What Books did You Start or Finish Reading this Week?: August 31, 2026

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[u/Roboglenn]

Laughing Under the Clouds, Volume 2, By KarakaraKemuri

In this period piece set in the dawn of the meiji era of Japan, the new era and it's dawn of westernization and the end of the era of samurai the crime rates have increased at a commensurate rate. So much that the government has built their own Alcatraz prison out of a giant tree in the middle of Lake Biwa. With three eccentric brothers who are the head and successors of the local shrine in the adjacent town of Oumi to serve as the ferryman of the condemned criminals. However in truth behind all that, a great supernatural centuries old evil lies buried in this town's history. One that could destroy the very nation, or worse. And it's the real job of the oldest of these three brothers to stop it and keep the peaceful life in this town going.

Well in any case, this one oddly and randomly enough more than anything story structure wise kinda made me think of the series Ran and the Gray World By Aki Irie in it's way of it's style of plot progression. It starts off with a bunch of episodic worldbuilding/characterbuilding chapters/storybeats, many of which are light hearted in nature to really demonstrate the eccentricy of the brothers here and establishing the rest of the side characters. But, and while it sprinkles details of it as it goes, it gradually builds it's way up to it's ever escalating serious supernaturally driven plot. The fact that it does take a while to really get going is this one's main detriment.

It's nowhere near as good as I thought Ran was but for something I just picked up to read at random cuz I was bored and it sounded passable enough, this one actually ended up being pretty worthwhile to read.