2022 Year in Review

Japanese Input

It's December 31st 2022. 2022 has been a year of steady progress, of breaking goals, and of new discoveries. Let's go through some achievements of the year! (very long post below the break)

As most people who know me are aware, I've been learning Japanese through immersion since the latter half of 2019. My input only really started shooting off in 2021 when I read my first Japanese novel, コンビニ人間 by 村田沙耶香. In 2021 I read 7 novels in total. This year I wanted to push my goals a little bit further so I targeted 10 novels and 150 volumes of manga. In the end I was able to meet both goals fairly comfortably. I finished my tenth novel early in December and I broke 150 manga shortly afterwards, managing 175 volumes in total.

Books

Among novels read in 2022 my number one highest recommendation has to be...
絶唱 (Zesshou) by 湊かなえ (Minato Kanae) 絶唱 is a novel split into four short stories, each loosely tied to the events of the Kobe earthquake of 1995, but also by the tiny island kingdom of Tonga. It was a truly challenging book not only linguistically, but also emotionally. It's about community, grieving, relationships, faith, and family. Massive recommendation. 5 stars.

星が吸う水 (Hoshi ga Suu Mizu) by 村田沙耶香 (Murata Sayaka) This was my third Murata Sayaka book and it's my second favourite so far (My favourite was 地球星人 but I read that in 2021). Like all of Murata's works it has a strong focus on questioning the norms of society. Murata writes female characters who truly feel like they're struggling against the the world expects of them. 星が吸う水 is broken into two stories. The first is the titular 星が吸う水 and the latter was the far more interesting (imo) ガマズミ航海 (Gamazumi Koukai). The second story is all about two women who don't feel satisfied with their current sexual situations and decide to experiment with each other. The descriptions of how they go about that experimentation was really engaging and I felt really connected to the main character while reading.

エロマンガスタディーズ (Eromanga Studies) by 永山薫 (Nagayama Kaoru) One of two non-fiction books I read this year but probably one of the most interesting conceptually for me. More about this will come up in a later section of this Year in Review but I translate erotic manga semi-professionally. I originally bought this and エロマンガ表現史 (by 稀見理都) as self-study material. I thought if I knew more about types of Japanese erotic expression it would help me to understand the minds and motivations of the creators I was translating. エロマンガ表現史 (The History of Eromanga Expression) certainly helped me with that, and by the time I finished reading it I felt like my senses were sharpened and my vocabulary was broadened. But エロマンガスタディーズ had a different effect. After a relatively brief history lesson on the birth, development, and current (to 2010) state of eromanga, the book changes focus to discuss the specific sub-categories of expression such as lolicon, incest, bondage, and gender non-conforming individuals. Nagayama showed a deep understanding of the motivations of why those types of stories are told, why they have value artistically, and also how readers often engage with those types of expressions. I think there's a lot of value in exploring these things in a scientific/objective way and I hope to read more like it in the future.

The remaining books I read included (in order of reading):

京都寺町三条のホームズ ★★★☆☆
沈黙のパレード ★★★★☆
時空旅行者の砂時計 ★★★★☆
神とさざなみの密室 ★★☆☆☆
君の膵臓をたべたい ★★★★☆
エロマンガ表現史 ★★★★★
サマータイムレンダ2026異聞百景 ★★★☆☆

Manga

Categorising every manga I read this year would be a monumental task so instead I'll just direct you to check out my Bookmeter account where you can see what I read in reverse-chronological order. As for the Best of 2022, let's have a look...
ヒメゴト～十九歳の制服 (Himegoto - Jyuukyusai no seifuku) by 峰浪りょう (Minenami Ryou) Honourable mention to everything Minenami has ever written. I actually sort of read her catalogue in reverse-order. 少年のアビス (Shounen no Abyss) was recommended to me as a heartbreaking story set in a sad and dreary town. After I finished reading the current releases to that point (Vol 8) I decided to try some other manga by Minenami. Himegoto was the next series in that list and I'm truly glad to have read it. It follows the lives of three university students as they navigate their feelings in the transition between childhood and adulthood. I felt like I could relate strongly to each of the main characters and when I finished the story I felt a new fire within me to be the best kind of person I could be.

ルックバック (Look Back) by 藤本タツキ (Fujimoto Tatsuki) Right on the heels of Himegoto, before reading (the pretty disappointing but still interesting) 初恋ゾンビ, I decided to try one of Fujimoto's one-shots to test the waters of his writing. At the time (mid April) I wasn't really sold on the premise of Chainsaw Man so I had mostly avoided his works, but Look Back was included in some recommendation lists and a single-volume story is an easy enough buy-in to give it a try. I was absolutely blown away by the expert blending of humour and tragedy in this story. Even though it was only 200-odd pages it was so well paced, so beautiful, so funny, and so heart wrenching. Honourable mention to さよなら絵梨 (Sayonara Eri), his other one-shot released this year. It has some really interesting things to say about immortality through the creation of art, what it means to represent the "true" story, and what it means to be both the creator and subject of art.

チェンソーマン (Chainsaw Man) by 藤本タツキ (Fujimoto Tatsuki) I mean of course. The simple truth is that Look Back was no fluke. I do personally find some of the humour a bit needless but as a series I am well fed by the grounded pathos and slow build towards tragedy. While Denji's originally stated goals are pretty dumb, I remember being moved to tears by his monologue about how he felt empty after obtaining the thing he had been chasing his whole life. I found the original 11 volume story to be incredibly well paced, and even though it's basically an open secret that Makima is evil I think the way the story leans on character motivations right to the end is really strong.

Other Honourable Mentions
明日、私は誰かのカノジョ (Ashita, Watashi ha Dareka no Kanojo) by をのひなお (Wono Hinao)
Has a really strong first volume and also does an interesting thing where COVID literally happens in the story. Up to the latest volume it is still a concern for the characters and is treated very realistically. Since the story is about sex work (and other ways people sell their bodies, usually in entertainment) it makes sense for such a major event to affect things.
タコピーの原罪 (Takopi no Genzai) by タイザン５ (Daizan 5)
A short-and-sweet 2-volume story. Extremely depressing but also charming. Incidentally it also included COVID as a minor plot point in volume 2.
メイドインアビス (Made in Abyss) by つくしあきひと (Tsukushi Akihito) I initially watched the anime at the start of the year and was charmed by the world and danger presented. I definitely enjoyed it but to be honest, after reading Volume 11 I'm a bit less confident that the story can be pulled off.
徒花 (Adabana) by NON
A 3-volume mystery series about two girls in a small town. The art is gorgeous and the story is pretty engaging, but I felt like the pacing was a bit off in the third volume and I didn't feel the catharsis that I think was intended in the final moments.
ダンダダン by 龍幸伸
This might have ranked higher for me but it's still an ongoing series and I'm not sure I've settled on it in my mind yet. I will say that the art is absolutely beautiful. It may be the manga with the most readable action scenes that I've read to date. Every character is also dripped out like a fashion god. Arguably the most "let's fight our way out of this problem" manga on the list, but if you're into that it's really good. Also the romance between the main two characters is really cute and doesn't just feel like fluff, so that's a huge plus.

Games

For some reason I just found it hard to find time to justify gaming this year. Games that I finished included:

13 Sentinels
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Dragon Quest X (V5 and V6 up to 6.2)

They were all very nice. I also played some of (but didn't finish):

Sekiro
Signalis
Vampire Survivors
The House in Fata Morgana

Output/Translation

Finally, this year starting in May I decided to get my feet wet by beginning to translate from Japanese to English. It's been a big learning experience and I certainly still stumble my way through a lot of it, but I find so much joy in translating that I'm excited to keep improving and developing my skills more within the industry. My first translation project is a bit of an open secret but since it was an unlicensed fan-translation I won't name it here. I was truly of two minds translating it and decided that I'd prefer to translate with permission from then on. With the assistance of some friends I made connections with some small (but much larger than me) twitter artists and translated some of their webcomics. After that I decided to try out the DLsite Translators United program and signed on to do some doujinshi translations. While I have plenty of misgivings about how Translators United is operated, it has been a rewarding experience. After translating a handful of releases I signed up for a slightly more professional relationship with DLsite and have continued to work with them ever since. To date I've translated over 22 individual works of varying lengths, a total of over 1,111 pages! Between all commercial releases with my name (even loosely) attached, sales of my translations have totalled just under 500. Including one project which was released for free (as a promotion for a larger thing) that number exceeds 1500 copies! It makes me genuinely happy to be a part of bringing Japanese art to the west. A link to all of my currently available translations can be found here. Going back to my first translation I can see so many places that I wish I could do over. So many lines that I want to iron out, make more snappy, make more faithful, better express the original intent... but that's the cost of growing as an artist, and translation is a type of art worth honing and getting right.

2022 What Did I Learn?

I honestly feel like a totally different person today when I compare myself to my levels of confidence in January. I'm reading significantly faster, I believe I'm understanding more, and I'm (slightly) better at expressing my understanding of Japanese to those who ask for my help.

Disappointments

Just like last year, there was a sorry lack of audio immersion. I begun to watch Gundam from the first series (UC0079) but sort of fell off early into Z Gundam. I listened to exactly one audiobook, 生命式 by 村田沙耶香 but the cost was prohibitively expensive and I had trouble staying focused for the amount of time asked. I recognise that it's an area of my study that needs work and I'm trying to find ways to resolve it without losing all my motivation.

What's Next?

In 2023 I'm returning to University to increase my opportunities. Unlike this year where I was fairly unoccupied with real life, next year is going to be fairly hectic between continuing to translate, starting study, and managing other things in my personal life. With that in mind I don't plan to increase my goals much. If I can finish 10 more novels and a similar amount of manga as 2022 I'll be satisfied. I'd like to increase the amount of stuff I watch and listen to. This year I felt the seed of a desire to output as well, so perhaps 2023 is the year that comes out more. I also have loose plans to try for the JLPT N2.