Japanese Reading Report: 14 December 2025

Veil

ファタモルガーナの館

Progress with this game was looking a bit dire, but it was saved off the back of a 3-hour play session on Saturday.

I finished the second key bearer's story, experienced another weird semi-flashback that showed a bit more of Morgana's life, and started making moves towards the third key bearer. I sort of felt like the leap from just chatting with other characters to being in a conversation with that key bearer was sudden. We've also started interrogating him right away, insisting that the life he's constructed in this timeline is not the whole truth, and that he's hiding some softness underneath his pompous personality.

At one point during the interrogation I had a choice to make. I made the correct choice first, but I reloaded the game to see if anything interesting would happen in the wrong path, and it did ultimately take me to ending 6 (a fairly disappointing ending where Morgana mistook me for the third key bearer, didn't want to listen to reason, and cursed me to death). Retreading the correct path, I seem to be in the third key bearer's backstory now.

Veil

Not too much to note about this volume, and I probably won't continue this series now that I've finished the volumes I own. Volume 6 felt a bit more intimate than previous ones. There were a lot of chapters where the characters touched and shared a bed, though it never really felt sexually charged in any way. It's a sort of glamorous, sexless relationship.

ワンピース

This week One Piece seemed to be basically filler. From the final few episodes within the Alabasta season which had basically no narrative value, to the start of the new season (Sky Island?) which so far has just been a few semi-unimportant longer stories about random characters. I suppose I don't know what One Piece is meant to be about, but it feels like it's not about much right now.

チェンソーマン

I feel like I finally escaped the weeds of the latest arc with these two volumes. The 老いの悪魔 was just sort of tiring, so I'm glad to be beyond it. The dynamic between Asa/Yoru and Denji now is a bit weird, but I think it leaves some space for something potentially interesting. The end of volume 21 also built up and revealed the appearance of the 死の悪魔, which maybe means we're getting towards the end of this whole part.

ジーンブライド

This is a 4-part manga that I bought while looking for 少女 manga. The title just seemed interesting I guess. Well, unfortunately it wasn't very good, so I regret buying all four volumes right away. Basically the story is about a successful career woman whose life is shaken up by the appearance of an old highschool classmate who claims she is his "gene bride", a type of fated partner. Basically that whole gimmick means nothing for the rest of the volume and it seems like it was just an excuse to get this woman interested in the guy's extremely quirky life. It has some funny writing, particularly when the guy's quirks intersect with the outside world. In one chapter he loses his bank card (it turns out it was in his old phone case) and the main woman visits his house to help him find it. The guy's house is extremely weird, and he sorts all the objects in his house in numbered drawers.