November means Scotland Love’s Anime time \o/
That does mean less reading (in theory anyway), but I think on the whole it has been a good month. I enjoyed a break to watch anime on the big screen and see my friends for a change of pace. Anyways, let’s dive into what I’ve read this month.

Bold = completed series
Italic = dropped

= recommendation

Manga:

1. You Can’t Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister Volume 1 – review
2. Hirayasumi volume 4 (JP)
3. Ping-Pong Peril (Weekly Shonen Jump)
4. Sirens Won’t Sing for You (Manga Plus)
5. 吸血鬼は噛みつくだけじゃ愛したりない〜キスより甘い溺愛契約〜 (Noicomi)
6. 暴君のシンデレラ〜大正溺愛浪漫譚〜 (Noicomi)
7. 営業部の高杉さんは心臓に悪い volume 3
8. ルルの亡霊屋敷 volume 1
9. キスのあとまで教えてあげる (Noicomi)
10. Snowball Earth volume 1 (JP)
11. 子宮恋愛 volume 1
12. K-9: Public Security Bureau Division 9 – Special Abilities Countermeasure volume 1 (JP)
13. Tokyo Aliens volume 9 – review
14. Lycoris Recoil volume 2
15. スキル「再生」と「破壊」から始まる最強冒険者ライフ (Comic Grast)
16. 放課後帰宅びよう volume 4
17. Blue Proustian Moment (Manga Plus)
18. 最強治癒師の子違いスローライフ (Comic Grast)
19. Twenty and the Beast (Bessatsu Friend)
20. 迷子の女こを家まで届けたら、玄関から出て来たのは学年一美少女でした (Dengeki Daioh G)
21. Acting Out volume 1 (JP)
22. The Conquerer from a Dying Kingdom volume 6
23. Hell Mode: The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing volume 8
24. Hero Without a Class volume 3
25. 8th Loop for the Win! With Seven Lives Worth of XP and the Third Princess’s Appraisal Skills, My Behemoth and I Are Unstoppable! volume 6 
26. 先生、俺のこと好きになってよ。
27. The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses (Weekly Shonen Magazine)
28. An Archedemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride volume 13
29. The Fearsome Witch Teaches in Another World: Ms. Aoi’s Lesson Plans volume 1
30. 内海くん恋のうた (Dessert)
31. K-9: Public Security Bureau, Division 9 – Special Abilities Countermeasure volume 2 (JP)
32. わたしの恋はじめかた (Dessert)
33. Zero Damage Sword Saint volume 2
34. Fired? But I Maintain All the Software! volume 1
35. 初恋はフーリッシュ・ゴースト (Pixiv)
36. Karate Master Isekai volume 5
37. Fushi no Kami: Rebuilding Civilization Starts with a Village volume 8
38. Hirayasumi volume 5 (JP)
39. 水平線はやがて瞬く volume 1
40. 放課後カルテ volume 1
41. Black Summoner volume 21
42. Hirayasumi volume 6 (JP)
43. キスまで徒歩２秒 (Kiss)
44. 猫灰だらけの解き直し (Dengeki Maoh)
45. ラスボスたちの隠し仔 (Dengeki Maoh)
46. 君に捧げる男前 volume 1
47. ド根暗少女が再生回数１億球のアイドル幽霊憑依されました volume 1
48. Hirayasumi volume 7 (JP)
49. 放課後帰宅びよう volume 5
50. The Hitman Stans volume 2 (JP)
51. しすたれじすた volume 2
52. Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku?! volume 1
53. Kamudo volume 1
54. Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet volume 9 – review
55. カツオブシ・ロマンチカ (Be Love)
56. Nezumi’s First Love volume 1 – review
57. 高嶺の花は愛を囁かたい (Chara)
58. Assassin & Cinderella volume 1 (JP)
59. Mr Marriage to Saneka (Manga Plus)
60. 恋をした優等生の悪魔的な変貌について volume 1
61. ヨシダ檸檬ドロップス volume 4
62. Hirayasumi volume 8 (JP)
63. Hirayasumi volume 9 (JP) (actually I like all of these a whole bunch, but I won’t spam the emote for every vol)
64. The Emperor’s Caretaker volume 2
65. Vampxia volume 1 (JP)
66. How to Grill Our Love volume 4

One Shot

1. The Fragile Hearts Club (Manga Plus)
2. Delivery of Love Noodle, Eggs and Rice (Manga Plus)
3. Brush Possessed (Manga Plus)
4. 私のマジメなハッピーエンド (Dessert Pink)
5. あくまでこれは推しごとです (Dessert Pink)
6. 彼氏様には敵わない (Dessert Pink)
7. 好き増して恋 (Dessert Pink)
8. Project Manager (Manga Plus)
9. Good Morning, Great Old One (Manga Plus)
10. Dawn of the Legend (Manga Plus)
11. Fireflies and Swallowing (Manga Plus)
12. Girls’ Hoops (Manga Plus)
13. Hometown Explosion (Manga Plus)
14. The Tamura Family Haunting Chronicles (Manga Plus)
15. Sunnside (Manga Plus)
16. Part-Time Hero: Time Machine Memory Hack (Manga Plus)
17. If Your Dreams Didn’t Come True, Die (Manga Plus)
18. Flatline Drive (Manga Plus)
19. ＃今日のむに描いた (Afternoon)
20. 秋の穂は道連れ (Be Love)
21. Super Self-Love (Manga Plus)
22. Rising Stars! Nyan-Warriors! (Manga Plus)
23. Once Upon a Wicked Witch (Manga Plus)

Light Novels / Novels / Other

1. Holmes of Kyoto volume 20
2. Retrograde (novel)
3. Bookstore Girls volume 1 (novel)
4. Abroad in Japan (autobiography)
5. The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows volume 8
6. This Light Novel is Amazing 2026 (JP, guidebook)
7. In Another World with My Smartphone volume 31

I converted my last section into a LN / Novel / Other section this month since I did an unusual amount of non-fiction reading. I read Retrograde on the way up to Scotland Love’s Anime, it was a short story collection, so it worked well for my kind of distracted and excited brain. Then I bought Bookstore Girls (with some other stuff) while on the trip and read it mostly on the evening of our last day / coming back. Honestly, I really, really enjoyed that one and would highly recommend to those looking for a bookstore/workplace drama. I hope they’ll license others, but this only came out in September so we’ll see.

Abroad in Japan is a book I’ve been on and off reading since I bought it in June of last year… I’m not a huge fan of Chris Broad; it’s not that I dislike him as a person or anything, but I don’t get on with his humour (which is perhaps odd when he’s a fellow Brit). However, I was curious about his journey in Japan and how he made it to where he is now, so I bought the book anyway on the recommendation of my friends. Honestly, it was an interesting read, and although I’m still not particularly interested in watching Abroad in Japan, I still enjoyed reading this overall. I feel like I learnt a fair amount about the JET program and living in rural Japan, neither of which I knew a lot about beforehand.

And of course, it’s that time of year where This Light Novel is Amazing comes out, so I bought and read through that. And personally, I feel like that counts as enough reading to make my list.

On the manga front, I read a lot of first volumes this month, I also did better at reading and then reviewing stuff rather than letting them sit in the backlog of doom. I didn’t particularly make much of a dent in the backlog, but despite how busy I was with other stuff it didn’t exactly grow by leaps and bounds either, so I’m fairly content. I binge-read a lot of Hirayasumi due to the TV drama being on currently. It kind of went the same way as Call of the Night for me, where later volumes have more plot and I found the whole thing a lot more engaging. I’m entirely caught up with the Japanese releases now, so I’m going to have to be a lot more patient going forward. I was also really impressed with K-9, but I figured it wouldn’t disappoint after coming with a recommendation from the Wind Breaker author. It comes out pretty fast too, I already have Vol 3 on pre-order.

December should be a reasonably quiet month in comparison to November and it’s do or die for getting the backlog down at all this year, so that’s where my focus will hopefully be. I want to get back to writing my columns for Anime Atelier, too and get my AUKN stuff in regularly (I have a literal pile of stuff that’s read and just needs words put to paper), but that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

This is more for a different post I have in mind for January, but now that work has calmed down until Spring I’m going to resume my ‘read at least 5 pages of a JP novel a day’ challenge. ‘Cause I own so many I want to read, I just still find it hard (it’s not impossible) and therefore don’t do it even though it would make a massive difference to my language skills. I mean as we can see from my log, I can read plenty of manga just fine, so there’s no real excuse. But I’ll roll back around to this thought in another blog next year.