh dang does this series have THE ABSOLUTE WORST naming conventions. I do like this series a lot though - Its like the Monogatari, except maybe a little more grounded
dang this series is so stupid, fun but stupid. Normally when I'm reading the light novel and reading the manga one version will end up being my favorite, but I'm not sure i can make that call for this book. Its just delicious low effort garbage, in the best way. delicious slop, if that's what your after any version is good.
So, i saw the anime (which sucked) and was like... maybe the light novel is good? Its better... but its NOT good. Genre perverts only...
Somehow, this audio book is 6 hours long, and basically nothing happened... its about as 'light' as a light novel could ever get, and i gotta respect that
The incel light novel is back baybeee~ and its still way better than it has any right to be heck dang it. Now that were 5 volumes in our narrator guy seems to be finally getting the hang of doing "girl" voices for character in a way that dosnt make you want to spontaneously vomit
More war (boring, boo) but waaaaay more importantly it felt like a solid 40% of the runtime was spent discussing coffee. Coffee as a wartime frontline luxury. Coffee a bribe. Coffee as a ritual. Coffee as an indicator of economic stability. The mechanics of smuggling coffee into a hegemonic empire via a neutral 3rd party country during wartime. Its all in here!
I watched the anime of this ages ago, and its quite funny how different the main character comes across (at least to my memory). in the anime shes very much a sweet lady, but in the book? wow the otome roots show though i guess and there SO much internal monologue about how all the dudes around her are SO hot and yeah - i just cant relate to that at all lady. Its VERY weird reading a book that like, so specifically lady-targeted harem het like this, as its SOOOO not meant for me.. the isekai shit though? ill eat that trash up SO bad
Vol. 6
”STILL in love with this book, and i STILL think the audiobook having sections where the narrator is just reading off character sheet stats for like 10 mins is hilariously good.”
I dont get the hype around this series. When Crunchyroll announced there was an anime adaption happening and they would be airing it, people went wild on that social media. Ive been listening to the audiobook version for a while and like.. i dont get it. ITS SO BORING!?!? Like, people seem to be hyped for the fights and stuff... but i SWARE there are like whole chapters that are just dryly discussing how portals to magical worlds full of terrifying monsters really depress the value of luxury housing markets IN A REAL BORING WAY. that kind of content should be right up my ally but dang solo leveling makes it dull.
The audiobook version is real good, real recommended
I can never hate sword art. it sucks so much, but i sure do love this trash garbage. The audio books are really well produced, deffo recommended if you want some daft background listening.
Vol. 1
”Mostly read this because I saw rumours that it was getting an anime adaption. Its not very good, but i did read the heck out of it if that makes sense, and i will be buying and reading the rest, and enjoying every second of reading it whilst i think 'wow this sucks, its not very good!'”
The image descriptions feature my own translations. Sorry.
Twitter sources: translation original 1 2
ive seen the first two before but this 3rd one is new to me, GOOD CONTENT
Dang that thump was SO loud, she did a good job alerting me to the sounds she heard, whatever they were.
(yeah their video re-encoding DOES suck ass lol)
Thank you for posting about fun yuri comics. Most recently I binged "Ayaka is in Love With Hiroko" in a single night. Wishing you all the best in whatever the future brings.
Ayaka is in Love With Hiroko is incredibly good - recommend to everyone whos a fan of useless women. Apparently there was a live action adaption earlier this year I WOULD LIKE TO WATCH IT does anyone know if there's a fansub of that?!?! i realllllly don't know where to find jdrama livesubs
https://mangadex.org/title/621e53f9-dc01-4608-b3d4-0941f83c05de/ayaka-is-in-love-with-hiroko
https://x.com/gomanga/status/1831784873322848312
So I listened to both volumes of this, and you know its pretty good junk food. Whats wild to me is the evil queen protagonist herself is SO GAY for her amnesiac childhood friend slash ladies maid. HER MAID IS ALSO SO GAY FOR HER. like, this book reads like a yuri. THEY LIVED TOGETHER IN A TOWER AND DID DIY TOGETHER. ITS JUST YURI... until the last 10 pages worth of content where its like "and she married the prince and lived happily ever after" ITS INSANE. YOU WROTE A FUCKING YURI. YOU CANT JUST TAG THAT ON AT THE END. THATS NOT HOW THIS WORKS
Aqua's head is FULL of memories of Arima Kana glowing like a burning sun? SAME
It was a pretty cute manga, never expected it to get an anime adaptation
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/senpainokohai/senpai-no-kohai-0#
It’s always cool to see self published or indie manga on kickstarter and I 100% pick up all the yuri ones I’m made aware of - posting it here as I know there’s a lotta yuri girls here who also like it when office workers kiss
I know it's het but have you seen A Sign Of Affection? it has some very good Faces Someone Drew
I’ve been a big proponent of the manga since I picked it up last year - yeah it’s het but it’s some REAL GOOD romance that’s for sure. I tend to find straight romance manga totally inscrutable and unbelievable (even the ones I really enjoy!), but this is one you can 100% buy into. BIG FAN
Also, it’s one of two anime last season to feature a (off model) Costco
We got a space princess with a talking space poodle crash landing on earth ((?)I think) and becoming the live in dorm manager of a share house that offers free breakfast. The share house tennents include a pink haired underground idol that loves to drink, a smart child and his loser perma-unemployed sleezeball salaryman dad who knows all the hot gossip and a real small old dude who’s main character trait seems to be “nice dude”. They don’t seem to know she’s a space princess, they think her being an ex-convict it’s a MUCH better explanation for why she doesn’t know what the internet is or why she’s never seen a movie. Also her cooking is SO BAD that they have to hire in a conveniently point-of-view-character shaped chef to deal with the morning chores. It’s love at first sight. If you ever wondered what would happen if you threw maison ikkoku, tenchi muyo, love hina and some pastel crayons into a blender, you’d get this
Here’s a link https://crunchyroll.com/series/G8DHV78D7
On the left we have a screenshot from 'By The Grace of Gods' S02E03 and on the right is a screenshot from S01E12 of 'Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady With the Lamp'
also the EXACT SAME POSE. SAME FOOT PLACEMENT, same weird hair same brown DIFFERENT COACHES. This implies that 3D anime coaches do not exist across the multiverse in the same way that horses do.
anyways, here's the previous proof of a slightly different multiversal horse.
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/4129843-hold-up-the-same-f
Todays chapter was GOOD
https://mangadex.org/title/4a086028-7977-4da6-a4c2-b659a4de29c6/kasane-to-subaru
Volume 4 is REALLY good, like the best in the series by far but heck I TOTALLY forgot it just ends like that, it felt like it had at least one more volume in it - kinda bummed all over again.
Why? Well it mentions the stereotypical villainess ohoho laugh like, 4 or 5 times but the lady reading the book CLEARLY has no idea what that is, like zero cultural understanding- no context and just reads it like she’s Santa. It’s incredibly good
EDIT: alternative explanation- she knows exactly what it is and was like “yeah, no, I am NOT going to do that” in the audiobooth. Way to embarrassing.
A wolf in sheep's clothing: a trickster, trying to fool others by blending in
A sheep in wolf's clothing: an already cozy lad, in an even more cozy fur coat
Aki Rikujo, a Wolfa, works as a butler at the royal castle in the land of Sheepa. Her quiet and peaceful days get shaken up when she saves the life of Princess Momo Shiudafaris. The shy sheep princess immediately latches onto Aki who, before she knows it, becomes the princess’s private tutor. Momo wants more than just math lessons from Aki, and even sneaks into the wolf-woman’s bedroom to seduce her! Aki soon realizes that, under the timid woolly exterior, Momo is a wild animal
Yes, all good bookstores. Book shops that don’t sell yuri manga are NOT good.
Protag-chan plane crashes into another world. Wild stuff, very relevant for 2024 too
EDIT: woah its a isekai AND a time leap? a cross-world time leap? this is potentially a new isekai subgenre.
Ive never noticed this whilst watching shows before but you would be SHOCKED by how many implied anime horses there are, that exist just out of frame or just off-screen. Its wild they must save SO much money, and more importantly TIME by doing this.
Please enjoy this other post where I prove my 3d anime clone horse theory
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/4129843-hold-up-the-same-f
I think the best solve is to just have your fantasy world involve giant birds pulling carts, being ridden, etc. Two legs means half the cost to animate!
It's utter heaven.
OKAY so that clip from "Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear" and has the SAME HORSES as these ones in "The Aristocrat's Otherworldly Adventure: Serving Gods Who Go Too Far" episode 3. Checkmate atheists these two shows clearly take part in the SAME SHARED ISEKAI CINEMATIC UNIVERSE. Look at the nose patterns! THEY ARE THE SAME CREATURES.
Also, I'm pretty sure that's the same animation loop. ALSO I love how they didn't even bother to drag the horse along the road in this show as they walk.
UHHH NO COMMENT BUT YEAH IM FINE. I FOUND A BUNCH OF OTHER 3D HORSES WHICH I HAVE SCREENSHOTS OF NOW IN A SPECIAL "ANIME HORSE" FOLDER, IM SURE SOME OF THEM HAVE THE SAME BASE MESH BUT ITS HARD TO TELL DUE TO MATERIAL RENDERING DIFFERENCES, SO THEY ARNT A CONCLUSIVE MATCH LIKE THESE ONES. THERE IS ANOTHER HORSE THAT HAS SUPER BEEDY EYES WHICH I KNOW IVE SEEN ELSEWHERE BUT HAVE NOT FOUND A MATCH FOR YET. ALSO, EVERY HORSE IN THE EMINENCE IN SHADOW APPEARS TO BE A CLONE.
ITS SO GOOD - like even of you dont think your going to stick with it id recommend just watching the first episode as it totally works as a stand alone story pretty much - its just so cool to see how the show effortlessly convets one of the neatest depicitons of defness in manga to an audiovisual medium it RULES - anyways yuki is adorable if you have a Crunchyroll subscription (or are on my plex lol) give it a watch? it is WILD to me that Crunchyroll aren't pushing this REAL hard on their homepage
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GEXH3W2V7/a-sign-of-affection
anyways here's a long thing I wrote about how communication is rendered in the manga - the anime is JUST as good
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/3807504-i-will-take-literall
This volume catches back up to where the anime left off, and heck it was just as exciting in print - I LOVE ARIMA KANA!! MEMCHO IS SO GOOD! Ruby and Aqua were there too I guess!
Every time I finish a volume of this I’m really impressed how well designed it is? Like, this guy is deffo writing this story to be published in paperbacks, which feels kinda unique? Obviously - all manga published in serial magazines is, but this reads like its ALWAYS in mind Like, each arc is perfectly wrapped up in one volume and the next one set up and ready to roll, it’s just some super impressive craft. I've read so much stuff that's kind all over the place, this is so intentional with its chapter layout. Good stuff.
Ohhhhhh heeeeeeck what a perfect volume?!? It builds on the super strong base the first two volumes set up and just blew it up to a billion this time round. We got new characters added who feel natural and totally complement the main cast in interesting contrasting ways, as mirrors for their own internal dramas and then there’s moments where stuff happens that made me wanna shout with joy like oh heck this was a good volume I love this work so much
Pretty cute shoujo manga that’s so far ticking off all the tropes
✅ countryside girl moving to her uncles place in Tokyo due to her parents work
✅ hot girl in her class acting all innocent but bullying her for being a bumpkin
✅ love triangle forming (including a guy who is irresponsibly too old)
✅ whole class going bowling
Like it’s got everything. I do like how no nonsense suzume, the main character is. She handles the bullying in a really great way. It’s by the numbers but well done - this is recommended for shoujo romance genre perverts for sure
Ahh the inevitable long distance bump in the relationship - it was cool how these two dealt with the impending split, everything felt real and true to these characters, and wow heck that was probably the worst proposal scene ever in a romance manga, 10/10 no notes
These last two volumes that make up the final arc? I do not like them, I don’t like the whole “I love you so much let’s break up so you can concentrate on your work” thing, it’s STUPID, and VERY anti fun. I do not like the drama that spins out of it, I do not like how they reunite, i do NOT like the final marriage proposaL and make up AT ALL. that SUCKED and felt disrespectful towards the leading lady, and kinda a reflection of her agency. It’s a very frustrating end, especially as the first two volumes were so good. OH WELL.
GOD MAOMAO IS SOO GOOD WTF SHE SO HOT IN THAT LAST PAGE TOO WOW
uhh yeah anyways this volume was super interesting, it tied together a bunch of threads that were left hanging from earlier in a new mystery that was really cool, introduced two new pieces of inner court infrastructure and WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON WITH THAT LAST CHAPTER why the heck did the emperor calling her out for special trials whats he plotting whats going ooooooooon
oh heck that was a heart wrenching set of volumes heck. I’m not someone who’s big on children or pregnancy stories but this totally nails what it’s sets out to do - it’s wild how effortlessly it pulls you into Tsugumi’s headspace. There were moments where the story is so expertly crafted you get hit by her exact feelings like a truck. It’s an incredible piece of work. In the authors pages at the back there’s talk about how one major aspect of the story wasn’t planned and came from the editor- and like dang that was 100% the right choice for these character and this story. It’s rare you get a glimpse of that side of the editor/mangaka dynamic- so that was cool to read about.
The final volume does a nice job of tying up all the lose threads, but it’s real obvious it’s doing that. The drama is over. There’s no real plot arc or structure, there’s no stakes to anything- it’s just revisiting characters we have met along the way and giving them a chapter to wrap stuff up. It’s… fine? But not really a satisfying ending tbh. Good series whilst the drama lasted
Not much to say, still incredibly good. Ive been reading a lot of shoujo recently, but this is just the best.
still hilarious, got nothing more to say about this but its such a joy to read each new volume I love these idiot children
Yeahhh that’s the stuff- lots of cool storylines colliding in this one, but it’s at its best when stuff from the ‘virtual’ world bleeds over to the real world, like the pet otherworldly lizard and its weird ablility to always escape its tank. The plots developing in fun ways and all beginning to connect up full circle, like that weird coworker who DEFFO is playing a different yet connected chatGPT microtransactions game and all the weird stuff with baddies from protag-kun’s past. It’s all good stuff. This book for sure has some ideas.
An incredibly gripping and intense depiction of a girl absolutely suffering though her early high school days due to MASSIVELY crushing social anxiety exacerbated by bullying and her stutter, and the ups and downs of her one friendship. It’s a gripping tale with some beautiful art, and Denpa’s English release looks incredible, and is printed on that really nice soft paper, beautiful book!
SPOILER TALK: Maybe I’m just WAY too lesbian pilled but dang, Shino is GAY how can this have any other reading other than SHES FUCKING GAY and she’s REPULSED that her GAY crush is hanging out with some doofus nastylad like EWW you can feel it the text is SO GAY so getting to that ending, like, I know there are ways for lesbian couple to get kids but the heteronormativity hit me like a fucking truck lol. Like it’s a cute ending but daaaaang don’t you realise you accidentally wrote a yuri here? Commit to the bit
dannng that was a lot of books in one year.. almost hit 400. I think ill keep this up next year too.. HECK I actually completed a new years resolution basically? that's wild! (for those of you who are new, last year I decided to read a book a day to deal with my backlog as a new years resolution, that's why this post series exists... HECK) But yeah, I've got some new volumes to take, some Yuri, some villainess stuff, some isekai stuff - the BEST genres. But also, I've now got access to the 1000 odd books I managed to recue from my mums house recently - so maybe I'll start re-reading something old.... like GTO. Was GTO actually good? or was I an idiot teenager? maybe that would be a good thing to discover next year. THANKS FOR READING WITH ME
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/3750469-november-6th-23rd
Aight, if you want some hot steaming trash that suddenly starts getting unironically good at one point and now characters who were originally one off jokes are getting really good character development for some reason, you should check this out:
https://dynasty-scans.com/series/sorry_but_im_not_into_yuri
Genuinely one of the wildest things I have ever read. I binged it all in one night and it was a WILD ride. The Main Character goes from being a total scumbag to actually forming a friend group and having a really sweet relationship with someone??? Shits crazy
Oh yeah this one is genuinely really sweet and good AND trash, it’s a true masterpiece. If you love reading about messy, truly terrible selfish people slowly bettering themselves, making friends and finding solid, heartwarming relationships this is the one to read. Heck it’s messy! It’s got a real unique art style to it as well that feels hella fresh.
https://mangadex.org/title/8f3e1818-a015-491d-bd81-3addc4d7d56a/warui-ga-watashi-wa-yuri-ja-nai
There’s deffo a trend in yuri at the moment of having stories with absolutely scumbag lead characters who are TERRIBLE in every conceivable way slowly redeeming themselves almost entirely by accident, it’s such a funny sub genre and it’s hella cool that we can let queer women be THAT messed up. The other big one that comes to mind is scummy gap student, which yeah- messy but ends up wholesome. It’s such a good flavor.
Also on dynasty - https://dynasty-scans.com/series/a_scummy_gap_student_with_a_hard_life_calls_upon_a_lady_of_the_night
Gotta wonder where this is going to go, the old sns web version was SO SLOW with plot, I’m hyped.
https://mangadex.org/title/88949f72-43b8-48af-94a0-dc639e44be07/kaisha-to-shiseikatsu-on-to-off
Twitter version for reference
https://mangadex.org/title/0fa5d834-fdab-4ac4-b3c9-821f1580f991/company-and-private-life
But where do girls go on dates now? You can't just take away their natural habitat like that!
It depends on the genre of manga your reading and the frame of mind your in. The Aquarium will always and forever be a date spot for cute girls in love, just as it will always be an oasis for the overworked professional woman who just wants to nap in the jellyfish room. Context is queen, don’t be ashamed to take a date or visit by yourself. The Aquarium is for all women
Coincidentally, the aquarium in this manga is based on the one in ikebukuro sunshine city, good lesbian date spot recommended
https://mangadex.org/title/0df86784-961a-443c-9765-8b41702c6249/alice-san-chi-no-iroribata
Relaxed and cozy dinner comic about hanging out in a traditional Japanese home in the boonies with a traditional in-floor furnace. They make something nice on the furnace, the boy and the older girl feel a little bit awkward, repeat.
If ever an artist was in love with their subject, the artist is in love with this heroine. It bleeds from the panel.
Look, I’m a simple girl. If I see a manga called “this girl is probably committing tax evasion” OBVIOUSLY I’m going to read it instantly. I mean come on what a perfect title - it’s that use of ‘probably’ that shifts it from a really good title into the realm of incredible. Probably committing tax evasion. Probably. Delicious.
Okay time to read it. EDIT: There’s some okay jokes in here
Super cute Yuri manga! I really like the structure, which is half an episodic continuous storyline, with kinda standalone pages that are disconnected from the main story but have some small (and usually very funny) slice-of-life thing - its just plain good and is a real inventive way of deepening the relationship between our two ‘leading’ ladies, it creates a great sense of time
I say ‘leading’ because after the first bunch of chapters (and specially from the second volume onwards) things really open up. This isnt a story about two gals, its an ensemble cast of multiple different couples whose lives all interact and cross over - they all face different issues that tend to be mirrored and reflected in different ways. Its cool how rich each relationship and set of characters end up feeling. This - is a good book
This series had a biiiiiig impact on me when I first read it back in 2006, was kinda wild to see such a brazen work about crossdressing and messed up gender feelings and relationships at the time. Re-reading it now in 2023, heck the relationships in this are REALLY messed up, and the book manages to capture specific feelings of despair and self disgust in a way that’s just kinda rare- it’s a good, messy work. Glad my copy is still safe and I can read it again after what… 17 years?
Ohhh yeah I picked this one up on a total whim, and HECK what an incredible book for fans of total idiots. I, Lotte May, world famous idiot, am a BIIIIG fan of idiots. ITS SO GOOD! We have the two biggest idiots, totally antisocial dweebs, incredible introverts working in the planning department of a travel agency - but disaster strikes our stupids hero’s company, they are going to open a new branch in Russia and someone from the Tokyo branch will be sent to set it up. Who knows how many years you might get stuck in Siberia! It’s cold there! There’s only one way for these two to protect their precious, single loner Tokyo lifestyles, and that’s pretending to get married. No big deal right? It can’t be that hard to fool your coworkers, it’s not like they are going to make a big deal of it… right? Right? Ahhh.
This volume is mostly about setting up the first real yokai mystery for our duo to solve and introducing and explaining Kuro’s inhuman yokai powers… and thats cool, but dang by FAR the best part is just how much of a little gremlin Kotoko is. DANG shes such a little bitch I LOVE HER
It’s nice to see Mei open up even more, and was fun to see some of the supporting characters have their own chapters. I’m still not really sure what Citrus+ is about yet, if anything. The original Citrus was deffo about something right? Yuzu and Mei, against all odds coming together and all that… + dosnt really seem to have any larger structure - which is fine! It’s nice to see these characters exist it a world, but also a bit weird you know?
Still got exactly one joke, over and over. STLL REALLY GOOD. Just space reading volumes out a bit more than I did so it didn’t get old fast.
Marin lending Wakana a porn game hoodie because “that’s the only male clothing she has” is a really good bit. 10/10
I still think the mechanics around how magic system works in this are real cool and interesting- it comes up again in the plot in this volume. The idea that magic itself is a preposterous lie, so witches can’t ever tell lies in exchange for gaining the greater lie that is magic itself is REAL good, and using that as a basis for romantic tensions is really fun. It’s just such a well executed idea and story.
It’s all unfolding exactly as you’d expect plot-wise, no surprises or anything - but it well drawn and ‘fun’ in that genre pervert kinda way.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT THAT DIRECTOR LADY MAKES ME SO MAD WTF YOU CANT DO THAT YOU CANT JUST GO AND ENTER A LIVE OPERATING THEATRE LIKE THAT WTF SHE IS THE WORST VILLAIN EVER
It’s kinda interesting how much Ren’s circumstances changes from volume to volume - it dosnt really feel like there’s a plan here, if there was she would have stayed with the hot girls from a few volumes ago. This new/old friend group feels like it could be permanent, but knowing this book within two volumes they will all be long gone. But yeah, I like it a lot but dang it’s so made up as it goes along! Needs a little more direction
Ughhhh it’s so goooooood. Itsumi IS going to be the worlds biggest wife guy by the end of this - Oushi’s rejected man pain is also really well drawn (and he fucking deserves it lol what a wet blanket of a guy). Mostly I’m just so glad to see Yuki happy she’s so precious I love her
Things are diverting more and more from Konoha’s original dark histories, and her relationships with her characters, especially sol, predictably he’s now completed his 180 and is devoted to her - wonder how long till she fully realises it!
I know I’ve said this before but the way Marina’s internal monologue mirrors that of the fans for other idols is just SO GOOD. - every time she has a lil mental breakdown over how cute she thinks her one true fan eripiyo is I could just DIE it’s so good
Fun fact: the back matter in the book claims the first printing of the English edition was in December 2023 - it’s a time traveller (editing note: i read this back in November)
Fairly typical story in the non-isekai “receptionist at the adventurer guild is secretly super powerful actually” fantasy subgenre. It’s competent? Like, we’re not winning any awards here for anything but I enjoyed my stay. I liked the conceit that she didn’t want anyone to know she’s severely a strong adventurer because receptionists aren't allowed side jobs and she doesn't want to lose the cushy government paycheck. It’s simple but works well. You can turn your brain off for this one
I Listened to a LOOT of audiobooks whilst packing and moving - And they are all pretty good tbh, i enjoyed my stay. Its neat that Reincarnated as the last of my kind is starting to wrap up, and the audiobook of In Love With The Villainess was SUPER good, would for sure recommend that. The rest are trashy but like, with a heart - and you already know if your going to like em based 100% on the titles come on.
So yeah.. these were posted REAL late, and then I then went on to NOT read anything between November 24th and December 1st, cos I was so dang busy with moving.. which was SAD and heck I missed it! BUT I already hit that 365 book goal, so I guess that means I completed my 'read one manga book a day' new years resolution. I've never actually followed though with one of them ever before, so that's neat!
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/3432622-october-30th-novem
I’ve still got a couple of volumes I’ve not read, I should fix that soon eh?
https://x.com/mangamogurare/status/1722906355625865706?s=46&t=SuCZw1i5apMjHw10NL09RQ
It’s WILD how almost every single manga I’ve singled out recently and been like “yeah this one is actually INCREDIBLY GOOD trust me bro” is getting an anime adaptation IM REAL GOOD AT PICKING THEM anyways A Sign of Affection is real good- like criminally good for a het romance, I literally just finished reading volume 4 10 mins ago and had a great time.
So much of what makes it great is how it uses typography to represent Yuki’s deafness, will be interesting to see how they deal with that in animation. I’m hyped!
Top scientists have toiled away for YEARS doing complex lab experiments and they finally did it, the built the ultimate idiot yuri girl. The world’s biggest idiot. She’s so stupid. She is perfect. She has zero thoughts (apart from GIRLFRIEND HOT). I love her.
Anyways, what’s Cheerful Amnesia about? Well our perfect idiot yuri girl wakes up in hospital… with amnesia.. oh no! She can’t remember the last 3 years of her life! But there’s a hot lady in her room?!? Who says she’s her girlfriend?!! “WOW” she thinks to herself - “go past me I picked up a hottie”
And it just gets stupider from there. 10/10
You can probably guess what this is like based on the title, but this is the story of a young girl who is the illegitimate child of a noble family moving in with her stepmother and stepsisters after her mother dies. Each chapter is a set-up for some stereotypical ’evil’ stepfamily plot beat, which totally gets inverted in a cute funny way. These step-ladies LOVE their newest family member.
It’s funny how even though you know that the book is going to subvert the genre trope it’s building up to- it STILL somehow still manages to surprise me exactly how, and every dang time I’ll be chuckling like a fool. 10/10 recommended, a great light little read
[Notes based on some Line messages I set to @Nex3 whilst reading volume 6 in a cafe]
So it’s a Romance manga published by Shojo Beat, which are normally pretty by the numbers, about a regular office lady who’s dating a celebrity, which is a pretty by the numbers subgenre. Despite having ZERO interest in celebrity culture in real life ohhh heck do I LOVE this genre, cos you always have to have that dynamic where they have to keep the relationship hidden, which is fun right?
Anyways, the main character lady’s brother just found out who she’s dating- and normally in this kinda thing there’s a lot of stupid bullshit like “wow you’re dating them?!? They are famous!” That kinda stuff. In this her brother flat out doesn't recognise the guy or give a single shit - which is an INCREDIBLE twist
The boyfriend is a news presenter. Her brother just does not watch the news. That’s genre innovation right there. I was really impressed lol
I love shit which sticks to genre tropes and all, but this stupid book just keeps inverting expectations over and over and over - with one simple trick! The two characters just talk to each other! Like, A lot? So whenever a genre thing is about to happen - which pretty much always in romance manga things is some kind of miscommunication drama right? Drama happens because they don’t have full information- in this they get to the cusp of that… and then it dosnt happen cos they like, have a nice little chat.
So for this situation to like… her brother just dosnt recognise news broadcasters because who cares about broadcast communications is very funny to me.
“I’m commandeering this planet” is a stupid line and I’m 100% here for it. Heck yeah!
The cliffhanger from volume 1 was resolved in a nice yet boring way, after that, it was fun to see all the isekai bullshit play out. Big fan of having a hot elf wife tbh.
As with volume 1, the best bits are the extra omake pages at the back, which follow the adventures (?) of the goddess who does that isekai summoning. In these volumes, we learn that she was going to go back to the realm of the gods but instead got hooked on American beer and now lives in Arizona and works at a hunting goods store. It’s very good stuff she should get her own spin off manga.
Well, the climatic event we all knew was going to happen finally happened- they got married. That ended up getting resolved really quickly as well, compared to all the drama that’s happened so far. There are still three volumes left in the series so it will be interesting to see how their relationship develops from here
Just as interesting as the anime, I like the whole setup between these two, and it was a good cliffhanger spot to end volume one with Kotoko and Saki just meeting up. I wanna buy way more of this t-t
UGHHHHH WHYYY do I like this stupid book so much Rudeus's internal monologue is so SLIMY and GROSS I hate him.
heck knows... i have to pack all my books up to get ready for the move hecccccck
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/3347146-october-23-29
Near the school (and about 5 mins walk away from my mums house) is a small green that has this kind of dip in the middle. The story goes that back in the Victorian times that used to be a pond, but there was a tragic accident, a horse drawn carriage overturned and plunged into the pond drowning a lady. Now, extrapolate this out and I guess yeah there’s loads of people during all the time to tragic back story altering carriage accidents back in the day - you gotta 100% give that one to fantasy isekai mangaka.
Pretty fun isekai about a dude going hunting with his wife, who is a hot and also an elf. A hot elf wife, if you will. 10/10 good for genre perverts.
My favourite part is actually the little omake at the end, which is a fun little chapter with the goddess that isekai's our protag-kun - and shes just doing research in Tokyo on how to pick a good ‘hero’ to summon. Lady just reads a hell of a lot of isekai light novels and bases her whole summoning ruleset based off that. 10/10
ISEKAI DEATH REPORT: mauled to death by a brown bear whilst hunting
A great new entry in the “yuri but with a landlord” AND the “yuri but with an idol” subgenres (also the “yuri but one of the girls works in the manga business because if your writing what you know, and all you know is kiss girl/write manga, your gunna get yuri mangaka yuri manga” genre. I do like that genre a lot) - and YES all landlords are bastards does NOT include this girl. She’s way too pure and stupid to actually be a landlord. Shes more like an adorable pet. At its core it’s a pleasant slow life, slow relationship building kinda thing... yeah these two girls are thrust together and have great chemistry but like, they take their time. It’s sweet
This is a pretty neat concept- it’s a fantasy isekai by way of science fiction. The titular Captain Corinth gets stranded in a fantasy world after his spaceship is mysteriously ambushed in hyperspace and crash lands on a nearby uncharted planet. All the usual isekai tropes are justified though advanced technology - all your cheat skills are nanotechnology and AI - stuff like that. it’s just a neat implementation of all that junk isekai genre perverts adore, 10/10
Heck! What an incredible book! What an incredible start to a story that feels MASSIVE! There’s a lot going on here, it’s drawing on a lot of the best reincarnation and villainess tropes and like turning them up to 11. It opens up with a real economical villainess backstory, setting up who the ‘heroes’ that killed our vileness are and then confidently starts playing with our expectations. I mean… that’s kinda what every villainess story does but this one just does it SO dang well, and then even in volume 1 its pulling all these little threads together SO well. I am real impressed and cannot wait for more. I wrote a little about it here if you wanna see a lil more.
Dang, there’s some really messed up side relationships here. The actress lady who is protagonist-news-anchor-kun’s old flame is SUPER messed up - like a full on disaster lady. She needs to move the heck on, otherwise, later volumes are going to be an absolute blood bath for her.
Anyways, I am enjoying this a lot, it’s really nice how much trust these two lead characters have in each other. The whole story is about how they have a major difference in opinion about marriage, and they are so open and honest about that, that for everything else there’s a big base of trust - the book keeps presenting situations where you think oh no, here comes a classic romance manga misunderstanding driven fight and then it just doesn't happen, cos they have a chat about stuff instead? IT RULES and just read really well and I’m having a good time - even if it’s straight.
Real nice volume, its all set in Turnera this time, so no big city stuff - just all quiet small country village life - its all really setting up reasons for Bel to go on his big journey to find old friends, and it does that in a real satisfying way. I like this stupid book a lot.
Some of the new stuff I started recently I'm super enjoying, so I'm hoping to find a few more volumes of that stuff....
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/3320018-october-16th-22nd
You know, for a 4-koma style manga it’s real good? I’m not the biggest fan of that style of manga usually but you know, Bocchi is great. Is it as good as the anime? No. Categorically no. One million percently no. But there’s a cool spark here- it’s kinda amazing to see the source panels that sparked some of the standout moments of animation in the show… actually it’s kinda like reading an early storyboard that’s a few drafts off what ends up in the show? Which normally source manga doesn't feel like that? But yeah, it’s good, it’s interesting but wow that anime is incredible - it really elevates whats on the page, but you can still totally get how this inspired the animation team to go wild.
Very beautiful book, an interesting and quiet story about the death of local gods. I really think this one is worth a read.
It’s published by Titan Comic’s ‘Titan Manga’ brand, which I guess is new? It’s the only book I have by them at least, and I’ve got thousands of these things! Anyways their copy is weird, right on the inside cover it says “PERFECT FOR FANS OF MAGICAL GIRLS” which is of course, a weird way to advertise a book, especially one like this! Maybe for madoka fans, people that want to read a slow meditation on the death of gods… this ain’t for precure fans, you know. It’s just strange.
It’s okay I guess. The new in-between .5 chapters are whatever- cute I guess, but don't add too much. The two after-story chapters are really cute though and some much-needed closure on the story - I do really wish there was more of the college-age stuff, give me a Failed Princesses +
Some really cute storylines in this volume, it’s surprising just how deep the little character arcs can get with how silly the rest of the stuff in this book can be, but it’s always careful to tie everything together and have everyone realise there’s something about their different experiences that connects them, it’s just real cute like that. Some really good idiots here
Wow, this one’s all world-building and plot philosophy - it’s kinda cool? We learn why our favourite fujoshi is stuck in this world and how that's affected her mentally, it’s actually kinda neat? I actually didn’t expect this story to get this stuck in the weeds, it’s super cool!
Another thing I read this week which is an ebook exclusive (darn it I want it paperback!)
Well, this one’s the xenophobia arc I guess, it was pretty okay I guess. Cool that our protag-chan is so nice to be around she can smile and solve racism forever- wild times to be alive in another world. (This book is dumb and stupid and I love it PLEASE put it out in print THANK YOU)
Stupid idiot grown as adults Date kinda poorly, but things seem to be picking up at the end.. (unless…). It’s so painfully straight, but kinda fun to read
I had a good time, but I cant remember any real details about it now lol. perfect background book.
I wanna read YURI. I wanna read ISEKAI. I shall see whats in the pile maybe
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/3206740-october-9th-15th
Every damn day before I go to bed, I lay in bed and read yuri until I fall asleep. And then I post cute little snippits from it (or really dumb snippits from it) onto this website for your enjoyment. And I get a lot of people who go "Liz, as the world's leading yuri sommelier, what would you recommend?"
And I always say just ask and I'll give you a yuri or two to tide you over, but someone suggested I just put that shit in a post SO I'MMA PUT THAT SHIT IN A POST
The following is a list of manga that I recommend, alongside a brief description and anything that might be controversial or content warningy. If you like any of these, let me know whatcha think, and consider supporting the artists and writers! You can often find a way to do that on the website I'm linking.
Also, this is not NEARLY a list of EVERYTHING I'd recommend, and I may add to it in the future. I'm also avoiding yuri that's not finished or finished being translated, so there's a LOT of amazing ones that I don't want to get you into and then have you be sad when it never finishes getting translated. If you all like this enough, I might do another one where I recommend a bunch of yuri that's still being worked on. I might also do another post down the line about oneshots I really like. This is ENTIRELY series.
Anyways, bring on the cute girls!
Warnings: Age gap (both adults), parental abuse
This is a historical story taking place either in the late Meiji era or early Taisho. Yuki is a young lower class woman working at a cafe frequented by upper class society. She's a quiet and shy girl who lives her life between work and her books, her favorite of which are by the fluffy romance author, Azuma Beniko. So when Azuma Sensei shows up in her cafe, it overwhelms her. And then Azuma says that she wants to use Yuki as reference for her new novel...
Read this if you like: Extreme fluff, light drama, hot women playing with soft shy women.
If you like this, you should read: Literally anything else written by the author, Nagori Yu. She has a type, is what I'm saying. This is, to my belief, the only thing she has ever actually FINISHED, but all of her unfinished manga that's halfway through has this dynamic of hot powerful woman and shy cute woman.
Even If It Was Just Once, I Regret It
Warnings: Oh boy, a lot. Age Gap (both adults), starts with sexual assault, power imbalance dynamics, light ecchi
Okay now listen, when I describe the conceit of this manga to you, you are not gonna like the sound of it. This is the hardest manga to recommend but it's also one of my favorites, okay? Here we go.
Koduka-san is a game dev who has recently gotten fired from her job. She's drowning her sorrows in alcohol, and is unable to function or pay rent. Her landlord (the manga CALLS her a landlord, and Miss Landlord, but she's really more of a person who works at the apartment complex managing it and working with the occupants, she does not own the building) comes by to check up on her and gives her an offer on how to keep living there. The offer, at least through Koduka's drunk haze, seems to be "sleep with me, and you can stay here". So Koduka does.
Once she awakens, she immediately regrets it, and Miss Landlord gives her another offer. She can stay there with her, and if Koduka "services" her, she will consider the debt repaid.
Now I know how this sounds. It sounds fucking horrible. But trust me, this is actually a REALLY good manga. It's light and fluffy, but is built on MASSIVE misunderstandings that will eventually give way to almost slice of life pleasantness as these two live together and grow closer.
Read this manga if you like: Lots of fluff and can put up with a bit to get there, enjoy seeing "straight" girls realize "oh shit wait why DID I immediately jump to having sex with her", idiot couples, medium levels of drama
Warnings: School girls in high school, lightly echii. Nothing explicit, but they are REALLY makin' out.
Shiine and Ichika aren't quite friends. Barely even acquaintances. They know of each other, as the other... fascinates them in a way they can't explain, but they never had a chance to interact. However, at the start of the school year, they're both selected as class representatives, and thus work together on the student council. After Ichika is late to a meeting, Shiine offers to help tell her what she missed, and they begin to talk to get to know each other... and the conversation goes to kissing.
Ichika assumes Shiine has dated and kissed COUNTLESS boys, after all, she's so hot and cool. Shiine hasn't but feels embarassed and embraces the lie. So Ichika wants to know... what is it like to kiss...?
Once the two start... they fall into a routine. Once a week, sometimes even two or three times a week, after school, the two meet up and kiss each other. They're less than friends, but also more than friends. Kissing friends. Can they move past how they feel and become something even more?
Read this manga if you like: EXTREME LEVELS OF FLUFF. OVERLOAD. OVERLOAD. Girls making out with girls. Idiot couple, like holy shit REALLY BIG IDIOT COUPLE ENERGY. "THIS GIRL KEEPS ASKING ME TO MAKE OUT WITH HER EVERY DAY AFTER SCHOOL I WONDER IF SHE LIKES ME LIKE I LIKE HER"
Warnings: Light to medium drama. Abusive relationships, stalking. Homophobic and abusive fathers.
This one is Thai, so if you read it and think the vibe is different, it very much is! And so are the names. Trust me, these are the character's actual names in the story. This isn't some mistranslation.
Donut is a young girl who is just entering college. She's nerdy, not conventionally attractive, and has never really experienced love. One day she runs into an older student at the dorm washing machine, a cool lady named Mew. Mew is friendly, and maybe a little... flirty? No, that couldn't be, they're both girls! The two hit it off as friends, and find out they're actually neighbors! What a coincidence!
This is a story of their friendship as it grows into something more!
Read this if you like: Girls who are more experienced picking up "straight" girls. Simple concepts. This one doesn't have some major grand arching plot, except for some stuff involving an ex. It's not OVERLY fluffy, but it's good pleasant romance.
A Timid Woman Longing For Her Delivery Girl
Warnings: Sexual Assault in backstory. Sick grandmothers as a plot point. Mid level drama.
Ms. Takase is a woman who works from home, and rarely leaves her house. She is afraid of the outside world, and others, after she was sexually assaulted at her old work, and her coworkers blamed her for it. Now she just wants nothing more than to be alone... until her delivery girl, who brings her her weekly groceries and other things, enters her life. Rinko is a bright and cheerful girl from the boonies, and while Ms. Takase is hesitant at first, they quickly become friends... or perhaps more?
Read this if you like: Short and sweet stories. It's only three chapters long. Mid level drama, there's some heavier misunderstandings, the pre-mentioned assault, and sick loved ones.
Warnings: Age gap, mild drama, ecchi and has some smut that's easily skipped
A half human half monster girl wander the wilderness alone. She is incredibly lonely, and not mean, but her appearance causes people to run from her, and since she's a half monster, other monsters shun her. She lives in an abandoned shack full of books she's found, and reads them to herself. One day, however, she runs into a young girl who doesn't run from her. Lily, the young woman, is blind. The monster, for the first time in her life, lies, and claims she is a traveler, wandering far and wide. Lily asks her to tell her stories, and the monster recounts stories from the books she's read so that she can keep this girl as her friend. As the monster has no name, Lily names her Heath, after her favorite flower.
Read this if you like: Monster girl stuff! Mild angst. but mostly cute fluff of two girls who are DEEPLY in love with each other, one of which just happens to be a big scary monster who would die for the other.
Warnings: MAJOR age gap. One girl is a senior in high school and the other is nearing her 30s. Their relationship is "pure", but y'know, that's still massive squick.
This is a cute couple life manga about Hina-chan, a high school student, and her girlfriend, an office lady named Yayoi-san. Yayoi can't take care of herself, and Hina comes over and cooks for her and other such things. It's mostly cute sweet fluff, but has huge themes of age, maturity, and growing up.
Read this if you like: The themes of maturity and growth. Couple life manga. If you handle such a large age gap, it's actually quite good. Just y'know, illegal.
Warnings: Blackmail, kinda noncon
Ayaka is a young girl in highschool who wants to be JUST like her older brother, who is the perfect student and perfect older brother. She wants to get top marks like him and go to his college, which is REALLY hard to get into... but she's absolutely TERRIBLE at taking tests. So her teacher offers to give her a recommendation so she can get in easily, if she'll just get the delinquent, Honda-san, to actually come to school. Honda isn't your typical delinquent. She's kind of a quiet emotionless girl who just... doesn't want to come to school, possibly due to depression.
Honda learns of Ayaka's deal with the teacher, which worried Ayaka. If word gets out that she's doing favors to get a recommendation, it could kill her socially with the other students! But Honda san offers a deal. If Ayaka does whatever Honda asks her to do, once per day, then Honda won't tell anyone. And what kind of things will Honda tell her to do?
Yep! Gay things!
Read this if you like: Shockingly wholesome stuff. Like, considering how it starts with noncon kissing, it evolves in a great way. Read this if you like seeing someone come to grips with loving someone else and just being too fucking dense to realize it.
Warnings: Major angst
Nanaki and Kanade couldn't be further opposites. Nanaki is a gyaru who is OBSESSED with being the prettiest girl. She's rude and forceful, and a bit of a bully. Kanade, meanwhile, is a shy and quiet otaku wallflower. However, once Nanaki is dumped brutally by her cheating boyfriend, she can't go to any of her friends, because they're just as cruel and as big bullies as she is. So who is there to support her and give her a shoulder to cry on? The "ugly" wallflower, Kurosawa Kanade.
Thus begins Nanaki's slow character growth and transformation as she and Kanade grow closer...
Read this if you like: Major character growth plots. LOTS of angst and drama, no one in this manga is actually alright deep down.
Warnings: Very lewd
This one is interesting cause at one point, it was my #1 suggestion. I LOVED this manga. It's severeled cooled on me though, especially after it just unceremoniously ended, with the artist ending it with a big sex scene that felt a little odd, after the entirely of the manga. Anyways, the description.
Tadokoro-san is a quiet gloomy otaku in high school. She draws manga and keeps to herself. Sakurako, meanwhile, is the school idol. She's gorgeous, rich, and perfect in every way. So when Sakurako falls hopelessly in love with Tadokoro after seeing her art and how adorable she is, Tadokoro can't help but be overwhelmed.
Read this if you like: Essentially yandere, without any of the actual violence or death or anything. Sakurako is BASICALLY yandere levels of in lvoe with Tadokoro. So, read this if you like seeing really horny girls be VERY horny for other girls, because that's like 70% of this manga. Also lots of height gap and gap-moe.
Sekai de Ichiban Oppai ga Suki
Warnings: This is practically just porn, it's so ecchi.
This is one of the goofier ones I'll recommend.
i got this new anime plot. basically there's this high school girl except she's got huge boobs. i mean some serious honkers. a real set of badonkers. packin some dobonhonkeros. massive dohoonkabhankoloos. big ol' tonhongerekoogers. what happens next?! transfer student shows up with even bigger bonkhonagahoogs. humongous hungolomghononoloughongous.
In all seriousness, there's two girls. The cool prince of the school, Chiaki, and Harumi, who is a normal school girl who happens to have some serious honkers. Chiaki confesses to Harumi, but not y'know, a love confession. This isn't about love. This isn't even about sex or perversion! Chiaki just REALLY likes tits.
Chiaki must grope Harumi like, once a day, or she will run out of energy. Boobs are her recharging spot. She LIVES for boobs. This manga is so fucking stupid but I kinda like it anyway?
Read this if you like: dobonhonkeros. massive dohoonkabhankoloos. big ol' tonhongerekoogers. humongous hungolo-
Warning: MASSIVE angst. Abusive relationships. Cheating. Pregnancy. Lots of self enforced heterosexuality and internal homophobia.
Maki and Midori dated all through highschool. Come the end of highschool, however, Midori decided to call it off. After all, they were "too old" to be "playing" at that anymore, right? They had to grow up. Start a family.
Ten years later, by a chance of luck, the two run into each other again! Midori is living her dream. She's getting married, and she gets to meet her old highschool best friend again! At least, things look good... on the surface. Her marriage is worse than it looks, and re-discovering this long lost love isn't helping. Can the two of them run away together, away from all of this?
Read this if you like: Really heavy stories exploring homophobia, homosexuality, and societally enforced heterosexuality.
Warnings: None I can think of
Hinako wants to be normal. She just doesn't GET it. All her life, she's been surrounded by a society that tells her she should fall in love. But she can't. No matter what, she can't. And then she ends up getting closer to her coworker in the office, Satou-san, a serious working scary girl... and something begins to change. But it's not what society always told her it would be. What is this new feeling?
Read this if you like: Explorations of asexuality, amidst two girls falling in love with each other in a way neither of them ever expected.
Warnings: Really pushy girl with a crush
This comic is TECHNICALLY still going, but it's two chapters away from the end and you can read it early if you pay. Which I have. So it goes here.
The Demon Queen sits up at the top of her tower. Whichever adventurer can reach the stop, through 100 floors and her right generals, can take her head and gain the admiration of the human kingdom and riches beyond their wildest dreams. But to reach that point, not even just kill the queen, you have to be top of your class. And the top of the adventurer guild's school is none other than the mage Malori.
Too bad Malori has NO INTEREST in actually killing the Demon Queen and getting all that power and riches. No, she wants to marry the Demon Queen instead.
Read this if you like: Slow burn with one girl head over heels. Idiot couples. Comedy, this one is actually very funny. Video games, it's heavily inspired by JRPGs and is in an Isekai world, but is NOT actually an Isekai story, just takes place in a world where people from Earth get Isekai'd to.
Warnings: Vampires. Blood. Violence. Older than she looks age gap, though she's still mentally a child, she IS a vampire.
Ichika is a normal kid. Her grandmother, a shrine maiden, just passed away. On the day of her funeral, a strange foreign girl named Aria appears... who claims to have been her grandma's friend. She needs Ichika to do something for her, something ONLY maidens of this shrine can do. Aria wants Ichika to kill her.
What follows is a strange romance story where Ichika can't help but fall in love with the terrifying, but very attractive vampire.
Also I fucking LOVE the art in this one.
Read this if you like: Action manga spiced with yuri. Vampires and monsters. Some horror and scary themes.
Warnings: Not much tbh. Gay girl pining for straight girl? Is that a thing to warn about?
Lumiao is a senior in high school who loves dressing up in lolita fashion. One day she meets another cute student, Yuxuan, who she's CONVINCED would be perfect for lolita! Yuxuan, however, is a shy tomboy, who isn't into fashion whatsoever. But the two become friends anyway. But what is Lumiao to do when she realizes her feelings of friendship move past that... and when Yuxuan starts to develop feelings for the popular but friendly sports jock?
Read this if you like: Cute girls and lolita fashion. Gay girl pining for straight girl.
Warnings: Sick girlfriend
Yu Qi wakes one morning to find that she has traveled back in time. Now in the past, she is determined to fulfil a mission! Her future girlfriend, Yuanzi, who she didn't even know in highschool, will one day get diabetes from her terrible habits and diet. Yu Qi must not only meet Yuanzi and keep her cool about the girl she loves, but also try to save her life!
Meanwhile, in the future, Yu Qi wakes up to find that she has been transported a decade into the future. Yes, her future and past selves swap places! Now she has to tackle with the fact that she is living with a woman who claims to be her girlfriend, and that she has to do shit like work and get a stable income, while this girl she doesn't even know wastes away from illness next to her. Is she going to be able to keep it together?
Read this if you like: Supernatural stuff, themes around fate and soulmates, serious trials and themes.
About a College Girl Who Gets Picked Up At A Mixer By An Older Girl
Warnings: Age Gap, both are adults
One more for now! This one is... exactly what it sounds like on the tin. Rika is a shy but sweet college student who is invited to a mixer. The men there are kinda handsy, and she's saved by an older woman, Natsuko, who... slyly takes her out to a cafe and back home instead.
Read this if you like: Fluffy slice of life about cute couples
It’s fine guess? Maybe? idk? Actually, it kinda sucks? but in an 'its fine I guess' kinda way?? Yet another royalty/noble romance story (for someone who’s staunchly anti-monarchy I sure do buy and read a lot of this trash huh). The twist here, if you can call it that is that the noble lady/princess is the prince's knight captain of the guard, and she’s been training to be a knight since a young age so she doesnt know how to noble lady. She keeps saying she’s “trying to be the best man she can be” and when she first has to wear a ball gown she’s like “I couldn’t possibly wear drag” - it could be funny in a story that wasn’t so deplorably straight…
Not recommended, not even for genre perverts.
Incredible book 100/10. I’m a big fan of the anime, it’s stupid isekai bullshit, but it’s just so lighthearted in a pitch-perfect beautiful bright silly kinda way- yuna, the protagonist is incredible I love her, I love that she’s forced to wear that dang stupid bear Kigurumi which is stupid overpowered and cute and I love that people keep petting her in the manga version it’s so good. I love her two bear summons. I love her stupid bear house. I love that all her magic spells are bear-themed. This is a book that knows how to commit to a bit. Recommend (for genre perverts? But like, “cute girls doing cute things” genre fans too, not just isekai perverts)
Ohhhhh my gosh Hazuki had a son !?? And she was forcibly separated from her child when she was divorced!?! Did they include that in the anime? Did I miss it somehow?!? Fuuuuuuck that’s messed up. Okay, maybe the manga does handle some aspects of the actual storytelling better than the anime, but the anime for sure handles other aspects better, like just selling you on this world being a real actual breathing place.
Goooooood the idol industry sucks ass- but I do love this book what the hell.
There’s a bit with Eripiyo is squeeing over how cute her oshi Maina is, and at the same time Maina(her oshi) is cringing with second-hand embarrassment over how bad Eripiyo’s tshirt is and thinking “ughh it’s so embarrassing… I LOVE HER!”
This book is just full of moments like that
Absolute garbage 6/10 enjoyed it.
Absolute garbage 6/10 enjoyed it.
I didn't like it. Like, I found it INCREDIBLY tedious.. which is wild? i love this kind of light novel trash usually.. i just didn't get on with this one. Its trying to hard to be an epic fantasy I think, but its just kinda.. nothing? maybe it will get better.. its nearly 11 hours long. (hardly light I guess), these books really get longer than 6. Im a good 4 hours in, and i am liking it more as it goes on... but i still just flat out don't like it.. not sure im going to finish it tbh.
I wanna read YURI. I wanna read ISEKAI. I shall see whats in the pile maybe
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/3165117-october-2nd-8th
Maria does NOT look old/sickly enough and she FOR SURE DOES NOT SOUND SICK ENOUGH. You cant just chuck some cough sound effects over that lady shes supposed to be SO DEATHLY ILL from her curse, yet pretending to be strong and okay - she just sounds WAY to healthy. LET SICK GIRLS HAVE THEIR MOMENT
SHe just looks & sounds kinda grumpy - which SHE IS. but like, go to town with that you know?
Feels like the anime was written BY idiots, and the original novel was written FOR idiots.... if that makes sense. But yeah, the per-episode animation budget was clearly about $10 they found down the back of a sofa, so they've done pretty dang good.
Maria does NOT look old/sickly enough and she FOR SURE DOES NOT SOUND SICK ENOUGH. You cant just chuck some cough sound effects over that lady shes supposed to be SO DEATHLY ILL from her curse, yet pretending to be strong and okay - she just sounds WAY to healthy. LET SICK GIRLS HAVE THEIR MOMENT
SHe just looks & sounds kinda grumpy - which SHE IS. but like, go to town with that you know?
Incredible book, delicious school yuri, and yet another entry in the fast-growing ‘romance drama but with disabilities’ genre… it ticks a looooooooooot of good book genre boxes right there!
If you like a good yuri story with a character struggling with obvious yet currently unaddressed queer feelings, this has you covered. I read scans a while back and I think this translation is really good in this print version - It’s a story that’s real good at hooking you in to its world. I wish more volumes were out NOW. I WANNA READ MORE
Print-wise, it’s beautiful. it’s published by Kodansha, so it’s one of thoes larger form factor manga prints - which works real well as the manga has a really detailed artstyle - were talking lots of linework, so the larger size just makes everything resolve really well. Anyways, good book.
A pretty good hospital-based romance story forming here - obviously not as good as Pulse (which is a yuri and therefore infinitely better), but still pretty dang good!
The characters are pretty interesting, even the asshole male romantic lead. Protag-chan herself is particularly good, she’s a newbie nurse straight of of university and the depictions of her struggling to learn how to do the job for real are pretty dang good - it’s the kind of work that feels like there must have been a bunch of research interviews done before the storyboard were drawn you know? Will deffo pick up more sometime
Some weeeeeeeird stuff going on here. It’s an okay book, but hmmm. Like, why do you require your fiance to be under 14 my dude? This time slip story has a cannon, evil pedo incestuous prince on the other side of this conflict, they need to stop beating around the bush on this point and make it clear that this is NOT weird VERY quickly in the next volume, like heeeeeeck
Weird, lots of fucking about and finding out
Citrus+ is just way better (so far) than Citrus. Maybe it’s because the characters are already deep and fully formed or whatever, maybe the previous 10 volumes have just set up the world so well that stories can play out better now- or maybe it’s BECAUSE THERES SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING STUFF YOU CAN DO AFTER TWO DANG CHARACTERS START TO DATE DANG IT.
Finally, they did the thing! It’s incredibly good to see such a messy adult relationship unfold over SO many volumes, and for it to actually be good and real? And for all that to be true and for these two nerds to STILL put work over being together in any meaningful capacity is SO in character, I love it. The writing is so spot-on
This dang murder mystery keeps getting more and more complicated as the volumes go on- now we somehow have an empire-spanning royal succession war factoring into Scarlett’s death… somehow. It’s great stuff tbh!
One of the best things about this book is that heck, the author KNOWS it’s complicated. Throughout the book before new chapters, there’s always a “story so far” page just to fill you in on the recent plot threads - it really helps jog your memory. With the amount of time between volumes coming out it would be completely impenetrable without that, I wish more books did that as a rule
woooooow this book is incredibly good. Ive always like the anime, but yeah the source novel is incredible. 1000% recommended. Real good production too
pretty okay - the story going in interesting directions. Less "wow he's so hot" internal monologues this time around, but its still way to straight.
I wanna read YURI. I wanna read ISEKAI. I shall see whats in the pile maybe
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/3099546-september-25th-oct
Its still good! We’re entering the blacksmithing arc here and it’s still as stupid and joyful as ever. I am REAL SAD that Ren’s two admirers from the starter town have gone back home and left her to her own devices. INCREDIBLY SAD - it was REALLY nice seeing her open up to those girls and heck I want my yuri content, but I guess it might never happen here - also doing the reverse isekai thing where you take fantasy world people and show them modern Japan is always my FAVOURITE isekai sub flavour, and REN’s pocket dimension house is essentially that - just without the actual dimension hopping... OH WELL, I just hope they will be back someday soon otherwise rip me I guess!
This is a simple tale of shoujo-manga style pretty boys squabbling over a girl, except one of them is an actual dragon and also it’s an isekai. You know. Normal stuff. I don’t think this was as fun as the first volume, mostly because of all that straight energy going about, but heck! The next volume seems like it’s going to be all politics - so that’s fun! Our titular doom-witch seems to have the magic power to control dragons, sooooo the local king/queen combo (who seem kinda maybe just might be massive jerks) wanna abuse that power for world domination? So maybe we will get a little bit of skulduggery? Got my hopes up a little!
Ahh, my idiot children are at it again. Not a single brain cell shared between them. It’s wild that neither of these two boys have figured it out yet
Still great I can’t get enough of all this - the magical R&D, business planning a stupidly slow relationship building- it’s all just executed so well
THIS IS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT!!
Keep these two dweebs as friends for as long as possible- 4 whole volumes with zero romantic overtones and then the last few chapters of volume 5? Just the lightest sprinkles. Just drifting closer together ever so slightly. THATS THE GOOD SHIT. Who cares if its straight if its handled THIS well.
The earthquake arc - wow heck what an emotional rollercoaster- and what a cliffhanger ending, with Tsugumi visiting Itsuki in Tokyo and telling him she has regrets with how things ended… it’s going to be messy next volume! This is also a case of WHO CARES if its straight this drama OWNS.
Absolute GARBAGE. 7/10 fun read (garbage) for genre perverts only (the genre in question is GARBAGE)
Dang every time I pick up a volume this thing just gets better and better. Cid’s Yandere sister is exceptionally unhinged in this volume, she’s deffo better in the manga version vs the anime.
Apart from that, it’s just so full of good moments and good bits- can’t wait for the second anime season to start streaming (so soon! (EDIT: Since writing the new season has started airing and it is VERY good))
Still somehow okay? some pretty good bits in here too. Its wild how I find the anime WAY TO TEDIOUS to watch when I'm a massive genre pervert, but the audiobook is palatable. WEIRD.
Genre perverts only. Theres just kinda nothing to it. I do quite like some of these slow life genre stories, and obviously, I like isekai stories, so that's like two of my strike zone genres. IDK I like it a lot and I also do not recommend it?
I wanna sift through my pile to find a good yuri. I wanna see girls HUG still.
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2953616-september-18th-24t
What the heck?! Why did they make it a timeleap story? What's going on here!?! the heck!? I did wonder how they were going to adapt the manga, but like - totally ignoring EVERYTHING that happens in it, creating a new lead character and inserting some supernatural time shenanigans was not something id have guessed... its... fine?? i guess? Fingers crossed this helps make the argument for some English language publisher to pick up the book i guess.
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG its SO straight. It's SO OVERWHELMINGLY STRAIGHT (derogatory). It's wild how differently straight the anime is to the light novel, its like... passively so? In the book Sei can't help but internally monologue literally ALL the time about how hot literally every single guy around her is - So it's nice to NOT HAVE THAT GOING ON in the anime adaption - but its still very straight. I did like the stuff in this first episode about finding coffee in the magical world tho. That's peek isekai shit for me and i love it.
Actually, its homophobic that i have to wait a whole week for a second episode.
Actually, its homophobic that i have to wait a whole week for a second episode.
Does every weird food based manga I like have a live action tv adaptation or something?!
Here’s a very cool, link - it’s on the internet so I’m sure it’s also very legal
https://furritsubs.wordpress.com/2022/11/04/tsukutabe-engsubs/comment-page-1/
“This is National-Treasure level sewing! I haven’t seen anything like it in ages” - this is a direct quote from the text, if the concept of national treasure level sewing doesn't immediately sell you on this, you are not a genre pervert and why are you even reading this post? 9/10 good book.
Apart from that, we have a lot of generic bullied young Nobel lady who has amazing powers but not being given the opportunity to shine until she’s rescued by a hot guy energy- which you know- is whatever these days. There’s a billion books like that, but this one does it very well and has some good ideas. Not to get all problematic-age-gap discoursey or anything but where the book ends up is a bit weird - this kids 15 she should not be getting forced into marriages with the (ex?) king - but you know, books pretty good regardless. Enjoyed my stay
The second sewing-themed book this week- ehehe see what I did there? I saw two series were due for release very close to each other with needle-based puns in the name, and decided to do both! Back to back! As a bit! But I have been played as a fool! This one has NO SEWING RELATED CONTENT! There is one case of what can charitably be described as ‘clothing adjacent drama’ but to be honest, I don’t think that counts. Incredibly disappointing. 10/10 books good
Both of these stories were actually just real good though and I fricking inhaled them. You know, sometimes a books okay but it’s just hard to read so you keep at it bit by bit over the whole day? Not these two. I ate em both so fast! You’ll have a good time with either
The bit where Chat GPT suddenly temporarily gained the ability to act like an NSA spy satellite and show protag-kun LIVE VIDEO FEED of his sister SHOWERING and his parents having a PRIVATE CONVERSATION ABOUT HIM was uhhh, kinda weird. And then we just move on, like that never happened? Weeeeeeird. Thats said.... I do need to rush out and locate volume 5 now. I need to know what’s in the egg. (yeah theres an egg.. there's something in it)
I really like how we spent 30 whole pages building an intricate prototype magical sword, only for it to be a complete failure and they are like “well back to the drawing board”.
Really captures the whole spirit of R&D. Anyways, its still focuses on friendship which is nice - the longer they keep off the romance from starting the better this book series is going to be
Pretty cute josei manga, bout a lady that like REALLLLY wants to do the whole marriage thing and a guy that very much does NOT want to do the whole marriage thing. They get rubbed against each other and drama happens. It’s INCREDIBLY straight, eyes have been rolled, but you know, I enjoyed my stay. I’ll probs pick up more volumes and watch this dude inevitability become a wife guy.
Wifeguyification if you will
(EDIT: since writing this is did indeed pick up volumes 3, 5 AND 6 from a local bookshop... volumes 2 and 4 are currently missing in action. BUT I WILL FIND THEM AND I WILL KILL THEM (read: purchase them and put them on a shelf))
So last volume left off with our girl getting her job at the mages' guild as a receptionist - like we love that for you girl. BUT. Only like half the chapters in this volume are about said job. Most of it seems to be about sneaking into a noble's party and like, doing all that generic common-girl-dragged-into-ladies-society kinda thing. Kinda disappointing - yet at the same time kinda comfort food.
I AM NOT ACTUALLY SURE WHEN I READ THIS ONE. Sometime in the last 3 weeks? I just never made a note of it - just finished it and was like “huh thats over i guess” and shoved it into the “read” pile, awaiting later filing away onto a shelf. Found it today as i was putting stuff away, and noticed there was no notes in notion about it. OOPS. Make of that what you will, again, for weird genre perverts only. 7/10
Anyways, I HAVE NEVER READ THE NEXT STORY ARC BEFORE. Not in audiobooks, light novels OR manga. so like, dang I am looking forward to some new material in this stupid universe. Need to get the next volume asap.
Pretty good you know, theres no epic story arc going on this time - just some disconnected, more grounded character pieces around town. Its a lot better for it.
I wanna sift though my pile to find a good yuri. I wanna see girls HUG.
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2944686-september-11th-17t
So I’ve just been reading though this, just absolutely mainlining it- put that shit right into my bloodstream. Lemme tell you, reading this page some 40 of chapters in, low on sleep, low on energy, low on mental defence, I cried like a baby. 11/10 this, is an incredibly good book. One one please pick it up for English localisation. Wtf.
It’s back!!!!! You know that massive feeling of disappointment when you get to the end of a yuri series and all the angst is over and it’s just like… ending where the relationship starts? IT SUCKS! Well for Citrus, Saburouta sensei decided to fix that with a sequel series. I HOPE IT IS GOOD!
There’s a panel early on when Yuzu’s mum is looking at Mei blush about the idea of going on a date with Yuzu and like, smiling warmly at the whole situation. That panel is great. Only someone with a truly, incredibly, amazingly massive brain could have drawn that.
This is an incredibly heartwarming autobiographical manga essay by Kazama Ayami about (obviosuly) her trying, failing and then finally succeding in having a kid. This book is full of warmth, the art is really pretty, and this lady portrays herself as a massive idiot and OHHH GOSH i do love me a good idiot. You really can't help but adore this lady as she works her way through pregnancy.
At the end of each chapter there’s a one-panel comic and write-up by her husband (who is a ero mangaka) and daaaang that dude is the world's biggest supporter of women and a massive wife guy it’s very funny.
This volume is the reality tv show arc. It’s really good! But wow I do this this arc was way better in the anime? They did such a killer job on some of the big reveal moments in the show and they just dont hit as hard in the book - but still this volume was incredibly good.
Cute. I like that this is solidly fixating on Dahlia and Volfred’s friendship- but it’s deffo going to turn into a romance in next volume I can feel it coming. Shame, would be cool if just focused on the buddy-buddy aspect forever but whatever. Fun book
Look I’m way to sicky to write anything about this right now. It’s a isekai. Are you a genre pervert? Did you watch the anime? Then it’s for you. 8/10 (i was VERY ill when i wrote this.. maybe that's why I forgot to post this on time!)
Volume 2 of Chat GPT the manga is pretty good still, the villagers have stepped up their cave security and Protag-kun now has the motivation to do better and get a job doing hard labour. Dudes really will just use a chatbot rather than do therapy but whatever works I guess. The story mechanic where any offerings the villagers leave at the god of fait's shrine show up the next day with the post is pretty funny. This dude gets so many free logs. How do you even post a log?
Still good, but the anime’s still better.
So, i saw the anime (which sucked) and was like... maybe the light novel is good? Its better... but its NOT good. Genre perverts only... 6/10
I have already read most of next week's books (lol) - i hope you like sewing?
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2866551-september-4th-10th
What a weird and cool look into an idol fandom community, the books are very silly but a lot of fun, like this is pure idiot character territory with some light yuri themes at the fringes.
It's hard not to notice that a lot of the chapters to chapter dialogue plot beats and driven by misunderstanding, which usually SUPER HYPER annoy me, it's the WORST way to drive a story but I think that it’s actually kinda real neat here? There’s such a disconnect between being an idol and a fan and the way these characters talk past each other captures that really well.
World's saddest man finally finds the motivation to live better after talking to chat GPT for literally one day- also sells all his worldly possessions and embraces minimalism to fund his chat GPT micro-transaction addiction. I’m sure he is very mentally well. 8/10
Still good. For more info see every other time I've ranted about how good it is
It’s still pretty dang good! Our two protagonists are officially dating now, but it’s really funny how Akari keeps telling Kazuma “You make me happy and I love you but obviously, not as much as my one true oshi idol, he’s my true love but you're a close second” - I love scumbag fan girls in manga it’s always refreshing
Yuri bait arc let’s goooo! (Well, actually it’s Violette makes a female friend arc, but there are some yuri trope references, and I’ll take ‘em. I LOVE WOMEN)
Still a fun villainess book, recommend if you are a genre pervert
ehhh, magic school battle manga. If you’ve read one, you’ve read like a billion of these. Genre perverts only.
real silly shoujo romance - protag-chan is a common-born girl adopted into nobility, and goes through the whole engaged-to-a-royal-prince-but-dennounced-for-a-prettier-gir villainess style intro arc in the first chapter. pretty normal. The twist here is she has some kind of spirit defence magic that makes mushrooms sprout on any man who touches her - which is WEIRD. Luckily for her, a more handsomer and more royaler prince happens to find out post denunciation... HE HAPPENS TO BE A MASSIVE MUSHROOM PERVERT. Pretty cool premise. Theres some fun between chapter breaks where you get little factoids about different types of mushrooms that have featured in the previous chapter as well as uhhh, the mushroom's internal monologues and motivations? That rules. 8/10
Now we have finished with Citrus, the next big series I have at the bottom of a pile and desperately want to read is Wotakoi. Let's see if I get around to digging it out... that and i really want to read an isekai. <- this is what i said last week it still applies
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2738773-august-28th-septem
Its a cute romantic comedy about two dweebs in modern-day japan who just really, really love 80 music & idols and SUPER can't let anybody know about it cos it would be like, hella embarrassing. im about half way though and having a GREAT time. its got this real nice soft art style to it, its clearly inspired by that 80s manga look, but still feels fresh and new too. The writing is fun, These two protagonists are massive idiots so you cant help but root for them. 10/10
https://mangadex.org/title/32d0b857-24b2-4c3b-8dc6-aa6d0739aa79/slow-motion-wo-mou-ichido
What a good book. There’s not much more to say that I haven’t already said before but it’s wonderful to see the relationships in this grow. I just love reading soft warm romances. This is just an incredibly, incredibly good series and you should go read it. 10/10
Lets zoom into a moment. There’s a bit where Yuki is worried about what would make a date spot with Itsuomi and asks for some advice and her friends like “he seems like the kind of guy that would have a good time anywhere and just wants to see you have fun” and dang that line made the reason I like this series click.
ALSO in case you missed it, the first trailer for the anime adaption came out the other day ITS GOOD.
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2666950-a-sign-of-affecti
Ohh here’s something the manga adaptation does better than the anime- Koji. He’s a bit weird in the anime, very much a wet blanket of a man. His motivations are a lot more clear and sensible in the manga, and that 100% down to like, two panels of internal monologue that he can’t get in the anime. It makes him make way more sense - that boys messed up!
Anyway, the manga’s pretty good but the anime is a hundred times better
It’s really interesting reading the author's notes about how hard it was to go from a 3 chapter short to being given a full serialisation. Still, she did a great job! Last game is a classic and gosh it’s so much fun to read. Yanagi-kun is such a funny little guy and his endless flip-flopping between hope and despair is incredibly drawn. Dude needs to catch a break, but i will forever stan for clueless girls.
Still inoffensive and just “ok”. Maybe that's a little mean. There was actually quite a few REALLY good idea in this - The standout idea was having a kid who keeps insisting she’s a vampire. Protag-kun initially immediately believes her (cos he's surrounded by supernatural weiro girls), but then the whole story begins to fall apart when it turns out she's got colour contacts in and is acting all chuunibyou. This is then flipped around again when it turns out that yes, she is actually a real vampire, she just admires bright-eyed Western vampires so much that it makes her a lil bit cringe. That's probably the smartest the writing will ever get in this, but it was genuinely a very funny bit.
Pulse continues to be beautiful and incredibly horny. Our good good heart doctor finally manages to tell a girl she loves her and a hot, evil ex-girlfriend shows up as her new boss, ready to cut costs at the hospital. Why are ex-girlfriends so often unhinged capitalists? Anyways good volume. Looking forward to volume 5 cos ohh boy there's a lot of juicy drama being set up here
Wow this book has wildly high energy levels! It’s 200% a yuri harem manga, and it’s pretty great. Each girl is attracted to something unique about the protagonist, and it’s all built around the five senses. One is crazy for her voice, another loves her gaze… you know there's a girl who is totally smitten with how good she uhhh…tastes?!? Like I said it’s high energy. Neat book!
This is a direct sequel to "Even if This Love Disappears Tonight" which is a book i thought "Theres NO way she can write a direct sequel to that its all tied up so well" TURNS OUT I WAS WRONG. This is a REAL good book digging into love and loss. I love it when media shows you the same scenes from multiple points of view, and this book REALLY is that, all the time. It takes a lot of the key scenes and themes from the first book and flips them around so you can see how they deeply affected Izumi's life. She's a good girl and deserves to heal. 10/10
Now we have finished with Citrus, the next big series I have at the bottom of a pile and desperately want to read is Wotakoi. Let's see if I get around to digging it out... that and i really want to read an isekai.
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2639434-august-21st-27th
It’s WILD how almost every single manga I’ve singled out recently and been like “yeah this one is actually INCREDIBLY GOOD trust me bro” is getting an anime adaptation IM REAL GOOD AT PICKING THEM anyways A Sign of Affection is real good- like criminally good for a het romance, I literally just finished reading volume 4 10 mins ago and had a great time.
So much of what makes it great is how it uses typography to represent Yuki’s deafness, will be interesting to see how they deal with that in animation. I’m hyped!
I actually subscribed to Manga Planet cos I saw some of Morishima Akiko’s trademark INCREDIBLY soft girl art and was like…. YEAH. I DESERVE to read some manga about soft girls. Turns out this isn’t a manga, it’s more of a picture book slash light novel (written by Nambu Kumako), with full page illustrations and large text, it was a little unexpected but I am a simple girl and was immediately hooked.
Genre wise, it’s a romance-with-characters-who-have-disabilities-but-also-the-title-is-a-pun which has gotta be one of my favourite subgenres these days (love is in sight! And a sign of affection are both in that category and also excellent!) - BUT this one is a Yuri coming of age kinda thing and yeah, it dosnt do anything wildly different but it’s SUPER good at poking holes in your heart and sighing wistfully and all that.
The main story is really good but there’s also an incredibly sweet epilogue giving some side characters some much much needed chapters together which just really pulls the whole work together nicely.
So yeah, not what I expect but I’m super glad I read it!
You should also check this out if your a yuri fan and never seen it, it’s a little diary comic by Morishima about visiting a bikini girls bar with a bunch of yuri mangaka and like, heck yeah I’m SO glad yuri mangaka get to go out on girls nights together like that - that’s so good!
https://mangadex.org/title/ac38a6ad-c35a-4ff4-a648-2ff27432e04c/yuri-friends
I actually subscribed to Manga Planet cos I saw some of Morishima Akiko’s trademark INCREDIBLY soft girl art and was like…. YEAH. I DESERVE to read some manga about soft girls. Turns out this isn’t a manga, it’s more of a picture book slash light novel (written by Nambu Kumako), with full page illustrations and large text, it was a little unexpected but I am a simple girl and was immediately hooked.
Genre wise, it’s a romance-with-characters-who-have-disabilities-but-also-the-title-is-a-pun which has gotta be one of my favourite subgenres these days (love is in sight! And a sign of affection are both in that category and also excellent!) - BUT this one is a Yuri coming of age kinda thing and yeah, it dosnt do anything wildly different but it’s SUPER good at poking holes in your heart and sighing wistfully and all that.
The main story is really good but there’s also an incredibly sweet epilogue giving some side characters some much much needed chapters together which just really pulls the whole work together nicely.
So yeah, not what I expect but I’m super glad I read it!
This volume expands on the cast a bunch, and our two lead girls grow in a really satisfying way. Volume 1 ends at such a wild emotional place with the whole “that’s not how sisters are supposed to act” scene in the student council office, and this volume does a REAL good job of taking that moment, expanding on how both Mei and Yuzu (and their friends!) got to that point. They are both mentally damaged, lonely girls who just want someone who won’t leave them and wow heck do they express that in the worst ways! It's raw, it's emotional, it's INCREDIBLY MESSED UP, but wow it's good stuff!
I had a look around for reviews of volume 2, it’s WILD how many people don’t get Mei’s character and why she’s like that. Like, I think the text is incredibly clear as to why she’s like that!! She’s been abandoned! She’s been sexually abused by a teacher! She’s been used as a political tool! She’s being forced to protect and inherit an institution! Even if that's what she personally wants, there's a gross weird pressure there! It’s fucking wild dweebs don’t get this?!?!
HECK Matsuri is such a scumbag (complimentary) - but dang she has enough emotional literacy to immediately figure out what Mei’s whole deal is and rub it in her dang face… ugh that whole car park confrontation between the two is some great drama, with an absolutely devastatingly unhinged final line from Mei (“that was to take back the kiss you stole from yuzu” - like the fuck is wrong with you girl! Wow!) CITRUS IS SO GOOD
Fucking hell Mei your breaking my heart. Ughhh poor kid needs a good therapist. Anyways, It’s an interesting volume - adding in some actual real twin sisters to contrast Yuzu and Mei against was a smart choice. These two kids think and tick incredibly differently to the leads and it works really well. Providing character contrasts is something that Citrus does incredibly well imo.
The setup for the plot arc early on in this volume is kinda silly - it’s WILD that an ex-student-grown-ass-adult-woman can apparently just wonder in and arbitrarily enforce school rules with her own personally prescribed punishments, it’s just kida stupid. That conflict and the electioneering after kinda ends up feeling battlemanga-esque, if that makes sense - which is a neat change of pace, but it kinda doesn't go anywhere and just fizzles out.
Also, there’s a panel where Yuzu is playing tsum tsum on her phone and wow heck that’s also what I was doing in 2016, relatable.
This volume is about coming to terms with being gay, figuring out how dating works and facing homophobia for the first time, and it’s all good stuff. The full two-page spread of Yuzu smiling after Mei says it’s okay to love each other is probably like, a top 5 all time best yuri manga page layout. It’s so simple but fuck, it pokes your heart
Something Citrus does really well when introducing new characters is having them mirror some aspect of Yuzu and Mei’s relationship- but inverted somehow. I mean it’s not anything unique to Citrus or anything like that, it just does it A LOT and its PRETTY DARN GOOD AT IT imo, and that reoccurring pattern just becomes real obvious by Vol 7
It’s the summer holiday trip arc, which initially seems to be about relationships maturing and evolving but you quickly realise it is actually just about Matsuri being a gremlin
Fuuuuuck. It still punches you in the gut, you know? Despite how stupid drama around arranged marriages and stuff like that feels in 2023
It’s over and all that. Good book.
I GOTTA SAY THOUGH, HARUMI’S SISTER BEING A BIKER GIRL COMES OUT OF NOWHERE AND IS PROBABLY THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE THING TO HAPPEN IN A MANGA EVER
okay, I guess I gotta collect and read Citrus + now. I've never read that, wish me luck.
dang this series is so stupid, fun but stupid. Normally when I'm reading the light novel and reading the manga one version will end up being my favorite, but I'm not sure i can make that call for this book. Its just delicious low effort garbage, in the best way. delicious slop, if that's what your after any version is good.
HOW THE HECK ARE THEY PUTTING THIS OUT SO FAST!?! They put out 4 volumes in 34 months? THEY PUT OUT TWO VOLUMES IN AUGUST ALONE. This is also good garbage but dang there was a moment in this where something happened that I literally shouted out "OH SHIT!!!" whilst washing the dishes, i was so hyped up lol.
Its okay I guess. Ive read a million light novels like this, and ill read a million more GLADLY
Did i read Citrus? Yes. Yes i did. Uhh.. Citrus Plus? i gotta track it down first....
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2574542-stuff-i-read-this
This is one of those books where I say “Wow what an incredible book!” Just because the printing is interesting - so, yeah. Wow, what an incredible book! This is a (het) romance manga about trying to stop destiny and escape the red string of fate.
Im sure most manga/anime fans will have seen or read something with the concept of the red string of fate in it before, but basically it’s being connected to your soulmate via a red string - it’s often a non-visual metaphor in manga but in this book it’s real, and only Kosuke (our protagonist) can see it, and heck dang his doesn't connect with his crush, a hot coworker lady who ONLY believes in fate and is waiting for her destined true first (and only) love to appear.
The story is pretty good tbh, but WOW the presentation is amazing?!? It’s printed on Seven Seas high-quality paper stock, it’s thick and pretty smooth to the touch, and VERY bright bleach white. It’s not that regular cheap manga paper stock. The black ink contrasts really well- but more importantly, the red string is ALWAYS printed in red and it’s such a stunning look. Like, having this single splash of colour thrown in is such a great look!! Think of the green used in “The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All” but even more restrained. It’s incredible.
The layering is also really interesting- it looks like the red is printed first and the usual manga black outlines and hatching on top - so they really carefully lay out gaps so the dark never (unintentionally) spills over the red strings. It’s just a beautiful bit of craft, it almost looks hand-drawn, Like someone’s had to ink all the red lines by hand. FUCK I love it 10/10 should win an award for layout and print quality
A really strong entry in the kinda-loser-dweeb-but-real-powerful-witch-girl-meets-hot-guy fantasy subgenre (I discussed that a bit last week! Gotta be a top10 genre!) there’s a little bit of a humorous villainess twist thrown into this one, which I love for sure (ahh, Villainess stories, Gotta be a top10 genre!). Real easy read, nice panel flow, and pretty art. Just some good shoujo fantasy going on here - Recommend.
Ahhh hot dang Kanata might be the BIGGEST idiot yet committed to a manga page. SHES SO SINGLE MINDED IN HER DESIRE TO PET FLUFFY CREATURES it’s wonderful and she’s such a fucking idiot 100/10 this is SO aimed at me
I love maomao
https://cohost.org/nys/post/2509674-when-you-hear-a-rare
Ughhh every single page in the first half of this book physically destroys me, it absofuckinglytly hurts - just sick to my stomach with sadness omfg 10/10 it’s a fricking masterpiece - Reiichi is such a scumbag. He’s trying to be a kind, responsible guy but he just fucking sucks.
SIDEBAR: Risako is SO fricking hot wow wtf - she’s also a (very different kind of) scumbag don’t get me wrong, but DANG - she’s a beautiful scumbag.
Anyways, it was as good an ending as you could hope for I guess, I’d have killed for another volumes worth of chapters to flesh out that time skip at the end, but I guess they want to leave it a little open to the imagination…. I can end this harrowing journey with a small smile
Pretty interesting- sets up a time leap and then does nothing with it in volume 1. Have to get more to see how it goes I guess
FUCK. I READ IT. I DID IT. Ive been threatening to read this for MONTHS and i finally did it.
So, Citrus is real good? screw the haters and all that. Yeah, it deals with weird abusive relationships but it knows what it’s doing, I feel. I had a good time with these two messed up kids, I'm sure things will go really well for them.
lol still garbage. delicious delicious garbage. The whole alicization story arc is probably the stupidest in, but i can probably say that every time a new arch starts. Anyways the outside of VR stuff in this volume is real cool. Asuna's panic over Kirito's disappearance is a pretty interesting mirror of Kirito's own post SAO arc, like its probably the smartest the plot ever gets you know? idk if that's saying much tho!
Maybe more Citrus? Who knows!
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2529442-august-7th-13th
It’s the “Kaoru’s fucking depressed” arc- which is the wild surprise follow-up to the first 5 volumes (which is the 'Uta’s fucking depressed' arc, obviously. Dang these poor poor women)
Mostly the whole story boils down to this - even when he’s trying to be a goodie, Reiichi absolutely, 5000%ly, incredibly, in no uncertain terms, just overwhelmingly sucks ass. dude sucks so much. He is a deeply flawed character who only seems to be able to hurt everyone around him. He just sucks. I hate him. HE SUCKS SO MUCH. Dump his ass.
This one’s for genre perverts only. As you know, I’m a big isekai fan so it is MADE FOR ME. I am that genre pervert. anyways, why the heck do the dweebs that write these books think that slavery is poggers and cool and fun actually? Messed up fuckers for sure
Volume 3 was okay, but volume 4 was pretty boring. If you’ve seen the anime, Vol 4 covers the elf artificial world tree dungeon battle arc thing… and it’s just kinda dull. Actually, every volume of this which has been covering dungeon battles has been dull. The characters may be paper thin but their interactions are the actual fun part! Oh well!
“Dweebnerd woman gets a normal ass boyfriend” is a real good heterosexual romance manga subgenre, and this is a pretty good implementation of it. There’s also a pretty good cross-dressing guy in it who really owned all the pages he showed up on- it’s just a light amusing romcom and I’m deffo going to get more.
Also- this is good anti-landlord propaganda. Landlords suck
a bit of a slow volume plot-wise... not a lot happens. There’s a bit of world building, we are treated to a good chapter about how good is made (with a factory tour!). Thats the best kind of thing to worldbuild IMO. but it’s mostly just establishing the whole research colony disaster arc. Did a pretty good job of it! It might have been slow, but this book is such a breeze to read through? Enjoying it a lot. 10/10.
The idiots are at it again and heck it’s only getting stupider and more messy. 10/10
Incredible line work- this mangaka can DRAW! Anyways, its a fun slow romance with some interesting magic system stuff. If you like shoujo fantasy it’s highly recommended.
There’s deffo a cool genre trend here with stories about young lonely women who are super super smart, world-leading in their craft witches living isolated in forests being discovered by hot Nobel boys - I’m pretty sure more of that exact girly fantasy trope has ended up on my pile lately than other sub-genres (like villainess, for example) I guess it’s a real smart way to merge your shoujo romance into a fantasy setting so you don't have to write about a dang school. I’m a noted genre pervert so I’m glad manga publishes have found a new one to mine for translation content
That dang spirit turtle arc is sp dull how many more volumes of this?
Did i read Citrus? No. Same old same old. uhh... i wanna try and read it this week... will i be too lazy to get it from the bottom of my to-read pile? Probably. Will Lotte EVER reread Citrus? find out next week (copy pasted from last week again like.. I REALLY WANT TO READ CITRUS)
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2393036-july-31st-august-6/
thats a looot of chapters going up all at once. Ive been reading the Seven Seas release of "This Is Screwed Up, but I Was Reincarnated as a GIRL in Another World!" and gotta say, its probably one of my favorite isekai manga going on right now - its absolutely stupid and probably has enough going on for genre perverts AND actual perverts alike. i can't stress enough, this is real ZERO brain cell material. I did a quick comparison with the licenced version and this is deffo a fan translation and not a scan of the English version.
Final Thoughts:
There's a yuri manga on Kickstarter at the moment called "The Murderer and Her Runaway Pleasure" - They are looking for ¥8000,000 in funding to translate it into English and print books! Not sure if its something id normally pick up but you gotta support indie works huh
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mhrp/the-murderer-and-her-runaway-pleasure
Hot dang! What a neat little twist on isekai Zetsubo Sensei's powers that were introduced in the last volume. I still super love this series there's so much interesting stuff going on all the time 10/10 So yeah this is one of the most interesting isekai books being published at the moment - it's in that subgenre where otherworlders are super common and they (and their imported culture and bad behaviour) are just messing everything the heck up because let’s face it, only the worst loser nerds ever get isekai'ed.
It gets weird when you realise that Osamu Dazai (the sensei in this manga) was a real actual author, who did really actually commit suicide in the 1940s. This manga is a what if instead of dying in one of his suicide attempts, what if he got isekai'ed instead. Wikipedia list 4 other manga/anime properties that use this guy as a character. Duno what to think about that. But yeah, books good.
Well… that’s over! The name of this series is a real mystery. I don’t think I ever saw her royal highness actually being angry? Anyways, I really liked the first 3 volumes, but ehhh these last two volumes? It was kinda rushed trying to get to a weird ending and was just soooooo over complicated. Too many characters getting involved in confusing battles... it’s just not great.
So, this manga seems to be based on a light novel (that’s not available in English?) that at the time of volume 5 (final) of the manga being released in Japan, the light novel was at volume 8, and nowhere near ending its run. Sooo the manga got cancelled and had to wrap up early and heck it’s kinda a mess. At least, that seems to be whats going on here. It’s just kinda a shame that these last two volumes are so all over the place, the arts still pretty but everything else sucks. Real shame it had such a good start too. It started so strong!
Talking of manga adaptions that probably got cancelled early and kinda end in a messy rush. Wow. Two volumes? Really? Thats it? Okay. Volume 2 is not as good as the first - because it feels HELLA rushed and all the plot developments feel unearned. Real weird anyone would bother to licence a two-volume cancelled project. Disappointed.
Beautiful idiots acting oblivious
So there's an anime adaption of My Happy Marriage airing RIGHT NOW on Netflix and its REAL GOOD. Being a Netflix exclusive sucks though - I don't have Netflix (fuck em). DANG i super wanted to watch that show though! How else am i supposed to experience that story?!! Well turns out I've already got 2 volumes of it on my shelf and i just never got around to it. Turns out, books good.. Not as good as the anime though. The anime seems to be a lot slower and that really serves the source material really well. For example, when Miyo leaves her fathers house and travels to her fiancé place, its like a page in the manga but much longer in the show, giving you a much better idea of the distance shes going and the loneliness she must feel. Like, its an AWFUL thing to be put through, being sent off alone and unloved. I hope they do an audiobook of the light novel so i can listen to that version too... anyways long story short the books are pretty good, but the anime is incredible. (you should just torrent the Netflix anime, I'm not a cop i won't tell anyone)
It was a great volume that’s for sure. I was kinda braced for it to be INCREDIBLY SAD, as it’s the point where Uta confesses all her feelings to Kaoru and eventually moves out (at the end of the volume), breaking their relationship - and yeah it is kinda sad but it’s more so very healing and hopeful?
Like it could have been VERY easy to make this whole volume a drama-filled mess, but all that was offset with Chloe and Miyabi getting much closer and Uta feeling genuine happiness that her friends are closing that romantic gap whilst she’s going through that tough time… shes just so glad for them. That's just a REAL good balance of tones! delicious.
good volume! Introducing the Sirins was a big brain move, as they are essentially what the Republic claimed the 86 were, non-human autonomous drones. That leads to a lot of neato situations when you start rubbing them against the 86th strike package and getting people to examine their identities and beliefs. Still kinda weirded out by all the eugenics pure bloodline shit going on. Someone needs to tell the dweeb writing this that pure blood does not make for hot royals. it makes them fucking WEIRD.
Did i read Citrus? No. Same old same old. uhh... i wanna try and read it this week... will i be too lazy to get it from the bottom of my to-read pile? Probably. Will Lotte EVER reread Citrus? find out next week
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2340676-july-24th-30th
IRL I am not into celebrity gossip or drama at all, I could barely identify any IRL celebrity types - I just do not care. In manga tho? Ohhhhh heck manga with idols, actors and other celebrities is one of my favourite genres. This is a really good implementation of that genre, we got a whole bunch of entertainers spread through three idle groups at various stages of their careers all interacting and it’s great, delicious drama. It’s fantastic. Our heroin, Maha is particularly good. Her arch of being a kind of over-eager newbie to crushed by the industry despite her innate talent shining though is super good and I can’t wait to see her grow.
That said, what the fuck is up with the whole scene where she’s working through her first acting job with the more experienced guy who is deffo the main love interest? He fucking hates her at this point in the story (for stupid reasons) and essentially physically assaults her on set? WHAT HE DOES IS LITERALLT AN ACTUAL CTIME. Like, he’s playing a murderer and ad libs a scene where he chokes her so hard she gets bruises on her neck? HE ACTUALLY CHOKES OUT THIS POOR GIRL. And everyone’s like “wow you did a great job of guiding her through her first job she’s acting so scared! It really sold the scene!” And NOBODY HAS A PROBLEM WITH IT!?! It’s messed up, and a lot of the drama over the next hundred pages are that dickhead trying to decide if he should apologise for committing an act of grievous bodily harm and traumatising the poor girl. It’s messed up and I wish someone would have said something. He has to go though a whole "am i a baddie?" arc, WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN WAY BETTER IF SOMEONE WAS AT LEAST LIKE "WOW THIS IS A PROBLEM MAYBE WE SHOULD GET THIS YOUNG GIRL SOME MEDICAL ATTENTION SHE WAS JUST ASSAULTED"
Anyways other than how that’s handled, the books good. I can’t wait for more
This volume is about rejecting the shackles of her supernatural nobility and just accepting the mundane and it kinda rules? I was not a fan of the whole alien princess thing in the first volume but it’s all been pulled around into a story thread that makes real sense and gets wrapped up in a nice way. Shiori’s arc is so good and I’m SO glad she gets to have friends from the island now, even if she feels like she never wants to return to the place that isolated her and forced her to be a princess. It’s all good.
Also there’s another bonus chapter where chibi-chan gets to be the point of view character again AND ITS ALSO REAL GOOD dang I kinda want a spin of manga that’s about chibi chan growing up and going to college or something, and having to grow up out of her fan girl shipper mentality a lil bit that would be so good
Some idiot genre pervert isekai fun. You do not need to bring your brain into this book (which is good, I was so tired when I read it)
But yeah protag-kun’s superpower is he can just tell someone to die and uhh, they just do? It’s all very stupid low-stakes bullshit when you can solve every problem caused by cartoonishly evil isekaied kids by just telling them to die. I guess as a setup it ends up being kinda similar to “no longer allowed in another world” but like, that executes this ridiculous overpowered ability waaaay better by uhh no wait just go read that instead it’s real good I promise
Gosh dang I love this book so much, there were some real good jokes in this volume, especially the whole thing with the pacifier candy. Some really funny pages there. Im keeping up with the scans too, and things are just going to get so much hotter by volume 5 we are NOT ready for how good this is going to be
Still cute.
Dang still the best colour work in the business. The fireworks scene in the first quarter of the volume is incredible, the way light is rendered in this art style is just incredible! And dang the timing in the panels is great too? Incredible scene to read. Im not sure the plot is doing anything that special - its a villainess story - you know the beats. Its like, an 7/10 villainess manhwa but DANG the artistry power levels are so high
This book continues to surprise with how good the characters are. Its one of those things that seems like its not going to be very deep but turns out has way more depth and soul that you'd have guessed. Good idiots too.
Ive always found the show tedious whenever i try to watch it, which is weird because terrible isekai is my thing - this was way less annoying to me than the anime for some reason? 6/10
Terrible naming convention on this series. Probably one of the worst titles in the business.
Did i read Citrus? No. Same old same old. uhh... i wanna try and read it this week... will i be too lazy to get it from the bottom of my to-read pile? Probably. Will Lotte EVER reread Citrus? find out next week
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2174713-july-17th-23rd
...then Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk might be right up your alley. If these adorable doofuses ever figure out the truth about each other — or, for that matter, about themselves — their heads might explode, but fortunately for them the mangaka seems to postponing that event indefinitely.
they are truly clueless
I got one of those Pokémon Go Plus + sleep trackers (incredible naming scheme - not even 2010’s Microsoft could come up with a name that bad!) so yeah that’s clipped to my pillow so I guess bidoof has a pokeball now.
As for Pokémon sleep itself- it’s kinda neat? I’ve leaned my sleeping is pretty terrible.
its a lesbian game dev manga, wow what a great genre, super relatable. I rate this genre 10/10
Degu representation - one of the characters has a pet Degu! She takes it to work! and lets it run around her office! That's a super underrated kind of critter, 10/10
is… is that degu’s name an excel saga reference? Or is naming an animal “emergency rations” a common joke in Japan? Anyways good bit regardless 10/10
“Huh? I’ve skipped ahead too much? Nah don’t worry about it. I simply exist to enjoy delicious food every day” Maybe that's why I like this dang isekai so much, I LOVE manga that spends THAT much time slobbering over good-looking food.
it’s a “I can’t believe it’s not an isekai” fantasy manga that somehow manages to fit a whole 6-year magic school education story arc into a single volume. That’s efficient! 6/10
Okay yeah, this villainess isekai is pretty dang good. It’s doing that thing I love so much where the main character has incredible world knowledge, but they are kind of an idiot so that messes up their read on things even if they are broad strokes correct. I HATE stories that hinge on lack of communication, but missed communication? That’s hot stuff.
The opening chapters in this volume are all background stuff, going into who Maomao’s real parents were, which was kinda cool - BUT dang it’s the other stories in this volume that reminds me why I love this series so much. ESPECIALLY the stray cat saga in the last chapter. The fun multi-layered stuff going on, the detailed depictions of the whole process behind making a kitten princess safe (gotta clean it up and trim them claws!) - it’s just neat! 100/10 my favourite manga
It’s a pretty light volume, plot-wise not much happened - but it was really cool to see Wakana and Marin learn about photography on a real-deal big girl camera. I’m most excited about Juju showing up right at the end, and presumable being a big part of the next volume. It’s always real funny to see her interactions with Marin, they get on with each other like oil and water and I love that kinda thing.
Dang excellent volume. Real-life royalty sucks ass but manhwa royalty is fascinating as always. I love how the book gives all the “villains” juuuust enough pages so whilst you do kinda hate them for what they are doing to the empress, you also understand them. Nobody’s prefect here, everyone sucks. Books good.
The audiobook has almost caught up to where I stopped reading the print novels, got 2 more to go I think... maybe 3. This is where Col shows up in the story. I remember finding him SUPER annoying when I last read it, but dang I really enjoyed it this time around. I must have been in a weird headspace back then. Im even more hyped for the new anime series now... i just want more spice and wolf so bad.
I don't really have any thoughts on this. I just want you to know i read it.
I love Hell Mode. Its SO stupid. Its your average isekai reincarnation with an elaborate VIDEOGAME system... but heck its SO elaborate. I can't wait for them to put out more of this, i read like... 5 volumes of the ebook before i kinda fell off it. Its just such good braindead material. i need that a lot these days!
Did i read Citrus? No. Same old same old. uhh... i wanna try and read it this week... will i be too lazy to get it from the bottom of my to-read pile? Probably. Will Lotte EVER reread Citrus? find out next week
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/2123260-july-10th-16th
Still incredible isekai storytelling. In this volume, protag-kun solves a problem by punching a treasure chest REAL hard a LOT of times and then standing on the lid and opening it, exploiting a physics glitch to make it catapult through the sky, like a messed up breath of the wild or something 11/10.
In case you missed it last time, this is the story of a QA tester getting stuck in some unspecified vr VIDEOGAME world, and just rolling with it and doing his goddamned job and testing the heck out of everything. If there's a hole in a wall's collision geometry he WILL find it and report it. Its a great take on the whole sword art online premise but actually good.
As I finished typing up my notes for last week on Monday I was like… volume 2 can’t be any worse… can it? You know what, I think the author of this series is actually and idiot.
Anyways...
Ughhh this is also farrr too straight. I’ve made mistakes this week. Seems like we’re doing the whole aloof kinda twisted awful guy to loving perfect boyfriend gap mow pipeline thing- and you know what it fucking sucks. Every character in this sucks and is just incredibly toxic. I had to put the book down SO many times as it was making me mad how toxic it was lol. Do straight girls really like this shit?!? Absolutely awful, at least it doesn't have the gross leering gaze thing going on that "the girl i saved on the train" had going on... but somehow.. idk maybe this book is worse than that? idk... i did not have a good time.
Anyways I had a terrible time with it and I WILL BE BUYING MORE as it comes out because apparently, I hate myself
LETS GOOO finally, some flavour. This book gets better and better as the volumes go on. It does a real real good job of actually showing these characters grow up and becoming adults. Aristia for sure has a bunch of weirdo hot young men in her harem trying to plot their way into her affection- so it’s actually incredibly cool to see her mostly ambivalent reactions towards them in this volume- she’s focused on herself and survival and for that’s just real fun to read. Art is still really pretty, it’s a good book and you’ll have a good time I promise.
There’s a characterisation reveal in the second chapter (well chapter 1 part 2- weird numbering) that’s just incredibly executed- the panel layout leading up to it is so good, there’s a tiny bit of foreshadowing in the first chapter but it’s just waaay more intense that you can guess, and then the book luxuriates in it for another 4 perfectly laid our pages. Worth reading just for that imo - an incredible bit of manga. Still blows my mind that Tokyopop somehow managed to survive into the 2020's and put out some actual great books. how did they manage that turn around?
This is the kind of isekai fantasy manga that has a page of character bios and portraits on the very first page of the book, like in volume one. One of the portrait boxes is slightly bigger than all the rest and is labelled “protagonist”. Its that kind of book. I just think that speaks to the confidence they have in how memorable and unique their character designs are.
That said on the same character roster page there’s a character called “Maggot” who is apparently protago-kuns mother? And a Nobel? And an adventurer? That’s stupid and i love it.
Anyways protag-kun seems to have TWO reincarnated souls stuck in his brain, a samurai and uhh, high school nerd who LOVES to read Wikipedia? Specifically actually literally textually Wikipedia. Guess that’s a superpower. If these nerds invert crop rotation I’ll scream.
(41 pages in) OH NO there’s a field… they are GROWING crops…
OH THANK HECK HES JUST INVENTING BEET SUGAR TO TAKE ON THE CANE SUGAR MONOPOLY AND MAKE A LOT OF MONEY SO THE BEAST LADY THAT WORKS AT THE TRADING GUILD WILL LET HIM PET HER DOG EARS OKAY THIS IS PRETTY GOOD
ACTUALLY, so I’ll end my real-time notes here. recommended if you are a genre pervert.
EDIT: MAYONNAISE?!? HE INVENTS MAYONNAISE?!? OF COURSE HE FUCKING INVENTS FUCKING MAYONNAISE. FUCK.
I've always liked this book, but now were on new material that wasn't in the anime it's EVEN better. this volume is getting SO good at the whole dramatic irony thing - we keep seeing stuff from White's perspective and then later seeing other characters react and monologue about stuff, with their imperfect understanding of the situation. its incredible how unknowable White is to everyone else, her motivations are just a total inscrutable mystery to everyone else, its great (her motivations are that shes a fucking idiot 10/10 no notes)
lol Citrus... its just SO far down on my pile.. like physically.. it would be SO much work to get to volume 1... but i wanna..... Will Lotte EVER reread Citrus? find out next week
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/1987402-july-3rd-9th
“Why is it like that?” That’s something I heard two girls in my local comic shop say about “My Dress-Up Darling” They had a short discussion about it and ultimately, they decided it was gross and unnecessary sexualising women and therefore, essentially, of no real value. It wasn’t ‘wholesome’ and was therefore gross I guess. I think they are DEAD wrong and I could talk about why that book is so incredibly designed for hours, but yeah whilst they were talking about that- I was busy buying this fucking book. I thought about that conversation a lot whilst reading this. Why is “The Girl I Saved on the Tain” like THIS?
Dress-Up Darling is overtly horny at times, it knows it’s a story about two teens, and heck stuff happens- they are working through THINGS, but at its core, it’s a DEEPLY sweet and dare I say it a ‘wholesome’ romance. Sexual stuff always happens for a clear reason, there’s a real intent to the gaze and it’s really interesting. Gaze in that book isn't just perverted leering. Its always used to represent something in the story, quite often embarrassment, cos these two kids are HOPELESS. But yeah, the important thing is that gaze has a narrative & design purpose.
As of writing these notes, I’ve not finished reading this volume but like, it’s kinda the opposite. This book has WHOLESOME vibes, its dressed up to look sweet and innocent, but dang- what’s up with the gaze? Why is there like a five-page bit about how big and soft protag-kun's sister's tits are? Why are there long panels just focusing on how sexy his mum's legs look in tights? Like, what’s going on here?!? What is the gaze in this book trying to imply?!? Does the source light novel have like, pages about how hot this guy's mum is?!? I'm guessing not, as its all going to be from his perspective? Hes not sitting there thinking WOW MY MUM SURE IS HOT LOOK HOW SEXY HER LEGS ARE WTF THATS CRAAAAZY. So why is the manga LIKE this?
But yeah, it’s hot garbage and there’s a billion books like this- but usually there’s SOMETHING there to grab on to - I don’t expect every romantic manga primarily aimed at young boys to be a masterpiece but like… there’s gotta be something redeeming!! Why is “the girl j saved on the train” like this?
4/10 not recommended (i have more volumes tho lol RIP me)
So, if that “Girl on the Train” book was in the “your nothing special but she loves you anyways” romantic subgenre, this is “everyone thinks your nothing special but they immediately figure out you're actually like, secretly INCREDIBLY special and support you” sub-genre. Huh, it’s very funny how that first type tends to be aimed towards boys and the second girls. Wonder what that’s all about 🤔
Anyways, this was hella pretty and quite interesting romance isekai. Will read more as it comes out that’s for sure
Wow, out of all the villainess manga you could read (which is a lot.. there are SO many) this one still has the worst, most disgusting horrible depiction of noble society - all these fuckers SUCK ASS so bad. I LOVE IT. Anyways, Connie is slowly building up connections and learning how to navigate this gross world, and she's getting REAL good at it slowly but surely. Lady Scarlett’s ghost still rules - she is terrible and I love her. I mean, at the end of the day who doesn't want to root for a pure heroine slowly outsmarting the most despicable people in existence with her ghost girlfriend who is WORSE? (EDITOR NOTE: The ghost isn't her girlfriend, that's just Yurivision™ at work.. but what if...)
175 pages of two people DESPERATELY telling their significant others “don’t worry I’m 200% over it and under no circumstances will I EVER get back together with my ex who I now work VERY closely with again, it’s for sure not happening” - COME ONE we’re not stupid we CAN SEE YOU BOTH ON THE COVER TOGETHER fuck off! feeling like the next volume is going to be SUCH a massive mess.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk
lol that's all I've got in my notes for that, but uhh yeah this is one of my favourite yuri stories, I read scans like.. 2 years back so as always its nice to come back to it. DANG- Uta is probably the SADDEST girl ever committed to paper. Its actually cool just HOW sad this work is, somehow without collapsing into depression. Her little friend group that forms around her in these early volumes really saves it from that i think. Her brother is such an asshat of a character tho UGHH. Theres some pannels in like.. volumes 2-3 where he just like... stares at Uta with this horrible gross look on his face which feels like.... he KNOWS what her feelings for Kaoru are and he's too chicken shit to say anything about it.. ITS WILD. I just want her to be happy lol.
ehh its fine.
#Bonus: Digital Manga
Pretty good lol -
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/1942458-you-enjoyed-reading
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/1966184-anyways-i-just-rerea
Peglin rules.. please play Peglin. I played a bunch whilst listening to audiobooks last week, its a fun mix of rougelite run based item build management with pachislot mechanics. GOTTA HIT PEGS.
Last week i said The Abandoned Empress and Citrus... and i didn't read either of them lol... uhh maybe this time? Will Lotte EVER reread Citrus? find out next week
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/1853979-june-26th-july-2nd/
I was minding my own business on the tram this morning looking for a new manga to read, tapped into “Yonezawa-san is Done Being Human” without reading a synopsis - the dude is rolling around his apartment dressed up in a full fur suit and barking with in 4 pages. Absolutely wild stuff, I was not mentally prepared. Anyways I just read the first few chapters and it seems cute and funny. I mean, the guy works for a dog food company. Anyways this seemed like one to post to cohost lol
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1677166503718981634/pu/vid/1280x720/C8HD8xCouXKUNlve.mp4?tag=12
(there's also 'Spy x Family season 2' AND 'Frieren', which I'm hyped about... and I'm looking forward to 'Im in Love with the Villainess' as well... i think i might eat well at the end of this year)
PLOT SUMMARY: Wizard cop gets fired from the wizard FBI for being from a poor family, so he moves back home to become a wizard teacher at wizard school teaching the poor idiot dropout wizard kids who probably wouldn't be allowed to join the wizard FBI no matter how good they get at protecting whatever the wizard equivalent of capital is.
Now he has the time to self-reflect enough to realize that doing state-sanctioned wizard executions as a wizard cop is bad actually. He tries to reform & repent by teaching poor wizard kids not to be stupid (and poor, presumably). Luckily, his hot childhood friend who is cute (and hot) isnt bothered by him being a ex-wizard-fbi-state-sanction-wizard-murder-cop and will probably hug his very manly pain away or something, cos shes cute and hot. The book's trash.
10 / 10
Ughhhhh Yuki is so impossibly cute ughhhhhhh if only Itsuomi wasn’t a dude and was actually like, a butch lady or something and this series was a yuri it would be perfect. BUT YEAH IT MAY BE A HET ROMANCE BUT ITS SO SWEET 11/10
I’ve talked before about how good the typesetting/lettering has been in this series, but this time I really noticed the sections of the story where we go for like, 3-4 pages with almost no text at all. It works so well with where Yuki is as a character, with how her relationships are growing… Like, the comfiness of not directly communicating with someone you love and sharing a moment... it’s such a good work.
I love this storrryyyy - Its another yuri i first read as a scan on Dynasty Scans ages ago and now have in print ITS STILL REAL GOOD. As always I’m a big fan of manga about writing manga, and I’m a big fan of yuri vibes and girls getting along and slowly getting real close and girls keeping secrets that gradually come out and like yeah good book.
Specifically, it does SUCH a good job of depicting the pain of not being able to do the work you love, getting stuck in a rut... and the healing power of someone elses joy i guess? its great stuff. Burnout sucks, these girls are cute, this book rules.
10/10
I just noticed the inner covers of this volume (and maybe other too?) has little punch pow! effect cutouts arranged in a typical shoujo manga falling flower petal motifs. 10/10
Yet another book in the “fake marriage with my best girl friend (thanks shibuya ward) that accidentally turns real oops” yuri sub genre. It’s a GOOD sub genre I like it a lot. The arts is real pretty and it’s a cute book. There’s an infection point half way though that always makes my heart burst a little bit. Recommend
I watched the anime of this ages ago, and its quite funny how different the main character comes across (at least to my memory). in the anime shes very much a sweet lady, but in the book? wow the otome roots show though i guess and there SO much internal monologue about how all the dudes around her are SO hot and yeah - i just cant relate to that at all lady. Its VERY weird reading a book that like, so specifically lady-targeted harem het like this, as its SOOOO not meant for me.. the isekai shit though? ill eat that trash up SO bad. 8/10 pretty good.
Theres a new volume of the Abandoned Empress out, so im gunna CONSUME that so hard. uhhh.. more yuri as well i guess? maybe this week ill finally citrus?
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/1762308-june-19th-25th
This is the chapter that some fan translated SUPER early cos this page was too cute to wait for. Like, seriously they did this 3 months back and the main scanlator only just caught up to chapter 156 2 hours ago lol
(That last panel is badly edited btw - The cute girl infront of her is HER boyfriend. she is HER boyfriend, not HIS boyfriend. Theres only one instance of crossdressing here)
is that a lot of romance isekai are actually primarily about the power fantasy of being able to be a child again and have supportive family members who care about you and like
that's the whole thing, and maybe you're also a wizard or whatever but that's secondary
i like those, too
what you don't see a lot of are stories where both the parent and the child have been reincarnated/isekai'd/time-looped/etc. Definitely room for some fun genre-bending stories there. I think The Villainess Flips the Script might be one?
and its REAL good for it. KINDA SPOILERS BELOW
They even reincarnate at different times, the main characters mum and dad reincarnate as kids first and live whole lives together first. Then her older brother gets born, so her whole family know and are just waiting for her to remember her past life too - its real neat and implemented in an interesting way. I recommended the audiobooks if you like listening to fluff light novels like i do
Gods I love manga about idiots. Protag-kun is a very smart rich idiot that’s always losing out at being number one in academics to the same poor girl- “DANG SHES SUPER ANNOYING ALWAYS BEATING ME, I know I’ll make her notice me and acknowledge me by making her fall in love with me and then I’ll reject her and THAT WILL SHOW HER WHO IS THE TOP DOG IN THIS CLASS” - these are the thoughts of a true BRAIN GENIUS what could possibly go wrong
I first read this a scan like a billion years ago, and I remember liking it but ohhhh heck I forgot how funny it was. THIS IS A REAL FUN TIME the exact blend of these two similar but different genius morons is delicious and if you read this a don’t end up with a smile on your face you are dead inside.
Fuuuuuuuuuuck. It’s still a hot mess, it still rips at your heart but the last chapter in this volume??? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck T-T 💖 ALSO, there’s a chapter where you can clearly see a character in Mr Doughnut buying a Pon de Ring, meaning this can now be added into the pantheon of Doughnut Yuri. 10/10
AHH DANG TIME TO CRINGE. Its actually pretty cool how all the cringe stuff is really beginning to wrap up to some sort of complete un-cringe whole in this volume - feels like maybe the next volume will be the last? But yeah, its a real satisfying volume in the story, its real sharp and funny 10/10
Real real good- people are slowly beginning to figure out the whole body swap thing has happend, and a lot of the mysteries are slowly beginning to make sense. Super well crafted story here enjoying it a loooot. our protagonist is still unhinged in the best way - suuuuuper recommended this if you feel like reading an inner court villainess story, all three volumes that are out so far are great.
On the surface, this shares a lot with “Daughter of the Emperor” - its a Villainess isekai, where the main character is reborn as an infant princess to a weirdo freak genocidal emperor who didn’t understand emotions or love or the value of human life and is DEFFO destined to be killed by that emperor when they hit 18 so they have to somehow teach them that love is good actually and not get murderkilled by dad. So yeah in broad strokes, these books are the same book heh - it’s closer in plot than most of these villainess stories tend to be.
That said, It’s a realllly pretty book with an enjoyable plot. The way our protagonist wriggles her way though this situation is interesting and neat even if it’s similar. Also dannnng this is a heavy dense book. There’s a lot to like, literally! I just love villainess stories so much 10/10
I love idiot girls!! “what do you mean Endo san is a vampire? Sure she’s kinda weird and old fashioned and I invited her into my home and she just kinda lives there now and she doesn’t eat human food apart from tomato sauce and then she bites my neck every night and I guess she drinks my blood when she does that and she hates the smell of garlic and is incapable of walking passed churches… but vampires arnt real duhhh she can’t possibly be one” solid logic.
I think the first volume is pretty incredible and the second volume is... not as good but wraps things up pretty okay. I mean, it gets weird, in a not great way but it works well enough. Nice little two book arc i guess. If you wanna read about some yuri vampires have at it.
Why do i KEEP insisting on putting myself though this each time a new volume comes out. WHO ACTUALLY LIKES THIS BOOK. it’s SO BAD - just when I thought this book couldn’t get any worse they just knocked it out the park so bad with this volume it’s legit terrible. Imagine waiting till volume 7 to try make the least likeable man ever have a relationship. (fictional or real. he's just the most unlikable man) AND THEN THEY JUST DROP THAT PLOT DEVELOPMENT 1/3rd OF THE WAY IN LIKE IT NEVER HAPPEND!?! Thankfully, This volume is getting to all the big reveal stuff- trying to tie all the unresolved plot threads together and all that, it does feel like the next one will (hopefully?) be the last... it’s all just so wretched lol. I refused to believe that people actually like this?
ehh fine? kinda the opposite to solo leveling, this is the most unoffensive light novel audiobook you could hope to listen to. If you wanna listen to 5 hours 11 mins of a daddys girl complaining about missing her dad and her dad being like "wow sure is lonely now im all alone better go pull weeds out my fields and do other old people things" then this is the book for you!
About a university research associate meeting one of her students in a Lesbian brothel, you know, the way you do. was reallly good apart from the gross sexual assault bit in the middle. Its very sweet & messy apart from that. worth having a read
I REALLY want to try and get into Citrus, but ive been saying that for months now heh. Its at the bottom of a pile right now so ill have to go digging... well see! I did get another volume of A Sign of Affection in the post today, so that will probs be read REAL soon
https://cohost.org/LotteMakesStuff/post/1726750-june-12th-18th
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1672243375288770563/pu/vid/1280x720/YQlrYkA8t1uPr3q8.mp4?tag=12
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