 Hey everybody, welcome back to the channel. Today, we're going to talk about four particular reads that I wanted to highlight for you. Now, in these reading vlogs, I'd like to include a bunch of stuff, but then I realized if it's like too many, it probably won't be as engaging and a lot of people won't tune in for like 20 minutes of me talking about different manga volumes. So if I keep it concise to just four really cool ones, I'd figure you'd tune in for the whole thing. All right. So the first one that we're going to talk about is Breakfast with My Two-Tailed Cat Volume 1. This is published by Seven Seas Entertainment and it is written and drawn by Aishimizu. Now, this combines a lot of elements that I really love. Yokai, food manga, Slice of Life storytelling. This manga tells the story of Soichiro who wanted to retire to the countryside with his wife. And unfortunately, after a year, his wife ended up passing away, sadly. So now, he is by himself with their pet cat, called Ni. And Ni, at his older age, decided to, instead of venturing on with his departed mother, decided to transform himself into a nekomata Yokai so that he could spend time with Soichiro and not leave him to grieve by himself in loneliness and despair and to spend some quality time together, enjoying yummy foods, cozy times, and just relaxing afternoons in the countryside. What is not to love about that description? And in the case for Ni, he wants to become a yokai so that he is able to help around and be with his master and enjoy yummy foods, treats, and of course live out the remainder of their lives together, knowing that his mother, or Soichiro's wife, is gone. So he can be that crutch, that emotional support for the ailing husband. And that is essentially all you need to know about this manga. The majority of it, 95% of it, it is so heartwarming and it never failed to put a smile on my face. With each chapter, I loved it more and more. It is utterly charming. I love the panorama of the countryside with the contrast of having this gigantic cat walking around in its hind legs or sometimes on all fours with his master along. It is so funny, wacky, and nice, and I cannot recommend it enough. Obviously, I know it's not going to be for everybody. This is the type of book where you just sit back and relax as you experience sort of the slow take on life with characters that aren't looking for a grand adventure, they're looking for stuff that we're looking for. Happiness and living out our lives in peace and tranquility. Let's keep talking about food manga. Now we're going to talk about Pass the Monster Meet My Lady. Volume 1, this is by Chika Mizube, Kanata Hoshi, and Peperon as the designer, that's a cool nickname there. This is a fantasy romance series published by Kodansha and it involves not only romance and several fantastical elements, but a lot of food manga tropes. This was one of my most anticipated books of 2023, believe it or not, and I am happy to report that I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to volume 2. There are a couple mysteries at the end that I was a little annoyed because I did not get the answer right away, so I need volume 2 to find out what is happening with several characters. So in this manga we are following the character of Malfiera who has a bad reputation amongst the royals for her eccentricness and love of monster meat. A lot of people are comfortable eating your standard proteins and all that and she finds beauty and taste in the other creatures that are out there in this world that people would not want to consume and that makes her look kind of freakish to a lot of people and I found that it was a really nice topic where you have a character that is misjudged and critiqued for this and it ended up reminding me that at the end of the day that is what makes you special and you shouldn't really conform to whatever society wants you to do. You do you, you walk your own path and be proud of your eccentricness. That is what makes us unique, that is what makes us such beautiful people all around and we see this in the form of Malfiera wanting to try the different monster meats. There is a little bit more to it as you start reading but the main part of this book is the meeting between Malfiera at a banquet with the Blood Mad Duke of Galbraith, his name being Aristide. So what I liked about the Blood Mad Duke as he is known in the land is that he goes into this blood frenzy trying to destroy these monsters and all that and they really make him out to be this crazed war-loving individual which is interesting because now you have two protagonists who are misjudged or labeled as freaks if you will when they're really just regular people with unique taste to them. Obviously the Duke is not as scary as you first see him but that's the first impressions that you get from the people there. I love the display here of the action scenes and how everything's laid out. It's really fun, character designs are lovely, really well drawn, great attention to detail when it comes to the weaponry, the costumes, the wardrobe I should say and the monster designs. That's an important aspect that I feel could go unnoticed by a lot of people because they're focused on the quirky romance that forms when Malfiera meets the Duke but you see some of the images here with the monsters and they look really good too. The food looks tasty which is the highest compliment you can give a food-centric manga. One more step comes stand by my side. This is by Torio Montaqueda and it is published by Yenpress. I was really intrigued by this. The cover spoke to me. The plot description sounded interesting because this is a collection of short stories. The first one here is when the time comes which talks about this young princess who is captured and on a two month period what happens to the princess with her captors and her fascination with an individual that is helping her across the ordeal. You don't know who he is. She doesn't know either because she's blindfolded but the relationship that forms she knows obviously that at first it might not be a good person but this fascination grows and sort of potentially transforms into a blind romance. The ending of that short story I thought was extremely powerful and really set the tone for the rest of the book. This was an amazing way to start off this collection and I'm being super vague because again these are short stories and I don't want to ruin the fun. There are other stories here that are quirkier sillier and some that are downright creepy and mysterious. Believe me when I say if you want good manga on your shelf buy this book. I think this is a quintessential short story collection that everybody should own. It is really well written but most importantly it is beautifully drawn. Great attention to detail to expressions movement and if there's one take from this freaking video is that you need to get one more step come stand by my side. Loved this book. Cannot recommend it enough. And now the final book that we're going to talk about on this mini reading vlog is one of my most anticipated books of 2023. I was so excited the moment it was announced by Titan Comics or Titan Manga. It is The Great Yokai War Guardians, volume one art by Sanami Suzuki and of course written by Yusuke Watanabe. This is an adaptation of the screenplay for the movie of the same name by Mika and that is The Great Yokai War Guardians and this is the first volume of three adapting that story. So essentially you have this character here K Watanabe who is your regular middle school kid. Unfortunately his father passed away due to an unfortunate accident so he lives with his mother and younger brother. The family dynamic isn't the best. He still has resentment over what happened and thinks that his father's passing is his younger brother's fault even though he knows that's not really it and he's just venting and applying that grief and sorrow towards his dislike of his younger brother. It's within that setting that our main story takes place. You have this villainous force that is awakening these ancient yokai beings like prehistoric creatures and now they're yokai spirits and are being transformed into kaiju sized opponents and they're just roaming around going straight through Japan and if they're not stopped they are literally going to crush everything in sight. Our main protagonist happens to be the descendant of a long line of warriors from ancient Japan and they are able to communicate with spirits, yokai, yurei, you name it and a whole bunch of yokai appear and gather k for the idea of him being the new warrior and picking up the destined sword so that he can fight destroy these kaiju monsters and evildoers and bring peace to Japan. It is a very simple action heavy premise but where this manga adaptation succeeds is in its earnestness of presenting the story of a reluctant hero in the face of adversity while also combining beloved elements of Japanese folklore like the yokai which is something that I'm very passionate about. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it on one of these videos certainly on social media but I do have a TikTok account called Creature Gaiden where I just talk about yokai. If you want to follow me there I'd appreciate it. I do that for fun that's a hobby to the hobby if you will but yeah I really like yokai monsters a whole lot. Along the way there are a lot of villainous characters that appear obviously the nature of yokai means that they are tricksters and aren't necessarily good or bad. The art is phenomenal I love the character designs and some of the paneling and black inks here look fantastic. There are shots of all the yokai looking great where our main protagonist realizes like oh these are real the yokai are real and here we have the night parade of 100 demons it's all real so yeah this is a lot of fun not as action packed obviously because this is the first part of the story but it does get more intense as the plot thickens so I highly recommend it if you want something fun lighthearted but filled with great art and great attention to folklore and history of one specific nation this being Japan I highly recommend picking up the great yokai war guardians volume one. All right that's gonna be it thank you everybody for tuning in I hope you enjoyed this mini winter reading vlog next time we're gonna go over some different books and I like the format of four volumes I think it's nice not too long of a video and I get to geek out about these cool new acquisitions for the collection so thank you everybody for tuning in thank you so much for liking commenting subscribing and being a part of manga geekdom that's gonna be it for now god bless stay safe out there I will catch all of you on our next video