 Hey everybody, we're back again with another reading vlog for the channel. I got a bunch of books, including some surprise reads, so stay tuned because we're gonna talk about them right now. The first book that we're gonna talk about in this video is God Bless the Mistaken, Volume 1. This is written by Nakatani Nio, and this is published by Yen Press, and I had been eagerly anticipating this release since we got the Solises last year. Not the late a bunch of times, but here it is, finally, in my hands. And I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. I kinda went in expecting something completely different, but I do like where the story is headed. It is very relaxing, it's a very chill book, and it essentially tells the story of this middle schooler called Kon, who lives in a world very much different from our reality where phenomena occurs, and it is nicknamed as bugs. Sort of like a bug in the system, how everything glitches and behaves abnormally. You get to see that here. For example, at the opening chapter, a wave of plants strike Japan, and you see it all over the place, inside the houses, outside, in the walls, in the roof, and people have to sort of adjust themselves to this bug, and depending on the intensity or severity of it, the bug will last two or three days, maybe it'll be one day, maybe it'll be a whole week or a month, it depends on how big and chaotic it is. So these bugs usually do disappear, and one immediately takes its place, causing more havoc for the citizens of Japan. Now Kon lives in a shared household apartment building with a landlady who happens to be studying these bugs. She is a young woman who is very cheery and optimistic, but also has a very unique quirk in that, I guess it's a bit of a mild spoiler, but not really. She does not get affected by these bugs, or does not see them, and I say that because there is a bug featured in this first volume where everything is mirrored or reversed, but for Kasane Himasaki, the landlady, it isn't the case. So she is interested in investigating these things, and her friendship with Kon sort of leads him to become his unofficial, but really official, assistant, which is pretty cute and wholesome, and yeah, the majority of these chapters are dedicated to the different bugs, and examining how quirky it is and how the people sort of function around that phenomena. One of the things that I really enjoy about this book is the art. I think it looks lovely, I really enjoy the character designs, and the backgrounds are really nice to look at, because essentially they are sort of the unsung hero for this book because a lot of the bugs affect the background that these characters inhabit. Now at the start of this little conversation here, I mentioned that it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I thought this was going to be more creature focused, or paranormal, or maybe yokai inspired or something. Instead, it's more about the everyday phenomena that I think people worldwide can relate to. Not that it's happened to anybody out there, but these are subject matters that anybody reading could find something to associate with. Suddenly you have a big burst of plant life all across the city, or you might have characters that can now climb invisible stairs, or you have cryptids suddenly appearing, but they are molded by our perception of them, so they are constantly involving. That is very different than to say, oh, a gashadokuro or a yuki-ona are part of the phenomena, which would be extremely niche and very Japanese in nature. So that's sort of what I mean by relatable. But overall, this is a very quirky, fun series with very likable characters, and I'm looking forward to them examining more of the bugs. We do know that this is already over in Japan, so it will be collected across four volumes, so that's nice, so I don't have to worry about making a lot of room on my shelf. The next book that we're going to talk about is Whoever Steals This Book, Volume 1. This is also published by Yen Press. This is a story by Nowaki Fukamidori with art by Kakeru Sora. I did not know about this book until recently when I did one of my anticipated manga releases for the channel, read the description and fell in love with the book and really wanted to check it out. So here we are with Volume 1 of 3. And essentially, this tells the story of a young girl called Mifuyu, who is living in this town in Japan, a fictional town that is famous for its books and book-reading culture and people. Now, for Mifuyu, she is part of a lineage of book owners and book readers. Her great-grandfather had this amazing collection, thousands of books, spread across this giant library that looks like a mansion, and it was built right at the center of town and it became an attraction for the citizens. Everybody would go in and read all these wonderful books that this family has. At some point down the line, when Mifuyu's great-grandfather passes away, his daughter, Mifuyu's grandma, takes control of the library and has the unfortunate circumstance of a break-in and somebody actually stole, I think it was, 200-some books out of the whole collection. She becomes angrier and paranoid and decides to close everything off, kick everybody out and keep this as a private library, not for the town to see. So with all of that set up, the main story takes place in present time, as you have Mifuyu trying to live a normal life outside of this craziness of books. She hates reading and hates books and is unfortunately constantly reminded of her family whenever somebody spots her because they are so famous. They obviously want to know more about her family and all that stuff and she wants none of it. On a particular day, Mifuyu travels to the library to feed her aunt and discovers that a thief has broken in and tried to steal a book. This activates sort of this talisman curse which wraps the whole city inside of a book, sort of like a fusion of the two. When Mifuyu is tasked thanks to the mysterious Mashiro that appears, this character, she is tasked with retrieving the book and of course catching the thief. So the manga sort of becomes like a pagemaster style story where you have characters interacting with fictional characters, if that makes sense, but really just going inside of books and all that stuff. I do think it's very meta in the fact that you're reading a book about characters reading books where the theme is literature and how Mifuyu dislikes reading, but it's that reading that enriches her heritage and enriches us as readers as we appreciate the fun that can be had and how it opens our imagination to newer things. When we read a book, it doesn't have to be the most complicated book. It can be a graphic novel, it can be a comic, a manga, whatever it may be. It's still a book and we all love to do that. That's why we're here. I am here talking about this on a YouTube channel. So on that aspect, I really enjoyed this series. I love the art. I think it's gorgeous. I love the twists and turns and how the art keeps changing to accommodate the craziness that is happening with Mifuyu and you see all these crazy elements like the giant cat in the sky where you see people, massive crowd scenes and they're having a parade or a celebratory march for the prince that has married stuff like that. It's pretty crazy, pretty inventive. I like it. Obviously, we don't get all the answers because this is just part one of three, if I remember correctly, but I am looking forward to more. I think this is a fantastic read, really whimsical in nature. And if you just like fun and wholesome stories, I think you'll be right at home with whoever steals this book. Highly underrated release. I think a lot of people are going to skip this one without giving it a shot. But please do check it out. I think it is worth your time. Next on the list, we got Soata and the House of Monsters. Volume one was one of my favorite reads of 2023. And I love this series. What more can I say? Volume two continues the excellent fantasy slice of life that began with volume one. We continue Soata's adventure as she travels alongside Kiddik and the rest of the house building dwarves. Last time they were stuck in this case of a thunder wolf that was married to a mermaid. Now, unfortunately, the thunder wolf emits electricity when he is flustered or angered and stuff like that. And the mermaid can't really touch him or interact with him, but they really love each other. So it's kind of a conundrum to how you can build the house that can accommodate these two creatures while also creating a harmonious living environment. But do not underestimate Kiddik because he is a master builder. He constructs this epic ship to look for materials in the sea and comes out with a really cool design that's kind of shockproof. And what's cool about this, which I mentioned on volume one, is that you get to see the diagram, not just the building, not the backstories, which are all great, but I love seeing the full spread page and the diagram of how everything is going to look and all the different rooms and little trinkets and nooks and crannies. I love that stuff. And of course, one of the central themes here is Soata lowering her guard and accepting other people that are different from her. I think that is a very positive, awesome message and truly the heart of this story. She is constantly surprised by all the crazy and wacky interactions. And just when she thinks, oh, this is when they slip up, I'm going to get them. Something unexpected happens that reverses that and teaches her to not judge books by their cover. The art continues to excel. And if you're wondering about any central plot for this series, it's not just about the housebuilding. Through this chapter, you're going to find story elements that regard a ketics former master and trying to locate her and how that, I think, will become the central focus of the story moving forward. So I am really excited for volume three when that drops a couple of months from now. Can't wait for that. But speaking of volume twos, I got two surprise drops for you on this reading block. We got Alpy, the soul sender volume two. This is created by Rona and it continues the story of Alpy, who is a soul sender. She is tasked with purifying these mythical beast and sending them onwards to another plane of existence after life, whatever it may be, and helping the citizens by creating this harmonious balance between the creatures and the people on earth and stuff like that. I don't want to give anything away, but I did enjoy this volume. I was worried that the plot was a little bit too simple, but this second one gives us a little bit more to chew on and introduces new elements and, of course, a different soul sender character that is going to become a rival for Alpy, but also teacher about her parents and teacher to become a better individual, better soul sender. And just like the first book, the majority of the stories here are episodic in nature, but the underlying theme here of progressing and maturing is present throughout. I do like the art. It's a cool mix of cartoony with a huge eyes and beautiful fantasy drawings. I love the creatures and I love the scenery. Alpy, the soul sender, really fun. And I am looking forward to volume three because this one ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. Another volume two, we got the Great Yokai War Guardians volume two. This is written by Yusuke Watanabe with art by Sanami Suzuki. So this continues the adventure of the Great Yokai War. This is, I guess I should mention that this is adapting the screenplay or the movie of the same name that was released a while back, but it has a bit of original content sprinkled throughout. So we are continuing the journey of Kei as he is destined to vanquish the evil Yokai, giant Yokai that is marching towards Tokyo to destroy the city and everybody in it. And in order to do that, he has this magical sword that he inherited from his ancestor, who was this famous samurai slash Yokai slayer. But with his strained relationship with his younger brother, he is forced instead to look for him as he discovers the Yokai realm and goes on his own path to try and stop the calamity from happening. So we got two different missions going on with the same purpose of stopping the bad guys. What I like about this is that the plot isn't necessarily the most complex thing. But if you're a fan of Yokai lore, you'll be happy with this. It's a very fun, action-oriented read. This was a family movie when it came out. And it is, of course, based on multiple legends from history and, of course, multiple stories from other mangaka, like one of my favorites, Shigeru Mizuki. Unfortunately, since this is the middle portion of the story, you're not going to get the most epic resolution. It does end on a cliffhanger, obviously, setting for the final act. We have Kei Watanabe meeting different characters that are helping him on this journey. Some have ulterior motives, as you're going to find out in this book. Others are more sincere in their quest. So obviously, with Volume 3, we're going to have Kei doing everything imaginable to rescue his younger brother. And, of course, fulfilling his destiny of being this great warrior and bit by bit, as you read here in Volume 2, he gains the strength to do that with unlocking skills and all that stuff. Last but not least, we're going to talk about Beast Strings from Shikaku Yamamoto. This, honestly, I mean, if you like Zootopia, if you like Beastars, it's like that, but beefier. And I'm not just saying the build of the book, but the actual characters inside. There's a choice. And I mean, more power to Shikaku Yamamoto, but I was not expecting everybody to be a hunk and so beefed out. That was pretty humorous. Oh, and by the way, this is published by Yenpras, Juso City. This is a town that humans inhabit, but it also has a lot of anthropomorphic animals. This is a city where it has a mayor who is a protector of it, not just as a law man or a law beast, but also sort of like this vigilante superhero where he's fighting out against demons and giant monsters and creatures and crazy stuff like that. So he's taking his job very seriously. He can be a bit goofy. His story is at the start of the book and towards the end, sort of the end caps here for Beast Strings. The city is based off a legend of this whale of disaster and how the heroes had to go through unconventional methods to save the city before it got annihilated and wiped out, not as the prophecy originally stated. And that comes into play towards the end of the book. I'm not going to reveal what happens towards the end. I'm just going to give you my impressions here. I think this is an interesting story. Obviously, the biggest thing to mention is that it's a full colored manga. So the book is actually pretty heavy. It only has four chapters with multiple stories inside is designated with a pretty unique color, as you can see here. Some of the pages are blue tinted. Others are yellow, some are red, green, teal colored, et cetera. You will see a lot of returning characters, but don't expect to get attached to them because with such limited space of just four chapters, everything can feel quick paced. It's a very brisk introduction to this world as you have, like I said, the mayor and you have the succubus who starts working at the government and you have this dragon who pairs with this young girl who becomes his bard and they form an idol music duo singing across the city. You also have this witch elf who is enamored by this guardian wolf butler and the two form this unique relationship. And you also have a lot of other characters that have interesting stories within the city. One of my favorite chapters, by the way, happens to be the second one, which is the 12 zodiac states. And you follow members of this group called the 12, sort of this mafia-like thing. They're not bad guys, I think more like agents of shield, if you will, from Marvel. And they're all different based on the zodiac signs, the Chinese zodiac, so you get the rooster and the rat and dog and dragon, et cetera. So that was a lot of fun. And what I liked about that is that you think, oh, it's just short mini chapters with these characters, but you see them return in the subsequent chapters as you're reading. So that was fun. It gave it a nice sense of continuity and not just throwing random stories out there. Now, a problem with something as short as this is that you can lose a lot of people not caring for it since it's just introductions to stories and the payoff might not be the most engaging thing that people are after with this book. They might just be in it for the designs. Now, I wanted to absolutely love this because I love short story collections and I love anthropomorphic animal stories. Beastars is one of my favorite manga. But with this, I thought it was just all right. It was a little bit too chaotic and in your face for me to like it. And I think if this could be expanded on and instead of just four chapters, let's just say it was, let's just say it's just eight, 12, maybe 20 chapters, something small, and you give the city itself more time to breathe. I think you would have a better product here. And by that, I mean the plot because the actual build of this book is fantastic from Yen Press. Especially the final chapter with the dragon and the bard was fine and it introduced us to what I guess you could say is the main antagonist, but it just came out of nowhere. It relates to the opening stuff with the great whale and the lore behind this city and all that, but it's just so random that I never really cared. There were no stakes for me to be involved here and worry about these characters. I was just reading their actions and what was happening. Some inventive ideas and some great artwork and lovely coloring too. The colors are fantastic in this book, but it was just a little bit all over the place. And as you can see in some of the drawings, or at least for me, it was just too chaotic. I hope Shikaku Yamamoto can come back and expand this world and create a longer narrative. That would be my one thing that I would wish for B-Strings. So there you go. This was mostly a Yen Press week on the reading blog segment. I hope you enjoyed this. If you've read these books, let me know in the comment section down below what you thought of them. And if you know of other stories that are similar to them, let me know down below so that I can check them out as well. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Thank you for liking, commenting, subscribing and being a part of this channel. I truly do appreciate it. Thank you so very much. That's gonna be it for now. God bless, stay safe out there. I will catch all of you on our next video.