xenization. > Recent Status Updates

a. it was good, don't get me wrong. but it wasn't like "oh my god wow, my life has been changed."

b. i didn't laugh once. i saw the "funny" moments but they didn't work.

c. i think i was spoiled by reading magnus chase first, it is just so much better, which i understand being a later work. the characters and world just feel so much more richer.

d. tyson is so sweet, i hope he reappears in the rest of the series.

a. this book has been fairly slow compared to the others, but i'm not too mad about it.

b. i really hope this has a satisfying ending, there's too few pages to wrap up all of the loose ends and relationships.

c. team keenderson.

d. alex and magnus feel kinda out of the blue, honestly.

e. so, it was back to normal, then. one life-and-death kiss and we returned to our regularly scheduled snark. great.

a. few things make me happier than foreign books representing the uk as places other than london.

b. i wish gunderson was around a bit more, i feel like he'd be a pretty accidentally-funny character.

c. "hello, pest-away? there's a civilisation in my backyard i'd like exterminated."

d. "YOU'RE NOT GETTING ANYWHERE CLOSE TO MY FRIEND, SO PUT YOUR SMELLY DEAD-FROG CARCASS IN REVERSE."

a. aww, alex's favourite memory is dorky dead doomsday warrior. :((

b. i need more interactions between alex and magnus and i need them now.

c. i wondered if gtg in this context meant got to go, gunderson throttling girlfriend or giants torturing gunderson. i decided to think optimistically.

d. dear cosmic forces, please excuse my friends from their deadly fate, they're not feeling well today.

a. i can't tell whether magnus and alex are amazing friends or something more, but i love their chemistry either way.

b. no one does chapter titles like rick riordan does chapter titles.

c. i like my rivers the way i like my enemies - slow, wide and lazy. i rarely get what i like.

a. i started this in, oh, about 2018. it was a good while ago. i started, stopped, restarted. and stopped. and then picked it back up and prayed i had the right page.

b. i miss doing these updates, i haven't written a proper one in months

c. so this book runs alongside trials of apollo?

d. "now that's settled, you'll have to excuse me. there's been a massacre in the yoga studio and they need clean mats."

a. my favourite side character is probably onemine. she just seems so chill and likeable.

b. please can we have a cat cafe ft. tadano episode-

c. part of me wants this animated because come on, it's komi and she deserves it, the other part doesn't incase it ruins it.

a. if anyone lays a hand on paj and aster i will personally end them.

b. i enjoyed this crew dynamic. i do not remember what any of them look like and hamish could have done with a few more appearances.

c. excuse me, what do you mean the sequel isn't out yet?

d. what was that ending? explain. that was a god awful ending.

dnf

a. this was just awful. should i have given it longer? probably but i couldn't put myself through it.

b. can hel just shut up and quit it with the pity party that has been going on for five chapters with no foreseeable ending?

c. i can't stand hel's personality. i get what the author is trying to do but it's just so "i'm not like the other girls, woe is me" that i actually want to slap her.

a. my copy came beat to all hell but it's oop so i can't get a new one. well, it has character, i suppose.

b. kurama looks different than he has in previous volumes. i think he went a bit trigger happy with the guyliner.

c. why does nanami look so evil on this cover-

d. i really like the aesthetics of mt kurama.

a. i don't even know where to begin.

b. i kept forgetting that this happened all in the span of one night.

c. i don't know much but i do know i want more and i want more now.

d. fatma's character is just.. gorgeous. the personality, the aesthetic, the whole aura.. just, ugh.

e. i've never read anything with this type of lore/culture, but i want more. it's so intricate and captivating.

a. this was actually a pretty nice volume.

b. i love the quality of these manga with the matte finish and overall clean look.

c. there's something almost comforting and familiar about the art style.

d. wait, so do we have a double love triangle? please tell me i'm wrong

e. this is unrelated to the actual story but i just can't connect properly with the mangaka in the afterword and side panels.

a. gideon, my man, finally having some use for the plot instead of being forgettable.

b. august, my androgynous guy.. keep working on it.

c. of course we had to have that scene. why did we have to have that scene, is that just an obligatory scene for manga?

d. i don't really like the authors end pages. they don't make much sense and don't have much personality to them.

d. dude, how is titus 19, are you kidding me

a. somewhere between nearly being drowned, crushed, murdered, stabbed, etc etc, laurence somehow found a bottle of neon blue hair dye for this cover and the coloured pages even though he clearly has black hair on the back of volume one.

b. jokes aside, laurence is just like holy hEcK-

c. so is titus

a. i love yoshida, her personality is so nice. i also hope we get to see more of ryu, he seems quite interesting.

b. i assumed yano and yoshida would be the school bullies for some reason, they seem so intimidating.

c. this series seems pretty chill so far but there must be drama if it stretched to 30 volumes.

d. i hope nothing much comes out of this ending, oh no.

a. i actually finished this a few days ago, it was just so mediocre i forgot to update it.

b. i mean? it could be worse. it's a nice way to pass time.

c. i barely remember what happened this volume, uhh??

a. the first half of the book was a lot funnier while the third quarter was a lot more entertaining and the final quarter was just foamy, icy, squid-inky confusion.

b. i kinda wish we had more saad crew moments. torik, kye and madrid just seemed to be there to put a name to a 100-strong army.

c. i expected more kahlia appearances, too.

d. i am in love with the quality of this book, oh my god, it is magnificent.

a. the art has definitely improved, but whereas in host club it was lazy for comedy reasons, here it's lazy just for the sake of it. it kinda puts me off, especially because it's either really lazy or way too busy and confusing.

b. i don't really know what to think of this one. i mean, it wasn't bad, but it's nothing spectacular either.

c. the shy popular guy reminds me of the i hear the sunspot guy visually.

a. murakami certainly doesn't skimp on the details, damn.

b. i mean, it's good. but i don't see any overarching story and the whole parallel universe thing is basically not mentioned past the first few aomame chapters.

c. i kinda like the individuals perspective stories, but again, they're mostly dull without much of anything of importance happening.

a. i'm not uncontrollably sobbing, you are.

b. it was a sweet ending so i don't even know why i'm sad.

c. it's taken me 18 volumes to realise that the character on the back page is tamaki and not hunny.

d. i want a 19th volume of some sort of anniversary edition where we see where they all are 20 years on or something.

e. i'll always be team hikaru, although i prefer kaoru as a character.

a. as someone with needlessly frizzy hair, i must know if kaoru's cellphone as a flatiron trick can be done.

b. anne has barely been in this volume but i love her.

c. can we talk about how beautiful this volume is and how amazing friendship is in manga because we all know it is nothing like that in real life and i am very jealous.

d. i love the grandmother's character. she's so well fleshed out.

a. can yamai yahoo off a bridge already? she's a good character but an irritating person.

b. ahh, the sports festival episode. i don't remember the names of any of the new characters. oops. the tall one gave me fairytail vibes though.

c. oh my god the last panels with the arcade and cat key chains and just :((

a. i accidentally started reading two other books in the series thinking it was the start. silly me, why would book 1 be the first book in the series?

b. so far it's all been from geralt's perspective, i really hope it doesn't switch to yen's or ciri's for this long. they're just not as interesting to me.

c. not gonna lie, i think i prefer the show but let's see if i can prove myself wrong.

a. i have a like-hate relationship with this series. sometimes it's cute and fluffy, other times i find myself having to close it because of how cringey/overly sweet it can be.

b. a predictable plot twist, however one i really hope nothing will come out of. i can't stand multiple volumes of petty jealousy, i just can't do it.

c. i like the diverse range of characters, and how you can tell everyone apart easily.

a. i hate tamaki's family.

b. the kotoko and ryoji origin story at the end was the best, i want more kotoko and ryoji. :(

c. well, we're nearing the end, ladies and gentlemen. i'll be in the corner, crying.

a. i hate yamai.

b. this volume was cute and is on the fence between being my favourite and least favourite so far. there wasn't much development friendship wise, but there was a bit between komi/tadano, which was nice.

c. ahh, the obligatory swimsuit and festival scenes.

d. the sexualisation of agari kinda makes me uncomfortable.

a. this kinda turned into a murder mystery and i am not mad about it.

b. this is considered josei? i assumed it would be a shounen or a seinen. learn something new every day.

c. i never hear anyone pronounce ewan's name properly in reviews or wrap ups. i pronounce it as you-an/you-un. is that right?

d. i love laurence, zan and titus. i don't even remember the other guys, they're so unlikeable or forgettable.

a. this.. is making me uncomfortable. i thought it would be cute/funny but it's just creepy and i feel like this would trigger a lot of people's trauma.

b. the bear has no boundaries and the seal is underage and terrified. if this was a human relationship this would be pulled immediately. and, i'm sorry to say, especially if it was an older man with a younger girl.

c. wrong choice for late night comfort read.

a. was it what i expected? no. was it amazing? yes.

b. i love taller manga with colour pages and that's exactly what this manga was.

c. the whole story was so wholesome, so i'm actually confused as to why kodansha rated it as ot 16+. is yuri something kids shouldn't read these days?

d. grumpiness and sunshine is a trope i live for in these kinds of things.

a. so far, i prefer elian's perspective. i'm just not feeling the spoiled brat vibe lira has going for her.

b. i really love the page quality. they're thin but feel sturdy? strange, i know.

c. okay, so i basically know everything that will happen. yay for an overly detailed synopsis and predictable tropes.

d. technically, i'm a murderer, but i like to think that's one of my better qualities.