Author: Jamie

I’m a Filipino American blogger, historian, and lazy writer. I enjoy books, video games, anime/manga, and smoking hookah.
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Hare-Kon.

My Thoughts

Harems are a dime a dozen in the world of anime and manga, portrayed as the ultimate male fantasy and often played for laughs, it’s a trope that is riddled with issues while not portraying polygamy with any real accuracy beyond gratuitous sex. For some, polygamy is an alternative lifestyle that can be fulfilling and painful for others.

Polygamy has been a vehicle for numerous abuses all over the world, and it is generally misunderstood by many that see it as free reign to cheat on partners. The truth is, there are committed polygamous relationships, but rules are set by those within the relationship in the same way that they are set by those in monogamous relationships.

“The Hare Kon will continue to push you to your limits and bring you agony. And as long as you continue to love me, I will continue to destroy you and will protect you forever. This is the form of my love to you.”

This series is pretty large, spanning nineteen volumes, the reader follows the ups and downs of a hare-kon family. In response to Japan’s declining birth rate and low marriages, a pioneering town decides to make polygamous marriages legal. With this, the readers are introduced to a marriage between a man and three completely different women, each one representing some favored romance tropes. Despite this, Hare-Kon faces the question of polygamous relationships head-on, showing the absolute worst sides of this kind of family set-up along with the joys and kinship that is possible with a large family.

To say that this series is frustrating is an understatement, there are many issues with the way that the story is presented spearheaded by a husband that is unabashedly detestable at times. Ryuunoske could be charming and funny, but he is also extremely selfish and manipulative. Koharu “falling in love” was also extremely weak, she goes overnight from hating that she feels forced into a sham marriage to suddenly deciding that her unhappiness must mean that she’s jealous and in love.

Understandably, reactions to this series have varied wildly with many people swinging from hating characters to loving them. Honestly, what made me keep coming back was the gorgeous artwork and a genuine interest in seeing if the series actually goes anywhere. It starts off extremely weak, but the middle volumes become stronger and even enjoyable with some genuinely heartfelt moments. Despite the issues, many of the characters are engaging whether they are likable or not, and the author did a marvelous job in stirring up conversation about harems in the medium that glorifies them the most, an achievement in and of itself.

Warnings: sex, gaslighting

three-half-stars
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The Secret of Friendship

Also by this author: High School Debut, My Love Story!!, Sensei!

My Thoughts

Maintaining a friendship after entering a new relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend is one of those tricky things to navigate, especially if your best friend is single. It is not uncommon in both manga and in reality for friends to slowly drift apart as more time is invested in the new relationship. The single best friend becomes a third wheel, and can sometimes end up feeling lonely or abandoned by their friend, it becomes something of an expectation in friendships. The Secret of Friendship, or Tomodachi no Hanashi, subverts that expectation and presents a strong female friendship that takes priority over a boyfriend.

Eiko and Moe are best friends and there is no one that can come between them. They are complete opposites, Eiko is average but cute in her own way, she’s good-natured and has no problem with compromising. Moe is beautiful, strong-willed and outspoken, and she often finds herself facing backlash for being herself. Eiko compliments Moe with her mutability to Moe’s fixed nature. Some could say that this power dynamic between friends is toxic and it is brought up, but Eiko and Moe are unbothered and are happy. Moe values her friendship with Eiko, and she knows that Eiko would feel left out if she were to have a boyfriend, so she puts her friend first.

“Finding one true friend was a lot harder than finding one hundred boyfriends.”

The story from there is really heartwarming as the girls navigate boyfriends, especially with Moe’s rule that any guy she dates has to be considerate of her best friend as well; causing trouble as can be expected. I enjoyed this depiction of a strong female friendship based on a solid foundation of mutual love and a genuine desire for the other person to be happy. I wished that the romantic interests in this story could have been a little better developed, there is a little bullying here which is uncomfortable. But overall it was pretty sweet and the friendship is the highlight here.

The bonus chapter, Sonokare, Shira Bemasu was beautifully drawn and had swoon-worthy main characters, but the short was only okay. You don’t get any real sense of chemistry between them. It’s a silly short about spying on a friend’s cheating boyfriend, and there is some commentary about relationships but altogether the story is pretty forgettable, especially right after reading the main story.

five-stars
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Hush Collection

Synopsis

A web of lies
Where do you go for truth in an age of social media illusions and deep divisions? How do you trust what you think you know about your friends and family? In stories featuring conspirators, psychics, deceptive lovers, and desperate killers, some of today’s most popular and award-winning crime writers explore the very nature of truth and the risks in uncovering the lies.

Book Ratings

My Thoughts

The Hush Collection is the first of Amazon’s Original Stories that I completed the entire collection and I had very mixed feelings. I am a huge fan of short literature and so I always love picking up these stories before I go to sleep or when I’m out traveling. I really wanted to like this collection more than I did, as the concept sounded great. The genres in this collection are all over the place, from dark satire to dystopia, so the collection feels a little disjointed from one story to the next. Crime is perhaps the only connecting genre, but even then it is a weak connection.

If anything I would sooner place these stories under the contemporary genre tag, as each one dealt in modern-day social issues, most notably the #MeToo movement which is at least mentioned in most stories. Let Her Be and Treasure also cast a spotlight on social media and influencers as central plot points.

Overall most of the stories I found to be merely okay, not because of poor writing but instead poor plotting and predictability. I outright hated The Gift but I seem to be in the minority on that one. It could be because these stories are shorts and they are not well suited to the short form. Actually, I was in the minority for a lot of my ratings, as Treasure ended up with the lowest average, but that was one of the ones I liked the most.

Buried is easily the strongest story in this series, and it helps that it is also the longest. This seems to be the consensus based on Goodreads as well, as it is the only story to maintain a rating over 4. If there was one story in the series that I would say was worth reading, it would definitely be this one.

Overall this collection was okay and would only recommend it for readers that really enjoy stories with some aspect of mystery with a lot of commentary about current social issues in America. At the very least, it is a decent introduction to a lot of authors and is a good way to see if that author’s work is for you. As a collection overall, I personally found it to be pretty weak and can easily be skipped if you are not interested in mystery/thriller authors.

In Summary

  • Pros: Decent mystery stories in different genres that are relevant to the modern age.
  • Cons: Many of the stories were only okay and had some issues, only one story that I would view as worth reading. I also didn’t care for the vague political commentary in most of the stories.
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Killing Stalking

My Thoughts

This manhwa was like a car that was driving wildly out of control toward tragedy and I felt like a bystander that couldn’t look away. Killing Stalking is perhaps one of the best psychological horror-thriller series I have ever read that is really plotted well. The plot moves at a startling pace, like an engine on full throttle up to the very end and it is an incredibly thrilling ride.

The main trio of characters⁠—Yoon Bum, Oh Sangwoo, and Yang Seungbae⁠—are all complex characters with strong moral grey areas in their personalities. I really enjoyed seeing each of these characters clash and unravel as the story goes deeper and deeper into their pasts and the way that their paths intersect.

“Do you know…? How to kill someone without killing them…?”

From the first chapter, I was hooked and I binge read this series, I was in so deep during the latter two volumes that I read each one in a single sitting, I just could not get enough of this series. The series is gruesome and tackles some very taboo subjects displayed in graphic detail due to Koogi’s phenomenal art, so I would not recommend it for the faint of heart. I felt genuine unease whenever Oh Sangwoo was in the scene, especially during the cat and mouse games that he and Yang Seungbae play. Sangwoo was genuinely a memorable and charismatic serial killer that reminded me of some of my favorite literary killers—Patrick Bateman from American Psycho or Harper Curtis from The Shining Girls. Charming devils that are almost pitiful in their relentless quest for power.

Mild spoilers ahead, but I feel that the romantic aspects of the story need to be addressed. There is debate as to whether this series constitutes as a boy’s love series due to the content and the nature of Sangwoo and Yoon Bum’s relationship. I’m personally in the camp that feels that it does not qualify as a boy’s love although there is a lot of romantic and sexual aspects to the story. Sangwoo states point blank that he is not homosexual, and his attraction to Bum is complicated and it is not just because of the abuse. I can’t delve deeper without going into major spoilers, but I caution anyone going in to not set up any expectations of a healthy romance in any capacity.

Warnings: explicit sex, sexual assault, rape, gaslighting, graphic violence, verbal abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, gore, death

five-stars
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Sweet Poolside

Also by this author: A Trail of Blood, Happiness, The Flowers of Evil

My Thoughts

The premise for this manga was ridiculous enough to pique my interest and I honestly don’t know what I expected. A teenage boy who hasn’t grown any body hair meets a girl with a lot of body hair, and the two band together to shave. There is some good commentary about the way that society judges both men and women about body hair underneath the obvious ecchi scenario of a boy shaving a girl. This little manga would definitely appeal to folks with trichophilia, particularly the ones that find shaving arousing.

Ayako actually has a normal amount of body hair, but like many teen girls is embarrassed by it. I could relate to Ayako in that way because bodily hair can be a source of teasing from other teens. When I was in middle school I didn’t shave my legs or my armpits, my mother had warned me to hold off on shaving as long as I could so that my hair wouldn’t grow hard and thick like hers and she was right, I had soft baby hair. I began shaving in seventh grade, after wearing a shirt vest that had no sleeves and I got ridiculed mercilessly by a boy in my class. I was so embarrassed I went home and took my dad’s razor to shave my armpits.

“Even though our genders are different, Gotou and I might actually be similar…”

Ayako struggles with shaving, cutting herself left and right. It sounds ridiculous but when you first start, especially when nervous and ashamed, it’s understandable. I too used to get tons of nicks and cuts because I was clumsy and would push too hard, so in a way the manga is not entirely unbelievable. Like many slice of life manga, the story does not really go anywhere beyond the strange shaving friendship shared between the two main characters. However, I liked the message that body hair is natural and beautiful, it is a message of body positivity that I didn’t expect to find in a silly ecchi manga but here we are.

Warnings: sexually explicit content

two-stars
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News of Transformations

Also by this author: There’s Nothing Wrong With Me, Prologue-Gymnopedies-

My Thoughts

Henshin no News is a collection of one-shot stories that explore human relationships and loneliness. It is an extremely experimental slice of life manga that comes to life due to Miyazaki’s unusual art style and expert storytelling in a relatively small package.

“It’s only when it’s time for goodbyes that I finally come to like everyone.”

Like most manga in the slice of life genre, many of the situations that the characters deal with are relatively mundane, but what sets this manga apart is that there is this element of the fantastical that removes the stories and the characters from reality. At times bordering on being absurd, Miyazaki weaves magical realism into her narrative smoothly and doesn’t compromise the central theme of relationships.

Each story has a character facing some form of a crisis and meditates on humanity’s propensity for loneliness and isolation. What is truly magnificent about this manga however is the way that humor is used to cut the tension, giving the collection a pure and dreamy feel. The last story in particular was fantastic for referencing manga legend Osamu Tezuka and it had me smiling from ear to ear.

While a little offbeat, Henshin no News is a hidden gem and I’ve never read anything quite like it. It subverted my expectations with every story and managed to make me feel extremely sad for each character while also making me laugh. It is a breath of fresh air and managed to be both serious and lighthearted at the same time.

four-stars