Reading Report: 20 September 2026

モンスターハンターストーリーズ２

Another week where I probably could have fallen deep into the Monster Hunter fugue state if not for some decisions to focus elsewhere.

モンスターハンター

More Monster Hunter XX. In our pursuit of バルファルク we helped ココット村 with some of their issues, as they promised to help us improve our airship speed in return for my hunting work. That involved hunting a handful of returning monsters that weren't included in low rank, such as ドボルベルク, ザボアザギル, and アグナコトル, each of which I enjoy fighting a lot (アグナコトル is actually my favourite monster design).

As the ranks increase and the fractal weapon trees branch out further I'm starting to regret my initial goal to create every gunlance. It's particularly bad when I make a brand new weapon which can only be made from another fully upgraded weapon and only upon creating the new weapon so I see it's also the source gunlance for several unique weapons. Also I've had some pretty bad luck with various monster parts, like ケチャワチャ ears which refuse to drop no matter how much I break them.

I've also started to notice the chaos of hunts really emerges in high rank as there are more and more 環境安定 quests. My first hunt against high rank ショウグンギザミ was interrupted by a ダイミョウザザミ who followed us wherever we went. It made that hunt way more memorable than it would have otherwise been, and I decided to put こやし玉 into my regular item set from then on, aha.

となりの席のヤツがそういう目で見てくる

The bulk of my reading was this manga. Maybe I had misremembered, but I thought I heard that the relationship in this manga developed relatively quickly. Well, they're still not "an item" as of volume 5, though it's also true to say they've basically been doing relationshippy things since as early as volume 2.

Volume 2 continues the school festival which was set up in the first volume, and it ends with a sweet moment where Ikezawa thanks Eguchi for helping him clean up afterwards when everyone else goes out to celebrate. In volume 3 the pair exchange their Line contacts and have a video call which is pretty cute. After that, Eguchi gets sick and Ikezawa gets the opportunity to see her house when he goes to deliver some school work. That detail later returns in volume 4 when he recommends a swimsuit with butterfly designs based on his observation of her fondness towards them. Speaking of which, volume 4 mostly focuses on a part time job the pair get involved in at a local indoor swimming pool and their date-not-a-date shopping for swimsuits. Volume 5 concludes their poolside work and also features a lengthy story arc at a 夏祭り (summer festival). At the festival they run into some of their classmates who ask both of them who they're with and both lie and say they're not there to be together. Ikezawa's friend immediately notices the lie and discreetly asks if he has feelings for Eguchi, which puts him into a state of confusion where he runs the last few months through his head trying to figure out if he really likes her or if it's just hormones. After running off, Ikezawa is found by Eguchi who came running after him. It's very clear that their feelings for each other are more than just physical, and it seems like the story is very close to a breaking point.

There were a handful of very sentimental scenes in the four volumes I read and despite being the kind of story that takes its time making the relationship "official", I'm not actually bothered by it very much, because the feelings conveyed in the story are still genuine and moving. I'm looking forward to reading the sixth volume next week.

モンスターハンターストーリーズ２　破滅の翼

After a week neglecting the game (right after I started it no less...) I returned to Stories 2. The first thing I did was clean up the local problems near the wyvernian village which amounted to issues as seen on Saturday Morning Cartoons. I defeated a イャンガルルガ to help a father search a cave for his daughter's precious jewellery, I helped to find three lost children (迷子) in the 迷子の森 (yes really) which resulted in a fight against ドボルベルク, and then I hunted an angry ナルガクルガ. Finally we were given permission to hatch our リオレウス egg, but before that happened we were also attacked by a corrupted リオレイア. After the レウス hatched with deformed wings we were informed that its exact deformity was foretold in the same prophecy that describes it as the 破滅の翼 (Wings of Destruction, the title of the game). However ゼラード, a guy who looks pretty evil from a character design perspective, says that the prophesied レウス specifically had sealed power, so if we unseal this one's power maybe it will break fate (or maybe he just wants to power up the evil within the monster (though even if that is the case I still expect this レウス to be inspired by our kind heart to be good anyway, eventually)). He tells us to go to クアン村 to find a wyvernian who can do an unsealing ritual, and ナビルー appears to know the person he's speaking about (maybe a character from Stories 1 I don't remember?). アルマ leaves our party and we headed off to the new area.

クアン村 is inside ロロスカ地方, a frigid area which demands the use of ホットミスト or else characters will miss their turns (similar to paralysis in Pokemon). Just on the path to the new village I found several monster nests and gathered about 5-6 unidentified eggs in addition to fighting a ボルボロス, ザボアザギル, and ドスバギィ. Further along the path we encountered an enraged ザボアザギル which was pretty scary, but I had experience from the random one I fought earlier and knew how to counter its attack triangle which gave me an edge. Half way through the battle a new party member, アユリア, joined the fray and helped us finish the monster off. アユリア uses a 狩猟笛 and has a companion ベリオロス called ヒョウガ. As of writing she has invited us to have lunch at her house where we'll discuss the whereabouts of the wyvernian we need to meet. Oh also as I was exploring I saw a sleeping ガムート which was very cool. I've previously seen sleeping ティガレックス (one which I've defeated!) and モノブロス but ガムート got me pretty excited. A severely underrated monster design.

『モンスターハンター』プレイ日記 本日ももっと！逆鱗日和

I wasn't expecting to start this quite so soon but I had a fairly long train ride this weekend and となりの席のヤツがそういう目で見てくる is ecchi enough at times that I decided to pivot away from it for the more crowded leg of my trip, so I started reading this instead. I got a surprisingly good amount of reading in just one day of the week (albeit ten or so pages were just covers and tables of contents and such).

This is the direct continuation of the last book I read (included in reports for the last 3 weeks). It's a collection of essays by Ozuka Kadoman, a writer for Famitsu, about his experience playing through the Monster Hunter series. This particular book is primarily focused on Monster Hunter Portable 2nd, though there is one chapter right at the end (according to the table of contents) where he plays a demo for Portable 2nd G.

I read at least 10 essays (each is only 2-3 pages) where much like his other book, Kadoman writes about monsters he fought and interactions with fellow hunters. In an essay about things he didn't know he reveals that the resource requirement for essential items between Monster Hunter 2 and Portable 2nd was changed quite a lot. He assumes his friend is rich for using Barrel Bomb G (the most powerful bomb) because in MH2 you need to combine normal barrel bombs with モンスターの濃汁. In MHP2 the requirement was changed to only require カクサンデメキン, a fish which can be found in the farm or even purchased from the travelling granny. Another item which had its requirements reduced was the Shock Trap. In MH2 apparently it required a trap tool and a 麻痺袋, but in MHP2 it was changed to a trap tool and a ゲネポスの麻痺牙, another item which is available at the granny or farmable from a common monster. In more modern games the requirement for shock traps has been reduced even further, requiring only 雷光虫 which can be found everywhere and farmed in the hundreds in many games.
Several essays are about his encounters with ナナ・テスカトリ, the female counterpart to テオ・テスカトル. It's interesting how so many accounts of ナナ are how powerful and scary she is, because my experience with her in P2G is that she's the weakest of the classic elder dragons, but maybe that's just because I played the game after MH4G (which has a fairly scary テオ・テスカトル) and just assumed she was the easier counterpart, and my mindset made me less frightened of her. I've heard people say she's the more dangerous elder dragon (between the two fire lords) in Monster Hunter World as well, though that has never been my experience either.