Reading Report: 31 May 2026

メガロザリア vol 3

My final report before flying to the United States where I'll be staying for just under three months. Reports will continue as usual.

オオルリ流星群

オオルリ流星群 by 伊与原新

I finally finished reading this book. It turned out better than I expected, but it's the kind of thing where I couldn't wholeheartedly recommend it despite it's nice ending because the first 75% was just not very engaging.

The strongest characters for me ended up being Chika and Keiko. Their drama involving the loose love triangle between them and Keisuke drove a lot of great drama which ultimately lead to a fantastic moment where Keiko unpacked her feelings about Keisuke's death and then Chika was able to understand her better. There was a minor theme as the observatory was worked on during the August chapters where more and more past classmates came to help out and each of them was connected to the original Flycatcher Tapestry project from high school. For an event that Hisashi and Osamu remembered as strictly involving the six core members, it was heartwarming to see that people are willing to help however they can even in small ways. The story ended with two nice contributions from Ume-chan as well. First, he used his indie radio station to ask everyone in town to turn their lights off for the October 8th observatory opening to reduce light pollution and give Keiko the best chance of capturing the meteor shower. Second, he uses his radio equipment to help record and broadcast the "audio" produced by the meteor shower (which is close enough to how I predicted he would get involved way back at the start when his radio obsession was introduced). The story ends with Osamu finally forgiving Keisuke in his own way.

Cleanness

This week I read the second of three parts in this book. Part two focused on the main character's fleeting relationship with a Portuguese man called "R." who is in Bulgaria as a student. The three chapters in the part were called Cleanness, The Frog King, and A Valediction. I really enjoyed the first two chapters. Cleanness establishes just how difficult a "normal" gay relationship is to have in Bulgaria, how the MC and R. are forced to use coded language and body language to signal desire. It also includes a very interesting "confession" where R. tells the MC about how his uncle sexually abused him, and how he didn't want to have to tell him because no matter what by making it known it now changes everything about how MC will see him. The Frog King was a pleasant break from Bulgaria. The pair travel to Italy and are able to be a bit more open about their relationship. The time limit of the holiday reflects the time limit of their own relationship, and it's clear even from this chapter that R. will inevitably move on, because Bulgaria doesn't have anything for him, and MC is seemingly unable or unwilling to follow R. to where he goes. A Valediction is really just closure on the relationship, though it has a scene where R. asks MC what he should do and MC truly believes he could ask R. to stay and that he would... but he can't say it, because he knows that it would be selfish. After watching a street opera of a play that MC liked (influenced by a teacher that he probably had a crush on) he reflects that the opera didn't really give R. a good impression, and I wonder if that's just how MC feels about his entire impact on R. in this last week.

The Handmaid's Tale (TV)

Well I finished season 5 of the show. Seasons 4 and 5 both ended up being set more in Canada than I expected, though that also means the Gilead connection was particularly weak for that duration. June Osborne's gun obsession continued to be amusing, her relationship with Serena Waterford in season 5 was quite good, and it was sad but not unexpected to see Canada become more and more hostile to US refugees.

メガロザリア

Volume 3 of Megarosalia was pretty good! Since last time, Pamela confronts Rosalia and they're able to separate her from Melody and lock her in a dungeon. The prince that Rosalia likes comes to her and seemingly forgives her, saying he'd still like to marry her, but he has her put in a convent so that she can learn good manners. As you might expect, the convent is full of nasty women who don't like Rosalia very much. Meanwhile Melody convinces Pamela to let her return to Rosalia's side, but she's forced to turn time back one (1) second, setting the reverse-time limit to that moment, before she can go to Rosalia's side. Rosalia's bullies are slowly killed by a mysterious Thorn Woman (who is obviously her convent friend Kanna). After Melody enters the convent some of the girls torture her for being a witch and Rosalia kills the torturers. Pamela sends her sword to punish Rosalia for continuing to kill, and Kanna leads Rosalia and Melody into a hidden area in the building where they also meet a mysterious child witch with angel wings.