#seigi please

[very-grownup]

My life hadn't actually changed much -- I'd go to class and then come home to my apartment. I'd take the train to campus, go out to lunch with someone, go back to campus for another class, and go home. It was just that every moment in between was filled with thoughts of Richard. Every time I heard the sound of a wheeled suitcase rolling down the sidewalk, I'd whip around so fast it startled everyone near me. Whenever I saw someone with blond hair in the crowd at Takadanobaba, I'd move to try to get a look at their face, only to be disappointed when I discovered it wasn't him. Every green car I saw started looking like his Jaguar. Whenever I overheard girls chatting about a guy they thought was attractive, it took all my willpower not to ask them if they were talking about an Englishman with an extremely long name. 

- The Case Files of Jeweler Richard, Nanako Tsujimura

[very-grownup]

Book 32, 2023

The fourth "Case Files of Jeweler Richard" 'novel' actually qualifies as a novel, with the cases all concerning the same plot at their core - "Where the fuck did Richard go? Why did Richard disappear like that? How can this problem of Richard's be fixed?" - and Richard and Seigi having something akin to character arcs. Mainly Seigi, in his first real attempt to analyse his feelings and actions regarding Richard. He has to ask such difficult questions as "What does it mean that I keep dreaming of Richard almost kissing me?" and "Is it normal for a twenty-year-old student to drop everything and buy a one-way ticket for an international flight to a city where he doesn't speak the language because his boss at his part-time job temporarily closed his business?" and "What's a white supremacist?" (The answers he arrives at are "Dunno", "I guess not", and "You know about Nazis?" - Seigi tries his best.)

[very-grownup]

It went without saying that Richard was an extremely good person. When the welcome-to-hell seminar mentioned making time to enjoy beautiful and calming things, it was Richard who came to mind. I still found it hard to believe that a flesh-and-blood human could make me feel this way … but honestly, my boss was so beautiful that he barely seemed human. Just looking at him put me at ease. He was so beautiful that he made a fine crystal chandelier look dull by comparison. - The Case Files of Jeweler Richard: Novel 5, Nanako Tsujimura

[very-grownup]

The more I thought about it, the more I was confronted with the question of just what Richard even /was/ to me. Was he just a way to recharge my emotional batteries? - The Case Files of Jeweler Richard: Novel 5, Nanako Tsujimura

[very-grownup]

"There's this girl I really, really like. I've been in love with her since last year, but I haven't been able to tell her yet."

"Huh."

Mr. Otomura let out a strange sound. He looked at Richard as if to ask, "Really?" Richard calmly nodded. I didn't understand. Why was he checking with my boss about something related to my personal life?

- The Case Files of Jeweler Richard: Novel 5, Nanako Tsujimura

[very-grownup]

Book 22, 2023

The third collection of "The Case Files of Jeweler Richard" was somehow shipped out with a dozen improperly cut pages so toward the centre of the book there's a stretch of reverse dogearing that has no effect on the contents of the book but is still very irritating. Yen Press is somewhere in the middle of English language manga etc. publishers in terms of quality in my experience but usually that doesn't translate to the book-as-object.

This collection is the first where it feels like imposing a numeric order instead of letting the books be stand alone collections makes sense, since it has the beginning of stuff about Richard's family and ends in a cliffhanger-of-sorts, but mainly it's still just a chill, quick read about a naïve doofus and his mysterious boss colliding with interpersonal gem mysteries.

Featuring "Have you considered doing something about your crush instead of just talking to me, your hot boss, about it endlessly?"

In conclusion, get yourself an asexual girl who loves rocks and has been compared to Golgo 17 except you can't because she just wants to be friends.

[very-grownup]

Book 54, 2023

I have enjoyed the previous releases of "The Case Files of Jeweler Richard", even if Seven Seas' editing and quality assurance can leave a lot to be desired. But I didn't end up with several uncut pages like the previous collection/volume/novel. So I enjoyed this one, where the mysteries are more Richard backstory mysteries while Seigi tries to deal with the mystery of 'what if career development and job application stuff as I progress in university interferes with my part-time job aka Richard Appreciation Time and why is everyone acting like this is a weird thing to be concerned with?'

Richard mysteries are solved. Seigi mysteries are, as usual, not, but he also continues to express his devotion for autistic angel Tanimoto, a woman who was considering an arranged marriage so that people would stop asking her about relationship stuff. Maybe by the 11th book he'll figure some things out.

[very-grownup]

I'd never really thought about it very much, but what kind of relationship did I want with Tanimoto? I'd be happy enough if she just agreed to go out with me -- I imagined getting too excited on a date with her that I had to go to the bathroom to calm myself down, but then she would get the wrong idea and think I had stomach problems, so I'd come up with some crazy excuse about how sometimes I just like visiting bathrooms I've never been in before and --

What would even come after that? Would there be an after that?

If on the off chance we did start dating, I'd be incredibly happy. I'd want to walk down the street holding hands. But if Richard is to be believed, that happiness, like a sudden burst of action, couldn't go on forever. What would I want to come after that? A fight or something? That's right. Mr. Homura is getting married soon. Tanimoto had mentioned that she liked the idea of getting married because it'd mean she wouldn't have to deal with romance. I don't think that marriage has to be the conclusion of every romance, but it's certainly one conclusion. So, I guess I'd want to get married, build a home, and then -- hm.

- The Case Files of Jeweler Richard: Novel 5, Nanako Tsujimura