Reading Report: 13 September 2026

『モンスターハンター』プレイ日記 本日も逆鱗日和

『モンスターハンター』プレイ日記 本日も逆鱗日和

This week I completed the book. The last series of essays covered Monster Hunter Portable 2nd and finished with a brief interview with the series director Fujioka Kaname (who directed MH1, G and 2 but not Portable or Portable 2nd).

After a boring essay about waiting in line to get P2nd, there were a handful of funny and/or interesting essays. As a gunlance main in 2(Dos), Kadoman says he noticed that the weapon got a bunch of buffs in P2nd. However, this realisation actually makes him wonder if he wants to use the weapon, and then his co-worker/fellow hunter suggests to him that maybe he was attracted to gunlance precisely because it's an underpowered weapon that he could blame for his poor performance. She (I'm pretty sure the coworker is a woman but maybe it's just the hunter avatar) then suggests that Kadoman is a masochist. In his own assessment of the weapon, Kadoman says maybe gunlance is a weapon which is a good fit for masochists and as someone who enjoys the gunlance I can't disagree! There are a handful of other essays about his experience with weapons other than gunlance, and a handful of essays about the various herbivores that ruin his day, like the ガウシカ that go "おうおうおう！" and slap him when he's carrying wyvern eggs, and the アプケロス who, unlike their docile アプトノス brothers, will travel the entire map length to headbutt him while he's sharpening or gathering. I think the aggro behaviour of small monsters is a point of charm of Monster Hunter.

In the interview with Fujioka they discuss how monsters don't have health bars, which was a big departure from action games at the time. Fujioka says they initially didn't want the hunter to have a health bar either, but ultimately decided that health and stamina are fairly unobtrusive in their final form in the games. It made me think about how many of the systems in MH are obscured purposefully and it makes for a more immersive experience, and it's why a lot of systems since World that peel away that layer feel undesirable to a lot of old hunters. It's honestly just one of those issues of conveyance, like when イャンクック's ears are pinned back everyone knows it's within capture range. That information is just as obvious as a blue "I'm dying" sprite next to the monster icon, but one of those expressions requires the monster to have a unique design consideration that I think players appreciate. Other than that the interview was pretty dry and mostly just Kadoman glazing Fujioka, so I'll spare the details.

So I'm done with the book. There are eight more books in this series, spanning over a decade of games up until Monster Hunter 4G (I believe, at least 4th gen). I'm sort of 50/50 on whether I want to read the next book in the series. I wonder how he could possibly milk the games for more writing content, but I'm also curious about his reactions to various changes made throughout the games. Either way I'm gonna clean up some manga for the next week before I make a decision.

モンスターハンター

Another week of mostly MHXX. I completed village and hub low rank, nearly full-clearing each star in those. I finally moved onto village high rank, which is a story mostly focused on pursuing バルファルク, a mysterious silver-red dragon. It's sort of interesting how the quest list expands in village 7★ perhaps because they didn't want to bloat the stars. You start with a fairly slim monster list, but then there's a semi-urgent quest to hunt a particular monster, and then the list expands within the star, and then you repeat that again. The second expansion required hunting a ロアルドロス for ユクモ村 and as a thanks they provide their expert wood and carpentry to reinforce the airship. There are so many details in the story that can be completely ignored, and I actively have to slow myself down from mashing the text boxes sometimes, but I'm trying to be more engaged with the story during this play through.

となりの席のヤツがそういう目で見てくる

I had a copy of the first two volumes of this so I thought I'd give it a try. The story basically follows the blossoming romance of two Japanese students who have started to "notice" each other's bodies. Where the manga stands out is its equal representation of ogling the male character, Ikezawa, as much as the female character, Eguchi. In fact, while it's clear that Ikezawa ogles Eguchi (and the panels and art reflect that for the viewer), her counter-ogling is far more prolific and initially does a lot of psychic damage to Ikezawa. Despite Ikezawa's discomfort, at times he encourages Eguchi and it's clear from the writing that the two characters like each other a lot. The chapters are short and plentiful giving the volume a rapid pace that feels more like a highlight reel of their relationship, but I didn't mind it. I'll probably read the second volume soon.