Introduction

After reading Three Days of Happiness by Sugaru Miaki a few years ago, it sparked my love for reading again. There wasn’t anything clever or surprising about it. In fact, it’s one of those books where you can tell exactly what is going to happen and what it wants you to feel a few pages in. It doesn’t have the most memorable style either. It doesn’t try to hide what it is and executes a simple idea well. But after I was finished with the novel I realized the author’s other books have not been officially translated to English which made me want to read other stuff. After reading some of the novels and manga in the list below, I took a break to catch up on reading classic but boring financial and psychology books. Now I have the itch again to try and buy some stuff towards the end of June 2025.

What I Read in 2022-2023

• I Had That Same Dream Again by Yoru Sumino
• No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai
• Rascal Does Not Dream series by Hajime Kamoshida
• Rebuild of Welcome to the NHK by Tatsuhiko Takimoto

Some Manga I’ve also read mostly by Inio Asano (though it’s hard for me to read manga)

• Goodnight Punpun by Inio Asano
• Downfall by Inio Asano (It was so effective in being depressing I never want to read it again)
• Solanin by Inio Asano (favorite in this category)
• I Want to Eat Your Pancreas by Yoru Sumino
• 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa

Random Thoughts

Surprisingly I thought Solanin was the most similar to Three Days of Happiness because it felt hopeful and the payoffs were well deserved. I’ve also read the epilogue which I think was equally as good. No Longer Human is considered a classic novel and I’ve actually gifted it to someone before. It has that “I could care less if you read this at all” type tone and style which I think 1 in 100 million authors can get away with doing. The only other person I’ve seen pull it off is the Korean author Han Kang. It wasn’t my personal favorite but I still recommend it. I realized I enjoy hopeful novels, but most people would classify those books as being sad. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas was also similar to Three Days of Happiness in that it does not try to be gimmicky or twisty at all. It’s very clear what it’s trying to do within the first few pages.

I didn’t really understand Goodnight Punpun, but I acknowledge that it might be the only manga that does the over the top style dialogue without ever feeling silly. My interpretation of the manga is that we’re not actually seeing what is happening objectively, but we are seeing how everyone else makes the main character feel. There have been countless other works from the 2010s that fail horribly with the over the top screaming or edgy dialogue. I think this manga is a reference on how to do this style well and I’m glad that it exists even if it’s not my cup of tea.

Special note for Rebuild of Welcome to the NHK. I’ve never read the original source material, but the original novel and this Rebuild are two of the only works by Tatsuhiko Takimoto that have been translated to English. I’ve always said that the show version could only exist because it takes place in the early 2000s, but after reading Rebuild of Welcome to the NHK I realized that the show would be just as good if it was released today. The novel definitely jumps around and is not a full revival of the original series, but it’s fun, disturbing, and has those great wholesome moments just like the original show.

I was lukewarm on I Had That Same Dream Again but it was interesting enough for me to want to read the Author’s other novels that do have official English translations. It’s one of those novels I’ll probably read again in the future. I also found the author Mei Hachimoku who wrote several novels where there are some supernatural elements similar to Three Days of Happiness. I think I really like the genre of “supernatural but the supernatural stuff doesn’t matter” or “science fiction but the science fiction element doesn’t matter.” I’ll probably start with Wait For Me Yesterday in Spring because I usually don’t like book series. Even for manga I think I enjoy 1 volume manga more than long series.

I also read the Rascal Does Not Dream series because I enjoyed the animated series. It’s the Haruhi of the younger generation and it’s arguably a better series because there are actual payoffs for all the characters. Haruhi is guilty of throwing in hints about major events, but never really pulling through. Maybe that’s just what the author had in mind. Both the Haruhi books and show had very memorable high points, and I still watch “The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” almost every year. I just got the 2nd to last novel in the Rascal Does Not Dream series and I’m curious on how someone would end a series like this. I’m excited for 2026 when the final English translated novel will probably be released.

For some reason it took a long time for me to just read what interests me and acknowledge that there are some topics that just don’t interest me. I would still like to read the occasional book that might change how I feel. I’ll probably go back and read the rest of John Steinbeck’s novels because I think he writes compelling stories on subject matters or settings that I just don’t really care for. But against all odds I thoroughly enjoyed them.

To Buy and Read

• Ripping Someone Open Only Makes Them Bleed by Yoru Sumino
• I am Blue, in Pain, and Fragile by Yoru Sumino
• The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes by Mei Hachimoku
• An Autumn in Amber, a Zero-Second Journey by Mei Hachimoku
• The Mimosa Confessions by Mei Hachimoku
• Wait For Me Yesterday in Spring by Mei Hachimoku
• Rascal Does Not Dream of His Girlfriend (I preordered it and just got it today)
• Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dear Friend (final novel in the series)