Reading Log: March 2020

Man the world has changed a lot over the course of a month. Now we’re in lockdown because of the Coronavirus. I hope by the time we get to the April entry things will have started improving. :/ Anyways here’s what I’ve been reading this month:

Manga:

  • 1122: For a Happy Marriage volume 1
  • Our Dining Table volume 1
  • In/Spectre volume 4
  • Fire in His Fingertips volume 1
  • Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san volume 3
  • In/Spectre volume 5
  • Fullmetal Alchemist Fullmetal Edition volume 7
  • Haikyu!! volume 37
  • Ao Haru Ride volume 9
  • Sweat and Soap volume 1
  • Blank Canvas: My So-called Artists Journey volume 3
  • Vampire Knight Memories volume 4
  • Logical Orion volume 1
  • Last Stop is Tokyo volume 1
  • Umaru is a Good Boy volume 1
  • Pure Love Nostalgic volume 1
  • Tales of Strange Coincidences in Kawabata-machi volume 1
  • Fragment of a Flower volume 1
  • Everyone Stand Up! Boy’s Private High School volume 1
  • One-Sided Love x Alliance volume 1
  • First Love Encounter volume 1
  • The Golden Sheep volume 3
  • Love Letter
  • Downfall volume 1
  • Given volume 1
  • Infinite Dendrogram volume 4
  • In/spectre volume 6
  • After the Rain omnibus volume 1
  • Yuki and Matsu volume 3
  • Setagawa Synchronicity volume 1
  • Every Time We Touch, I Hear That Sound volume 1
  • Cells at Work Code Black volume 3
  • Suppose a Kid From the Last Town Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town volume 1
  • Simplified Pervert Romance volume 1
  • Love is Not Good Along volume 1
  • La Danse Amants volume 1
  • The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind volume 5
  • The Ancient Magus Bride volume 12
  • In/spectre volume 7
  • Alcohol Communication volume 1
  • Don’t Cry, Little Squirrel
  • 1122: For a Happy Marriage volume 2
  • God is Probably Left-handed volume 1
  • Kaguya-sama Love is War volume 3
  • Do Something You Should Not Do Please volume 1
  • In/Spectre volume 8
  • Kaguya-sama Love is War volume 4
  • Noragami volume 21
  • Cookie Girl, Cream Boy
  • Daytime Shooting Star volume 5
  • Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru (WSJ)
  • Faded Picture Scroll volume 1
  • Star Crossed volume 1
  • In/Spectre volume 9
  • Discommunication volume 4
  • Sex with Chika! volume 1
  • In/Spectre volume 10
  • Ran the Peerless Beauty volume 1
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime volume 12
  • Something’s Wrong with Us volume 1

Light Novels:

  • Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Sword Oratoria volume 10
  • The Tales of Marielle Clarac volume 1
  • Altina the Sword Princess volume 3
  • I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed out My Level volume 5
  • Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina volume 1
  • Infinite Dendrogram volume 11
  • Spirit Chronicles volume 9
  • A Sister’s All You Need volume 6
  • My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong as Expected volume 1
  • In Another World with My Smartphone volume 19
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Isekai volume 1
  • Bungo Stray Dogs volume 3
  • By the Grace of the Gods volume 2
  • Ascendance of a Bookworm volume 6
  • Der Werwolf volume 7
  • The Extraordinary, The Ordinary and Soap! volume 1
  • The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress volume 5
  • Isekai Rebuilding Project volume 2
  • My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom volume 5
  • How a Realist Hero Rebuild the Kingdom volume 11
  • The Underdog of the Eight Greater Tribes volume 2
  • The World’s Strongest Rearguard volume 2

60 manga 23 light novels. Quite a big difference compared to the 28 manga and 17 light novels last month. It’s not even because I’ve been stuck inside, Futekiya just had a lot of titles this month.

Pile of shame photo time:

The one on the bottom left in the first picture in Suppose a Kid (…) light novel Volume 1, I was just too last to dig out the pile and turn it around. It was my birthday in March so that’s my excuse for the piles growing.  😛

Reading Log: February 2020

The second reading log of the year is here. In February I made a decision to try and pour time into getting through some of the pile of shame given this month was quiet for releases. Let’s see how I’ve done…

Manga:

  • Demon Slayer volume 11
  • Death Note 2020
  • Even If You Close Your Eyes, You Can See the Light volume 1
  • The Dreams of the Cuckoos volume 2
  • The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar volume 3
  • My Hero Academia: Smash volume 3
  • Yuki and Matsu volume 2
  • Fairy Tail Ice Trail volume 2
  • My Androgynous Boyfriend volume 1 – review
  • The Right Way to Make Jump Volume 1
  • Shortcake Cake volume 7
  • Oto no Sekai no Mukougawa chapters 1-2 (Japanese read)
  • I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level volume 1 – review
  • Silver Spoon volume 13
  • Toilet-bound Hanako-kun volume 1 – review
  • Black Torch volume 5
  • Young Good Boyfriend volume 1
  • An Incurable case of Love volume 2
  • The Way of the Househusband volume 2
  • Hitorijime My Hero volume 6
  • Hi Score Girl volume 1 – review
  • Yozakura Quartet volume 5
  • In/Spectre volume 3
  • Layla’s Great 3am Adventure (Japanese read)
  • How to Kill a Heart volume 1
  • Aiming for the Moon, Becoming the Star volume 1
  • Demon Slayer volume 12
  • A Man and His Cat volume 1

Light Novels:

  • The Devil is a Part-Timer volume 11
  • Konosuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World volume 1
  • Re:Zero EX volume 2
  • Weathering With You
  • Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki volume 2
  • You Call That Service? Volume 1 – review
  • The Combat Baker and Automation Waitress volume 4
  • Torture Princess volume 2
  • Can Someone Please Explain What’s Going on?! volume 1
  • Strike the Blood volume 4
  • Toradora volume 3
  • The Magic in This Other World is Too Far Behind volume 9
  • Bibliophile Princess volume 1
  • Combatant’s Will Be Dispatched! volume 1 – review
  • Outbreak Company volume 13
  • The Unwanted Undead Adventurer volume 5
  • I Shall Survive Using Potions! volume 4

Well while I said I was making an effort to get through my backlog the numbers are somehow lower than last month. 28 manga and 17 LN’s compared to 37 and 15. I guess being ill for a bit and moderately busy in Feb screwed up my grand plans.

Here’s how the piles look:

Hopefully next month I make more progress than this….

Reading Log: January 2020

After successfully sticking to my reading logs last year, I figured I’d continue into 2020. Time to find out what I’ve read in the first month of a new decade! Here’s what I’ve been reading and here are the rules I set for myself when recording this log.

Manga:

  • The Dream of the Cuckoos volume 1
  • Spirit Chronicles volume 4
  • Can He Get a Lover in a Sex Trade Shop? volume 1
  • Silver Spoon volume 12
  • Drifting Dragons volume 1
  • An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride volume 3
  • Takane and Hana volume 3
  • Yuki and Matsu volume 1
  • Seven Days omnibus 
  • Anonymous Noise volume 18
  • My Father is a Unicorn volume 1
  • A Witch’s Printing Office volume 1
  • My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom volume 2
  • Penguindrum volume 1
  • Bungo Stray Dogs volume 13
  • GE: Good Ending volume 1
  • As Miss Beelzebub Likes volume 8
  • Aki-chan is the Super Erotic Madonna for Guys volume 1
  • Ascendance of a Bookworm volume 4
  • In/Spectre volumes 1-2
  • He Has Never xxx volume 1
  • Konosuba an Explosion on This Wonderful World volume 3
  • Himouto! Umaru-chan volume 8
  • The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess volume 6
  • Marginal Operation volume 3
  • Persona 5 volume 1
  • Haikyu!! volume 36
  • Daytime Shooting Star volume 4
  • Wedensday Morning, 3:30Am
  • Snow White with the Red Hair volume 5
  • Golden Sparkle volume 1
  • Boys Love! volume 3
  • The Heaven in the Hell volume 1
  • The Pure Knight’s Shining Journey volume 1
  • Tales of Berseria volume 2
  • Solanin omnibus

Light Novels:

  • The World’s Strongest Rearguard volume 1
  • Kokoro Connect volume 8
  • By the Grace of the Gods volume 1
  • Isekai Rebuilding Project volume 1
  • Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? volume 14
  • An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride volume 9
  • 86 volume 3
  • Konosuba volume 10
  • The Greatest Magic Master’s Retirement plan volume 4
  • Tearmoon Empire volume 1
  • Cooking With Wild Game volume 6
  • Bungo Stray Dogs volume 2
  • Welcome to Japan, Ms Elf! volume 3
  • I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! volume 1
  • Owarimonogatari End Tale Part 1

Total: 37 manga, 15 light novels.  About the same amount of light novels as December (14 then), but less manga (44 compared to 37). This month my ‘to buy’ list is significantly quieter than usual, so I’m hoping to use this free time to bring the pile of shame down a bit. ^^;

Speaking of here’s how the piles are looking….

 

I recently rearranged it a little to try and get some of the shorter reads out the way. I’ve already read 2 this month, so I’m hoping I can keep knocking them down!

Reading Log: December 2019

We’ve hit the end of the year, so it’s time for a final reading log update. Here’s what I’ve been reading and here are the rules I set for myself when recording this log.

Manga:

  • Cells at Work: Code Black volume 2
  • Ten Count volumes 3-4
  • Young Bad Education volume 1
  • Beast Children
  • Silver Spoon volume 11
  • The Summer of the Fox
  • A Familiar Face
  • Ao Haru Ride volume 8
  • Tales of Berseria volume 1 – review
  • Isekai Essay Saku: Bucket (JP)
  • Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san volume 2 – review
  • Demon Slayer volume 10
  • Tokyo Shinobi Squad
  • Curtains Up, I’m Off
  • The Faraway Paladin volume 3
  • Bungo Stray Dogs: Another Story volume 1 – review
  • Ten Count volumes 5-6
  • Granblue Fantasy volume 2
  • Tokyo Ghoul:re volumes 8-10
  • O Maidens in your Savage Season volume 5 – review
  • Discommunication volume 3
  • Snow White with the Red Hair volume 4 – review
  • Princess Jellyfish volumes 1-2
  • The Golden Sheep volume 2
  • Candy Colour Paradox volume 4
  • The Beautiful Greeness volume 3
  • Boy’s Love volume 2
  • Sweet Reincarnation volume 2
  • Witch Hat Atelier volume 3
  • Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card voulme 6
  • Our Precious Conversations
  • Queen’s Quality volume 8
  • Yozakura Quartet volume 4
  • Asterisk
  • Fairy Tail: Ice Trail volume 1
  • Noragami Stray Stories
  • Cooking with Wild Game volume 2
  • The Girl from the Other Side volume 3
  • Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid volume 8

Light Novels:

  • The Combat Baker and Automation Waitress volume 3
  • Ourbreak Company volume 12
  • Zaregoto volume 1
  • A Sister’s All You Need volume 5 – review
  • Der Werewolf volume 6
  • The Economics of Prophecy volume 1
  • In Another World with my Smartphone volume 18
  • The Underdog of the Eight Greater Tribes volume 1
  • If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord volume 9
  • Spirit Chronicles volume 8
  • Katanagatari volume 3 – review
  • The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a Typical Nobody volume 1 – review
  • Altina the Sword Princess volume 2
  • Ascendance of a Bookworm volume 5

Due to a mixture of Christmas and being on break I’ve managed to read a fair amount this month. 44 manga and 14 light novels compared to 39 and 5 last month. Pile of shame time!

The pile has sort of ballooned now, with the normal pile of shame, a Christmas pile and a work pile. Hopefully these will decrease a bit over the next month…

My yearly stats work out as: 397 manga, 152 light novels. Broken down across months as:

January 34/19
Feb 41/8
March 38/10
April 23/16
May 22/13
June 28/19
July 38/10
August 40/13
September 26/10
October 24/15
November 39/5
December 44/14

Reading Log: November 2019

November went by in a total blur and I don’t feel like it should be almost Christmas again. I still have books from my birthday to read and that was March! Anyway here’s what I’ve read this month. Rules I set for myself and these posts can be found here.

Manga:

  • Tokyo Tarareba Girls volume 9
  • Himouto! Umaru-chan volume 7
  • Sweet Drop
  • Daytime Shooting Star volume 3
  • Ao Haru Ride volume 7
  • Cells at Work! volume 5
  • An Incurable Case of Love volume 1
  • My Hero Academia: Smash volume 2
  • The Unwanted Undead Adventurer volume 2
  • JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable volume 3
  • Arata Primal: The New Primitive (Manga +)
  • Nicola Travelling Around the Demon’s World volume 1
  • If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord volume 4
  • The Wize Wize Beasts of The Wizarding Wizdoms 
  • Hitorijime My Hero volume 5
  • Combatants Will Be Dispatched! volume 1
  • Crazy Fruits volume 1
  • A Lotus Flower in the Mud volume 1
  • Tomo-chan is a Girl volume 5
  • The Beautiful Greeness volume 2
  • Boys Love! volume 1
  • Sneaky Red volume 2
  • One Room of Happiness volume 6
  • The vacation in Love volume 1
  • Shinjuku Lucky Hole volume 2
  • Shortcake Cake volume 6
  • Yui Kamio Let’s Loose (WSJ)
  • Double Taisei (WSJ)
  • Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction volume 7
  • Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro volume 1 – review
  • Demon Lord, Retry! volume 1
  • Our Dreams at Dusk volume 3
  • The Love of Calendula volume 1
  • Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest volume 2 – review
  • Anonymous Noise volume 17
  • Dreamin’ Sun volume 10
  • Classmates volume 3
  • Ten Count volume 2
  • Haikyu!! volume 35

Light Novels:

  • My Hero Academia: School Briefs volume 3 – review
  • Cooking with Wild Game volume 5
  • Sexiled volume 2
  • The Miracles of the Namiya General Store – review
  • Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? volume 4

So it turns out I’ve been majorly slacking on reading light novels in November. I’m going to blame playing the new Pokémon game… I finished the month with 39 manga read and 5 light novels, compared to 24 manga last month and 15 light novels. Gotta up my game next month!

Pile of Shame:

So I made a deal with a good friend of mine that once she visited if I was still writing these reading logs I’d include pictures of the pile of shame instead of a list, so gonna start doing that this month!

Currently reading: Decapitation.
Pile:

Reading Log: October 2019

The end of the year is approaching surprisingly fast and somehow the pile of shame is still not decreasing but I’m still reading a bunch of stuff… Funny how life works. Anyways here’s what I’ve been reading this month. Rules I set for myself and these posts can be found here.

Manga:

  • Cells at Work: Code Black volume 1
  • Blank Canvas volume 2
  • Teddy Bear De Cheri
  • Marginal Operation volume 2
  • Demon Slayer volume 9
  • Cooking with Wild Game volume 1
  • Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles volume 3
  • As Miss Beelzebub Likes volume 7
  • The Ancient Magus Bride volume 11
  • Lust and Love in the New Academy
  • A Very Fairy Apartment volume 3
  • The Brave-Tuber volume 1
  • Bakemonogatari volume 1 – review
  • O Maidens in your Savage Season volume 4 – review
  • Granblue Fantasy volume 1 – review
  • Yozakura Quartet volume 3
  • Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable volume 1
  • Trial
  • Beastars volume 1 – review
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime volume 11
  • Konosuba: An Explosion on this Wonderful World volume 2 –review
  • The Stranger by the Beach
  • The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind volume 4
  • The Way of the Househusband volume 1

Light Novels:

  • Infinite Dendrogram volume 10
  • Torture Princess volume 1
  • Full Metal Panic volume 4
  • I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse volume 16
  • In Another World with my Smartphone volume 17
  • Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash volume 14.5
  • Spirit Chronicles volume 7
  • Sword Art Online: Progressive volume 6
  • Durarara!! volume 13
  • The Combat Baker and Automation Waitress volume 2
  • Ascendance of a Bookworm volume 4
  • An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride volume 8
  • The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan volume 3
  • Altina the Sword Princess volume 1
  • The Ancient Magus’ Bride: The Silver Yarn

So 24 manga this month, down from 26, and 15 light novels compared to 10 last month. Not bad given I’ve even been to SLA…

Pile of Shame:

Currently reading: My Hero Academia: School Briefs volume 3, Decapitation

Snow White with the Red Hair volume 4
Umaru volume 7
Daytime Shooting Star volume 3
Tokyo Tarareba Girls volume 9
Cells at Work volume 5
An Incurable Case of Love
My Hero Academia: Smash volume 2
Hiorijime My Hero volume 5
Suspension
The Miracles of the Namiyama General Store
Torture Princess volume 2
I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed out My Level volume 5
Reincarnated into Sword volume 1
Strangulation
Classroom of the Elite volume 2
Arifureta volume 1
Tokyo Ghoul: Re volumes 8-11
Re:Zero volume 8
Log Horizon volume 4
Re:Zero EX volume 2
Strike the Blood volume 4
The Devil is a Part Timer! volume 11

I’ve bought a lot of manga this week so the pile is looking even worse than usual. Hopefully improvements next month. ^^;

Reading Log: September 2019

September came and went in a flash, I’m not even sure where the time went this month! I feel like I read quite a lot of good stuff this month, so lets take a look:

Manga

  • Graduate volume 1
  • Eromanga Sensei volume 3
  • Record of Grancrest War volume 4
  • It’s Fine, Even if It’s Just a Dream volume 1
  • Demon Slayer volume 8
  • Jinjin Jingisukan
  • Haikyu!! volume 34
  • That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime volumes 9-10
  • To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts volume 9
  • My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom volume 1
  • Motion Emotion volume 1
  • Infinite Dendrogram volume 3
  • Shortcake Cake volume 5
  • Silver Spoon volume 10
  • Snow White with the Red Hair volume 3 – review
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Full Metal Edition volume 6
  • Magus of the Library volume 2 – review
  • Bungo Stray Dogs volume 12
  • Discommunication volume 2
  • Candy Colour Paradox volume 3
  • The Golden Sheep volume 1
  • The Secret Between Two
  • I’m Sorry, God
  • Become You volume 1
  • Mood Indigo volume 1

Light Novels

  • The Night is Short, Walk on Girl – review
  • Koyomimonogatari Part 2 – review
  • Sexiled! volume 1
  • The Reprise of the Spear Hero volume 1
  • Konosuba volume 9
  • Restaurant to Another World volume 1
  • Kokoro Connect volume 7
  • How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom volume 10
  • Outbreak Company volume 11
  • Combatants Will be Dispatched! volume 1

So 26 manga this month and 10 light novels, compared to 40 and 13. September was a relatively quiet month for new releases and so I managed to get through my pile of shame a little bit instead. Speaking of, here’s how that’s looking:

Pile of Shame:

Currently reading: Torture Princess volume 1

Reincarnated into Sword volume 1
Decapitation
Strangulation
Classroom of the Elite volume 2
Arifureta volume 1
Sword Art Online: Progressive volume 6
Tokyo Ghoul: Re volumes 8-11
Re:Zero volume 8
Log Horizon volume 4
Re:Zero EX volume 2
Strike the Blood volume 4
The Devil is a Part Timer! volume 11

Reading Log: August 2019

August has been a fairly hectic month for me. I started a new part-time job, which has eaten up a lot of my time and energy, but things are beginning to calm down now. Here’s what I read this month:

Manga:

  • The Beautiful Greeness volume 1
  • Elevator Strategy volume 1  
  • The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess volume 5
  • Konekokawa and Koinumaru
  • An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride volume 2
  • Himouto! Umaru-chan volume 6
  • F-Ken
  • Pornographer volume 1
  • The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind volume 3
  • Tomo-chan is a Girl! volume 4
  • Secretly, I’ve been Suffering About Being Sexless
  • Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san volume 1 – review
  • Chi’s Sweet Home volume 1*in Japanese*
  • So I’m a Spider, So What? volume 6
  • The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life volume 1
  • Haikyuu!! volume 33
  • Flying Witch volume 7
  • Witch Hat Alteier volume 2
  • Our Dreams at Dusk volume 2
  • Dreamin’ Sun volume 9
  • Anonymous Noise volume 16
  • Daytime Shooting Star volumes 1-2
  • Ao Haru Ride volume 6
  • Komi Can’t Communicate volume 2
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime volume 8
  • Ascendance of a Bookworm volume 2
  • Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest volume 1 – review
  • Hitorijime My Hero volume 4
  • The Last Saiyuki (was following in Weekly Shonen Jump)
  • O Maidens in Your Savage Season volume 3 – review
  • Phony World
  • Animeta! volume 3
  • I Shall Survive Using Potions volume 2
  • What’s Under his Clothes is Outrageous!
  • Kaguya-sama Love is War volume 2
  • How to Treat a Lady Knight Right volume 1
  • Nichoume Days Lives of the One-Room Residents
  • Sleeping with the Stallion
  • Tokyo Tarareba Girls volume 8

Light Novels:

  • My Hero Academia: School Briefs volume 2 – review
  • I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse volume 15
  • Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? volume 3
  • An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride volume 7 – review
  • Der Werwolf: The Annuals of Veight volume 5
  • 86 volume 2 – review
  • Fullmetal Panic! volume 3
  • Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki volume 1 – review
  • Ascendance of a Bookworm volume 3
  • Last Round Arthurs volume 1
  • Cooking with Wild Game volume 1
  • Bungo Stray Dogs volume 1 – review
  • The Combat Baker and Automation Waitress volume 1

So this month I only managed 13 light novels, but a lot of my J-Novel titles have been on hold – which is what usually bulks out the numbers. However I did manage 40 manga, so I’m doing pretty well there… Finally, here’s what I’m currently reading and what’s in the pile of shame (which has grown because I got a job):

Currently reading: The Night is Short, Walk on Girl

Pile of Shame:

Record of Grancrest War volume 4
Haikyu!! volume 34
That Time I got Reincarnated into a Slime volumes 9-10
Decapitation
Strangulation
Classroom of the Elite volume 2
Classmates volume 2
Eromanga-Sensei volume 3
Snow White with the Red Hair volume 3
Torture Princess volume 1
Arifureta volume 1
Sword Art Online: Progressive volume 6
Restaurant in Another World volume 1
Tokyo Ghoul: Re volumes 8-11
The Reprise of the Spear Hero volume 1
Re:Zero volume 8
Log Horizon volume 4
Re:Zero EX volume 2
Strike the Blood volume 4
The Devil is a Part Timer! volume 11

At this rate I should probably make a separate pile of shame for manga.

Brothers Conflict Review

Originally posted on Tanuki Bridge:

 

It’s difficult to know how to start this review. Usually I’d open with a paragraph of how much I like a series or my previous experiences, but in this case I’d never heard of this anime before or the visual novel it’s based on. I’d gone into it totally blind and perhaps if I’d had prior knowledge I never would have bothered.

Brothers Conflict is a reverse harem series that tells the story of Ema Asahina who moves in with her 13 step-brothers after her father remarries. Ema also has a talking pet squirrel called Juli, who disapproves of Ema putting herself in a situation surrounded by so many boys. Meanwhile, with the arrival of Ema the brothers now struggling with having a lady in the building and adjusting how they go about their day to day lives.

Normally when I review anime I dedicate more than a single paragraph to a show’s plot, but in this case I find it impossible. I’ve already mentioned that this is a reverse harem series and that comes into play by most, if not all, the brothers having feelings for Ema or teasing her as though they do. I’d normally be okay with this kind of thing but overall I just find Brothers Conflict terrible. 

Brothers Conflict is very generic in how it handles its characters and plot. For example, within the first episode Ema faints from a fever and then later on when she goes for a bath she stumbles on one of her brothers who is wearing nothing but a towel. Things only get worse when she overhears two other brothers (twins), seemingly confessing their love to one another (it turns out they were just rehearsing a script). Despite all this and the fact various brothers make a move to kiss Ema, all our main character actually does is apologise and stutter in speaking. She doesn’t have a personality to speak of, really, and even among the 13 boys their personalities are just very generic and in-line with what you’d expect of their jobs/designs/attitudes.

Among the boys we have the twins who are able to finish each other’s sentences. We have the jealous one who is resentful that Ema is now living in his home. We have the mature one, the bishi one who works as a hairdresser, the cute younger one, the distant one and somehow also the very plain one who probably has the most genuine feelings. Among this large cast not a single one of them has an interesting personality and it’s difficult to care about them at all. This is again not helped by Ema, whose interactions with them boil down to standing there blankly and being kissed or talked at. There is no chemistry at all and so it’s hard to care when, frankly, even the characters themselves don’t.

If there was a plot to speak of then maybe I could have overlooked Ema and the boys as almost fatal flaws to the show, but actually this show is nothing more than a collection of the groups day to day lives and I can’t help but feel nothing interesting ever happens. There is absolutely nothing worth your time in this whole show, and that’s not something I’d usually say. I am a firm believer that every anime has a reason for someone to like it, but Brothers Conflict is just bad.

The series has been adapted by Brain’s Base who you’ll probably know as the studio that worked on Baccano! and Durarara!!. While the animation for Brothers Conflict isn’t really bad it’s just also not interesting in the slightest. The colors are fairly bland and backgrounds, while detailed, didn’t really grab my attention either. I guess sometimes bland animation can be just as hurtful as outright badly done animation. Unfortunately the music (handled by Takeshi Nakatsuka) doesn’t stand out at all, so can’t redeem the series either.  Brothers Conflict is both dubbed and subbed but neither track is that good. None of the voice actors really do anything wrong, but when they’re playing characters with personalities about as interesting as watching paint dry – well, it’s no surprise I’m not leaping out of my seat with praise.

This release has been brought to the UK thanks to Funimation and is only available on Blu-ray after the DVD version was cancelled. The set includes all 12 episodes of the series both subbed and dubbed, as well as the two OVA episodes and episode 12.5. The only other extras to speak of are commentaries for episodes 9 & 12 as well as textless opening and ending tracks.

Overall I find myself at a slight loss for words. I truly believe that Brothers Conflict is one of the most boring and generic series I have ever seen and one I never wish to revisit. I can’t think of a single way to recommend it to you, so instead I’ll close this review out by suggesting you go and handle some household chores, or read a book or basically anything that isn’t watching this show.

Reading Log: July 2019

Now truly into the depths of Summer I return for my July reading log. Somehow I’ve avoided melting into a puddle. As usual here’s a link to my rules and here’s what I’ve been reading in July:

Manga:

  • To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts volume 8
  • Candy Colour Paradox volume 2
  • Anonymous Noise volume 15
  • Classmates
  • Demon Slayer volume 7
  • As Miss Beelzebub Likes volume 6
  • Lover 
  • If I Could Touch Your Heart 
  • Reversible Friend
  • Witch Hat Atelier
  • My Servants and I
  • Komi Can’t Communicate volume 1
  • Vampire Knight: Memories volume 3
  • Now Loading…! 
  • Dead Dead Demon’s Dedede Destruction volume 6
  • Love Love Chu Chu
  • When that Day Comes 
  • Magus of the Library volume 1 – review
  • Love in Focus volume 3 – review
  • Record of Grancrest War volume 3
  • Kaguya-sama: Love is War volume 1
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime volume 7
  • When We Were in the Rose Forest
  • Sneaky Red volume 1
  • Lofty Flower, Fall for Me!! (followed the simulpubs)
  • The Master of Ragnarok volume 2
  • My Hero Academia: Smash!! volume 1
  • Shining Stars in Line 
  • At 25:00 in Akasaka 
  • How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom volume 2
  • Moja and I
  • Science vs Magic (one shot)
  • Dive!! volume 3 – review
  • Shinjuku Lucky Hole 
  • Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles volume 2
  • Snow White with the Red Hair volume 2
  • Connect Us
  • Flying Witch volume 6

Light Novels:

  • I Shall Survive Using Potions volume 3
  • Woof Woof Story: I Told you to Turn Me Into a Pampered Pooch not Fenri volume 2 – review
  • Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: On the Side – Sword Oratoria volume 9
  • Middle-Aged Businessman, Arise in Another World volume 1
  • Outbreak Company volume 10
  • In Another World with my Smartphone volume 16
  • Koyomimonogatari Part 1 – review
  • Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles volume 6
  • The Greatest Magicmasters Retirement Plan volume 2
  • JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World: Summer

So this month I’ve managed 38 manga and 10 light novels. A lot of single volume manga this month, which pushed the numbers up. A new BL service called Futekiya opened up, which is where a lot of these came from. Now for the pile of shame!

Pile of shame:

Currently reading: My Hero Academia: School Briefs volume 2

Kaguya-sama: Love is War volume 2
Daytime Shooting Star volume 1
Eighty-Six volume 2
Arifureta volume 1
Sword Art Online: Progressive volume 6
Restaurant in Another World volume 1
Tokyo Ghoul: Re volumes 8-11
The Reprise of the Spear Hero volume 1
Re:Zero volume 8
Log Horizon volume 4
Re:Zero EX volume 2
Strike the Blood volume 4
The Devil is a Part Timer! volume 11

Because there are quite a few manga in the pile I decided to italic them to make reading through it easier. I’ve been buying a lot of stuff lately, so I need to start making my way through the pile again….