~ FIFTY MANGOES ~

INTRODUCTION

Hiya. You weren't supposed to stumble across this page, it was just meant to be me screaming into the void for the sheer fuck of it. but seeing as you're here I'll let you know what's going on.
I have been for the past couple of years learning Japanese, to mixed success (read: no success). Mainly focusing on the reading aspect (and the listening a little bit, when I can be arsed) but even then I've generally been doing the bare minimum so I don't forget what little I've already learned. That is, slugging through Core6k in Anki, dipping into Tae Kim's grammar guide on occasion, and doing a spot of reading here and there. The problem is, 'a spot of reading here and there' isn't enough to actually get any real learning done. I'm not running into vocab 'in the wild' enough for it to stick properly. So I decided (in like February, so a bit late for a New Years' Resolution) to up my reading this year, and set a goal of fifty volumes of manga. That's just under one a week, and should be doable. Last year I read like 23 (and two light novels, which made pulling teeth look like a massage in the Bahamas in comparison) but there was a lot of putting off and doing other things going on. With a bit of discipline fifty is definitely achievable.
This little site is to chronicle my crappy little reading journey, and to keep myself on the straight and narrow. Accountability, or something like that.

THE LOG

Newest at the bottom, opposite of your usual blog, so it can be read chronologically.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

12/02/25 - Current progress: 3/50
I decided to do this whole thing a little late - had I thought to start this as a New Years' Resolution maybe January wouldn't have been so darn lazy. So I'm effectively a couple of volumes behind at this point. So far this year it's been:

These took a while (couple of weeks each), mainly because I was only cracking them open when the occasion took me, reading at too leisurely a pace for there to be much cumulative benefit. But from now on (or moving forwards, for those of you who took your workplace bullshit bingo cards home from the workplace by mistake) I'm going to aim for a bit more speed. I'm thinking, we've got 321 days (ish) left in 2025, and 47 volumes to read, giving me 6.82... days per volume, or a little faster than one a week. Let's. Fucking. Go.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

19/02/25 - Current progress: 5/50
So I decided to crunch the numbers here. Five volumes read, and we're 50 days into the year. But if we want 50 volumes in a year, that's 50/365 = 0.1369... volumes a day, or 7.3 days per volume. So at this point we should have read 7.3 x 50 = 6.849... volumes. So I'm behind schedule by 1.849 volumes, give or take.
Don't worry, I'll catch up.

I read the 9th volume of Tonari no Seki-kun because I promised I'd buy a new series once I'd finished an unfinished one. Reading physical copies is just way better - I can read 'em anywhere, and close my bad eye and hold the book inches from my face when the furigana is printed dead small and I need it to look up a word. (In truth both eyes are bad, one's just worse at small distances.) Sadly, before I could even take down volume 10 of Seki-kun from the shelf and crack it open, I'd already scored a reasonable deal on the full set of Hidamari Sketch. Couldn't wait, could I? It was between that and Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou, but seeing as author つくみず's other series Shimeji Simulation is kinda trickier to read, I assumed teh 'sketch was going to be the friendlier of the two, the more geared towards learning. Learn some important words pertaining to art and latent lesbianism.

And talking of stuff that's tricky to read, I just this morning finished volume 4 of CITY by Keiichi Arawi. Tough stuff, seems to lie on the very cusp of my ability to read and make any sense of what's going on. slow going, lots of lookups of obscure words or really slangy things. but it's so good, absolutely love the art (except that some hands have this odd fin-like look to them occasionally) and the absolute wanton bending of manga design tropes and traditions for comic effect. They're animating this one some point in the future I think, which spurred me on to get the rest of this read. I'd read 1 through 3 a while back, at a rather more leisurely (read: lazy) pace.

Next up, the final Tonari no Seki-kun volume, and, I don't know, Azumanga Daioh for a change? I'll flip a coin or something.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

06/03/25 - Current progress: 7/50
That first volume of teh 'Daioh was a chore. Just way harder than it had any right to be. And I can't just blame unfamiliarity with Osaka's regional dialect type stuff either; it was everyone, every panel, every time. More slangy and casual than I'm used to? Less context with it being a yonkoma format with barely any background goings-on in the boxes? Or was it just because (gasp!) it's not that interesting?
I overexaggerate of course, the majority of it I read without too much trouble bar the odd Jisho.org lookup here and there. I think the problem can be summed up as thus (and I'm going to take hell for this (or at least I would if I had a guestbook or email address listed anywhere)) - Azumanga Daioh is kinda mid. There I said it.

How do I know? Because I picked up where I left off with Shimeji Simulation afterwards (Vol. 3) and read the first 70 or so pages of that, and while it's more difficult than Azumanga - loads of pure textwalls, strange wordplay and the like - it's actually really fucking good which makes all the difference. Makes me actually care about understanding everything. Whereas an Azumanga strip might have a textwall in the fourth panel, and if I'm tired or particularly lazy I'll just assume its a punchline on par with some of the rip-roaring zingers in other strips - Sakaki gets bitten by two cats! - and just kind of shrug and skip it. That doesn't make for great Japanese learning.

Oh, and I also housed the last volume of Tonari no Seki-kun too. Series is a piece of piss to read. I sort of divide things into two categories - intensive and extensive reading. Intensive being something I have to work through with aid of a lot of dictionary lookups, a bit of re-reading chapters to fully get everything that's going on, notepad and pen at the ready to jot down any vocab that ought to be made into an Anki flashcard. The aforementioned Shimeji Simulation, for example. And Extensive being something that I can just read in bed last thing at night, no dictionary to hand, and not a fuck given because I can just read through it and enjoy (bar the occasional new word I'll note down). The series Yotsuba fulfilled this niche last year, and Seki-kun here falls into a similar category. Gave me a bit of hope that I'm actually learning something here.

The LIST itself

Possibly the most screamingly boring section of the site for anyone apart from myself.

1.) 生徒会役員共 (Seitokai Yakuindomo) 1 (08/01/25)
2.) 私がモテないのはどう考えてもお前らが悪い！ (WataMote) Vol.2 (10/01/25)
3.) 日常 (Nichijou) Vol. 4 (07/02/25)
4.) となりの関くん (Tonari no Seki-kun)　第９巻 (17/02/25)
5.) CITY 第４巻 (19/02/25)
6.) あずまんが大王 (Azumanga Daioh) 1 (28/02/25)
7.) となりの関くん (Tonari no Seki-kun)　第10巻 (06/03/25)
8.) シメジシミュレーション (Shimeji Simulation)　第３巻 (10/03/25)

Coming soon: Rating various series, based on how useful they are to Japanese learners looking for reading practice. Points added for furigana, simpler vocab and such, points deducted for really confusing slang, really specific cultural references that are a pain to look up, and honestly maybe points deducted for too much furigana. Because then you find your eyes naturally veering to the right of the kanji and just reading the pronunciation. If it's really basic vocab then the training wheels just become a hindrance.
It'll happen once I can think of a heading less groanworthy than the apologies-to-geologists-everywhere 'Moe Scale of Hardness'.

Last updated 06/03/25.