Reading Report: 25 December 2022
I had a productive reading week, finishing up the current releases of ダンダダン and finally catching up with 無能なナナ. I also read some よつばと！ throughout the week.
ダンダダン 4冊 (4-7) It's a bit hard to assess this series since in one sense I'm "done" with it, but in another sense there are so many loose ends promised to be paid off in future volumes. Volume 4 introduces yet another main character, Jiji, who is the osananajimi of Ayase. He's very energetic, a big flirt, and physically the opposite of Takakura. The majority of the following volumes are about Jiji's problem; his house is "haunted" and they go there to investigate. Things don't really work out as expected and Jiji ends up sort of in a worse place for it, and the latest volume still has his problem unresolved. A highlight for me is definitely Ayase and Takakura's romance. They seem to really like each other, and while they aren't overt about it, I like that they do engage in different types of skinship in later volumes (particularly hand-holding).
よつばと! 4冊 (5-8) The gremlin series continues to be absolutely goated. Since so many chapters are individually amazing and I don't want to just recount the events it's a bit hard to describe any "themes" but I want to talk about how much I like the in-jokes and continuing storylines throughout the books. Volume 5 has Miura dress up as a robot for one chapter. Yotsuba walks in on her dressed up and mistakenly thinks she's a real robot. Ena forces Miura to play along and it goes so far that Miura has to return home to get changed before she can return to the house. In a later chapter, "Recycling" in volume 6, Miura is about to mention that her homework for the summer was to make the cardboard robot but Ena hastily throws a pillow at her face and reminds the reader of the previous volume's events. I think basically every chapter can be enjoyed individually but the narrative is chronological and pays off reading in sequence. One of the best characters, Yanda, is also introduced in Volume 5. He is Yotsuba's nemesis and every time he shows up he intentionally goes out of his way to antagonise Yotsuba. The breakpoint where he decides he wants to come to the farm with everyone and Yotsuba snaps at him is just amazing.
無能なナナ Vol 10 The last time I read a volume of this was in March of this year. Despite the gap in reading it wasn't too hard to pick up the plot points as they came back. The language used in this was noticeably more difficult than ダンダダン or よつばと！ (obviously) and volumes of ナナ are a bit longer than average, reaching about 260 in this case. The main new power introduced in this volume is a girl who can ||turn back time for herself and those she "includes" by 1 day, with certain limitations||. The way she activates the power is by marking the wrist of her targets which plays into some of the problem solving for Nana. It was interesting to see someone come up with a solution to something seemingly unwinnable like that.