Who could have imagined in 2016, when we all first discovered Nagata Kabi-sensei’s honest and touching diary of her struggles with mental health, that we’d be tuning back in repeatedly, like a manga reality show, hoping to see her feeling healthier, happier, more whole? And yet, here we are, reading the fourth volume of this […]
Feb 9, 2020 • Subscribe
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あとになってわかったこと
Collector's Mindset - How to Japanese - February 2025
Ai ni Airashi Itoshi Anata (愛に愛らし愛しいあなた)
Suzuki Yufuko’s Ai ni Airashi Itoshi Anata (愛に愛らし愛しいあなた) was not at all what I expected it to be. No, scratch that. It was exactly everything I expected it…
Hana ni Arashi 10 (はなにあらし)
High school is a weird time. So much is going on in your body, in your head, in your heart. It’s the last time to have fun as…
Hana ni Arashi 11 (はなにあらし)
High school is a weird time. So much is going on in your body, in your head, in your heart. It’s the last time to have fun as…
Hana ni Arashi 13 (はなにあらし)
In their time, Nanoha and Chidori have spent 3 years together. In real time it has been a very slow, very gentle, even tentative 5 years. Hana ni…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 9 (おとなになっても)
I am currently reading two Japanese series about adults in complicated relationships. Both series are, in equal part, compelling and interesting and annoying as heck. Today we’re looking…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 7 (おとなになっても)
In Shimura Takako’s Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 7 (おとなになっても) a lot happens. We left Akari and Ayano having been carefully not seeing one another for some time, as…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 3 (おとなになっても)
Akari is ready to move on. She’s ready to reclaim her old career in the salon and stop running away from her life. She’s putting Ayano and her…
Otona ni Nattemo, (おとなになっても) Volume 6
In Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 6, Shimura Takako has done something I’ve not seen before in a manga and I think I like it. ^_^ The main plot…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 1 (おとなになっても)
Shimura Takako’s work with gender and sexual minorities has been very influential and popular among western manga readers, and series like Sweet Blue Flowers and Wandering Son end…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 5 (おとなになっても)
Previous volumes of Shimura Takako’s adult life drama have centered on three adults whose life has been thrown into turmoil by unexpected emotions. Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 5…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 8 (おとなになっても)
Akari and Ayano have moved in together. This fact fills this book with all sorts of tensions, both positive and negative. Sure, they have been through ” a…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 10 (おとなになっても)
There are a lot of lose strings to tie up here at Shimura Takako’s Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 10 (おとなになっても). And, while the final bow is a bit…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 4 (おとなになっても)
In previous volumes of Otona ni Nattemo, we met Akari and Ayano, who met in a bar and spent the night together, Ayano’s husband Wataru, who has wondered…
Yuri Manga: Hana ni Arashi, Volume 2 (はなにあらし)
In Volume 1, we met Nanoha and Chidori, two high school students who are keeping a secret from their friends – they are going out with each other.…
Yuri Manga: Hana ni Arashi, Volume 3 (はなにあらし)
Chidori and Nanoha have a secret, we are told in Volume 1 and Volume 2. They are lovers, we are told. And we will have to believe what…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 7 (はなにあらし)
In Volume 7 of Hana ni Arashi, (はなにあらし) something finally happens. Well…two things. Remembering that, in this series “happen” is very broadly applied word. ^_^ The first thing…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 5 (はなにあらし)
While we’re able to enjoy Makoto Hagino’s slow-burn high school Yuri romance, A Tropical Fish Years for Snow in English, there is another Shogagakukan title with a similar…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 4 (はなにあらし)
In Volume 1 we met Nanoha and Chidori, two girls who have a secret – they are lovers. They aren’t lovers, but they are in love and they…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 12 (はなにあらし)
We met Chidori and Nanoha 5 years ago in real time, 3 years ago in their time. At the beginning, all we had of them being girlfriends was…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 11 (はなにあらし)
Nanoha and Chidori are two young woman in love. They know that when they graduate thing will change and their lives will grow more compliacated, but for this…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 9 (はなにあらし)
We have watched Nanoha and Chidori since they began dating. For a very long time, it was under the radar, but as they look towards a wider future…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 6 (はなにあらし)
Nanoha and Chidori have shared their first kisses and, frankly, they are pretty sure that they no one has noticed, even though it got a little weird between…
Hana ni Arashi, Volume 8, (はなにあらし)
In Hana ni Arashi, Volume 8 (はなにあらし), Nanoha is starting to feel the weight of the real world and isn’t sure that she and Chidori inhabit the same…
And Then They Never Die / そして誰も死ななかった
The protagonist of And Then They Never Die , Ushio Oomata, is a sleazebag. He’s crass, rude, and a fraud—he’s a mystery novelist, but the on...
~ni shite ～にして - Meaning in Japanese
The meaning in Japanese of ~ni shite ～にして. Examples and grammar.
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 2 (気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
In Volume 1, we met Ohsawa Aya, a fashionable girl in most ways – except for her retro taste in music. When she walks into a shabby CD…
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 3 (気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
Up until this volume, there has been almost no conflict of any kind in Arai Sumiko’s school and music Yuri series. In Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume…
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 1 (気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
Aya is a high school student who loves music of the 90s-00s. She’s content to sit and listen to the Foo Fighters in her ear buds, but when…
あっためて vs あたためて #learnjapanese
Learn Japanese with Me - https://bit.ly/4drmyU2
Kimi to Shiranai Natsu ni Naru, Volume 1 (君としらない夏になる)
Kimi to Shiranai Natsu ni Naru, Volume 1 (君としらない夏になる), subtitled in English “Throw away the suit together,” is one of my favorite reads currently in Comic Yuri Hime…
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta Drama CD, Special Edition (ドラマCD 気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
Last week, I was able to review the upcoming Yen Press release of Sumiko Arai’s popular manga The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All.…
Your Japanese is Good if You Understand This No.4 なら たら と ば んだったら であれば であるなら
Learn Japanese with Me - https://bit.ly/4drmyU2
Salaryman ga Isekai ni Ittara Shitennou ni Natta Hanashi
Plot: Uchimura Dennosuke is your normal, everyday salaryman trying to climb the corporate ladder. But then he’s summoned to a terrifying fantasy world by the Demon Overlord, who…
Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four!, Overlord
In the Wake (護られなかった者たちへ, Takahisa Zeze, 2021)
A policeman investigating a series of murders comes to a new accommodation with the post-earthquake society in Takahisa Zeze’s gritty crime drama.
Yuri Manga: Teiji ni Ageretara, Volume 2 (定時にあがれたら)
In Volume 1, we met Yukawa, who became friendly, then friends, then lovers with her coworker, Mizuki. Now, in Volume 2 of Teiji ni Ageretara (定時にあがれたら), they are…
Yuri Manga: Yagate Kimi ni Naru, Volume 8 (やがて君になる)
Since I cracked open the fantastic Bloom Into You Premium Box Set earlier this week, and plan on finishing it up tomorrow (except for the cheesecake, which will…
We Couldn’t Become Adults ボクたちはみんな大人になれなかった (2021) Director: Yoshihiro Mori
We Couldn’t Become Adults ボクたちはみんな大人になれなかった (2021), by director Yoshihiro Mori, is a well-acted and well-shot drama about a 40-something man in contemporary Japan looking back at his life (v…
Teiji ni Ageretara, Volume 4 ( 定時にあがれたら)
As Teiji ni Ageretara, Volume 4 ( 定時にあがれたら) opens, we find ourselves in a story that is so grounded in reality that it seems almost magical.^_^ Kaori and…
Teiji ni Ageretara, Volume 3 (定時にあがれたら)
Romance is hard, especially when you aren’t really sure if she feels as intensely about you as you do about her. Or so Kayoko believes. To make things…
Genjitsu Touhi shitetara Boroboro ni natta Hanashi / My Alcoholic Escape from Reality by Nagata Kabi
Genjitsu Touhi shitetara Boroboro ni natta Hanashi / My Alcoholic Escape From Reality might not be the best way to ring in the new year given its subject…
Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 9 (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ)
When we left this series in Volume 8, there were rainbows and doves flying because an entire volume had passed without making me feel unpleasant thoughts in the…
Oshi ga Budokan Itterkuretara Shinu, Volume 8 (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ)
Yippee! A whole volume of this manga in which I never once wanted to shake the daylights out of the creator! Ahem. But seriously, Oshi ga Budokan Itterkuretara…
Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 6 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ )
In Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 6 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ ), we meet another local idol group, the Starlights, when the two groups end up in a double…
Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 7 (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ )
Until late last night, this review was going to be completely different. I had a whole review planned out and was all ready to joke about Path #5…
Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu Live-Action (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ)
For various reasons I have spent the last few weeks playing catch-up with everything I have meant to watch and read and listen to but never got around…
Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 10, (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ)
Volume 9 left me weak with relief as Eripyo and Maina actually had a conversation. But as we look at the cover of Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu,…
Lonely Girl ni Sakaraenai, Volume 2 (ロンリーガールに逆らえない)
The best romantic comedies, in my opinion, are ones that stop trying to be a comedy. In Volume 1, this series was definitely a comedy. Lonely Girl ni…
Lonely Girl ni Sakaraenai, Volume 1 (ロンリーガールに逆らえない)
Sakuraii is a model student but has a fatal flaw – she absolutely sucks at tests. If it weren’t for tests, she’d have no trouble at all getting…
Yuri Manga: Kyou, Koshiba Aoi ni Aetara (今日、小柴葵に会えたら)
Never let it be said that I am immune to cheap marketing ploys. Well…I am *mostly* immune to them, having worked in advertising and possessing a health dose…