koberreads's reviews
99 reviews

Sakamoto Days, Vol. 1 by Yuto Suzuki

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Fit for those who want to read a manga John Wick but this time John Wick didnt lose his love ones all of a sudden and actually follows a rule not to kill or give lethal wounds

I dont know how the sidekick got mind reading powers but I like it hahha and yes I am glad there is a chinese character side girl
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Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 19 by Gege Akutami

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adventurous challenging dark tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Intense and adventerous as usual

The receipts villain is craeted but annoying to the point that it reminds of sometiems of the taylor swift lucky dude that almost killed megumi
Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 18 by Gege Akutami

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adventurous challenging dark tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Intense and adventerous as usual.

Higher games like theme and panda vs itadori is basically a reference to Tekken/street fighter.
Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 17 by Gege Akutami

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

One of the most intense volumes yet. Must read who love JJK or want a dark intense anime and about familial troubled but note that you should start from volume 1

Zenin clan all dying at once because she became the new Toji character is so unexpected but asshole Zenin clan deserve it after treating badly the twins. I love that this speaks volumes regarding Japan's too tight and strict family expectations and putting pressure on their children to fulfill their unfulfilled dreams. Some other cultures have this as well but this manga portrays it inan extreme sense



Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku, Vol. 13 by Yuji Kaku

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Suited for someone who wants thrilling unexpected adventure about ancient times in a mysterious island and with both despicable and lovable characters 

You will most likely love the ending if not at least be at peace with it. And just be shocked, like what journey! Never thought we would made it here



SPOILER ALERT
Yui is not an illusion and Gabimaru sleeps


Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 8 by Gege Akutami

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


This is a manga fit for people who want to find a if not great for your standards, but at least good, regarding great action, darkness of human nature, in the background of a modern age Japan that has secret society that fights monsters that are often not within radar of awareness of your everyday citizen or what Geto would say "monkey". Those who have followed JJK manga series would find this volume rather exciting than previous because it is the very beginning (much more early time than JJK 0 mangaseries) mostly focused on Gojo and Geto friendship and other earlier characters and
how it all fell apart so beautifully and tragically


Since this is manga series, often a review mostly field with SPOILERS
SO SPOLIER ALERT

Geto and Gojo have perspectives in life in this timelines compared to the one we are all so familiar with in the previous series. It completely flipped! And Geto is so nicer and kinder than Gojo in this. And you cant help wonder what happened. Gojo has become more egotistical and pompous than ever before. Making us love the star plasma girl, Riko so easily is always so exciting and adoring and gives you anxiety how anime often kills the characters you begin to love. I like truly seeing where it tall began an makes me appreciate more the current story as it moves forward. Truly I though at first Gege work did not impress me but these series so far is giving more excitement.
Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad (His memoir as JET teacher and more)


A good fit for people who are interested to learn more about Japan and it's culture through the eyes of a British person and who want a good laugh from time to time through British self-deprecating humor. 

A memoir I never knew existed before and never thought I would need and love to listen to if you told myself years ago to but and listen to. 

This is an insightful memoir regarding Japan along side with the entertaining self-depreciating personal stories and experiences of angry(at times) cursing British english teacher but earnest, which makes you want to stick more and listen to it while you doing household chores.

And if you have any doubts if he actually likes being in Japan or even feels grateful for living there for decades (because you would assume, if you first time watch one of his random videos, he hates or despise Japan in his crazy, sarcastic videos.) his last chapter "Epilogue" would prove otherwise. He is grateful for Japan more than his sarcastic and snarky "persona" he often plays in his videos could ever say at times. 

Thank you, Chris-san VIP D big, for giving us insight and entertainment at your own expense and having the discipline to recall of this and write it all down for us and read it with such great performance as if you are a professional audible voice actor.


SPOILER ALERT BELOW:


Notable chapters if you want to skip ahead and know a particular aspect of Japan specifically

Chap 18: The worst possible start - (A more serious chapter which is properly so.) regarding School bullying in Japan and how Japanese education system done its best to handle it. Collectivism is more powerful in Japan than individualism which is can at times for a foreigner difficult to comprehend because how foreginers view Japan to be so unique, eccentric and high-tech, but actually what often reigns supreme is status quo of the collectivevism (Priority of the needs/wants of the group over the needs/wants of the individual.) Especially when you read Haruki Murakami’s books or authors focused on the individual

Chap 13 “Get out. Now” - The more funny and lighthearted chapters of his:
Regarding love hotels and gritty side of Japan. 
One of the chapters that had me real laughing in the end.

Chap 19 - A letter from the Colonel
About the angry foreginers in the internet who like to protect Japan even though never been to Japan (Last samurai syndrome) and about mysogynistic concept of Christmas cake towards women in Japan (forced to marry before 26 or ideal at 25 yrs ols)  -And christmas in Japan

Chap 20 - His decision to leave JET program
Probably because:
  1. The school material/text books he discovered through the years of teaching english are not effective to teach them the fun and most useful part of english learning: English daily conversation. The text book that teaches students to write “The elephant has a prosthetic leg” isnt exactly something that could be useful or will come out on daily conversations in English. He decided to leave the JET because he felt like he is not making an “impact”
  2. His youtube subscribers is growing. This both made him a bit famous with his Japanese students and being called by them as “Youtuber” but gradually it felt to him like a Taunt in school. He decided to leave JET both because of this and his desire to be “filmmaker” when he was a kid. Since youtube present such an opportunity to fufill that dream of his.
  3. He wants to travel more all of Japan (Not only have a weekend or some small time in the holidays to do that.)

Also the goodbyes literally are tearful. Not sure maybe it is within human nature to react automatically whether you in real life is saying goodbye to people that are dear to you or reading someone in a book or listening to an audiobook or watching a farewell scene in a movie. If you are not crying, you would feel at least there is always a sense losing something deep inside your being or at least a small knotting feel at your chest when you see or experience farewell and goodbyes

Airports are one of the places where you see honest sincere hugs.

Thanks Chris, for writing one of your deepest farewells of your life for us to experience.

I knew already his credit card wont work

May is so a lovely Taiwanese woman

And a good lesson:
Trips alone in unfamiliar city or place can become more memorable with encounters different people.

Especially when you meet a new (trust worthy) person, you just want to talk and experience the city with you. I want to meet a pretty woman as well experiencing the city with me

Spoilers and notes:
On Chapter 2: The Japan Lottery

Chinmoku - Long periods of silence in Japan is common place

Value of silence is true in Japan. Based on Chris experiences. Beautiful. Yes silence does hold the secret to existence. It is present there. It is that. You are the awareness that permeats the silence. When noise and words is not present, you are present, Your being. Peace and Happiness is the nature of our being and we share this being with everyone and everything

A Japanese proverb: It is better to leave many things unsaid.  (Now I understand why Murakami’s book have so much seemingly unfinished endings or many thing were left unsaid. And he doesnt even explain his books.) 

On the first meeting silence 

In Japanese culture, silence is a significant part of communication and a sign of respect. It can also indicate that the listener is paying close attention to the speaker. 

Silence can also have other meanings, including: Truthfulness, Social discretion, Embarrassment, Defiance. 

Japanese people tend to be reserved and careful with their words, preferring to listen more than they speak. They often remain silent during a conversation, until there is an opening to speak. Sometimes, silence is intentional to allow people time to think about the discussion. 

In Japanese business meetings, it is common for there to be periods of silence. It is considered rude to answer or use mobile phones during a business meeting. Avoiding the urge to fill the silence is important, as it may be viewed as impatient






Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

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dark emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


Delightful, Sad, Funny, Insightful


Unexpectedly one of the most thought provoking reads I had in just a few pages. Conveniently short, and conveniently satisfies my desire for reflection in a good book. The title is pretty appropriate for me because of the conveniences. No pun intended.

Good for those who want a thought provoking read on  society conformity, identify, and the double standard we have on men and women, not only in Japan but it is quite evident here

Quote from the book: “When something was strange, everyone thought they had the right to go stomping all over your life to figure our why. I found that arrogant and infuriating.” 

Makes you think about conformity and realize it is not black and white. Same thing goes for identity. It is one set of people confirm purely to society and the other set of people purely non-conformist. There is a lot of grey area in each one of us as much as each of our identity is equally vague and ever changing

No need to pressure yourself to always perfectly conform(not conform) to society and to always perfectly clear your identity. Because each of us have different lives, up bringing and point of view, and these lives and point of view change as we grow older, we just need to make sure we change and grow for the better.

This book even though it doesnt give you clear answers what is best to do in life whether to fully conform or non conform or be in the middle of conformity scale
but it does provoke thoughts about it

I cant chose what is best for the MC life here or anyones else life, I can only do my best to chose the best life I can live.

It is sad not so much because our protagonist and author is odd or a way of dealing with things but rather more so because society in any culture always force you to conform but doesnt have any empathy or show any effort understanding other people that our not conforming to our standards. As long as a person is not harming anyone with his or her life, even contributing to economy and society in there own small way in the job that they life, that person should be given the right to live life she wants. 

People just want the best for their love ones or friends but at times their approach in helping might not be right. 

Her odd desire to keep being in the convenience store even after all these years is understandable when get gradually into the story: The job provides her comfort and predictability which in turn gives her a sense of control. The routine gives peace to his mind that always struggles to act in social conventions. And there is store manual on how to act within the convience store

sadly the outside world is so complex that it almost seems impossible to write a perfect life” manual. Others have done in selfhelp books but not really perfect

I just wonder all this while why the higher ups in the company didnt promote her to store manager at least

You would meet in the middle part of the book the most memorable male character in the book not because he is handsome or has a great personality but the complete opposite. A mysoginistic, condensending a-hole haha. You would remember him through your hate. He got this work he hates for the odd and even terrible reason for marriage hunting. He is like one of the exception of great customer service crew in a convenience store. 

To parahprase the MC

"People look down on your when they notice or know you work in a convenience store and often this bias can also be experience through a person who works at convenience store and looks down on his co-workers, even though he looks down on himself because he works there." 

The MC above is reffering to the terrible guy I mentioned above. 

This guy even says to our MC:
"Dont make it sound so easy. We men have it more harder than women you know"

If this guy suddenly appeared in an auditorium filled with  feminist  and was given the microphone to give speech on stage, he wont get out of that auditorium alive, if not, he would come out of there at least beaten the hell out with blue bruised face who loves the f-king stone age haha.

I love the MC for writing this character. It makes really hate misogynist more.  I hate listening to him haha. 

I love this writer, one of the best.
I honestly cant guess what the writer will do next.

A rather small spoiler, you would be less likely to be upset in the end.
And it least the author gave justice to her MC and not let that A-hole Ishara control her life


Spoiler alert:
But okay some of her thoughts admittedly are particularly alarming to anyone who near hear who manage to somehow read her mind or she decided to speak her thoughts, for instance when she visit her sister who just had a baby:  "The baby cried and my sister quickly plucked him up to soothe him and quiet him. I look at the knife we used to cut the cake we just eaten together and thought to myself, if it is to make the baby quiet, it would be easy enough (for me, she thought to herself)"
That is alarming, and I do  think, there is like a saying or word for that particularly graphic and destructive thought, is called the "Devil's whisper", we all have dark thoughts from time to time but it shouldnt define u  Thoughts are just thoughts, hope she realizes though, they are not you and do not defined by you. They just appear, and disappeared later on, you dont have to feed it or hold on to it. You can always chose which though to entertain and which thought is the best to handle the situation. You are the one behind your thoughts, the observer of them. You are the CEO and your thoughts are your employees and you can always chose which one to keep or not for the benefit of the company that is called "Your life"  surprise suprise… the awkward guy above is also the stalker of the book. 
And surprise to surprise I already had a glimpse of foreshadowing of it. Our awkward charming but also just kind and hardworking to everyone (but just doesnt want to get married) marries this A-hole who loves the stone age and victimizing himself. Yes as  straight male reading this I was screaming no realizing this. I think no person regardless of gender would agree to this stone age dude. shiraha furukura. Damn hahahha. This is my most unexpected love team i ever had. This guy has the most shitty personality ever written hahaha.


Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

THIS SHOULD BE YOUR FIRST BOOK TO READ IF YOU PLAN TO DIVE INTO HARUKI MURAKAMI WORKS

This book is more fascinationg mysterious and complex than I have ever thought. As profound as it is complex. This is not my first book of Haruki Murakami but I do think it should have been

This is his most scientific, mathematical,  and consciousness and mind focus work of fiction. Did he study all of this before writing? Or he had all this knowledge before hand?

I do agree with this person who wrote a persuasive article below about the book: This should be your first book of Haruki Murakami if you plan to dive into his writings for the very first time because it has all the elements that you might expect in a Haruki Murakami book. (Great poetic prose, writings on music, food, normal settings of world mixed with the odd or fantasy elements but still within a form of magic realism and of course, the if you can bear it, awkward sex and   misogyny.

This is also his book most focused on the philosopy or theory of how the conscious and unconscious mind work.

A sci-fi fantasy book regarding the mind through parallel alternating chapters

It is unexpectedly gives off the feeling of how human each character is even though the characters are utterly the oddest bunch you could ever meet. Maybe because we all struggle in understanding our minds. Especially the unconscious part of it when is the main focus of the book

I didnt expect the 1985 is the times where authors are so focus on the mind, consciouness, and the unconscious part of the mind, I guess books like this highlight the beginning of the world to focus on mental health or things regarding the mind.

https://bookoblivion.com/2018/04/23/hard-boiled-wonderland-and-the-end-of-the-world/


SPOILER ALERT BELOW
..The  human mind, apart from outer space, is the last terra incognita or unexplored, unknown territory.
Chap 25: Meal, Elephant Factory, Trap
This is the most intense deep serious mediation of the nature of consciousness and uses of the mind 
.. in the middle part where he laughed at Freuds and Carl Jung theories: 
The black box (Unconscious part of the mind) can be either left alone or used as it is a black box and the scientist in this novel truly aims to make use of it.  Although not all of us fully comprehend the unconscious mind but we can make use of it. (I wonder how could one write this all in Japanese aha. 
One of the most scientific, deep serious though regarding the nature of consciouses and uses of the mind that I read from Murakami yet. I never thought Murakami read freud and Carl Jung so much also had the audacity to insult them as well which I love (Freud and Jung he said only made people talk about nature of the consciousness with jargons and gave it a scholastic color but never really describe what it really is.) 
He did read Carl Kung explainaton regarding the shadow.. because he incorporated it in the End of the world story Chapter 30
Hole
a good one about doing things for the sake of it
whenever you lose your mind or let go of your thoughts.. there is only a deep peace behind the thoughts
Your true peaceful being is finally revealed after being concealed by thoughts for so long
Chapter 32 
The explanation of the town. 
Goddamn, I never really expected this though. It is so deep. Murakami has the best explanation on how the unconscious mind works. Goddamn 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I love it hahahahaahahahahaha. It is like being in one of my dreams, where madness is going on around you but you are utterclueless why this is all happening all at once and why and you cant seem to get away from danger after just being kind or being honest. All the time wondering what have you done to deserve this 

I love that I am as fucking as clueless as MC as I go through the book about what the fuck is happening with my normal life where I just simply want to do the right thing and help someone

We are thrown into a unknown world beneath the MC everyday boring, almost insufferable reality. Although, it is dangerous to be in such a world, it is vastly more interesting and mindboggling. Poor Richard… a good man who simply keeps helping those in need but his kindness in this universe is not enough to keep him safe sadly hahaha. He is our clueless office worker who happens to be simply a good samaritan. Just like the marquee has said to him "You truly out of your depth, utterly fucked."  and Richard hasnt realize it or it never sinks fully because the madness so numbing and dreamlike 

Even though, I completely emphatise with Richard and his unexpected misfortune and Neil made me really care for him and his honest desires to be just helpful or even kind to such a terrible controling woman like his gf Jesse 

But I honestly almost feel like (or maybe I am really am) a sadist enjoying his adventurous unexpected journey at his expense. I would have honestly quietly squirmed away from them because unlike the richard, realization he got thrown into an utterly dangerous unknown world hasnt fully sink in him in almost most part of the book and that makes me enjoy it more hahaahah I am still in the dark like him Goddamn, this guy just keeps going