It’s August’s issue of Harta!

This (along with the next issue) was caught awkwardly between my falling behind on the magazine due to the family visits early in the year, my wanting to read through these quickly to get to the end of Dungeon Meshi, and being heavily preoccupied by my then upcoming and rapidly approaching trip to Japan. So in this issue the penultimate Dungeon Meshi chapter is my biggest memory with the rest being a bit of a blur, but I’m going to try to flip through and see if I spot anything that strikes a chord.

クプルムの花嫁 by namo had the lead spot this month, with a fun chapter about taking part in a Niigata-area traditional kite battling event, and which introduced a new character.

ハクメイとミコチ by 樫木祐人 was a cute chapter about Mikochi being cajoled into trying on clothes in a store.

This issue had the last installment of the infrequently serialized 少年探偵冥司郎の嬉戯 by 東田裕介, which I’ve never been into at all, mainly because of the strange and off-putting hypersexualization. I don’t know exactly what to make of it but now that it’s done and collected I’m a little tempted to buy the volumes to read it from the start to see if I was missing something that makes it make more sense to me, but… that’s probably a bad idea.

I like the storyline beginning in this issue about a sort of god duel against Susanoo in 峠鬼 by 鶴淵けんじ. That it takes the form of a sort of virtual reality MOBAish game is a good example of how that series blends ancient magic and modern technology in a fun way.

There was a pleasant revival short chapter of ナッちゃんはテンションで水深が変わる by 中原ふみ commemorating its being collected in a tankobon. Check it out!

A couple new back of the magazine features: the column where the artists talked about a favorite tool they used has finished and been replaced by a column where they talk about their pets! And there’s a request page where an artist each month will draw a reader request! Both of these seem really fun.