So, for some reason (okay, it’s no big mystery, the reason was probably mostly the absinthe that I picked up ahead of my birthday) I was in a very good mood after finishing Harta 121 and making the notes about it, and I was especially interested in the 新連載 advertised in the previews, so I immediately started reading 122 and pretty much read it through the rest of the evening while listening to music. It was about the most I’ve felt relaxed in a quite a long time, so I appreciated it a lot. Although I didn’t quite finish that night and concluded the issue the next day feeling a bit more… bedraggled and headachey. I should probably focus on taking it easier for a while than I have been the last few days, by my heart still does go out to this issue of Harta.

The music, incidentally, was this time around albums I happened to have around / knew of: Super Hang-On The Man in a Blue Turban with a Face Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One SHINBANGUMI Magic Wand (at this point I was reading Atami-kun and was struggling trying to think of what would best match the vibe of that series, and settled on this? I guess? Hard to say) Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone

Anyway, some highlights:

The issue opens with a 新連載: 香港ネクロポリス by 越谷美咲. I was excited for this one because the preview mentioned 僵屍 and I looooooooove 僵屍. Quickest way to make me on board with a piece of media is to show a jiangshi hopping around. I was definitely a bit disappointed then this series takes the contemporary action approach, and so the jiangshi in the series have as much to do with the classical monster hopping around in their Qing dynasty hats, as the vampires in Buffy the Vampire Slayer have with Dracula in a cape. The series still seems really cool though, a polished supernatural action series set in 1997 Hong Kong pre-handover, during a triad election. It should come as no surprise if I’m into jiangshi to that degree that I’ve seen enough Hong Kong action movies to be on board with the premise, and I’m curious to see how well they’ll pull it off (though I’m not an informed enough viewer that I’ll be able to say authoritatively). Some of the flourishes with the tattoos in this first chapter are really cool.

キラキラとギラギラ by 嵐田佐和子 had some good gags this installment!

The other 新連載 I was excited about is 船長、問題がありません！ by 佐藤宮. The premise of this is SO Harta, are you kidding me? A domineering salaryman gets timeslipped into the body of a 17th century captain of a British trading ship, and the real life model ship enthusiast group ザ・ロープ provides consultancy of some kind (presumably on getting the ship details right). AND the author is a winner of the first 八咫烏杯! You could say that I’m… on board for it!

This episode of 珍獣のお医者さん by 二宮香乃 was very informative about birds and Japanese bird law. I hope animal lovers can stand the injured animal content because I bet they’d get a kick out of the series if so.