Japanese Reading Report: 16 March 2025

２ちゃんねる化する世界

This week I read through almost two full chapters. The first was about the spread of misinformation and the way social media (in this case, 2chan) helps malicious actors manipulate the message. The second chapter was about the birth of J Anon, a name used to categorise a few different interest groups and people in Japan who share far-right political views and other "alternative" perspectives of the world.

I'm not going to lie, this book has become a real drag to read since the latest chapter. In theory it covers some interesting topics, but the chapter has largely been a wall of proper nouns, organisations with very similar names, and a bunch of boring history without interesting connections to 2chan (the reason I was curious about the book). I'm so glad there are only 40 pages remaining, because I can't wait to get my hands on a well-written fiction novel or something.

カードキャプターさくら

This week the total episode count was fairly slim, and I felt bad enough about it that I've decided to recommit myself to ensuring I'm fitting anime in every day. So anyway, this week was pretty full of important episodes.

Mizuki continued to ominously appear in Sakura's dreams and always happened to be at the locations of various misbehaving cards, Mei-ling finally became a likeable and interesting character (and then she's shipped back home...), and Sakura and Xiaolang grow a bit closer. Sakura finally collected all the cards and restored power to Kerochan, but then... well, let's just say there was a cliffhanger. I look forward to seeing how this arc concludes tonight, and I'm curious what's next for the story.

よつばと！

I actually read this on March 3rd and forgot to report on it! This manga continues to be a masterpiece. The latest volume is full of great moments between Yotsuba and Yanda, and Yotsuba and her friends. It has a huge number of new, cute faces. Just very good. Read Yotsuba!