Reading Report: 02 August 2026
モンスターハンター
I continued to play various Monster Hunters (mostly Wilds and P2G). In Wilds I finally cleared the Omega fight and in P2G I hunted enough Kirin to make the armour set. Very classic look.
砂漠
This week I finished the first act of this book (春) and started the next (夏). The first act was really satisfying. From last week, Toudou described Nishijima's obsession with getting better at bowling and how it gave her an interest in him. Later, Kitamura, Nishijima, and Torii go on a group blind-date (合コン) with some girls an acquaintance of Torii knows. The girls are mean, basically, and they're fairly cruel to Nishijima and another guy who was invited to the guy-side of the hangout. That evening they take the "fun" to a bowling alley and after some casual bowling, two mid-20s guys show up and start riling up Torii, challenging him to a for-money bowling contest. After being beaten, Torii is offered a "double or nothing" if he wants to try his luck again. He loses again and is once again offered to double the bet for another chance, and the bet ends up at about 4,000,000 yen (basically it will sting), and on top of that, to keep the game going, Torii stakes his place at school to keep the guys interested in fleecing him more, so if he fails to bowl three strikes (spares seem to be acceptable), he'll be forced to drop out of university as well. It all sounds ridiculous, and it is, but it's a kind of high-level university fantasy where the stakes get out of hand that plays out exactly how you imagine. Nishijima subs in for Torii (did his training help??) and Minami and Toudou show up and Minami secretly conspires with Kitamura to use her psychic abilities to help the final bowl hit a 4-10 split. And they pull it off, of course. Even though the other guys don't honour the bet by paying Torii out for the games, the team wins a moral victory and end the spring with a cool memory.
I've basically only started reading the Summer act, but so far there's a bit of movement in everyone's lives. Kitamura is sort of dating Hatomugi, a girl he met in spring when clothes shopping. Nishijima is working as a guard for some fancy joint, and the old guys there are roping him into mahjong games before he clocks off. And the gang may have become aware of the whereabouts of Presidentman, the cryptid-like street criminal who mugs people while asking "Are you the President of the United States???" (Nishijima thinks he's a hero).
妖狐×僕SS
After about a month break of not really watching any anime or Japanese audio immersion (aside from the small bits in Monster Hunter Wilds), I finally finished this series.
Riricho finally confesses to her servant, and Kagerou, her betrothed fiance, seems to take it pretty well honestly. Even after they've confessed their interest in each other, Riricho and Sou kind of lack chemistry, and we barely see much of them settling into their new relationship.
The final episode OVA special thing was pretty funny. It included three vignettes which were each amusing. The "Switch" and "Playing House" vignettes were especially funny.