 Welcome back to the channel. Today we're gonna talk about four new books that I read, part of my reading vlog series for the winter season, and of course give you my first impressions on them because most of them happen to be volume ones, so I don't know how the story ends for them. But regardless, let's get started. The first book that we're gonna talk about here is A Cat from Our World and the Forgotten Witch. This is by Hiro Kashiwamba. This is volume one published by the folks at Seven Seas Entertainment and in a nutshell, this tells the story of this adorable giant cat who gets isekai into another world. However, when he is struck by a truck in the streets, this particular witch from another world happens to summon for a familiar and I guess the two link up and the cat ends up in her world where it's fantasy-based with heroes fighting against the demon lord and stuff like that. She used to be a mage, I guess, or a witch and helped the hero defeat the demon lord. Now she is much older and people have forgotten and they just say that she is the town witch and are really scared of her, thinking the worst of her. But she's actually a very somewhat cranky but sweet old lady at this point and she wants a companion so she does a summoning spell for a familiar beast and the cat happens to show up. Now they don't say anything in this volume to suggest it. I don't know if we see other cats in this series, I assume not and the size difference is explained. Apparently in this world people are tiny compared to our world. I think part of the appeal here for me aside from the art which I'll talk about in a moment is the fact that this is a story about two kindred spirits regardless of it being a cat and a human not knowing that they need each other. Suffering from past trauma in the case of the witch she has been forgotten and at the same time she is misjudged and criticized by the population for something that honestly she's not at fault with, people are going by appearances and believing old tales that she's this evil witch when in fact she ended up saving everybody when she was younger. The part I really enjoyed the most aside from the heartwarming story is the art. I think it is fantastic. I love the expression on the cat's face how he reacts to the witch's actions because she thinks oh great I summoned a lazy beast who won't do anything and only wants to be fed and taken care of but there's a miscommunication. He doesn't really understand her at first because he's used to our human customs so the expressions and body language from the cat are really spot on to a real cat. Character designs are clean nice to look at and well defined. I like this world it's fun the magical stuff while brief looks really good too so I am excited to continue with volume two to see more of the action from the witch's perspective. There are some really cute scenes in this and like I mentioned these two characters have interesting traumas in their lives but the fact that they can get together and form a friendship and a partnership is really cute and wholesome to see so I am enjoying this series and hopefully volume two comes out soon because I really want to keep the story going and see what happens with the two of them. Oh boy the next book that we're gonna talk about is pretty interesting this is came the mirror and other tales unfortunately I cannot show you the stuff inside because Takahashi's representatives and peeps on the other side of the pond they do not like you showing stuff from Takahashi's books and they will strike channels down and stuff if they happen to notice it so I'm not going to risk it I'm just gonna show you some of the colored pages here at the beginning and a couple of still images so this is a short story collection which happens to be one of my favorite things in manga I love short stories for this book we have six tales came the mirror tells the story of these kids that now have a mirror sort of like a curse in the palm of their hands they could die if they don't do a specific mission which is seeing the evil souls that are trapped within individuals that are doing bad deeds and sort of exercising them and taking care of them that becomes their responsibility and if they don't do it it could get them killed but if they accomplish the goal they're safe or something like that it's fun nice mix of horror and action I thought that was pretty cool the ending I thought was just a bit underwhelming just a tad the next story revenge doll tells the story of a very self-centered horrible mangaka and the things he says and does because things don't go his way his series is being cancelled so he takes it out on his staff and he gets a surprise package of a revenge doll that supposedly if you write the names of three people they'll get cursed and the final the third and final strike will be to actually murder somebody so he's contemplating on using it on various people it's a very odd story you're not supposed to root for any of these guys so the result of it was just kind of weird but it was interesting to see a short story set in the manga creation world that was fun the star has a thousand faces tells the story of this popular young actress she commits murder supposedly and is paranoid that her career is going to end even though it was an accident and she's doing everything imaginable to escape and retire she even thinks of ending her life and stuff like that and the result was okay so far these stories have interesting setups and just okay resolutions lovely flower reminded me of a quirky junji ito gross out comic and it tells the story of this young lady who is married to a scientist if i remember correctly and she is getting stalked by this individual with a very peculiar flower that is very stinky to her but works sort of like an aphrodisiac for everybody else and people start getting obsessed with the flower so they want more of it and she thinks that this person is a stalker and again kind of reminded me of an ito story to be honest i thought it was one of the better ones here with cat i think this is my favorite out of the six stories here it tells the story of these two kids that at first hate each other because of an incident when they were young the young kid was climbing a tree and he was frightened of cats the young girl climbs up to show him the cat and he falls from the tree branch and breaks his arm now the kid hates the young girl and a long time passes i believe now they're in middle school or high school one of the two i don't know and they still don't talk to each other unfortunately the young girl without knowing with her old cat places a curse on the young man and his arm is now catlike and a lot of weird stuff happens but this one i thought had a nice ending to it a really quirky funny premise that i think pays off at the end and sticks the landing i really did enjoy this one it reminded me the most of what i like about rumiko takahashi and last but not least my sweet sundae i believe this was released for one of the anniversaries for the shonen sundae magazine and it tells the story here of the two mangaka rumiko takahashi and mitsuru adachi it's them in chibi manga form telling their quirky stories on how they got into the business and how they admire the work that the other writer does as well as talking about the manga industry and all that i thought that was really fascinating kind of quirky for a short story because it's actually pretty long compared to the others because it has a lot of dialogue but it is worth reading if you're a fan of the creators if you're a fan of the manga industry i think this will be to your liking so yeah overall solid list of short stories they don't necessarily stick the landing for me but they're fun nonetheless the art is beautiful on all of them that is for sure one of the big positives for this book and again if you like rumiko takahashi i think this is a book that you need to add for your collection next one on the list is orb on the movements of the earth this is written by woto this won a bunch of awards if i remember correctly and it is a two-in-one omnibus edition trade paperback published by seven seas entertainment now this one is pretty interesting i took a while to figure out how i would go about this because the subject matter for orb is complicated i will tell you in a brief summary of this but you could easily do a full analysis a full video essay on the themes here of orb and still not scratch the surface i think this is a fantastic series this story takes place in 15th century europe and we follow a young kid called rafael who is studying to go into university he wants to be an astronomer but at this time you might remember that with the church being in complete control of certain areas that was looked down upon because that would invite heretical teachings and all that stuff that go against the doctrine at the time so rafael is hiding the fact that he wants to be an astronomer and is telling his stepfather that he wants to study theology so he meets with this former heretic and this guy teaches him in a nutshell about heliocentrism and the idea of course that the earth revolves around the sun it's not the center of the universe and all that stuff and these are things that happen in real life unfortunately due to the ignorance and fear a lot of people lost their lives because of this and this story reminds us of that humans are capable of horrible things and also without spoiling things at a certain point in the first couple of chapters the story moves forward a decade and we follow other characters that find rafael's teachings that he left behind and continue the story from there and their own journey of self-discovery and challenging what was the norm back then now it is very important for me to point out that a lot of people will discredit the book or will just claim it as anti-establishment or anti-religion and all that stuff and i don't really see it that way it tells more of a cautionary tale of what happens when we let fear dictate our lives and oppress people without the fundamentals of good spirit and reaching out and conversing with individuals like i mentioned at the beginning this is a story rooted in fear of the unknown and scientific stuff was not well known back then and it took a giant leap of faith of certain people that wanted to progress the knowledge and science and all that stuff for our better understanding of nature of space of earth or the human experience if you will that progress which i think should never be stopped and should keep pushing forward is the central drive of this book and the part that appeals to me the most also the fact that it's in medieval europe which is fascinating to me i love studying about that time period and the characters here are very human in the way that they are written they have fears and concerns but also hope and optimism of the fact that the knowledge that they are seeking can change the world for good and it's very important to remind ourselves that it's not about the religion it's about people fearing and committing things in the name of a doctrine when the doctrine does not call for torture and violence and all that stuff it's very important to remember that we are heavily flawed beings but it should not be the total absolute of a thing if that makes sense i don't want to get too much into it some people might not like what i'm saying but i wanted to share my thoughts on the book the art is great at times but other times it's just okay it fluctuates between amazing and kind of mid but overall i like the fact that it blends real topics with these characters and real human dilemmas presented here yeah pretty interesting book orb on the movements of the earth the last book we're gonna talk about is one of my most anticipated books i'm so happy that i finally have it here in my hands it is steel of the celestial shadows volume one this is by daruma matsura and it tells the story of a down and out samurai named ryuudo konosuke he is struggling to be part of 19th century japan because ever since he was a kid he's been afflicted by this curse that leaves him unable to touch metal which sounds pretty wacky but considering that he is a samurai he's not able to wield that extension of himself and to not be able to do that leaves him depressed angry frustrated and whenever he tries to go into town to get a new job he can't because everybody's mocking him he can't accept any bodyguard jobs and he always has a disheveled look people tell him to shave but he can't because he can't touch the razor blade so that leads to some humiliating moments for our main protagonist now at a moment of despair facing off against some bullies later down the story he is down on his luck and wishes for them to end his life in combat which leads to i guess one of the most iconic scenes in this first volume when you see the sword bend backwards and it pokes the bad guy in his forehead this leads to our main protagonist being involved with a young beautiful lady who is mysteriously enamored by our samurai and wants to marry him she is his biggest supporter and wants him to do well and is taking care of him he can't fathom the idea that luck might be on his side and things might get better so there's a lot of self-doubt going on here i don't want to reveal a whole lot but i do like that throughout the story even though it touches on the curse aspect early on you might think it's a straightforward samurai story but as you keep reading into the chapters and the encounters that these characters have you realize that there's a lot of supernatural aspects to this and there's sort of a layer of another world just itching to come at you and appear and make itself known to you one of the strongest aspects of this manga definitely has to be the art this looks phenomenal i love the contrast of the well-detailed backgrounds with the almost cel-shady character designs it looks really good i was blown away by the craftsmanship here by the creator look how pretty everything looks and how almost borderline comical because of our main protagonist and his facial expressions yet there's an elegance and a regalness when the young lady appears my favorite aspect aside from the supernatural stuff is the fact that ryudo reminds me of the everyman he is conflicted he is confused but he's willing to work at it no matter how long it takes even when things are at their worst and sometimes it takes an external force in this case his nearly appointed wife to remind him that life is worth living and you need that extra boost that support system to help you get through things and make you a better individual i think that's a great message if you ask me so there it is guys another successful reading vlog in the can if you will thank you so very much for all the likes all the comments all the new people that have subscribed welcome that is going to be it for now thank you so much once again god bless stay safe out there and i will catch all of you on our next video