In a fun twist, rather than New Year’s Resolutions dominating my social media feeds, I’ve scrolled through book requests for reading challenges and friends gathering suggestions for their yearly book lists. It looks fun to do.
Unfortunately, I’m certain if I chose to do one of these challenges my friends will use the opportunity to finally strong arm me into reading their favorite books. Not that there is anything wrong with their favorites. In fact, many of them I’d read. Someday. The problem is that I’m a human who knows exactly what she likes in a story, somewhere between iyashikei, fantasy, tales of female friendship, and what I can describe as queer, intergalactic horny (?) with the occasional splash of horror. It makes sense on paper.
Not to mention the preorders I’ve yet to pick up. So I’m making my own reading goal, at no risk of disappointing my friends so soon into the year!
The idea was largely inspired by a video from Colleen’s Manga Recs in which she ranked the 16 manga series she challenged herself to read in 2023. And because I’m not nearly as ambitious, I’ll be striving to read five series over the course of the year.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
Elf mage Frieren and her courageous fellow adventurers have defeated the Demon King and brought peace to the land. After one last adventure to see the Era Meteor shower, Himmel, the human hero of their group, dies of old age. During the funeral, Frieren expressed guilt for not attempting to learn more about him. And so Frieren starts a new journey north, to the resting place of souls, and see Himmel again to bid him a fitting farewell and express her feelings.
What the rest of her party considers the adventure of a lifetime to bring harmony to the world is a fleeting experience for Frieren. A small moment in what will be a long life for her. How do you even begin to understand what life means to those around you when your own will be so long?
When I think about finally getting time to read this manga, I get excited to see Frieren grow and learn how to connect with others on a deeper level.
What Did You Eat Yesterday?
A slice of life series that follows Shiro Kakei and Kenji Yabuki, a middle aged gay couple as they encounter a particular comedic or dramatic scenario, often focused around issues of domestic life, workplace humor, and LGBT rights in Japan.
Many of those same chapters also depict a sequence in which Shiro, a gourmand, purchases food and prepares a meal for himself and Kenji. Shiro narrates the steps to create each dish through his internal monologue, and frequently prepares meals that have significance in relation to the plot or themes of the chapter. And there are recipes at the end of each chapter! Just how all manga with a considerable focus on food should be.
Silver Spoon
After failing to pass the entrance examinations for the high school he planned to attend, Yuugo Hachiken moves away from his suburban home and enrolls at Ooezo Agricultural High School in the countryside. However, he soon learns that life at an agricultural school is not as easy as he first believed. Even as he worries about his own future when compared to his new classmates, Hachiken finds himself slowly getting used to his new environment and grows into an empathetic and compassionate individual as he tries to understand the world of agriculture and how it affects the lives of his new friends.
A slice of life story about a young man trying to discover what he wants in life while dealing with the expectations of his family? At this point, I think I’ll read anything by Hiromu Arakawa.
Hozuki’s Coolheadedness
An ogre-like demon and former human Hozuki works as Chief of Staff under Enma, the King and Head Judge of Hell, who determines what kind of hell the dead will be sent to. The serious-minded Hozuki attempts to manage and troubleshoot unusual problems that occur in the Japanese hell. When he isn’t solving said problems with physical violence, Hozuki interacts with various characters in the underworld and raises goldfish plants in his spare time.
Hozuki’s Coolheadedness is an anime I watched years ago and wanted to get around to reading. Hozuki’s stoic personality in the quite literal hellish workplace setting aligns with my specific humor.
When A Cat Faces West
Flow, the phenomenon that occurs when matter falls out of balance and changes form, creating oddities big and small that can be disruptive or delightful in equal measure. The Flow Disposal departments and independent contractors are responsible for shepherding the Flow back to its natural form.
As someone affected by Flow, Chima Kondo, a 35-year-old woman stuck in the body of a 12-year-old, knows how critical it is to understands how Flow works. But when she joins Flow Disposal contractors Hirota and Shacho of Hirota Flow Inc., she finds that there’s more to Flow than she once knew, and plenty more to find out.
A shorter 3-volume work from Yuki Urushibara, mangaka of Mushishi! I was shocked when I stumbled upon this title, mostly because I never considered Yuki Urushibara creating another series after Mushishi. And I could wax poetics about Ginko and the world of mushi he inhabits but this isn’t a post about Mushishi. But perhaps something similar.
And that’s the 2024 list! I’ll continue reading my current ongoing series as they release. I considered adding Skip and Loafer but I don’t want to have too many ongoing mangas to keep track of for my goal. Maybe I’ll start another longer series if I clear through these five. (Thinks longingly of Yona of the Dawn.) But we’re not even out of the first month. That means plenty of reading possibilities.
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Reading Rites 