That Backlog’s Just Getting Bigger…(TBR/W Tag)

The painful truth is right there in the title!

Since Irina offered the TBR/W tag to anyone who wanted it, I took it. Unfortunately, that left me with the conundrum of which name to pick – choose “Aria” and make it too short, or hack the number off “MagicConan14” and make it too long?

For the sake of my anime list, I’ll go with the latter.

Books (incl. manga)

Aside from light novels, manga and non-fiction about anime and manga, I really haven’t been reading as much as I used to, so this list is mostly manga…Oh, also note I vastly prefer physical volumes to digital releases because of the potential for data security to go awry at any moment.

Mammoth Book of Best New Manga (vol. 1)

Way back when I was first starting to read manga, I came across a volume of 200-something pages with a black and neon pink cover, and a girl pointing a gun over the top of what appeared to be an armoured bear(!) It was the Mammoth Book of Best New Manga Vol. 2, and I loved it back then, even though I didn’t understand what was going on with some of the characters who’d carried over from volume 1…and the fact it wasn’t technically “manga” as in “comics from Japan”, but what people call Original English Language manga. (I kind of cringe at the name “OEL manga” today, but oh well. The industry’s pretty much stopped promoting that sort of thing anyway.)

However, as the interview I linked can attest, the first volume was from 2006 and I haven’t been able to find a Mammoth Book after vol. 2.

Again!! vol. 1 by Mitsurou Kubo

As a Yuri!!! on Ice fan, it seemed like a dream come true when Kodansha licensed this way back when. Now all I have to do is find it and read it…

Graineliers vol. 1 by Rihito Takarai

I think I first saw this series as part of this manga guide and the pretty boys and the unique premise caught me hook, line and sinker. I know Lina got a copy of it, which means it’s possible to purchase it somehow…I just need to figure out the “how” bit.

I Am A Hero vol. 1 by Kengo Hanazawa

I can’t write zombies for peanuts, but I can certainly dig a good horror manga!

Sidebar: One English teacher I had was a published author and loved zombie stories. One time, they assigned the class to write zombie stories…and so that’s how I know I can’t write zombie stories.

Case Closed (Detective Conan) vol. 63 by Gosho Aoyama

Knowing my library, they probably have this by now…

Category: Freaks vol. 1(?) by Sakurako Gokurakuin

This practically unknown, somewhat embarrassing title…I seem to remember there’s a volume of it sitting in a certain library that has a lot of Tokyopop-era titles, although due to the sheer age and lack of preservation of Tokyopop-era titles these days, it doesn’t seem to matter what volume is preserved anymore. I seem to remember the library’s volume in question had a red cover though, which appears to be volume 1.

Sakurako Gokurakuin is apparently mostly known for Sekirei, but I want to read this because of another series she did called Juvenile Orion. I don’t think anybody remembers Juvenile Orion because it was only 5 volumes, but it was a cool series.

Orenchi no Furo Jijou (Merman in My Tub) vol. 1 by Itokichi

Admit it – even though that English title’s straight to the point, it really puts you off. It certainly put me off from buying it when I saw it in a store in the past…

I got One Punch Man vol. 2 instead of it though, so it was a win-win situation either way.

Night on the Galactic Railroad (Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru) by Kenji Miyazawa

There’s a Japanese-language copy in a certain library. If I keep working on my Japanese while I still have access to it, maybe, just maybe, I can tick this one off…

Aposimz (Ningyo no Kuni/Country of Dolls) vol. 1 by Tsutomi Nihei

Apparently there’s a print version of this…in October this year. Gotta keep waiting!

Hey, I might not be the biggest sci-fi fan, but between Blame!, Knights of Sidonia and this, I gotta find some way to start on this guy’s work…ah, Netflix. Why’d you have to make my life hard in ths regard?

No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku) by Osamu Dazai

Undoubtedly the most dangerous choice by far, since the Bungaku Shoujo light novel based on it (Suicidal Mime) portrays Dazai’s prose as being compelling and relatable in an existential kind of way. On the other hand, knowing what happened to Dazai because of this book also makes a dark cloud hang over it, too.

This is something I found through Aozora Bunko, so I’ll have to work on my Japanese skills to read it.

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Anime

I can only watch so many shows before I forget what happened in each, so often I have to allocate a certain number of “places” for shows and shuffle things around a lot. It’s inefficient and sometimes streaming services lose rights to shows while they’re languishing in the TBW, but it’s the only way I know how to properly give shows the focus they deserve…

Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist

It’s been on the TBW for a while because of its passing similarities to Kuroshitsuji. Hopefully it’ll be able to distinguish itself.

Amagi Brilliant Park

To quote my note on this show: “The fact the protag is named after Kanye West is probably the single greatest thing about this.”

Garo – Vanishing Line

An unfortunate victim of not being publicised enough in its season and being two-cour on top of that! Apparently it’s really good sakuga-wise, but obviously I can’t attest to that much yet.

Inari, Kon Kon, Koi Iroha.

This show appeared on the periphery of my awareness as I started to explore anime more deeply than just Detective Conan. It certainly seems an odd choice in a way, but it definitely piqued my interest back then and it still does now.

Chihayafuru

Apparently a sports anime…? The only sports anime I ever liked was Prince of Stride Alternative, so this was to rectify that…I think.

Clockwork Planet

A potential hatewatch. I guess it does help I was interested in its steampunk aesthetic before it got panned…

Outbreak Company

I think I picked this one because people keep making that joke about that dinosaur and guy in the green shirt being Steve and Blue from Blue’s Clues. Lame reason, I know, but “I watch for the commentary on what it means to be an otaku” sounds fake.

Newareta Gakuen (Psychic School Wars)

I had a DVD of this at one point, but it was damaged and unplayable! (Gah! It makes me frustrated just thinking about it!)

Acchi Kocchi

I don’t know too much about this show other than what I read from Karandi’s take on it, so blame her for this.

New Game!

I, for one, am very excited to champion this if it promotes girls making games like Funimation marketed it as being.

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So that’s it. I have a surprisingly vast amount of subject matter in there, and a whole bunch of books I wanted to include didn’t fit even though I took the hard route and thus spent a few extra days on this post. I’m not going to tag anyone since I don’t think I know anyone who hasn’t done it, but if you want it feel free to link back.

What do you think about my choices? Did any particularly stick out to you as things you wouldn’t expect to be in there?