Monthly Log - January 2026

Let's take a look at what I watched and read at the start of the year.

Watched

• Watched Cosmic Baton Girl Comet-san episodes 3-7. Still on carrying the legacy of its predecessor series, it does still bear the idea of letting kids learn from joyful experiences outside of school or classes.
• Watched Attacker You! episodes 12-29. I'm enjoying this show more after You left middle school and joined a pro team away from Daimon. Less slapping, more of sport connecting people who support each other to grow.
• Watched Whisper of the Heart. The source material is a shoujo manga from Ribon, so in some ways it feels kind of different from other Ghibli films I've seen. Like, much emphasis on depicting the mundane modern (for its time) urban Japan setting. Now, I want to read the manga. Funny that nobody seems to have ever licensed this manga despite having a Ghibli adaptation? lol
• Finished Kimipre. There are some things I expected it to do that it ends up don't.
• Started watching Ikoku Nikki. In an interview, Sawashiro Miyuki makes an interesting comment about the nuance in this story, in that you can't simply separate the characters into "these are the good people, and these are the bad people" (yes, even with the older sister that Makio hates), because it allows you to get into the perspectives of the different characters, who each has their own flaws. Sometimes, people here do something that could hurt others not out of ill intent, but different personalities and perceptions can cause such frictions. It's a really fine story about the struggles to navigate these difficulties.
• Started watching Champignon Witch. I have my first impression on The Indonesian Anime Times.
• Watched The Freshman. This film has some fun animated intertitles. Also, might be interesting material to discuss hegemonic masculinity.
• Watched Princess-Session Orchestra episodes 37-38. Enjoyed the aquarium visit banter. The interactions between the characters are amusing as always.
• Watched Shin Takarajima film. I was surprised that although it's a Mushi Pro production, it's not based on Tezuka's own Shin Takarajima and is actually a rather straightforward adaptation of the actual Treasure Island with anthropomorphic animal characters. Also making a parable about greed with obsession for the treasure turning the anthropomorphic animal characters more animalistic. Watching it also makes me interested again in thinking about to what extent Treasure Planet is similar or different from the original novel.

Readings

• Reread The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Revisiting the book after so long, I can approach the characters from some new perspectives.

Also, if chuunibyou originally referred to things teens do to act like grown ups such as drinking black coffee, Kyon's assertion that he's 'maturing' 'cos he can accept that reality is dull actually feels kind of chuuni.

— Hal @ semi spring break (@HalimunM91) January 14, 2026

• Reread Takkoku!! volumes 2-4. Either I forgot or I really didn't notice back then, but it's actually possible (as in not breaking the law) for couples ordained by the Table Tennis Confession (Takkoku) Law to break up.
• Read Ace wo Nerae! volume 2. The conflict and drama are still very compelling.
• Finished Tōhō Ibarakasen: Wild and Horned Hermit. Surprised but pleased that the manga can put off the plot of Kasen's real objective until the few final chapters, allowing most of the series to mainly revolve around the cast's everyday antics. Also amused that Tenshi plays an important role in the final arc. Azuma Aya's art has also grown so much after nine years. The expressions of Kasen's Arm and Kasen's complete form are delightful to see.
• Reread Hitoha-kun, Hitoribocchi?. Really pity that the web platform that hosted the Indonesian translation of the manga closed down before finishing this series. I'm still curious who is Cerberus' master and why that master sent Cerberus to off Hitoha.
• Reread Magic Kaitō volume 1. I forgot where I read this manga before. Maybe at some rental shop that now has closed? Having a practitioner of actual magic notwithstanding, even the gadgets in this series are comparatively more fantastic than the ones featured in Detective Conan.
• Reread Ichigo Mashimaro volumes 4-5. Sometimes I wonder if the Indonesian publisher was aware of the manga's lolicon taste, but maybe they just saw it as a funny comedy (I do personally find the jokes can be hilarious in their own right). At least they're aware enough it's not kid's stuff despite the child characters as they rated it for 'teens'.

Masterful gambit

• Reread Detective Conan volumes 18-20. These were some of the first volumes of the series that I read. It's amusing to look back at how things like takoyaki were translated back in the days, now that I am more familiar with what the things actually are. Also, when I think about it, both Conan and Heiji has been shot in the stomach once.
• Read the first volume of Nasu Yukie's Moonlight. It's a pretty charming shōjo portal fantasy. Though the girl stays on Earth after the guys from the other world returns to theirs and the story shift the focus to the the other world's plot. I wonder how the girl would be involved with that world's plot.
• Read Watashi no Messiah-sama. This portal fantasy takes an aprroach where being chosen to save the other world is more nightmarish than what the main character thought. Still on the fence on how it executes the idea, though.

That’s all for January. Now that Kimipre has finished, my schedule has a slight change: