What have you been reading this week? - July 17, 2023

I chanced upon this unassuming series by the name of Haraiso Days. The art's a little dated, but that just adds to the charm, and this story just exudes charm! It's cosy and endearing, it's mellow and melancholic. I highly recommend this little gem if you're looking for a good seinen slice-of-life to indulge in.

I have been catching up on manga of some anime series I have enjoyed so far this year. The latest are:

• Oshi no Ko: I absolutely binged this series after the final episode aired. I am now caught up with the most recent chapter and I do not regret binging this at all. It has also made me appreciate the extent to which the anime actually elevated the source material. This is a story that just hits in both mediums so, so well.
• Tomo-chan is a girl: I had been working my way through this series since the anime finished airing and it has been fun. I just finished it yesterday. I feel like the anime did a good job with the adaptation, retaining all the important bits.
• Heavenly Delusion: I haven't actually started this series yet, but the anime came out of nowhere for me last season, so it is top of my list to start next. Really looking forward to see how the manga compares to the anime.
• Atsumare! Fushigi Kenkyuubu: I absolutely adore this SOL comedy manga about a Mystery Research Club. It is really wholesome and full of interesting characters. If you like a series full of weird characters like Komi-san, but just want the SOL rather than the romance, it is a great read.

This past week I read:

• [My S-Rank Party Fired Me for Being a Cursificer] (https://anilist.co/manga/118519/Akuyaku-Reijou-Level-99-Watashi-wa-Ura-Boss-desu-ga-Maou-de-wa-Arimasen/), another story of a protagonist being kicked from his party, this one is not edgy and its really short right now but I found it hilarious, lowkey it managed to make it make sense why the party of the protagonist rejected him when he was so OP, the protagonist is of course an oblivious idiot at recognizing his own standing, but it has been funny seeing him fight with varied tools.

• Villainess Level 99, another villainess on an isekai rpg, here the protagonist reincarnates as the hidden last boss in a game and takes the chance to level up to guarantee her safety, she manages to reach max rank before school even starts which became a problem. This manga has some charm, I really like how the protagonist became sort of an adrenaline junky at leveling up.

• Classroom of the Elite, I decided to stop reading at ch 58, I just havent found it interesting, while there are some 900 IQ plays nothing has really felt that exiting, I did like the protagonist personality at the island test.

• Chio's school road, its kind of a surreal comedy where we follow a girl going to school who gets into crazy situations, I was really enjoying it but the author started putting on some weird ecchi and weird jokes about sexual harrasment (for example the trope of the predatory lesbian, also an oji san that ends up homeless after groping high school girls on the train), which are played for laughs but felt weird and mismatched.

I also finished two of the manga I had started last week, being Helck and Transfer Student Storm Bringer (transfer students has a really wild ending, I loved how it ended)

A Useless Idol and the Only Fan in the World
All hail Urumin. We're slowly getting close to the end of pre-serialization parts and I can't wait to see how things expand from there.

Power Antoinette
Story about a buff Marie Antoinette who escapes her execution and bashes her way through Paris. It's silly, it's fun, it's only 4 chapters long (translation that is, original version is on volume 2).
Not a huge fan of muscles being a temporary buff (even if they're active for most of story so far) but it is what it is.