It’s the final reading log of the year! Honestly, I’m still not entirely sure where 2024 even went. It feels like it should be June or July, not New Year’s Eve. Recently, we wrote the Anime UK News yearly review, and I struggled to figure out what I cared about. I finished a number of series I valued, but some of the heavy hitters like Yozakura Family have stretched into next year while others (Smartphone) just stubbornly cling to life. My Hero Academia ending almost came as a relief, although looking back now I’ve become so much fonder of it. I did also finally find it within me to finish Unnamed Memory, which I loved and which I hope the sequel for gets licensed in 2025. Please, publishers.
I’ve been buying a lot of great new books, but a lot are still sitting unread. This is another thing I’d like to improve on for 2025. I’ve been ill frequently enough this year and busy enough at work that my free time felt more constrained than usual. In the case of work, it’s not a bad problem to have, I suppose. Anyway, let’s see what I read in December and then take a look at the yearly charts!
Bold = completed series
Italic = dropped
Manga:
- #推しが幸せならOKです (B’s-Log Comic)
- Bless volume 3
- Home Office Romance – review
- My Hero Academia volume 42
- From Villainess to Healer: I Know the Cheat to Change My Fate volume 1
- Praise Me When I’m a Good Boy – review
- いじわるお兄ちゃん (Kiss)
- 放課後帰宅びより volume 3
- 焦がした愛はままならない (Kiss)
- Snow and Ink volume 1
- Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and the Inexperience Me volume 1 – review
- Blue Lock: Episode Nagi volume 1 – review
- 箱庭モンスター〜少女漫画家、ときどき紙袋〜 (Morning)
- Black Summoner volume 18
- Butareba: The Story of a Man Turned Into a Pig volume 4
- Duchess in the Attic volume 4
- My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World volume 3
- 営繕かるかや怪異譚
- Earth Expansion volume 1 – review
- Death’s Daughter and the Ebony Blade volume 3
- The Coppersmith’s Life volume 4
- A Stray Dog in the Night volume 5 (JP)
- This Art Club Has a Problem volume 5
- Only I Know This World is a Game volume 6
- Bungo Stray Dogs: Official Comic Anthology volume 5 (JP)
- The Banished Former Hero Lives As He Pleases volume 4
- Lycoris Recoil: Recollect volume 1 (JP)
- Rebuild World volume 10
- Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss, But I’m Not the Demon Lord volume 2
- My Dear Curse-Casting Vampiress volume 3
- Lycoris Recoil volume 1 (reread) – review
- 弁護士お兄ちゃんとヒミツのおあそび (Comic Tint)
- A Wild Last Boss Appeared volume 4
- アストラル・オンライン 魔王の呪いで最強美少女になったオレ、最弱職だがチートスキルで超成長して無双する (Comp Ace)
- Tokyo Underworld (Manga Plus)
- Hirayasumi volume 2
- Trillion Game volume 1
- Colete Decides to Die omnibus vol 1 (volumes 1-2)
- Takara’s Treasure
- Pupposites Attract volume 2
- Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3 volume 4
- Hereditary Triangle omnibus (vol 1-2)
- Cooking with Wild Game volume 10
- Jinrui-Shoku: Blight of Man (Manga Plus)
- 世にも過保護な魔王サマ (Bessatsu Friend)
- 聴けない夜は亡い volume 4
One-shot:
- ミナソコ (Weekly Shounen Sunday)
- The King of Custom (Manga Plus)
- 偽王纈は占いができない (Hana to Yume)
- Break Journey (Hana to Yume)
- Pretty Guardian Stress (Manga Plus)
- The Knight and the Corpse (Manga Plus)
- うえきの法則エキシビション (Weekly Shounen Sunday)
- Octet (Manga Plus)
- Night and Melody (in Colette Decides to Die)
- Raise Me, Hero! (Manga Plus)
- The Mountain of Remains on Planet Triangle (Manga Plus)
- Wanted Police Officer (Manga Plus)
- The High School Bento Blues (Manga Plus)
Light Novels:
- The Countess is a Coward No More! This Reincarnated Witch Just Wants a Break volume 1
- Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden volume 5
- Lady Rose Just Wants to be a Commoner! volume 1
- The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows volume 5
- RVing My Way Into Exile with my Beloved Cat! This Villainess is Trippin’ volume 3
- The Poison King: Now That I’ve Gained Ultimate Power, The Beautiful Beauties in My Harem Can’t Get Enough of Me! volume 3
- Hell Mode: The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing volume 8
- Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World volume 9
- The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan volume 18
- Lacy Longs for Freedom: The Dawn Witch’s Low-key Life After Defeating the Demon Lord volume 2
- The Tanaka Family Reincarnates volume 1
- Idol, Burning (novel)
- The Tales of Marielle Clarac volume 11
- Jeanette The Genius: Defying My Evil Stepmother by Starting a Business with My Ride-or-Die Fiancé volume 3
So that’s 46 manga up from 37, 14 light novels down from 22 and 13 one shots down from 14. More interestingly here’s how my yearly stats panned out alongside my 2024 charts!
For my yearly count I’m at 684 books in compared to 682, 616 manga read compared to 600, 215 LNs read compared to 215, 205 one shots read compared to 136. And the backlog is of course up to 823 which is double 2023 where I ended the year at 461…. But overall that’s a fairly stable number, which is reassuring! I guess despite frequently feeling like I was falling behind this year I wasn’t doing too badly after all. Here’s to a good 2025 of reading!