It’s the first digital Harta back issue! From back in 202o! Only a handful of issues before the first one I read (80). I picked this up for a hundred yen because of a generous sale on bookwalker for Harta back issues, and read it quickly because of the many people on the WaniKani forum I conned into also buying Harta issues because of that sale!! I hadn’t previously been actively planning to ever dig into those issues before 80, but for that price? Why not! And it turned out quite fun, especially with the added social excitement of the Harta club starting up!

My prior feelings about this issue are nothing but mild resentment because it has my least favorite cover, but because it’s the first digital one, it’s the one that represents Harta the series on Bookwalker. Oh well! I’ve expressed a little nostalgia for the ‘cover story’ accompanying the cover on these older issues, but honestly – the new cover and presentation and everything really is sleek, and the additional illustrations in the table of contents etc. accomplish about the same as what the cover story does here (just not specifically in comics form).

I knew going in that it would be a quick read because it would be made up mostly of series that I’d either caught up on already, or series that I knew I wanted to catch up on already (but had since ended or moved to Ao Kishi) that I’d just rather read in volumes at this point anyway. And that was indeed the case, so there was a lot of skimming or skipping. I should definitely use this as an excuse to fast track catching up on some of these series I’ve been meaning to for ages… The one about visiting castles has gotta be my #1 to get to at this stage… It’s funny also how of the chapters from series I’ve read before most I don’t really remember at all as my memory of the series has coalesced into a single blob but a couple I definitely remember (Dungeon Meshi for sure, and Togeoni here I recall).

It’s also interesting how much more… Ao Kishi-ish! the magazine is at this stage. I don’t really fully understand what I mean by that, but definitely there’s some series (like the beer one, or Beni Tsubaki, or Rekiyomi) that feel somehow intangibly more at home in Ao Kishi… probably just because they or their authors did move to Ao Kishi! But still – I think the split was probably beneficial, and the way Harta has developed since then is I think positive and really cool to see with this contrast between the most recent issue and this one! It’s heartening (Hartaning?) to see it’s been flourishing as it changes.

The #1 highlight for me though of this issue was absolutely ライカの星! I knew 吉田真百合 from one of my recent new favorites in the magazine, 犬火の兄弟, and I’d been meaning to read this one for ages, and so I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only is this its first chapter, but it’s contained entirely within the few issues before #80! I was immediately very taken with the style and bittersweet science fantasy tone of the story, and it’s definitely very familiar territory knowing the author’s later series (which is a lot like this but historical fantasy rather than science fiction fantasy), and so I ended up picking up and reading through the collected edition I’d bought to read ages ago. Which I’ll talk about in the entry for that!

I also quite liked the cute and inventive 読切 by 木原悠里子, 姫と忍. The style blends the childishly cute with the magically stunning in a way not dissimilar at all to 吉田真百合’s. The style looked familiar to me, and yep, she had a 読切 in 82 it looks like. And… Interesting! Her pen name appears to have changed to きはらゆりこ with a series in Morning Two called 大粒！　かいのこちゃんのＨＡＫＫＯ日和.

It’s a bit of a funny coincidence to me that the back of the magazine prose column that I’m usually too reading-exhausted to actually pay attention to, Naoki Yamamoto’s 待たせてゴメンネ appears to be on its first entry this issue! Since that’s more inviting than the later numbers I’m used to, I made sure to read it, and it’s a good example of the kind of meandering slices of pop culture anecdotes that are interesting but a little hard to know what to do with without any context that can be found in each installment. I listened to the main song mentioned though, 「教訓 I」 and it’s nice to fill in little bits of cultural holes like that, plus it gave a nice vibe to the end of the magazine. Also – I’ve now belatedly read the author bio more carefully and connected the dots that this dude wrote a manga I’m pretty sure I’ve seen recommended that looked really interesting: Red, about the United Red Army. (I don’t think I’m just imagining I saw it recommended separately and just recalling the title from googling the author in the past anyway…). I should endeavor to read his column more carefully.

It’s kinda interesting that there’s a comic built around the solicits for next issue! I don’t think I saw that even when I started reading? I guess it’s fun but again I gotta admit the newer style is sleeker and doesn’t sacrifice much charm.