M's Media Menagerie

Thoughtful Dumping Grounds

Trope: Animal Sidekick

Wherein the main cast has an animal sidekick, guide, mascot, or pet that routinely participates in the narrative.

Because I, the True Saint, was Banished, that Country is Done For! #1-3

⭐⭐⭐

Round and cute with a lot of low stake plot points. I mean, not for the country she left— they’re having a whole other problem— but for the Saint, she’s just having cute little day-to-day slice of life adventures. Like feeding a giant dog, or going on a date. There’s kind of some plot, but
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Cat Massage Therapy 1-3

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nekoyama, worn out after another long day at the office, stops at a therapeutic massage parlor…only to discover that it’s run by a cat! Not only that, but the cat actually does the massaging?! Nekoyama is a dog lover, but as this professional “meowsseur” digs soft toe beans into his aching muscles, his heart warms
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Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.
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Fallout Season 2

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind — and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent
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My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s Season 1

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Action, Drama, Fantasy, Isekai, Shounen

Oda Akira is the kind of guy who people forget is even there. His unassuming nature pays off, though, when his entire class is swept away to a fantasy world, and he slips easily into his new role as a silent assassin. Between his suspiciously high starting stats and too many details that don’t fit,
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The One and Only Crystal Druid

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ten years ago, I risked everything on a nameless boy. I came out the other side with a murder conviction, a prison sentence, and a minor case of amnesia. I forgot everything about that boy, and now I’m out on parole, just a nobody witch volunteering at an animal rescue and keeping a low profile.
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A Wild Last Boss Battle Appeared!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Action, Drama, Fantasy, Isekai, SciFi, Shounen

Lufas Maphaahl rules the land of Mizgarz with an iron fist. Mankind stands no chance of prevailing against the most powerful being in the world and her army of loyal minions—until a band of heroes bests her in an epic battle, sealing her soul away for all eternity. But this is just another day in
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Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill Vol. 1-3

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

ISEKAI’D BY: Summoning! Mukouda Tsuyoshi was nothing special in modern Japan, so when he was summoned to a world of swordplay and sorcery, he thought he was ready for the adventure of a lifetime. Too bad the kingdom that summoned him only got him by mistake! Not only was he not one of the three
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Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense Vol. 1-8

⭐⭐⭐⭐

She may be new to gaming, but Maple has found the secret to invincibility! Just put all your skill points into defense until you can’t even move. That works, right? She doesn’t want to experience any pain in the VRMMO game she started playing, and somehow it works better than anyone expected. Now she’s got
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After God Vol. 1-6

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Desperate for answers about her friend’s disappearance, Waka breaches the Tokyo danger zone in search of clues. Instead, she finds Tokinaga, a researcher with the Anti-God Scientific Research Institute. While Waka tries to decide if she should trust Tokinaga, he quickly realizes Waka is hiding a dangerous secret of her own—one that may just be
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Welcome to the Menagerie.

Here is where M logs their media activity. Partly because Goodreads is forgettable and keeping physical logs is harder. Sometimes M writes a lot. Sometimes M doesn’t write enough. It doesn’t matter. This is just a for-fun little blog so that M can remember what they thought about whatever they watched or read or played or. Whatever.

What is M?

I read. Voraciously. I have subscriptions to those book things on digital retailers. I consume books at nearly all hours. The hours I don’t spend reading? I’m writing. I’m drawing. I have a problem. I have a problem in that I love to read things that are in the same vein repeatedly. Book journals don’t work and as much as I text my friends screenshots of book passages, it doesn’t scratch the itch. Now I’m going to be doing… tiny… tiny book reports.

Truck-Kun Kill Count:

10

Books & Light Novels Read in 2025: 23/50

46%

Comics Read in 2026: 51/200

25%

Physical Owned Books Read: 470/809

58%

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