Reading Report: 07 June 2026

無職転生

サブマリン

Started reading this as my next novel. It's an 伊坂幸太郎 book so I expected it to be fairly good, and so far I haven't been disappointed. This is at least my sixth novel by him and he's consistently entertaining.

This novel is about a youth crimes investigator who is trying to get to the bottom of a case where a young boy stole a car and then ran into a jogger in the morning, killing the jogger instantly. As the investigation has gone on we've found out more about the youth's circumstances, including the revelation that his own parents were killed in a similar incident. 伊坂幸太郎 loves to write about crime and tough circumstances and I'm enjoying the juvenile crime angle of this book so far. The characters are very entertaining.

Cleanness

Right after submitting my last report the day before my flight I pushed myself to finish this novel so that I wouldn't feel compelled to bring it with me to America. I managed to complete it with good time. The last act is another set of three semi-disconnected vignettes, though the first chapter, The Harbour, references the final moments of the relationship from act 2 with R.

Chapter 2 in this section, The Little Saint, was quite emotionally powerful and I cried at the end of it. Like the second chapter of the book it's a hookup with another gay man but this time the MC is topping and the scene does a good job making you feel his flow (and lack thereof) during the whole encounter with the man he calls Svetcheto.

The last chapter of the book, An Evening Out, was also quite good. It deals with the MC spending an evening with his former students, and it touches on the difficulties of setting up one's life post-graduation, the lack of opportunities in Bulgaria, and the seemingly impossible push and pull of being a gay man and being uncertain if other men around you might be gay as well, or just friendly, or just nothing at all.

All in all I really liked my time with this book, though I think What Belongs to You was a more coherent story.

Venus in Furs

I brought this with me on the plane and read a bunch of it during my travels, and then finished it off after I landed on a sleepless morning. This is the book which apparently helped coin the term Masochism (because of the contents of this book plus the author name Leopold von Sacher-Masoch).

This is the story of a man called Severin who is so enamoured with the image of the goddess Venus wearing fur that he falls in love with a woman, Wanda, who fits his fantasy. He begs her to enslave him and treat him poorly, and she's quite reluctant at first, insisting that it's not in her nature. Long story short, he gets his wish and is enslaved by Wanda for a short while. Just like Sade's works, there's a bit of yapping about the role of men and women and the natural order of things. It's a book I feel enriched to have read, though I think, unlike Marquis de Sade's works, it's a less pure expression of its subject matter. Not only does Severin end up returning to a normal life at the end of the book, but Wanda's overall lack of enthusiasm means a lot of the story is just two people not really getting what they want.

メガロザリア

I read two volumes of this on the plane, and I'm now caught up to the current release of volumes. Volume 4 ended the convent arc. It concluded Kanna's story, which I found very touching. Volume 5 introduced a bunch of new ideas (maybe too many to be coherent) like revealing where Pamela's "Illusion" world is, revealing Pieta's (the angel child) power, bringing Rosalia's mother back into the story, raising the idea that Rosalia could be a McGuffin for greater plans, and way more. I wonder if they're trying to rush to an ending, meanwhile I was just enjoying the slow burn of the convent from volumes 3 and 4.

ダンダダン

I read two volumes of this. Volume 20 introduced Hakushiro, a girl who makes a covenant with the (invisible) little people that inhabit the world, and it also starts a trend of students at the high school being given the power-stealing knives we saw around volumes 18-19. Volume 21 has introduced a few more students making covenants, has brought Zuma back into the story, and created some hope for Momo's smallness curse to be lifted.

チェンソーマン

The final volume of Chainsaw Man came out so I read the last two volumes. It was just okay. I didn't care much for the ending but I didn't think it was super terrible.

無職転生

I don't remember why but I decided that I wanted to watch Mushoku Tensei for myself to see how I felt about the series. It turns out it's pretty good! I'm 14 episodes in, so I've finished the first season and started on the second. The last episode involved Rudy helping to protect the beast-kin village from raiders.

The premise is your typical isekai slop idea: a guy with no hopes or dreams dies in the real world and then wakes up in a fantasy world to start anew. I am not an isekai enjoyer by any means. However, I think this series has a strong world. From the first few episodes I like how much depth Rudy's parents are given, and how new ideas are slowly introduced, and in the second half of the first season I like how he's forced into a second controlled (but slightly larger and more volatile) environment while he tutors Eris. The episode that features the "event" in season one felt a bit rushed (a few too many characters introduced in succession in a way that made me care about none of them), and it also introduced a scene type that I don't really like where "God" hangs out with the spirit of Rudy, but it also introduces Ruijerd who I find to be quite a strong character who represents both safety and volatility for Rudy.
My biggest issue with the series is that I think the trauma about Rudy's past life is sort of washed over too soon. There's a short use of it early on when he doesn't want to leave the confines of his home, but it basically doesn't come up again at all. There are several scenes where he fails to act, fails to save someone, or accepts bullying by rude people, but he basically doesn't connect those moments to his past life. For a series that is so invested in him using this "second chance" to do better, it's not doing a great job showing growth.
One of the reasons I had avoided the series so long is because people constantly complain about how easy Rudy has it and how lecherous his character is. The character is a horndog for sure, but I find the trait mostly endearing, and the world itself is full of lots of characters (men and women) who are quite liberal about sex, and I actually find it very refreshing to see. Rudy is certainly a bit overpowered, but it's also clear that he would have died several times over in just the 14 episodes I've watched if not for others coming to his aid. He's certainly a powerful mage, but his magic only takes him so far.