I am wrapping up my technical writing nightmare this week, so I am hoping to do a lot of catching up on my backlog fairly soon. Some highlights of what I read this past week:

• Frieren is back! I don’t have much else to add other than that I am glad to see it back and I suspect this current arc is going to go on for some time. It seems like this one will be a significant story rather than a pitstop like I thought it might be when it started.
• Hajimete no Ojou-sama - Two more chapters to go in this series and I have enjoyed it a lot. It has managed to glide in for a soft and satisfying landing (it seems like) that feels planned. This stands in contrast to…
• Kimi wa Yakamashi Tojite yo Kuchi o! - This series clearly ended up getting cancelled before the author had wanted it to end. The final volume or so ended up going in so many directions and felt completely disjointed. I had really enjoyed this series, so I don’t want to discourage people from it completely, but just go in with your eyes open that the ending is…different.
• Nagatoro’s epilogue chapter came out and it was nice! It’s a little surreal that the series is over after following it for literally years.
• 3-Pun Matte Mugi-Senpai / Wait 3 Minutes, Mugi-senpai - Found the time to pick up a new series (only one chapter so far). I fell in love with its very grounded depiction of grad school, full of self-doubt, depression, and most importantly, cheap food (Cup Noodles in this case). You heard that right, this series has officially branded Cup Noodles product placements in it and…I really enjoyed the first chapter. Looking forward to more!

Welp, last week was a bit of a failure on the manga front for me. There were no issues with any of the ongoing series thankfully (beyond lack of new chapters) but my attempts at checking out new ones turned out… not great.

Here’s the list of “shame” for this week:

• Raqiya - pretty great art for the most part, except there’s something off with the characters in this one, to the point I really couldn’t get over it. I also bounced HARD of the religious theme and ended up dropping the series after 3 chapters or so. I was pretty surprised on how strong reaction this thing caused in me to be honest.
• Moe Blood - fresh oneshot about a girl living in a world where all manga art-styles exist at the same time which makes her unhappy about the way she’s drawn. I’m not sure what I dislike about this one. Maybe because it ends without much happening? Possibly, but truth be told it didn’t really grab me at any point of reading so maybe I was just in a wrong mind space at the time. Or it just isn’t for me, that’s always a possibility.
• Ponko of the Stars and Reiko of the Tofu Shop - short (3 chapters) sci-fi series about a deal with alien gone wrong. I’ve seen many people praising this title but to me it felt kind of random? The art was nice at least.
• It’s a Little Late, but I’ve Fallen in Love with My Childhood Friend - while I wasn’t particularly invested, I’ve skimmed some chapters from time to time but after the last one I’m not going to bother anymore. Author decided to drop an a-bomb of unnecessary drama, something they’re apparently known for, in the middle of a cute and sweet romance story. I’m sure it’ll turn out decent enough based on their previous work but I’m good. At least I can scratch a few titles from my VN backlog so there’s that. I’m not sure why this development annoyed me as much as it did but at least it’s not a series I was attached to so I’ll be able to forget about it and move on without a problem.

This was a downer of a post, wasn’t it? It was one of those weeks, I guess. Let’s hope some more fun series pick up soon so I have something pleasant to write about next time.

Killing Bites has not had a new English TL volume release since a year ago. Anyone happen to know what’s up with that? I can’t find any updates from Medibang about it