#cogs of time

Previous: Reading(+Watching)+Listening Log 2025.09 - September

Anyone who's not caught it yet: Seijo ni Uso wa Tsujinai's light novel by Hyuganatsu, the author of The Apothecary Diaries, is getting a German release by Dokico! (In English its manga adaptation is known as You Can't Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister. The Novel hasn't made it over there yet.)

Oh, and the limited edition comes with a variety of short stories that were shop exclusives in Japan.

You can get this German edition from the publisher's shop here.

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Reading languages: German, English, French, Japanese, not listing which was which. (There’s also been some meagerly continued music listening attempts at Chinese.)

Titles are, as I’ve read them, either the first or most read of, and thus I remember them for that title mostly.

Not going to bother putting in the original titles of translated reads unless there is something worthy of note to it.

Cursive titles mean the series got completed, or it was a one-shot. It may not be the last installment of the series, as I also read out of order sometimes.

Bold titles mean the ones that entertained or impressed me most.

If it says a volume number, it may mean it has been finished or is still in progress.

Some notes’ content may be subject to repetition here and there, as I also copy some older notes from casual conversations over into these logs and don’t go through any rounds of cutting things down.

I will freely use some very lunatastic terms like "cheese" and "fluff"; you can find an explanation here:  Luna-Lingo.

The notes are mostly hacked down rapidly and in a stream-of-consciousness style, without exactly a lot of proofreading.

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October

Light Novels/Web Novels/Asian Novels:

Cogs of Time v1p1-7 Dahlia in Bloom v10p1-V11p14 Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle Episode Freya LN Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle: Episode Lyu v1-2 Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Minor Myths and Legends v1 Lucia and the Loom: Weaving Her Way to Happiness v2-3 Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai v4p4-6 Natsu e no Tunnel, Sayonara no Deguchi edits The Apothecary Diaries v3 You Like Me, Not My Daughter?! V7

Manga:

Alkali Rettousei ch12 Dem Himmel zu fern Eigentlich lieb ich Dich v1-2 Given v8-9 Graineliers v1-3ch30 Helden der Östlichen Zhou Zeit v1ch8 Im Schatten der Fabriken Jenseits der Worte v2 Kara no Kioku ch43 Lauter gesagt als getan Lies mich noch bevor du stirbst Shanti ch3 Telecaster B-Boy ch6 The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom (Manga) v6 The Fearsome Witch Teaches in Another World (Manga): Ms. Aoi’s Lesson Plans v1ch5 The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses ch109-110 The Mercenary and the Novelist ch10-19 Though I am an Inept Villainess Manga v5ch24 Weathering With You v1-3 White Light Ceremony v1-V2ch12, v4ch20-25, v6ch33-38, v1Booklet, v2Booklet, v4Booklet

Webtoons:

Bloody Sweet v1ch5, v3-4ch19 Estelle - Der Morgenstern von Ersha v2ch17-29 King's Maker v2ch13-25 Solo Leveling: Ragnarok ch55-60 Soulmate v3 Sweet Bite Marks v1ch23, v3ch49-70, v5ch91-110

AMV/Dance Videos:

学姐圆 - 「伤」

Arrow - PIXELATED KISSES - Anime Mix

Azexous - [AMV] Hallucyne (Collab w⁄ lokkiclu)

JAKEH - scrap

BxP - [Oshi no Ko AMV] IGNITE MY HEART⁄⁄ Ethereal IC #5

Alyzia - Da Capo - AMV

Notes:

Cogs of Time v1p1-7: They shortened the title compared to the JNC contest entry sample. It was the first of the samples I had read and one of the three I liked and one of the four that I still remember at all, so I was looking forward to it. It's as nice of a read as it was in the sample and the buildup up of crime suspense and cheese tensions is well interwoven. The cheese is just a bit very foreseeable, but the whole setting gives it a bit of a Victorian Era touch, so that's fine I guess.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle Episode Freya LN: I accidentially got the manga v1 before when I planned to order this one years ago. I think I really disliked Freya in the main series before that, but over here, for the first time, she actually showed some more positive sides. And some other, less revealing outfit. The plot itself is fine, I guess, but it has that same syndrom as a shonen manga movie that has to stand on its own disconnected to the main series. And coming to it after catching up with the main series there wasn't anything really novel about Freya at all either.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle: Episode Lyu v1-2: This one, however, has v1 be just like the Freya spin-off, but v2 totally should have been part of the main story?! Well, it was conceived as such but cut because of length, as per the afterword, but still. On the other hand, I guess, the cut made Lyu's comeback as level 6 that much more impactfully badass.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Minor Myths and Legends v1: I hadn't known that this was basically just a collection of all the store-exclusive extras upon release back in the day. Thus, nothing of importance really happens in there. Except maybe those stories that were added exclusively for that volume, as they follow that Hermes familia member that Bell saves on his dating lesson adventures in the main series where it was teased that her story was to be told somewhere later. I had kinda expected she'd come back there, instead this is where it went?

Dahlia in Bloom v10p1-V11p14: I, uh, quite liked them as I read them, but bizarrely now (that would be about 3-4 months later) I have trouble remembering what even happened ... Well, aside from everyone conspiring in their have them date/marry already-plans.

Dahlia in Bloom v10p1-V11p14: I, uh, quite liked them as I read them, but bizarrely now (that would be about 3-4 months later) I have trouble remembering what even happened … Well, aside from everyone conspiring in their have them date/marry already-plans.

Lucia and the Loom: Weaving Her Way to Happiness v2-3: Everyone's complaining about Dahlia and Wolf not coming together, but if I daresay, Lucia is way, way worse than Dahlia? Let's compare this: Dahlia has Wolf on the palm of his hands and the man is happy with that, she silently broke Randolf's heart, but he knew what he was getting in there from the beginning. (And there was this random couturier guy in school who just up and thought he'd have no chances, because she used a noble ettiquette without knowing what it menat.) Then there goes Lucia: She actively broke a mans's heart knowingly; she caught the fancy of many, including two active recurring characters that definitely are just going to get their hearts broken Randolf-style and then one who is clever enough to keep his hands off of her. Dahlia hasn't broken anyone's heart with intent yet! How is she worse than Lucia?!

But in any case, the Golden Rule of Cheese surely will strike, but somehow at the end of v2, I kinda feared it would only happen over the funeral of Forto's present wife. Which kinda feels of for this series' kindness-vibes. Well, let's see if this one goes a queer route for a main character (side characters in Dahlia have done that long since.) On the other hand, there was this passing remark of two bridal dresses of a lesbian couple, so while the main series keeps asserting that it was a legal thing in that country, even if rare, that was the first time it actually showed up in the franchise.

You Like Me, Not My Daughter?! V7: This a whole load of a cheese fever dream; that just sounds way too good, too comfy (too dumb?) to be true, but on the other hand, there's just really nothing wrong with it and all the messages imbued to it about patchwork family, not-so-normal-looking relationships, gender conformity, gender role expectations, househusbandry etc.. I do think the world could use more works like these if nothing else than to have a few more positive examples of living out an ideal that seems to be impossible to even picture in reality.

Dem Himmel zu fern a.k.a Henyoku no Drops: In a word thousand years in the future, where cities have sunk into the sea, humans have learned to fly to escape the sea (and in the progress of which apparantely stopped being able to swim.) In a world where everyone (except one) can fly … … and while they do so all the time to the point they basically never run with their feet on the ground … … female students still wear skirts. Me: what But the art is pretty, and this world premise is definitely intriguing. And this is just one of these short volumes, where the plot is somewhat neatly round and wrapped up with a sufficiently uplifting mood and that your-are-not-alone-in-this-comfort cheese and at the time just having this setting of it sounds super interesting and it makes for pretty imagery, can there not be a whole series set in such a setting??

Given v8-9: I dunno, the ending ... did not stir anything at all for me. Not even sure why. I did get impressions from it at some point, but those all seem to have vaporized by now.

Graineliers v1-3ch30: I didn't know that v3 wasn't the last volume because of it being complete, rather than it went to maybe-forever-hiatus. The positive of that was the buildup is really interesting and builds the groundwork for a very intriguing world. The bad side if obviously that it just stops in the middle of nowhere after an arc.

Well, darn.

Im Schatten der Fabriken a.k.a. Koujou Yakei: One of those things you think, "It's good", it says something of importance that should be said more often, but at the same time, it's something I don't feel like I'd ever want to touch again. Like Perfect World it also feels kind of feels less visceral from a more personal point of view rather than somebody who took accounts of others and spinned a story from it because they thought it was important to give those voices more volume. In that vein it reminds me of Daisy in Fukushima, but it does feel a bit more ambivalent and less preachy. And compared to Perfect World it also kinda of fees more ... mature? overall in its approach. It does make me wonder if these heavy subjects are going to be the author's main pick now. (Shelterin Eaves sounds just as heavy.) One early afterword of Perfect World does picture out that that one's subject only happaned because one thought it may make for a premise, and then went researching and the way the matter is handled in there does display an open emphathical ear for the lives of those concerned.

Jenseits der Worte/Kemutai Hanashi v2: Well, it's still as good as ever even when TL-ing it. Though some signs remain the death of me. v2 is somewhat special because the last chapter of it was what landed like a bomb back in the days to have my jaw drop that heavily and that chapter is still one of those things which makes this series something I want everyone in the world to read just once. All the more painful it is that the sales of the German edition aren't particularly good. Which basically means the series isn't reaching a lot of eyes out there. Which is just, well, Sadness. (But are we truly surprised about that? Which might be even more of a sad thing.)

The Fearsome Witch Teaches in Another World (Manga): Ms. Aoi’s Lesson Plans v1ch5: Here goes the power fantasy super OP MC to mow down all the irrational morons of the world by brute force! Nothing new there, except that the MC is a she, which I guess makes it a tad more rare. Otherwise nothing really of note, it's mostly just one badassery showcase after another and I guess that is all it needs. (Admittedly there is some thought put into the mechanics, but ... do they really matter in face of this badass lady kicks some moronic asses?)

The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses ch109-110 (end): I can finally give up. No really, I just don't get it and likely I never will. The series doesn't exactly do anything wrong, It's simply just beyond me.

The Mercenary and the Novelist ch10-19: I did not quite expect this to turn Hard Science Fiction. And there is a whole deal of technobabble exposition dump there at the ending. But it did have be intruegued as to how it would continue. Not sure if it would be interesting enough to check out in Japanese, but if that ever got an English release I'd check it out.

Weathering With You v1-3: The only thing that I had in mind right after reading about it was ... pretty much anything in there is irresponsible. I dunno. I just don't like it. At all. It's not a terrible series, but just about anything about it just feels unpleasant.