ちとちとに by 空中セピア

As you've probably guessed by now, one of the things that I enjoy the most about the dōjin world is, we could say, its sometimes 'alternative' aesthetics. While I do enjoy the occasionally ultra-polished, plastic like visual style of some publications, I'm generally not a hug fan of the Nitroplus / Crypton / RedJuice style of illustration. I like Garo; I like Ikki; I like dōjinshi that look and feel like zines that have been stapled and printed in someone's basement. And the same goes for the story - the more abstract, slice-of-life like and banal it is, the better. Sometimes I think it's mostly a reaction to my Western media fixations, that usually revolve around bombastically childish high fantasy stuff (long time World of Warcraft player here).

The dōjinshi I'm reviewing today falls squarely into this 'alt' category. ちとちとに is, as one could guess by the title, the second in a series: unfortunately, I couldn't track down the first booklet, or any of the others for that matter. The circle, whose sole member is 藤田ユウヤ, is actually fairly prolific, though most of their output in the last few years consists of Love!Live and Touhou fanbooks, and is therefore of no interest to me. ちとちと is, as far as I know, their only 'original' themed dōjinshi series. The object itself is a black and white, stapled 24 pages booklet on what looks like recycled paper. Right up my alley, in other words.

Since I could track down only volume two, I'm not entirely sure on the whole story arc the four total volumes are meant to narrate, though all signs point to a fairly simple slice-of-life story. In ちとちとに, a young woman called Minatsu has turned to cross-dressing as a way to cope with her brother's rejection of her since they were young. She is gradually, and not entirely painlessly reintroduced to her femininity by her willowy, nameless and mysterious friend and this lady's brother, giving form to a sort of bizarre love triangle that, unfortunately, is not resolved in this volume. There is minimal conflict, the story is barebone and lives of the yuri tropes of Japanese storytelling that I happen to love to death.

Visually, there is much to be loved if you're into that pencil-drawn, barebone yet visually rich style that, in mainstream manga, is usually associated with alt slice-of-life (think Urushibara or Ashinano). There are anatomical approximations, the characters are barely posed and much more attention is paid to countryside backdrops, when present; yet, the jagged, barely inked linework has a charm of its own, and goes along well with the story's homely (in a good way) development.

So, a nice little oddity that I would gladly follow upon, if I could find the other three volumes... which I could, through Pixiv' Booth, if I could be bothered with proxies.