Sleepy-girl representation is important
Stuff i read this week
The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess Vol. 1-5
This is a super good isekai villainess story about a woman who dies (truck) and is reborn as one of her OCs in an AWFUL novel she wrote as a TERRIBLE teenager. Obviously, she's not the super beautiful author insert character, but rather her villainous little sister and OH NO all the hot boys DEFFO want her dead, probably. Watching our poor girl struggle through the pain of remembering her own terrible plot and dealing with the world changing as she continues not to get killed by the hot boys is super fun... the books do suffer a bit from the art not being super clear at times tho. Still, if you like villainess stories this has a really interesting twist to the formulae.
Stuff i read this week
Accomplishments of the Dukes Daughter Vol. 1-4
wow, this has quickly become a favourite series - It's a real good entry in the isekai villainess genre. As much as i hate capital, capital owners, the pursuit of capital, and the concept of hereditary peerage DANG i do love manga about princesses and noble ladies starting businesses using knowledge from a previous life - that shit OWNS. She wants to invent health insurance and banking... and chocolate? girlboss. I'm deffo going to buy more of this after my next paycheck heh 10/10
Stuff i read this week
The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess vol 6
The dark history is really tightening up in this volume. Earlier stories deffo had a made-up as it’s going along falling to them, so it’s really cool to see all of that come together into a cohesive whole that's actually pretty dang good! Unfortunately, this is the last volume available in English right now, volume 7 doesn't come out until May. will I still be doing this in may?! who knows! maybe!
Stuff i read this week
Whisper me a Love Song Vol. 1
Super cute school yuri story about a girl falling in love with her senpai, who is the lead singer in a school band. Real pretty art. It’s a shame the music/band stuff is just used as background flavour more than being like, a real driver in the story like with Bocchi- I recommend “The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All” for a yuri manga where music plays a more ‘real’ role. These print volumes are really nice, Kondansha comics seem to be publishing things in a larger page size than most other publishers, makes the art look super nice with this book. Big clear faces and all that!
Stuff i read this week
Oshi no ko Vol. 1
what an incredibly gripping prologue! A doctor is MURDERED by an idol’s creepy stalker- and is reborn as one of her twin children. Hijinks ensue. It’s yet another incredible read, beautiful art, all that good stuff 10/10 for reincarnation in the REAL world. This is getting an anime real soon - im HYPED
Stuff i read this week
I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World Too Vol. 1 - 2
DAAAANG what a stupid book 10/10 was fucking love isekai. It does that thing where the Isekai world has a bidirectional link with the real world, I LOVE IT WHEN THEY DO THAT. YEAH, SHOW ME A GUY WHOS FANTASY WORLD POWER LEVELING GAINS MAKE THEM MORE POWERFUL AT SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN MODERN DAY TOKYO GIVE ME THAT SLOP ILL EAT IT UP SO FAST
Stuff i read this week
Beauty and the Feast Vol. 3
We’re beginning to learn more about Shuko’s past and dang I love this poor woman and I’m glad she’s healing and the chapter with her friends looking out for her are the best and why can’t a manga character cook me dinner? 10/10
Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter Vol. 8
What’s this?!? Lotte pulled another villainess isekai manga volume out of her ass?? Wow how does she do it?!? She can’t keep getting away with this!!
Anyways, this series is STILL incredibly good, i STILL want them to hurry up and kiss and i cant wait for the next volume to be release. The combat maid STILL rules forever i love her. 10/10 The cast pages at the front of every volume is getting crazy complicated
Stuff i read this week
The Apothecary Diaries Vol. 2-5
Maomao is SO FUCKING CUTE when she’s ingesting deadly deadly neurotoxins. This girl just LOVES poisons. I LOVE HER.
Wish I read these slower lol.. it was so good I couldn’t stop myself though the story is SUPER engaging and the Maomao is just a wonderful lead character. i want to spend every second with her that i can heh, the facial expressions in this book are just THAT incredible. Its rare you get to see THAT much character on the page you know?
Savior's Book Cafe Story in Another World Vol. 2-4
Another series i should have savored rather than rush though, but it is what it is! Last week i said "Straight but interesting” and YEAH. its very straight but also very interesting? I do wonder why this fantasy world has such a thriving book publishing industry... like, who is writing all these books shes stocking her cafe with? Anyways, pretty good. Volume 5 dosnt come out until May this year, so thats all for now.
Stuff i read this week
The Apothecary Diaries Vol. 6-7
Heck things are getting tense and super interesting- volume 6 manages to pull so many storylines together in a cool way also MAOMAO IS SO COOL I LOVE HER. I have once again READ ALL the new volume of this as soon as i get them which is a big mistake, i have now 100% run out and volume 8 dosnt hit until 9th May OR June 6th, depending on if you believe Amazon .co.uk or .com. who knows when ill get more Maomao! this sucks! I guess this is a great time to remind you that its getting an anime adaption soon and it looks beautiful
Failed Princesses Vol. 3-4
Still cute, still dramatic, still getting going. Somehow a lot of stuff happens but it feels real slow? just hook up already i guess.
Stuff i read this week
The Princess of convenient plot devices Vol. 1
Heck yeah she did it! She managed to procure another villainess isekai manga. Fricking champion.
I didn’t know anything about this going in to it (i didn’t even read the blurb on the back, just saw a villainess-like title and bought it immediately) but it’s not how I expected it to go based on the title, instead we have a pretty funny deep dive into “okay so we reincarnated as a princess in the world of a boys love novel… how does Nobel society function of all the hot Nobel dudes are trying to bone each other?” And the answer is your brother (the crown Prince) is kinda a misogynist? Makes sense, let him cook. Fortunately our heroin is kinda a complete fricking moron, so I love her unconditionally and pray for her heteronormative success.
Daughter of the Emperor Vol. 1 - 2
Yay another isekai~ what’s really neat about this is that is TOTALLY doubles down on the mechanics of “being reborn” - our protagonist is a literal child. Sure- a child with an adult mind, but still a child. She can’t communicate, she’s 2 months old. Of course she can’t communicate! she can beat sit up by herself! And that kinda rules? It’s about our girl figuring out that her new dad is a terrible tyrannical despotic emperor, who is incapable of showing emotion and figuring out how the world works, and how to survive as this crazed guy’s only child. It kinda rules.
Stuff i read this week
The Abandoned Empress Vol. 1 - 3
Real engaging take on the whole non-isekai villainess time skip sub genre - I’m having a great time slowly understanding how this world works and how our main girl is going to survive. The first volume spends a LOT of its pages in her first life which was really neat- if very abusive and violent. Really makes you feel for her. 10/10 good book - the only thing that would make it better would be if it were yuri. Also, check out these beautiful shiny covers
The Remarried Empress Vol. 1
Villainess stories will never get old, it’s amazing how many variations you can get on “there’s a king and queen, the king is a shit husband, some scheming harlot gets between them and everyone thinks it’s the queens fault- go”. I’m not the biggest fan of the art in this one (it’s very pointy rather than rounded if you know what I mean) but it’s a hella engaging tale and OH GOSH the cover is beautiful, with golden embossed lettering and every. As an object- it’s incredible.
Stuff i read this week
Daughter of the Emperor Vol. 3
I got no notes on this one. Villainess story. It’s good. Very petty. Cool our main character is like 3 years old now and they are keeping this whole actually reborn in another world thing very literal? It’s just good.
Even Though We’re Adults Vol. 1 - 5
Ahh delicious, finally taking a crack at my Yuri pile again. THIS BOOK IS INCREDIBLE - incredibly readable, if you get it you too will be howling in pain at the terrible adult love triangle thats forming. If your not violently nodding along and thinking “yeah! what the heck! keep going girl!” when one of our two main protagonist ladies shouts “Give me a break Ayano… you idiot. YOU’RE MARRIED!” at her phone - you must be dead inside.
If like the idea of reading a series where a lady shouts “I CAN’T BE CHATTING WITH MY CRUSHES HUSBAND!” Whilst lying down in bed in despair this is the series for you!
Stuff i read this week
A Galaxy Next Door Vol. 2 -3
You know, after that first volume being a little weak because I was weirded out by the space-alien-island-bee-princess thing, im really enjoying the series now? Like, I do love a good princess-who-is-an-idiot and I do love a hopeless romantic lead as well, and i looooove inside baseball manga about writing manga. So yeah this book is going places! Everyone’s so warm and fluffy in it. ALSO i happen to believe that any book that has a (literal) prim and proper princess say “of course I adore your blushing and nervous laughter I dare say it is MY SHIT!” is very funny and worth your time imo.
Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon Vol. 4
Our two asexual queens finally admit they are crushing on each other and eat a doughnut about it. Good yuri. Delicious. 10/10
Stuff i read this week
Reborn as a Space Mercenary Vol. 1 - 2
What if you isekai'ed into Eve online? Huh, what if that- except now eve online has hot space elves. That’s the thesis we shall explore in this ground breaking work of speculative science fiction. 10/10 Science Fiction Isekai is deffo a brand new genre for genre perverts to enjoy. Like, being 100% honest this polyamorous spaceship caption isekai is probably my favorited trash isekai I’ve read so far this year. It’s so brain dead and reads smooth.
The Eminence In Shadow Vol. 1
“Picture someone who isn’t the main character or the antagonist, someone who manipulate events behind the scenes and flaunt their overwhelming power. That’s the kind of shadowbroker I’ve always dreamed of becoming“ - that’s the opening line, it’s a fucking strong mission statement! Ive talked about my love of the anime (and probably the light novel too, which is also great) but this is my first time reading the manga.
Stuff i read this week
The Knight Blooms Behind Castle Walls Vol. 1
A sweet story of a young page boy who yearns to grow up quick and become a fully fledged knight in shining armor - she’s just keeping the fact she’s a girl hidden from all the rest of the castle’s inhabitants. This book really captures a sense of childlike glee that I don’t see often in manga, and it’s super beautifully drawn as well! Seeing young ladies blush at how gallant this lil squire is is reallllly adorable 10/10 super different.
The books also full of these really cute cross sections and diagrams of castles and castle life, little tapestries depicting the history of the castle. These are some of my favorite moments of visual storytelling in this book, the mangaka manages to fit so much into a few small detail panels. Recommended
I can’t believe I slept with you Vol. 1 - 3
A short, messy yuri about a fuckup game developer and her hot younger landlady. So yeah, lets ignore the problematic aspects of your landlady forcing “favors” from you because your behind on rent, at its core this is a sweet story about a useless oneesan type character relying on a anxious and unstable little sister, who in turn needs her for emotional support. they grow and heal together, and thats always heartwarming. i just WISH they had another volume for post confession adventures WHY DO THESE THINGS ALWAYS END AT THE START OF A RELATIONSHIP IM GUNNA SCREAM.
Stuff i read this week
Vampeerz Vol. 1 - 2
Yuri vampires! Again! I like this book, like… a lot? The art is incredible and the printing and binding job Denpa have done is fantastic.. they are a small publisher but I really love the feel of their books! It’s a nice object?
The work itself is very cute and very unsettling and perfectly stupid at moments, it’s a tale of a vampire that’s had enough and just wants to die and a young girl that just fell in love with her at first sight. Not much happens in the first volume but the stories pacing just delivers this perfect balance of unsettling creepiness and yuri first love… good book
Stuff i read this week
Kaiju Girl Caramelise Vol.
Uhhh this book is kinda incredible. Reading the bonus page at the back we learn the mangaka and her editor was trying to solve one major editorial problem with this work. How do you transfer from working on a series serialzied in a shoujo magazine to a series in a shonen one? The answer they stumbled up is just incredibly genius. Just draw a complete by the numbers stereotypical shoujo manga, make the protagonist a REAL loser girl, put in a HOT boy love interest, draw it alll HYPER feminine, so many sparkles, make it real fluffy and flowery…
Now finally make protag-chan turn into fucking Godzilla whenever she’s embarrassed. Like, skyscraper sized. Big girl shit. It’s absolute genius space brain stuff over here.
Stuff i read this week
This is Screwed up but I was Reincarnated as a Girl in Another World Vol. 6
![](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-LpLRtbvL._SX349_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg")
Yay a new volume of one of the MOST trash isekai series is out ~ in this volume Ren wants eggs SO bad she goes on a long journey to the royal capital (bigger marketplace there) and drags along two of the waitresses she met at the hotel she used to stay at. She’s going to pamper them SO HARD.
Im still really enjoying this delicious garbage and 1000% recommend this series. Its always stupid, fun and lighthearted, but internally consistent, it puts a LOT of artistry into drawing food (which is one of my favorite things in manga).... but it deffo is one for genre perverts (which genre tho? Isekai? Gender bending? Yes.)
Stuff i read this week
Quality Assurance in Another World vol. 1
It’s a fucking game developer isekai - essentially what if sword art online, except your a wimpy QA tester that’s REAL good at hiding. Maybe if you report all the bugs (whilst hiding from all the other QA testers that have given up on work and gone rouge) they will finally let you log out and go home? Prepare for t pose jokes
Also? The monster design in this book? It’s got dragons. Huge terrifying dragons. Dragons that will make even the mightiest NPC quiver with fear. They look like heckin ginormous frogs with goofy lil eyes. Terrifying. 10/10
(There’s a good 20 pages on rubbing yourself against walls trying to find collision bugs. To real.)
Stuff i read this week
Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Vol. 1
Okay that was real good. I’m glad I finally managed to track down a copy and I’m deffo going to get the rest wow some real pretty ladies playing some fighting games right here. It’s an interesting twist on a classic catholic school style yuri set up, our main characters are both transfer students that are plopped into that rigid prim environment and handle fitting in differently - and contrasting the ultra refined young lady performances with the fighting game manic inner personas is just REAL GOOD. I love it in media when a woman gets to shout “FIGHT ME” with all her heart, 10/10
Stuff i read this week
How do we Relationship? Vol. 1
![](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514JN8VrO5L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg")
Dang I adore this book. Adult women doing their best - I love that for them! It’s the kind of book where there are just SO many panels when you read it and then just gaze into the art and feel all warm inside and just tuck yourself onto a little ball of pleasant feelings I SURE DO HOPE NOTHING GOES WRONG FOR THESE TWO.
Also - is just like to acknowledge Saeko for her opening gambit with Miwa - shouting “whoaa that’s some mad cleavage!” The first time you meet a pretty girl is incredibly high power level stuff. Like, we’ve al thought it (probably) but actually pulling it off and not seeming like a creep is incredible work. 10/10 excellent lesbianing right there
Stuff i read this week
The Great Cleric Vol. 1 - 3
Yet another isekai, this time a sales guy dies of a sudden heat attack (I think? It’s unclear- hence no death report.. i dont want to be wrong) and gets reincarnated with the potential to learn healing magic and hand to hand combat skills. But oh no, healers in this world are ALL MASSIVE JERKS. Like, the biggest jerks! And our poor protag-kun? hes just a normal nice guy that would never want to charge anyone 30 gold for a healing spell. He just wants to charge 1 silver. Thats how nice he is! But first, hes gotta get good. The first three volumes are mostly a real long skill training arc with some light assassination plots thrown in for a bit of spice... but it’s fun and light, but theres a lot of genre pervert stuff going on. Turns out the world is racist towards beast people (wow so original - who would have thought) so the fact that protag-kun willing to heal them is a big deal. wow! want a nice kid! It’s that kinda story. If your a genre pervert, you know what this is going to be and you love it.
as a sample of the elvel of writing were dealing with here, 100 pages into volume 2 our main guy thinks “hrmm… there HAS to be some sort of discrimination against beastfolk here “ WOW PROTAG-KUN SURE IS A FUCKING BRAIN GENIUS.
Stuff i read this week
A Sign of Affection Vol. 1-2
Wow I gotta say this books got some amazing typesetting. So, this is a romance story about a deaf girl and a guy who is basically a language pervert, who get’s interested in her because sign language- it’s real good (if het) but the MOST INTERESTING part is the typesetting. Sometimes manga plays with the type to show when characters are speaking foreign languages or something, this book goes even deeper on that kinda trick and uses type to convey lip reading. It’s really elegant and gets SO MUCH detail across. Yuki, the main character is almost totally deaf, she can’t hear speech at all- so if a speech bubble has has regular solid black text, she can’t hear ANYTHING thats been said in that bubble even if she could like, conceptually "see" the bubble - that dosnt matter. black text means words that are spoken out loud and its something she cant perceive- she’s oblivious to any black word. Grey text is stuff she can lip read. If she’s having difficulty lip reading but mostly gets something- some of the characters in a word are printed tilted sideways - sometimes when she’s lip reading she misunderstands words so that’s just the normal grey color.. but its nonsense words so she gets confused - it’s wildly cool, just some real simple rules but they add such a richness to the text and I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s SO MUCH you can do in a graphic novel medium and I love that this book does something so unique and interesting
My dress-up darling Vol. 5-7
Volume 5 is the volume where the kids go to the love hotel thinking it’s a photography studio and get super teen embarrassed. Good volume, the two pages of the made up 4koma Marin cosplays from are real cute - thats also the last volume that was adapted into the anime so from that point, its allllll new material~ and oh heck the new stuff is all incredible! Volume 6 IMMEDIATELY introduces the best side character that’s been in the series yet and i cant wait for the second season of the anime to come out so i can see this character in the anime too heh
Unrelated- but volume 5 is the second book published by Square Enix Manga I’ve bought that’s had the cover incorrectly cut. Like, there’s extra material hanging off and it’s not cleanly cut, like the final stage of producing paperbacks is trimming the whole book to size, it’s like they did it with a dull blade. It’s weird! Not great imo. Talking of manufacturing defects, volume 6 has a massive scratch on the back cover. The shop I got it in had 3 copies with the same scratch. Square Enix has quality control issues
Perfect World Vol 2- 5
Fucking hell im SO MAD AT LITERALLY EVERY CHARACTER AROUND THESE TWO WHY CANT YOU ALL BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS. SO MUCJ OF THIS SYORY MAKES ME MAD IFGHJHHHGGHGG WHY CANT I SYOP reaDING IT - cant wait to buy more and get mad all over again.
Yokohama Station SF, Vol. 1
“Two hundred years ago, Yokohama station, which had been under constant construction, developed the ability to self-propagate.” Well that’s a weird premise! The station is alive(?) and slowly grows to cover all of Japan, apart from small “hollows” where it can’t get a foothold, maybe due to water or uneven terrain (the books say flat land was easier for the station to concrete over, but changes in elevation arnt impossible. the entirety of mount fuji in now covered in the stations escalators). People living inside the station need a ‘suika’ identity card or the automated turnstiles will eject them from the station, and people outside the station survive on garbage ejected from the station. This story follows a young man living in a small seaside village in a hollow who comes across a mysterious 5 day travel pass and is finally able to enter the station. BOOKS COOL AS HECK
How do we Relationship? Vol. 2
I suppose you could call volume 2 ‘the jealousy arc’ or maybe, the beginning of it. one of the great things about this book is just how real the characters are, and thats like, not just the main yuri protags, its every character in this little world. Everybodys going though something, but they are all dealing with that differently in ways that reinforce the central themes of whatever the current bundle of chapters is about in a way not many similar stories manage…. which is real good? Theres a real space here, its incredibly well plotted and tied together..
My Dear, Curse-Casting Vampiress Vol. 1
This was a random pick up from a local bookshop and turned out pretty good- if your into the whole “Loli vampire having oversized one sided feelings for some random guy who may or may not have super powers but 100% for sure has amnesia and they go vampire hunting together whilst a shadowy government organization monitors their every move” trope. I feel like there’s been lots of this exact story lol
Bonus: Audiobooks
Spice and Wolf Vol.5
The audiobook version continues to be real good, real recommended.
stuff in the pile for next week
Same as last week friends~ The Yuri pile is growning, ive got some new volumes coming in the mail of stuff i started in previous weeks that im excited about as well! I do want to get into some more of How do we Relationship? and im still staring at that big pile of Citrus thinking.... yeah... i could read that. will i? who knows! check in next week
