I’m back and I bring gifts! Well… gift.

I finally had some time to read a bit more than just the stuff I usually post and ended up finding Asura’s Dish of the Day - a story about a plump schoolgirl who loves to eat and a delinquent who loves to cook.

It’s still early days (only 7 chapters translated) so I can’t say how good it’ll be but I do like it so far. All the scenes of MC enjoying her food are both comfy and heartwarming, and never fail to make me smile. On the other hand there’s some bullying and a freshly started conspiracy plot which I’m not sure how to feel about just yet.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this one, it seems promising.

I made a separate post for the year-end awards this week, so go over there and vote! As part of that process, I have been poring over a bunch of series in preparation for voting. So, my reading from this past week has been pretty strongly influenced by that.

• You are a Four Leaf Clover / Kimi wa Yotsuba no Clover

A couple more chapters came out and it is dark. Chapter 2 featured very explicit self-harm and there have been some pretty traumatic flashbacks of bullying and one attempted murder. And we’re at chapter 4! I think I might let this one go. I was initially intrigued due to the time travel/mystery elements, but it feels like this is just going to be an edgefest without a lot of substance to it.

• Ganmanga

This one has been really interesting. Instead of a fictional story, this one is a nonfictional retelling of a manga artist’s experiences with cancer. The first two chapters have come out on Mangadex and she is only at the “just got a diagnosis” stage of the process. It has been remarkably frank and open (including some very mild NSFW panels where she complains about an ex not wanting sex). The dates in the story indicate that she is going to make it, so you don’t necessarily have to brace yourself for a tragic end. I have worked professionally for years on various cancer medications, so I am somewhat familiar with characteristics of different cancers. However, getting a picture into the whole process that a patient goes through, starting from some constipation and ending up with a cancer diagnosis, has been a compelling perspective.

• Love Bullet

One of the nominees for Manga of the Year. I had heard of the series after it made news earlier this year; after international fans organized a buying campaign of the Japanese volume to try to prevent the series from getting cancelled.

I have read through the chapters that are available and it is really good. I have enjoyed it a lot. It’s a mix of romance and action that, on paper, sounds like it isn’t going to work. However, the characters are really interesting and the action is really well drawn, and it somehow all works. It’s still early days in the series, but as a debut manga for the author, it shows a lot of promise and I am glad that it seems to be sticking around for now.

• My Crush’s Crush / Boku no Suki na Hito ga Suki na Hito

This was nominated by somebody for the Best Romance category. Sadly, it didn’t make it to the final list of nominees, but if you are out there and read this, thank you for bringing this one to my attention. I have thoroughly enjoyed bingeing this series over the past week.

As somebody that has read more than their fair share of love triangle/polygon stories, I thought I was in for a pretty typical love triangle situation based on the description. However, what I found was so much more than that. Yes, there is a love triangle, but one in which A loves B loves C loves A. Then, there are other potential partners to the main three that complicate everything. However, the main thing I want to emphasize here is that I want everybody to win. All of the characters are very likeable and wholesome. There has not yet been any of the typical manufactured drama tropes I am so used to. I would absolutely be pleased any way this whole spaghetti bowl of potential relationships end up because I like all these characters that much.