What I read in November 2011: Digest Version, part 2 of 3

b House of Five Leaves 4: Lots of tension still building slowly, an obnoxious new character, and then WHAM at the end.  This period drama is somehow engrossing and laid back in equal measure, and its mash-up of criminal caper/heists, mysterious pasts, and character sketches makes it one I have to read all at once and savor.  The anime was recently licensed for release in 2012 by NIS, but there are spoilery things in it, so I can't watch it until I've read the whole series!

b Hunter X Hunter 9: The joy of tracking down a cheap but well-handled out of print book are numerous.  No more unaesthetic holes in my collection of this still-ongoing series.  This particular volume was brutal and melancholy.

b Kekkaishi 27: Pardon me while I drool some more.  I believe at this point in Naruto, I'd sort of lost track.  I like Naruto, and I'll read it in chunks some day with cross-reference charts of characters to keep me straight.  I haven't lost any interest in Kekkaishi.  Sure, sometimes I forget what happened politically in the last volume, but the character development and action keep moving brilliantly.  I wonder if I even like the training scenes better because they're so lacking in fanfare . . .

b Kimi ni Todoke 8-11: Oh, a happy marathon indeed!  Yay!  They're dating!  Yay, they're still totally realistically awkward, and I still like the cast around them.  Pin even gets to be inspirational in his own obnoxious way!  Lots of happies and yay.

b Kingyo Used Books 4: More mostly standalone tales of the people in and around Kingyo Used bookstore that make me wish I could read Japanese and lived in a Japanese Used Manga store.

b Kyo Kara MAOH! 2, 7: The art got better, and so did the adaptation.  Thank goodness.  Sad that I won't likely ever find out what happens next, due to the first great death of Tokyopop, though with rumors of some sort of reanimation springing up, it's possible that this series, which I think was actually one that was doing okay, might lurch to new life.  I'm not holding my breath, but it's sure pretty, and it left off in a really obnoxious place . . .

b Library Wars 6: More love and war, library style.  We learn quite a bit about the beautiful and mysterious roommate Shibazaki in this one, and I like her even more now.

b Maid Sama! 7: Please, Tokyopop, if you are going to lurch back to life, finish this series.  It's full of fun and stupid, and I must know the story behind the perverted space alien, even if it turns out to be super lame and predictable.  Thank you!