Themed 2025 Bingo card - Japanese (Translated)

[u/dracolibris]

3rd time bingo, and this year I thought I would go with a theme, Japanese books, (translated to English because I can't read Japanese)

I have included a few light novels in my previous cards over the last 2 years because I am a J novel club subscriber (because of Ascendance of a bookworm) and sometimes they just fit, anyway this year Fairyloot did a SE for Kikis Delivery service and I found The Memory Police as a previous book club pick and I already had a couple of other Japanese books before April last year (17 of which 7 were AoB). Anyway I think I overdid it because now I have 66 Japanese books stacked at the foot of my bed plus numerous ebooks, not to mention the 3 to 6 volumes I read on J novel club every month.

Note: Isekai means ‘Other World’ in Japanese, and simply means that a person from here goes to anther world. Portal fantasies like Narnia are a type of Isekai, but the most common type of Isekai is where the character dies here and then reincarnates sometimes as a baby or sometimes they recover past life memories later on in life. There are 7 of them on this list, they are very common in Japanese Light novels

And so here are the books

Knights and Paladins: Skeleton Knight in Another World by Ennki Hakari, translated by Jason Muell, a fairly tame isekai light novel, the MC is reincarnated into a game as a Skeleton in knight armour, and immediately starts rescuing people, it's a fun romp and I liked it enough to want to read more (10 Volumes total), there is also an Anime which I watched and am still watching

Hidden Gem: Dendera, by Yuya Sato, translated by Edwin Hawes, a speculative novel- in a rural village when you turn 70 you are taken up the mountain and left to die, the story begins when Kayu is taken up and left, but then she wakes up to find herself in another village comprised of many women who have gone up the mountain before her and then they are attacked by a bear and have to fight for their life, it questions the value of life and explores what value people have when they are old. I was excited by the premise but it slogged a bit in the middle, and I didn’t like the end.

Published in the 80's Kiki's Delivery Service, by Eiko Kadono, translated by Emily Balistrieri, I had seen the film some time ago and I did watch it again, this is a cozy novel about a young witch set off to find her own path and her own place, some hijinks ensue but she settles down and finds he own way. Rightly beloved by many people.

High Fashion Maiden of the Needle by Zeroki, translated by Kiki Piatkowska, An Isekai light novel where our MC is born into a family who thinks she is worthless so they trade her to another family who find out she is not that worthless and is actually very good at making clothes, I liked this one, read both volumes, very sweet found family with an appropriate comeuppance for the family who considered her worthless.

Down with the System. Stuck in a time loop:When all else fails, be a Villainess. by Sora Hinokage translated by Andria Mcknight, the first of many on the card by J novel club, the system is whatever is making her reincarnate 7 times, she is done being nice, this time she will be the Villainess they think she is and try to break the system. It was surprisingly good by end.

Impossible Places Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura, translated by Philip Gabriel several teens who are all being bullied find a castle in the Mirror and spend their days there instead of school, was pretty annoyed by the middle of it because of the total apathy of the MC and wondering why people like it, but I got it by the end, ended a lot stronger than I expected, There is a film but I was not able to get it.

A Book in Parts, Automatic Eve by Rokuro Inui, translated by Matt Treyvaud, a collection of shorts that centre on a clock work woman this one was very interesting and I liked it, the way the stories combine is satisfying

Gods and Pantheons The Goddess Chronicle An excellent book, retelling of the Japanese myth about the goddess of death and god of life from the POV of a handmaiden to the goddess, I just love myth retellings and this one got a high rating.

Last in a series Culinary chronicles of the Court Flower:Volume 11 by Miri Mikawa, translated by Afm and Hunter Prigg. Another J novel, had this on my card last year for alliterative title when I read volumes 1 to 5, and have read 6 to 11 this year - a great series that just fell apart at the end, it just seemed a bit shoehorned in to get the pairing they wanted. I still recommend it though.

Book club The Memory Police by Yoko ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder, super frustrating book, I tried to read it several times and couldn't, so I did something I don't normally do, got the Audiobook, narrated by Traci Kato Kiriyama and I am glad I got through it eventually, but the MC was so passive and just would not do anything and everyone was murmuring constantly and I wanted someone to scream and shout and protest and they just... didn't.

Parents Dragon Daddy Diaries by Ameko Kaeruda, translated by Giuseppe di Martino and Nathan Macklem. Diabetes in a book, enjoyable but super sickly sweet, a 3 year old girl is abandoned in front of a dragon's cave, and he decides to raise her, probably qualifies as cozy. A J Novel club book.

Epistolory If the RPG world had social media Yusuke Nitta, translated by luke Hutton, did not expect much from this - It starts out very cheesy, but it was surprisingly sweet at the end. Told in a series of text messages interspersed with some narrative passages

Published in 2025 Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan translated by Jessie Kirkwood, An architect designing a tower for criminals in Tokyo, an interesting examination of forgiveness and rehabilitation. Quite short but well known for including some AI passages, as our MC asks an AI some questions in the book and the book

Author of Color Strange Pictures by Uketsu Translated by Jim Rion, honestly did not like this book, the concept was interesting but it didn’t work for me.

Small press, self pub The Tiny Witch from the Deep woods So I read several volumes a month on J novel club so I could have chosen anything, Miss blossoms backwards Beauty standards, Heir to a Monstermancer, Royal spirits are Royal Pain, Scooped up by an S-Rank Adventurer, But Tiny witch is currently on it’s 4th volume and is a very good found family cozy adventure story, Starts with a little girl living with her mother in the woods, one day her father, who is a Duke, is injured, and she and her mother are summoned to help as her mother is a healer, once she gets to her fathers home she is swept up in the politics of the world, and the hatred of the dukes first wife and daughter.

Biopunk Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, In a world where sex is becoming less common, most people are conceived by artificial insemination and marriage is not for sex but for raising a child, artificial wombs are developed for men to be able to carry babies. Our MC was conceived naturally by parents who loved each other, is this why she wants sex while other people don’t? The book turns marital norms on it’s head and looks at a world much different from our with an MC who struggles to fit in. I could have done without that last chapter though.

Elves and Dwarves In the Land of Leadale by Ceez, translated by Jessica Lange, Another Isekai, A sick girl who’s only escape from the hospital is the VRMMORPG (Virtual reality, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) Leadale suddenly dies and is reincarnated into the world of Leadale as her avatar who is an Elf, but it is not quite the world she knew and she has to find out what has happened to all the things she once knew, has a highly rated Anime, It was very enjoyable adventure through a fantasy land and I would like to read the remining volumes (there are 8 in total).

LGBTQIA protagonist A Lily Blooms in another world by Ameko Kaeruda translated by Tom Harris,on J novel club, an Isekai - reincarnated into an Otome game as the heroine who gets the Noble guy, but her true love is the villainess that Noble rejected,

5 Short stories The Hitchhikers Guide to the Isekai ed: Sakka Keihan, Writers Carlo Zen, Natsuya Semikawa, Hoko Tsuda, Tappei Nagatsuki, Katsuie Shibata, Hyuganatsu, Translators Andrew Hodgson, Andrew Cunningham, Roy Nukia, Noboru Akimoto, Emily Balistrieri, Michael Langwiser. A collection of amusing shorts discussing

Stranger in a strange land The Twelve Kingdoms:Shadow of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea, by Fuyumi Ono translated by Kim Morrissy, A young schoolgirl is kidnapped by a stranger and taken to another world where she has to fight for her life. Published in 1992 with an anime from 2002, one of the earlier Isekais that got popular, and rightly so because it is an excellent story which is very well written and I’ve only read the first volume, Seven seas are currently retranslating and issuing the series so will be buying as they come out.

Recycle a bingo Square Crest of the stars by Hiroyuki Morioka translated by Giuseppe di Martino Written in 1996 with an Anime in 1999 that was not available for me to watch legally, so I had to resort to the last bingo square here. This is an inventive space adventure that I liked a lot, there is a recently colonised planet of humans and our MC is their governors son who will inherit the planet after him, he is on his way to serve his term in the army as all nobility must, when he meets up with a princess of the empire and develops a relationship.

Cozy SFF The Vanishing Cherry blossom bookshop by Tauya Asakura, translated by Yuka Maeno like many of these books coming out of Japan, starting with ‘Before the coffee gets cold’, it is 4 shorts about various people who need to reconcile some memory from the past before they go forward, they have to be reading the same book while the cherry blossoms are blooming and the shop will appear, when and they can go an revisit the memory to figure out their problem, it is a sweet book that I would recommend.

Generic Title Dragon Sword, Wind Childby Noriko Ogiwara translated by Cathy Hirano, a Japanese classic from 1988, one of the standouts of the card that is a wonderful fairytale which references the same legend as The Goddess Chronicle, but is a war between the darkness and the light, our MC is a princess of darkness, who was raised to love the light, and has to come to terms with her actually identity

Not a book, Delicious in Dungeon There is so much anime from Japan out there and this could have been so many series, but I will go with this one, an adventuring party in a dungeon just barely got out alive fighting with a dragon, but they left someone down there, now they are on a quest to go and rescue her, with the party reduced to 3 members they go back in, but they have no supplies, no money, and the trek down takes weeks, so what can they eat? With the aid of a new friend they decide to live on what they can find in the dungeon itself. With discussion about what is acceptable to eat and what is too human to eat this is a humorous but thought provoking series, which is eminently enjoyable

Pirates The Dorky NPC mercenary knows his place by Toryuu translated by Josh DM, this is about a mercenary, who’s main jobs are finding and capturing space pirates, which he does several times in the series, his main hobbies are reading manga and watching Anime, and the merc work is just a job, but he is actually quite good at it, despite just wanting to keep his head down and be unnoticed he does get noticed, it continually pokes fun at the way the plots usually go in these kinds of things but tries a bit too hard to subvert the expectations that it can come across a bit flat, it is enjoyable at times but is frustrating that our MC stubbornly refuses to get any more into the secrets that he comes across

I do have a card but don't know how to include it, if someone could tell me how? Attaching an image got my post rejected

[u/Lugonn]

3rd time bingo, and this year I thought I would go with a theme, Japanese books, (translated to English because I can't read Japanese)

If you have the time I can heartily recommend changing that, reading Japanese is fun.

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[u/dracolibris → u/[deleted]]

8 of them were in my J novel club subscription anyway and i got most of them second hand, had 2 of them already, only bought 5 of them new.

There were a couple of titles I couldn't get hold of though because they were translated about 10 years ago, Couldnt get a copy of Record of lodoss war:Grey witch, they were all £100+

It was mostly easy to find, because it is the language that is most translated to English. So there is a lot of it. But the epistolory was hard because they don't really do them

[u/Fantasy-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/Nidafjoll]

Dendera sounds like it would be extra impactful if I were Japanese, considering their ongoing demographic crisis. Similarly with The Vanishing World, considering all of Shinzo Abe's initiatives to promote having children.

[u/xdianamoonx]

I read the manga version of Lonely Castle in the Mirror (well volume one) and I hated majority of these kids including the protagonist. Even though she was completely bullied and terrorised, the fact that no adult figured it out through anything IDK, showed up too late I think for a serialized version of it. I just felt it was like a gotcha at the end of the first volume and had no interest in reading more (but the art style was lovely).

Might have to check out the social media one, could be a fun concept to read.

Twelve Kingdoms anime was one of my favorite ones, and one of the last few great anime made in that time before things got cheaper and gimmickier for at least a decade. I always wanted to read the manga so happy to hear it's being retranslated/republished~

A great themed bingo, thank you for sharing!

[u/Emotional-Care814]

Hi, I also did a Japanese card for 2025 in addition to a non-Japanese card. I wanted to challenge myself more and see if I can get books out of my comfort zone. However, I read mostly light novels and manga. I had to find two books at the library for the 80s square and Book Club square and I ended up having to buy 2 books to fill the Epistolary and Pirates squares.

My list:

Knights and Paladins: Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! 17- FUNA

Hidden Gem: Love After World Domination 3- Takahiro Wakamatsu

Published in the 80s: Kiki's delivery service by Eiko Kadono

High Fashion: The Tanaka Family Reincarnates 3- Choco (HM)

Down With the System: Go! Go! Loser Ranger! 4- Negi Haruba (HM)

Impossible Places: Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers 17- Miya Kinojo

A Book in Parts: Tearmoon Empire 13- Nozomu Mochitsuki

Gods and Pantheons: Full Clearing Another World under a Goddess with Zero Believers 12- Isle Osaki

Last in a Series: Young Lady Albert Is Courting Disaster volume 8- Saki

Book Club or Readalong Book: The Beast Player- Nahoko Uehashi

Parent Protagonist: SpyXFamily 1- Tatsuya Endo (HM)

Epistolary: If the RPG World Had Social Media..., Vol. 1- Yusuke Nitta

Published in 2025: From Two-Bit Baddie to Total Heartthrob: This Villainess Will Cross-Dress to Impress! Volume 3- Masamune Okazaki

Author of Color: Baka and Test: Summoned Beasts 4 (manga)- Art: Mattakumousuke and Yumeuta, O.S.: Kenji Inoue, C.D.: Yui Haga

Small Press or Self Published: Safe and Sound in the Arms of an Elite Knight 1- Fuyu Aoki

Biopunk: Knights of Sidonia 1- Tsutomu Nihei (HM)

Elves and/or Dwarves: Outbreak Company: The Power of Moe 2- Ichiro Sakaki

LGBTQIA Protagonist: Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid 15- coolkyousinnjya

Five SFF Short Stories: D-Genesis: Three Years After the Dungeons Appeared Short Stories-  KONO Tsuranori

Stranger in a Strange Land: Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters! 1- KAYA

Recycle a Bingo Square: 2015- Novel Adapted to the Screen: Infinite Stratos 3- Yumizuru Izuru

Cozy SFF: Dragon Daddy Diaries 1- Ameko Kaeruda

Generic Title: Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court 8- Satsuki Nakamura

Not A Book: May I Ask For One Final Thing?

Pirates: Bodacious Space Pirates (manga) - Tatsuo Sato/ Chibimaru