"鉄さび探検隊" by Hayashi Isao / Nagase Yosuke / Asato Mizu

 Gotta love when the name of an obscure doujinshi from 2013 shares a name with some sort of bizarre entertainment / event agency... I'm a sucker for strange rabbit holes but I think I won't be wasting my time with this one XD

Instead, I'll introduce 鉄さび探検隊 (literally 'Iron Rust Exploration Team'), a 24 pages, B&W, A4 collection of short manga stories plus assorted paraphernalia by three different authors - Hayashi Isao, Nagase Yosuke, and Asato Mizu. Self-proclaimed 'photography and animation aficionados' (aka your typical Japanese old-school otaku), they each present their own, stand alone manga, beefed up by omake, random commentary and whatnot.

 Hayashi Isao's contribution is a sort of illustrated travelogue of a trip around Okunoshima, an island well known for its population of semi-feral rabbits and storied involvement in the Sino-Japanese war (it includes a 'poison gas museum'...), complete with moe anthropomorphizations of wartime landmarks, and obligatory onsen pit stop. Ah, the island also features the tallest power lin pylon in Japan, if like me you're into this kind of stuff. 

Nagase Yosuke offers some sort of Junji Ito-esque short horror manga. A high school kid, along with his friends, is ejìnjoying a sport of urbex in the ruins of some sort of industrial facility, when he comes across a parasite that soon takes hold of his friends, zombie-style - an infection that makes them super thirsty for Capri-Sun, of all things. Unless, of course, he dreamed up the whole thing... the story is only a few pages and fairly insubstantial; mostly, I suspect, an excuse for the 'photography aficionado' to showcase a few pretty cool industrial ruins pictures in the two-pages omake. 

The third short story by Asato Mizu features a heroine of our days, a stay-at-home, WataMote-ish young lady whose self-proclaimed career is 'pinpointing': aka, finding the location of any pic. She is sent a request to identify a certain home, which she certainly does... with surprising results. Charming and very close to my interests, as I also spend inordinate amounts of time on Google Earth. 

Now, the dōjinshi is surprisingly scant about the authors themselves, and having rather common names I'm sort on the fence about identifying them with absolute certainty: I am fairly sure Nagase Yousuke is this manga artist, considering they list 'ruins' as their passion, and I'm almost as sure about this one account being our Isao Hayashi. I'm a bit more on the fence about identifying Mizu Asato with the author of a gazillion anime spinoffs, though the tract is somewhat similar. It doesn't help, of course, that all three authors make almost no reference to their dōjin past... well, in case I'm right, well done! All three of you made it. Cool stuff!

"Winter 2012/12" by Holon

 Alright, this time around we have a real obscure one - the artist, thirteen (!) years later, doesn't seem to be active anymore - no Twitter, no website, and nobody on Pixiv seems to be a match. So yeah, all we have is this B&W, A4, 16 pages sketchbook which... well, it's the typical DIY dōjin booklet that an amateur artist would put out in the mid 2010s. 

Not to say that this is a bad thing at all. Sure, the contents are entirely derivative: the dōjinshi consists entirely of fanart from series such as Evangelion, Monogatari, Madoka and others, but it's pretty good character fanart, with an excellent sense of dynamics and composition; a bit lacking (that is to say, entirely lacking) in the background department, but that's fairly typical for the product. The cover illustration is particularly nice, I must say. 

So yeah, not much to comment about this one. A nifty, little piece of ephemera - nothing more, nothing less. Still, if you happen to know more about the author (or, even better, have a contact, please do let me know).

"By The Window" by Umishima Senbon (海島千本)

 Here goes another small collection from a big time digital illustrator. Umishima Senbon has a huge following on Twitter (yup, still Twitter to me) and is now in the business of proper artbooks publishing and professional illustration work, both in print and for anime; still, as it's now the norm for the sort of stuff you'll see in this blog, what really is of interest to me is their dōjin work -aka, their self published stuff that, in my opinion, often turns out to be a better display of the artist's inner workings and quirks.

So we wind back to 2021, with a small (24 pages), A4, mostly full color collection of illustrations themed around 'windows', in case the title didn't give it away.  The format is one we're accustomed with by now: the illustration, usually a full page, is displayed side-by-side with development sketches, showing the process from a simple outline to the completed artwork. Sure, it's a blatant way to pad the page count, but it's also interesting to see not only the artist's own process, and compare it to others'. Umishima's style of line and coloring has, at times, a watercolor-like quality to it, eschewing the plastic sheen so typical of PIXIV-derived illustration: lines are rarely bold, and instead color contrast is used to fill out volumes and shapes. It reminded me a bit of Sahara Mizu's color stuff, personally. 

Not a whole lot more to say, really. A nice, short collection from an illustrator that has clearly made it big. Stay tuned because, next time, I have some real strange work to introduce you...

"Exotica" by Nekosuke

 Oh yeah! After a far too long hiatus, we're so back, with another fresh batch of Mandarake purchases ready to be hastily discussed and displayed in all of their grainy glory. As for the actual reason why I've been away this long... well, I just was. I also made a megawad for Doom in the meantime. 

Our first offering for our return to style is, by pop culture standard, a relic - a relic from 2015, to be exact. ねこ助 (Nekosuke) is a popular and affirmed illustrator, sporting almost 200k followers on Twitter (yes, it's Twitter, get rekt), and a similarly beefy following on both PIXIV and Instagram. While working within the usual canon of bishoujo illustration, they have a very distinct visual style, borrowing less from anime and more from sources such as childer's books, European illustrations and that whole aesthetics that, today, would be lumped somewhere in the cottagecore orbit. Their spindly, emaciated young girls, often accompanied by painstakingly rendered animals, live in a washed out world of near monochrome, occasionally touched by a hint of pastel. Very refined and porcelain doll-ish. 

Anyway, I've been eyeing for a while a specific publication of theirs, titled "Exotica" - a short (20 pages), full color, A5 illustration book depicting Nekosuke's signature girls' interactions with a select group of animals, in pairs of two. Yeah, I know what you're thinking... no yiffing here, sorry. What we get, instead, is a series of two page spreads: on the left page, a full body of the girl and the animal, aesthetics trimmed to match; on the right page, the girl enjoying (?) the company of said animal. While all this might sound cutesy, there is a distinct undertone of darkness in Nekosuke's illustrations: the girls, at times, seem to be worried or frightened by their totem animal's oppressive presence, and the vaguely dark fairytale-like limericks accompanying each pair hint at a darker truth behind the facade. Why should we ask the deer to tread lightly? spooky.

Visually, the booklet is well within Nekosuke's style, delicate illustrations that appear, at times, once colored but now greyed by time and wear. The environments are well constructed, the animals are for the most part close to realistic in their portrayal, and the doll-like girls are appropriately different yet similar in a Platonic ideal kind of way. A style that, from what I can see, even ten years later Nekosuke wouldn't stray from. 

Temporary hiatus, to restart soon

 Hello there, 

as title says - I am currently on a bit of a dōjinshi hiatus, mostly due to dealing with a lot of more pressing matters, including but not limited to moving home after 10+ years (want to make sure my parcel doesnt end up in someone else's hands, Mandarake shipments can and do take over a month), and uni exams. Should be picking up regular schedule again sometimes September. Stay tuned!

"Dancing Girl vol.1" by Ryo Nakae and guests

 So, here we are again, with a smol review while we wait for the next shipment of goods to arrive. One thing I noticed, is that my Mandarake wishlist is steadily reducing, and I might actually... run out of stuff I want?! unlikely. Still missing two Robamoto, and there is more stuff that is simply sort of difficult to track down. As I collect only original and non-h dōjinshi the pool is a bit smaller than the average collector's, but I'm far from done. For some of the rare things I might have to go back to Otaku Republic, the pricier option. 

For today, let's take a look at a semi-vintage (2015) offering by designer, developer, and fellow dog lover Ryo Nakae (whose portfolio you can find here). Similar to people like Robamoto, CHOCO and others I have reviewed in the past, the artist's mindset as a professional graphic / web designer filters through, and Nakae's illustrations have a sleek, striking sense of depth, field and color that manages to evade typical PIXIV manga / anime tropes. This is added value to me, as I really appreciate dōjin creators who bring elements of professional / commercial design to their craft.

This is particularly the case with Dancing Girl vol.1 (yes, there is a vol.2, and I will get it eventually). A high quality full color publication, though a bit on the side of slim at only 14 pages, it features a selection of illustrations designed to look like brand advertisements from a fashion magazine, with a number of nods to real-world houses. I do learn from the captions that the model sporting the clothes happens to be character Ran Shibuki from Aikatsu, a gacha game I'm unfamiliar with - as it often happens in the case of this sort of dōjinshi, the reference makes litte difference, and you can simply enjoy the illustrations as 'pretty character wears nice clothes in well-designed panels'. 

We also have a couple of guest artists. One is Daisuke Nagai, the other is Futa. Both entirely new names to me - though, much like Nakae, they both seem to be designers-by-day who dabble in illustration and dōjin work as a side gig. One illustration each is a bit too little to pass judgment, so I'll keep my eyes open for their stuff. 

Not much to add about this one, a nice short offering displaying a professional's keen eye for design and composition. Well done! The dōjinshi also has a dedicated website, which is pretty cool in its own right - you can find more links both for Nakae and the guest contributors. 

Hardfest 3

So, here it is - Hardfest 3, a collection of difficult maps from various Doom modders, to which I contributed two maps and a number of MIDI tracks. I have been part of both its first and second installment (the latter won a Cacoward, if you care about that garbage beauty pageant), so it's nice to be able to say that I am one of few mappers who took part in all three editions. Yay! More stuff of mine here. 

The first Hardfest was one of the first Doom community projects I took part in, after re-discovering Doom modding after... oh, I don't know, a twenty year hiatus? My map for it, "The Smegma Flow", was rudimentary at best, especially if seen through the lens of my mapping skills today - still, I'm somewhat melancholically attached to it, and it has a kickass MIDI by LPad. It's definitely a mood, and I think that map has a something that no other map of mine really recaptured afterwards. The project itself was quite a ride - from humble beginnings, from a number of droputs who are probably eating their liver out now, to very minor recognition.

Hardfest 2 was a much bigger affair from the get-go: more mappers, more musicians, more of everything. I made my, so far, only linedef limit-grazing map ("The Dollhouse", 100 lines short of the Boom limit), and a secret shitpost map which really stretches the limits of 'doable'. Regrettably, this project also coincided with me opening my eyes as to the sort of toxic place most of the classic Doom community is: it was, in many ways, my 'community divorce' project. When it came out it wasn't particularly popular even with the difficult maps crowd, and I still believe the Cacoward was an inside tribute. But hey, accolades are accolades, amirite?

Hardfest 3... heh, good project, but I don't have much to talk about. I joined it when it was pretty much in the final phases, all I saw is that a load of the people who showed interest ended up making nothing for it. A few, I guess, are now too popular to bother with community mud; others were probably hoping for another easy Caco and fell by the wayside. My contributions to the project are two heavy reworks of previous maps of mine: both, in my opinion, fairly high quality, but I'll let you judge.

Now that this is out, aside for a project I have already turned my maps in for (and that might very well never happen), it's fair to say I have exhausted my Doom commitments. Mapping aside, I was never crazy over the game as a player: if a different game had afforded this sort of ease of moddability, I would have certainly chosen it over Doom. Couple that with disillusion over most of the community around the game (especially Doomworld's holier-than-thou, hierarchical, OB-oriented mentality; but also a couple of super toxic Discord servers), disappointment with current mapping trends (ie the trend of shitting out speedmapping projects at the speed of light, gotta get that quick dopamine shot right?), and it's fair to say I'm pretty much done with Doom. My time is better spent elsewhere: visual novels, writing, YN fangames, touching grass perhaps.

So yeah, I might make a map for RAMP2025 if it happens, but that's a big 'if', and that's pretty much it. Anything of mine you'll see from now on is likely stuff I turned in ages ago, and gets released only now. It was a good run, I had my fun, glad to leave the toxicity behind and see what's in store for me from now on. 

"廃墟探求" by Mocha / "Artworks 14" by Yyish

Still cold, still miserable, I hate this season. Why can't it be fall forever? ;--; New semester in uni too, got a couple of courses that will likely kick my ass. No matter, the reviews will keep flowing! 

Aaand, to wrap up the month, also being the single post of this month, a double feature! It's two artbooks so, since there is not as much to comment, I figured I could get two excellent purchases out of the way. We're talking about two artists who, if you stroll around the japanese Twitter-sphere or PIXIV, you probably already encountered: Mocha and わいっしゅ. They're both very well known for their work as background artists, professional and dōjin, and a fixture in PIXIV's most viewed. Mocha also had, recently a solo exhibit.

But let's take it one step at a time. 廃墟探求 ("Exploring Ruins") is a 36 pages, full color artbook from 2019 by Mocha, whose only real flaw is the panoramic, rectangual format I hate so much because it makes fitting the dōjinshi on my shelf an absolute pain :S aside from that, what we have in our hands is an excellent, professional-grade publication that fully displays Mocha's penchant for beautiful, msyterious landscapes firmly rooted in 'realism' (to a degree, of course), colored by that touch of nostalgic whimsy that would make this work a perfect fit for the next Shinkai flick's backgrounds. There are, surprisingly, remarkably few ruins depicted: instead, there is a whole lot of rural japanese countryside, from forlorn stations to endlessly stretching country roads -- occasionally dotted by schoolgirls, or families out for a walk. There is definitely a nostalgic feel to it: one could believe they're watching cel art from a slice of life anime. 

Like a sibling, similar but entirely different, stands Yyish's background work: they are a professional (and a certified instructor) in the field of computer graphics, and it shows; while their art is still unmistakably bakground art, the spirit and attitude by which the matter is approached couldn't be more different. Artworks 14 (from 2023) is a slightly slimmer affair than Mocha's, though still full color, consisting entirely of full page spreads of largely fantasy background artwork, rendered with a precision and detail that leaves one speechless: there is no painterly intention, only the painstaking rendering of art that could well befit a high quality JRPG. The level of detail is, frankly, astounding. One other difference to note is that, unlike Mocha, わいっしゅcompletely banishes the human figure from the setting: the architecture, its lights and shadows, stand on their own as the true protagonists of the scene depicted. 

While I have no conclusive proof, it seems to me that CG and 3D play a much larger part in Yyish's work compared to Mocha's: nothing wrong with that, they are different ways to approach background art, both valid and, as we can see from the results, both equally successful. What one likes more is entirely a matter of taste: personally, I appreciate Mocha's nostalgic spirit, as much as I appreciate Yyish's painstaking rendering of light and matter.

So take your pick - for me, I'll go for both :P 

"Tabemonopool - international edition" by Konno Takashi

     Here it is, another one I meant to purchase for a while, but only got around to recently. It was well worth the wait!

    Tabemonopool - international edition is, as the title might suggest, a two-language (JP / english) edition of a 2015 artbook by Konno Takashi, an active and prolific illustrator - mostly for games and book covers, but also roleplaying games. You can check out their PIXIV or their Twitter for more. They have a very distinct visual style, melding together the high detail of traditional Japanese RPGish illustration work, with a more chibi aesthetics, especially when it comes to characters.

    Not my cup of tea usually but, as I mentioned before, I am a sucker for illustration books that also have a concept behind them, and this is the case with Tabemonopool. The glossy, full-color, 72 pages publication (which, by the way, you can get through Tokyo Otaku Mode if you're not fluent in moon runes) features, in an image + text spread format, the delicious coming together (oops!) of incredibly well-rendered Japanese and Chinese dishes, with cute chibi girls in sukumizu. The two go together like fine cuisine, if we are to believe the author. Seems legit. 

    The range of dishes, divided between breakfast, lunch and dinner foodstuff, is astounding: we are treated to traditional Japanese cuisine (okonomiyaki, salmon roe), street food (takoyaki) and fusion dishes (I can confirm: I have never heard of neapolitan pasta), all conveniently labeled by typical price range, sourcing and eating style, along with a two-language, tongue-in-cheek description of why each dish is the best one can get, and why it's also best enjoyed around cute girls in swimsuits. 

    The visual style is excellent. Save for a couple chapter openers, the focus is entirely on each dish, shown in lavishing serving, sure to make your mouth water (I could surely go for an okonomiyaki - in a certain place in Miyajima, I bet they still laugh at that one foreigner who ate four of them in a single sitting...). Each plate then becomes the setting for one of Konno's cute, whimsical chibi girls, who sure seem to enjoy their time steaming and frying along with delicious ingredients.

    Special note for the English: I am not sure who did the translation, but it's actually fairly good; certainly an upgrade over the Engrish dōjinshi usually subject me to...

    So yeah, great purchase, definitely worth a look, especially if you're into cutesy illustrations, and good food. 

"Blow" by ぴぃたぁそると

 This is another one I discovered through Twitter. I'm not a huge JRPG player - not, at least, until very recently - so I simply followed ぴぃたぁそると (Peter Salt) out of mere curiosity for their colorful, dynamic illustrations of cute, sporty girls. Little did I know they they actually have quite the pedigree, having worked on pixel art for Secret of Mana 3, Final Fantasy tactics, and a number of other JRPG titles before seemingly switching to mostly dōjin works.

Blow is a collection of illustrations dating all the way back to 2018 (full color, 24 pages). They showcase, more or less, the same graphic and thematic style ぴぃたぁそるとcarries on to this very day: full body pinups of girls that would feel right at home as characters of a JRPG or ligthhearted fighting game. There are no backgrounds at all, the figure (mostly that of a young girl, occasionally accompanied by a mascot) being instead the sole center of attention. One of the artist's trademark are their characters' extremely plastic, dramatic poses; and the vivid color, which stand out all the more because of the lack of backgrounds. Traits that, overall, belie the artist's origins as a pixel / character designer. While the illustrations often have a fantasy touch to them, more realistic depictions of sporty girls are also included. Each  illustration comes with a short commentary, providing general background info. 

So yeah, a charming collection of simple, to the point, but effective characters designs, that catch the eye with their liveliness and vivid colors. Recommended, and you can look at the artist's Twitter for more - they're very active to this day.