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As part of my goal to push aside the notion that ‘N1 is full of archaic Japanese that’s barely ever used’ I’m going to start uploading every piece of ‘archaic’ n1 grammar I find in modern books for young adults
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I’ve finished Baka Test 1-8 but I don’t feel like summarizing them
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Gekou Fukanou ‘Cannot Leave School’
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I LOVED THESE TWO BOOKS!! I’ve seen reviews where it’s described as ‘a poor man’s version of Another’ but I actually enjoyed this WAY more than another. I think because I really loved the character designs and personalities. It was easy to get attached to and care for them. They’re all so gorgeous!
下校不可能 (Gekou Fukanou)
‘Cannot leave school’
Plot: There’s a legend at Nanashirou High where if you find the rumored Earl, he will grant you one wish. Many students make a hobby of ‘Earl Hunting’, and some even claim to have met him and have their wish granted. One day, the students of Class 2-4 find themselves trapped in the old school building and unable to escape until they find the Earl. They are chased by man-eating monsters and it’s not long before they start to suspect even each other.
Language Difficulty: HARD. N1. I went through both books in great detail, mining every single world I didn’t know and adding them to flashcards. I knew this story was going to be good so I wanted to understand everything. There were SO MANY phrases and words that I’d never paid much attention to before. But I did notice after reading this book, books since then have become much easier. I think his book was a turning point for me. It was hard to get through, so in turn it made other books easier.
That said, it’s not high level in terms of plot or anything, it was simply written in a style I’m not used to and required a lot of concentrating.
Rating: 10/10. Really good story, is gonna stick with me for a long time. Really loved it and definitely a ‘page-turner’. Was desperate to know what happens next. And especially when I found out the Earl was one of the students I was really desperate to find out who. Was slightly disappointed but it’s definitely a twist I didn’t see coming. I was convinced the Earl was Eiji omg... And the twist at the end completely threw me omg... Really made me think.
Summary: SPOILERS! The twist will be ruined if you read this, so if you plan to read this book please skip this.
The story starts with Teshio Fumihiko arriving at school and meeting his classmate Hitaka Aisaku. Fumihiko has a strange feeling about the school toaday that makes him uneasy.
Aisaku is tall, handsome, memeber of the basketball club and class president. Fumihiko is small with a talent for magic. He was part of his family’s travelling circus until he entered highschool.
Their classmate Tessei joins them. He’s unusually early for school. His arm is in a sling. He got into a fight with some delinquents when he snuck out of school into town. The students at Nanashiro usually stay in a student dorm and aren’t allowed to leave without permission. The school is quite isolated from the rest of the world.
(continue later)
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いじめ14歳のメッセージ
A 14 year old’s message about bullying
Plot: Suika is a bright second year middle school student. One day, the unofficial class ‘leader’ Youko decides to start a ‘game’ of bullying a quiet girl named Chika. At first Suika says nothing, but eventually she can’t stand it any more. She stands up to them, and tells them to stop.
The next day, it is Suika’s turn to be horribly and mercilessly bullied. This is her burden now...
Summary: No. This is a story meant to be read, not summarized.
But I will say that it explores the theme of bullying and how it effects everyone in a heart wrenching way.
This book moved me emotionally and I think I cried through most of it. This is the most I have ever been moved by a Japanese novel so far.
Language difficulty: Easy. N3.
The author wrote this when she was 14, and the language reflects this. I would recommend this as a very easy book to start with for anyone wanting to read in Japanese.
But... the language may be easy but the theme is not. It’s a very, VERY intense story.
Pros:
-Very VERY simple easy to understand language. Relatively short too at 200 pages with a big size font. Very easy to read
-It really really made me think about ‘what is kindness’
Cons:
-PREPARE SOME TISSUES ‘CAUSE U GONNA CRY
Rating: I feel bad to even rate this... 10/10. It felt so real... I sympathized with the protagonist, despised the antagonists and was in tears until the last page.
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中病激発ボーイ (Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy)
‘Middle School Second Year Syndrome Boys’
It’s a difficult title to translate. There’s the word ‘explosion’ in there too, but I’m not sure how to fit it into the title...
Plot: Hijiri Mizuki is a transfer student to Minakami Highschool. There, she encounters four particularly unique boys, all with varying strains of ‘chuunibyou’ or ‘eigth grade syndrome’. Noda believes he is a super hero. Takashima is very attractive - and knows it a little to well - but is obsessed with anime characters. Nakamura believes he is the reincarnation of an angel and a demon with black magic powers. And Tsukumo believes himself to be a ‘mastermind’ behind everything that’s going on.
Summary:
Mizuki transfers to her new school, Minakami Highschool. There’s no uniform here, so students can wear what they like. Mizuki wears the uniform from her old school with a blazer. She doesn’t want to stand out too much - all she wants is a peaceful school year. Due to a sty in her eye, she wears an eyepatch.
As she introduces herself to the class, a boy named Noda stands up in awe. He continues to stare at her for the rest of the day. A friendly girl named Nanako comes to talk to Mizuki, which she’s relieved about. DDuring recess, they watch the boys play soccer. Noda is very skilled at soccer, but apparently he’s refuse all offers of joining clubs. His friend, Takashima, Mizuki notes is very good looking. She remarks they must be popular, Her classmates don’t say anything.
At that moment, Noda comes over saying he has something important to talk about. He brings her to the roof and declares her name is now Pink, and she is a member of their team - their nakama - a mysterious transfer student with an eyepatch. Naturally Mizuki has no idea what he’s talking about, so Noda figures she has not yet ‘awakened’ and proclaims himself her body guard until she does.
To Mizuki’s dismay, Noda and Takashima insist on sitting with her for lunch and basically following her around, which causes the girls in the class to take their distance from her. During lunch, Takashima comments his girlfriend has made his bento. Mizuki asks about this, and Takashima lists off a string of unusual girls names - which all turn out to be anime characters. He has many girlfriends, but his true waifu is Sora-chan, a character from a popular idol game.
Ahh, so this is why these two aren’t popular with girls.
During a basketball tournament, Noda tries to lead his team to victory, speaking like the main character of an anime, but his teammates but up with it because he’s very skilled. They notice a strange man lurking around the school, so Noda abandons the final match halfway through to chase him, and Takashima and Mizuki follow. It turns out the masked man is Mizuki’s father, who just wanted to see his daughter happy before he went to France for business. She’s not amused.
When they return, Noda’s teammates are annoyed that he abandoned them and cost them the match. Mizuki meets a strange boy with red/pink hair. Suddenly a basketball net goes almost collapses on Mizuki. 
A few weeks later, Nananko invites Mizuki to karaoke. The boy with pink hair - Tsukumo - and Takahima are both there too. Mizuki is embarrassed to sing so when the mike is forced upon her, Takashima saves her by grabbing it and singing in her place. As a thank you she gives him her drink - but it seems her drink was spiked with alcohol?
Takashima drinks it, gets very drunk, proclaims his undying love for Sora chan and runs out of the karaoke booth. Mizuki follows him as he believes she’s responsible. On the way home he’s a little more honest about things. However, he also throws up.
A few days later at school, Noda, Mizuki and Takashima come across a strange bespectacled boy during lunch time. It’s Nakamura, the top student in their year - but he claims his name is Ryuushouin Touga, and that he is the reincarnation of an angel and a demon with power over black magic. Noda and Nakamura have an epic battle using their magical powers - which Mizuki and Takashima cannot see at all. Eventually it seems the two bonded out of respect for each other’s power.
Nakamura invites them all to his house to study - he has an impressive collection of fake weapons which the boys get excited over. He also has a talking parrot. Noda accidentally causes the parrot to escape, so they have to go search for it. They find it up a tree, being stalked by a cat - which turns out to be Tsukumo. Tsukumo is as mysterious as ever. He remarks that he hates people who go around pretending to have special powers, when they have no idea what it’s like to actually have those powers.
The four begin to suspect him, as he’s always around when something bad happens. The basketball net almost falling on Mizuki. Spiking her drink with alcohol. Thy stalk him to his house, convinced he’s using telepathic powers.
Once they get there, they find out he’s bullied by his older sisters and the caretaker of his younger sisters. One younger one says she lost her rabbit strap at a nearby shrine. Tsukumo is annoyed he was followed but accepts everyone’s help to go search for the rabbit strap at the shrine, which is said to be haunted.
They get there and it’s very creepy. They find the strap but they also here and see strange things, which they think are ghosts. A voice says ‘I’ve finally found you.’ Tsukumo bolts out of there - but it turns out the voice was just the owner of the shrine. He brings them back to the office and they get to cosplay in special shine clothes.
During summer vacation, Mizuki is relieved to have some alone time. She goes to buy a jigsaw puzzle and runs into the chuunibyou boys. They ask her to go swimming with them, but she  refuses. They decide to at least walk to the store with her, stopping on the way at the bank.
In the bank, there’s a sudden armed robbery. Everyone panics as Mizuki is held at gun point, and the four decide the only way to ave her is to use their special technique - Eternal Forest Blizzard! Mizuki decides it can’t hurt so she goes along with it, and by some miracle there’s a flash of cold light and the robbers faint. Everyone safely leaves the crime scene.
Afterwards, no one really believes what happens but the four boys are more convinced than ever they have powers. Mizuki can only smile.
Language Difficulty: Hard (N2-N1). The first part was easy enough, but once Nakamura is introduced he begins using some really unusual words straight out of fantasy RPGs, and unfortunately the spike in difficulty remains for the rest of the book. I felt like was back playing Shinobi Koi Utsutsu trying to charm Garaiya! Because of the language difficulty increase, I found the first part of the book way more enjoyable than the second.
Pros:
-As you can tell from the plot, those are some interesting characters!
-The dialogue was pretty funny. Poor Mizuki was the straight man to these crazy chuunibyou boys.
-Cute art
Cons:
-You know the suspension of disbelief? I suspended for everything in the book until the bank robbery. I just... I know it was to add necessary drama but I just CAN’T see a bank robbery of two men with guns happen in Japan like that... 
-Once all the boys were introduced, it got a bit dull... Both plots of visiting the haunted shrine and the bank robbery were a bit cliche...
Rating: 6/10 
Interesting setting and characters, but once they were all introduced I felt like it got a bit dull. The entertainment was in meeting and getting to know each boy, but together they just weren’t as interesting as I thought they would be unfortunately. I really liked the protagonist Mizuki though.
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BLゲームの主人公の弟であることに気がつきました!
I realized that I’m the younger brother of the main character of a BL game!
Okay I absolutely LOVED this!!!!
Summary:
Amachi Akira realizes that in a past life he was a fujoshi (a girl who loves yaoi) obsessed with BL games, and now he has been reincarnated as the little brother of the main character of a BL game he played in his previous life.
His brother - the MC of the BL game - is a popular, handsome senior with perfect grades. He’s recently started dating his childhood friend, Haruki, who is like an honorary big brother to Akira.
When Akira finds out about their relationship, the ex fujoshi inside of him in elated, and realizes they were reincarnated into the ‘after story’ of a BL game after the main couple get together. Akira wants to savor his brother and his boyfriend dating - but he’s curious about the 3 other potential love interests.
Note: Akira is said to look very similar to Makoto in the face.
First is Kaede. Kaede is Akira’s classmate and the one uke option in the BL game. I was afraid he would be overly sweet, but he was the opposite. Kaede is a TOTAL tsundere to Akira, and this book was the way I noticed that I ADORE male tsundere characters.
Kaede has fluffy golden hair and is described as having ‘the face of an angel with the temptation of a devil’. He’s about 5’4”/ 1.65cm, which makes him shorter than most guys but taller than most girls.
After Kaede was rejected by Akira’s older brother - Makoto - he takes his anger out on Akira every morning when they arrive at school by... verbally abusing him? Nothing too extreme, but enough for Akira to consider it a troublesome event. Akira threatens to tell his brother if he keeps it up. This causes Kaede to run away, and when Akira chases him to apologize he notices Kaede is crying.
Akira realizes the reason Kaede is like this is bc his heart has been broken by his brother.
Since he once saw Kaede drink a Cafe Olé, he decides to buy one for him, in an effort to cheer him up. Kaede snaps he doesn’t like sweet drinks, and he only bought that Cafe Olé to give to Makoto as a gift. Akira then buys him a bitter coffee drink.
It seems Kaede warms up to him a bit and demands his contact details. After this, every day before school Kaede comes to Akira’s house to walk with him to school together. He also baked him a cookie to pay back the drink Akira brought him. Kaede is a textbook tsundere. He’s very snappy and huffy with Akira, but at the same time insists Akira is ‘his’ and is very clingy about being around him all the time. This continues throughout the book and I LOVED it.
My favorite scene in the whole book is when Akira wanted to try out a ‘Kabe Don’ - pinning someone against the wall. Kaede is his victim 「今、ドキした?」and he blushes bright red before calling him a BAKAAAA and running off.
The next love interest is the staff worker Hiiragi. He wears his hair long and scraggly so you can’t even see his eyes, but Akira knows he’s handsome underneath all the scruff. Hiiragi is in charge of the room students go to relax/ drink tea/ talk about their problems. Akira calls to see him and Hiiragi confides in him he wants to murder someone - which Akira guesses is Makoto’s boyfriend Haruki.
Akira tells him they should exchange phone numbers and Hiiragi is to text him every time he has murderous feelings.
Hiiragi’s texts are disturbing... Every time he sees Haruki he wants to kill him with whatever item he has in his hands... He is a true yandere.
Eventually Akira gets sick of this and goes to confront Hiiragi - only for Hiiragi to pin him to the couch. Akira has had enough and he throws Hiiragi off him while screaming that he needs to smarten himself up and cut his stupid long hair before he goes hunting down a new love.
The next day Hiiragi has a complete makeover - and he is gorgeous. He’s flooded with attention from girls, but all he wants is Akira. Akira does not feel the same, but he does come up with idea of pairing off Kaede and Hiiragi. This doesn’t exactly work out.
Akira retreats to a quiet garden in the school to have some time to himself. He vows from now on he will stay away from any potential ex love interest of Makoto. And that’s when he meets the student council president - Aogiri Natsuki. Natsuki is a loud Ore Sama prince type, who describes Makoto as ‘his’ and wants everyone to do exactly as he says. When Akira won’t meet him, he uses the intercom to call Akira to him - which causes every student in the school to hunt down Akira and let him know Natsuki wants him.
Natsuki’s twin brother - Natsuhi - tells him he should not use the intercom for his personal use, so Natsuki waits for Akira by the school in the morning. Natsuki will get what Natsuki wants. He insists that Akira helps him win back Makoto. Akira tried to advise him otherwise, but Natsuki misinterprets his advice and continues to pursue Akira - by inviting him to go fishing.
His brother Natsuhi tags along, though he complains the whole time about the smell of the bait and refuses to sit down on the ‘dirty’ ground. Akira even takes off his hoodie and puts in on the ground to give this princess a place to sit, but Natsuhi tosses his jacket back at him and sits down anyway. There’s a lot of messing around between the two of them and it’s really amusing.
The next day at school Akira finds a letter in his shoebox that says ‘I know your brother’s secret. Meet me in the basement.’ Thinking this is a threat to his brother, Akira goes to the basement to meet a bespectacled boy who he recognizes as Makoto’s fanatic from the bad ending of the BL game. Just as this creep is about to rape him, Akira is saved by Natsuhi, and later the three ex love interests of his big brother.
The next day, Akira decides to talk with a girl named Shirousa - she seems to present during all of his interactions and she seems to really disapprove of him. She also has warned him in the past to stay away from her angelic little brother, Miyuki.
Shirousa confesses the reason she despises him is because she knows he’s the MC in the SEQUEL to the BL game his brother was the MC in. And she doesn’t want him touching her little brother. Also, Shirousa used to be a boy whose older sister drove him crazy with her love for BL, who was reincarnated into this world.
In the end, she says Akira will have to end up choosing one of the four boys (other route options are Haruki or Makoto himself but Akira doesn’t want to go there).
The fujoshi inside Akira concludes that ‘BL should be watched, not experienced’ and finds it troublesome to have become a MC in a BL game.
Thoughts:
I thought from the cover I could guess exactly how the characters would act - but I was pleasantly surprised by all of them! Kaede wasn’t overly sweet and girly, but very tsundere. Hiiragi wasn’t a cool, stylish teacher, but a socially awkward... predator. Natsuki wasn’t as much like Ayato from diabolic wifebeaters as I feared he would be. And even though I saw their names, I didn’t guess Natsuki and Natsuhi were related until they appeared in the story! I thought from his picture Natsuhi would be very cool and calm but he actually has the most amusing interactions with Akira! I loved reading their dialogue the most.
I thought the pacing was great, each character introduced slowly and I found it easy to like most of them. Akira was also likable, and easy to relate to most of the time. The one big problem I had with this book I will talk about below under the Con section.
Pros:
-The narrator was hilarious, and I found myself smiling a lot at her/his jokes
-The characters!! They were each so interesting in their own way!!
-THE KABE DON SCENE!!! MY HEART!!!
Cons:
-Tbh? I thought it was unnecessary for the protagonist to be an ex fujoshi reincarnated as a teenage boy. The random outbursts of getting excited over sweet yaoi action just felt ... well, they didn’t add anything and tbh they felt a little disturbing. He/ she insists they want nothing to do with BL themselves, while at the same time gets almost creepily obsessed with any prospect of boy x boy love.
I really feel it would have worked just as well if there was no ‘fujoshi reincarnated as teenage boy’. Like, it could have been just a teenage boy who realizes he’s the little brother of the MC of a BL game. It would have been fine that way.
It just didn’t make any sense to me that one minute the fujoshi inside Akira was getting excited over any kind of BL action, and the next Akira wanted nothing to do with BL.
It must be a cultural difference, but I found the train of thought pretty strange and a bit off-putting.
Favorite Character: KAEDE!! Tsuntsun angelic looking uke YESSSSS
Language difficulty:
Easy-Medium (N2)
There was very little obscure vocab and the only readings I had difficulty with were remembering how to read the kanji of the names of the characters. So I wrote them down and kept them with me.
If you concentrate and don’t skim it’s easy to follow what’s going on. It’s set mostly at school in various rooms, and there were no really difficult scenes. There’s also jokes it’s easy for a non native speaker to understand.
Rating: 8/10
I loved reading this and some scenes will stick with me long after but that fujoshi shit was so unnecessary, which is why I’m docking points
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The Patissier and the Perfect Wedding
Summary: Shirou is a young male wedding planner with a sweet tooth for all kinds of dessert. His hobby is visiting bakeries and cafes and writing a review about said desserts in his personal Sweets Notebook. His dream is to visit the bakery Fleurir, but his job keeps him so busy he never has a chance.
On his way home from visiting a cafe one day, he bumps into a very tall man with scary eyes who a nearby policeman accuses of being a thief - while Shirou runs away he drops his Sweets Notebook in a panic.
At work, one of his clients - a couple who will be married in a few months - tell him that they want the bakery Fleurir to provide the cake and dessert for their wedding. They met and fell in love at a bakery in France where Fleurir’s Patissier worked, and now that he’s back in Japan, they want him to cater for them. But even though they asked him many times, he refuses their offer.
It’s Shirou’s job as their wedding planner to convince the baker - Hanasaki - to cater for their wedding.
When he finally steps foot in Fleurir for the first time, he finds out that Hanasaki is none other than the man he bumped into the other day. He’s not a thief - it was a mistaken identity - and he returns Shirou’s Sweets Notebook. Hanasaki is interested in the way Shirou reviews dessert, and asks him to try a cake he’s currently working on. However, when Shirou asks about the wedding cake, Hanasaki wants nothing to do with it.
Shirou returns to the cafe every day for two weeks, trying to convince Hanasaki to bake for the wedding. He befriends the pretty boy waiter - Shimon.
During a particularly busy day, the bakery is low on staff so Shirou helps out as a waiter. Hanasaki remarks he’s getting fat ‘your face looks like an overstuffed cream bun’ and they start going to the gym together.
Hanasaki learns Shirou’s diet isn’t all that healthy so he starts to bring him a picnic lunch everyday. They slowly bond and Hanasaki opens up to Shirou. The reason Hanasaki would cater for weddings was because 7 years ago his bride left him at the altar, and since then he believes he himself is a bad omen at weddings. Shirou and the couple convince him that’s not true, and he agrees to cater for their wedding.
There’s minor conflict when Hanasaki’s ex fiancé returns, but it helps Shirou realize his feelings for Hanasaki.
After the wedding ceremony of the couple, Hanasaki brings Shirou to his house and shows him a birthday cake he made for Shirou. They make love. The end.
Note: I feel like I could say a lot more lmao
Pros:
-There’s only a few major characters and the author really takes time for you to get to know the MC Shirou. The relationship between Hanasaki and Shirou blooms very slowly and carefully too. I thought the pacing was great.
-The description of the desserts and food were AMAZING and I ended up craving all the food that was described lmao
-Even though the plot was very simple, it was still engaging. Especially when Hanasaki’s ex fiancé appeared. You’re like, this is cliche but ohhhhhhhh shit’s about to go down!
Cons:
-The art was cute but I wasn’t a fan of the unrealistic sizes. Shirou is described as chubby but he looks practically underweight in every picture.
-Boo why does Shirou have to lose weight I bet he’s perfect as he is
Other: I actually translated the first two chapters of his bc I love it so much and as always Araceli has to translate everything lmao
Language difficulty: Easy - Medium (N2)
Quite long and several unfamiliar words, but you could guess them from the context.
Rating: 9/10 I LOVED THIS!!!
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