KING PROJECT VOL.01 by VARIOUS

I have a sort of optimistic ambivalence toward illustration anthologies. They can be kind of hit and miss, and I find that most of the time success depends on the willingness of the artists involved to stick with the theme, without necessarily falling back on safe ground - which, in the case of Pixiv artists, usually means sugary bishōjo. Well, unless the theme is bishōjo... a good example of a successful anthology that I recently reviewed was the cozy and nifty Sailorbon, an interesting take on a somewhat unusual theme.

All of these preambles to introduce another awesome themed collection, pooling together a variety of artists from the dark recesses of Pixiv. And the theme is... kings. Yup. King Project vol. 01 (no vol.2 available so far) gathers 41 artists, each one of them offering their illustrated take on the theme of the royal figure. First of all, let's get measurements out of the way: 78 pages, full color A4 format, sturdy and professionally bound.

The contents are, overall, quite impressive, and I'm not just referring to the illustrations. What really makes this collection stand out is that almost every art piece, along with author bio and social links, also features a 'tutorial' kind of page, which shows different stages of drafting, along with the artist's comments. Pretty nifty, especially when one can see that the final piece ends up nothing like the original sketch...

So, something of a collection plus reference guide. Overall, the art quality is in the Pixiv daily rankings ballpark, which is to say, pretty high. There are, of course, more or less elaborate art styles, but every illustration actually feels like a finished piece, something that doesn't always happen in this kind of books. Some highlights are 羽山晃平's demonic tyrant king; ぽん吉's way too funny beaver king; and おつまみ's Turneresque king of dragons.

So, all fine and dandy? well, for the most part. One disappointing note is that the grand majority of the artists really played it too safe thematically, and fell back on the old trope of the fantasy king, ruling over some medieval or renaissance-looking court. There are, in fact, only two illustrations that offer a different take on the 'king' theme: 添田一平's gun wielding queen of the mob; and えだまめ畑's Lovecraftian 1800s monster king.

Still, an excellent themed collection, showcasing some real talent. Well done.

Tears of Nosferatu by 70年式悠久機関

I have the very, very bad habit of buying series out of order. It's not just a manga, or dōjin thing: I've done it as far as I can remember with books, films, and so on. Result, I am flooded with 'volume two' or 'four' of this and that series, with varying degrees of follow-up depending on quality. The dōjinshi I'm reviewing today, lucky volume three (to be fair, it was written in a very, very tiny font...) is one of a series I will definitely seek to complete, considering the material. Keep in mind that the review refers to this volume, as it's the only one in my possession.

Tears of Nosferatu is a four-volume series by circle '70年式悠久機関', sobriquet for a certain Okito Endō (who also happens to have some mainstream published manga to their name). It dates from 2001, and present itself as a high-quality dōjin publication, from the embossed cover to the full-color gatefold. From what I could gather, having started halfway through the story, Tears of Nosferatu is the slice-of-lifeish story of a female vampire, inexplicably named Chocolate, and her retinue of  assorted live-in demonettes and such. Don't be fooled by the 'vampire' tag: there is very little violence, even less blooduscking, and the general threat level is generally pretty low. Think Rozen Maiden, but with demons instead of dolls. Well, there are also dolls, as this volume's story pits Chocolate and friends against a suspicious dollmaker called Werther (who doesn't appear on the character list - instead we get a 'Brams', who doesn't appear at all...).

So, nothing particular innovating when it comes to story and plot. The real selling point of this dōjinshi (and Endō's output in general, from what I can gather) is the artwork: full of detail and flair, it has a wispy, willowy tract that really reminds me of Oyari Ashito, with some added floweryness. A warning thought: there is some borderline non-h loli content. Reader beware.

All in all, an excellent dōjinshi that, unfortunately, I have began halfway through. I'll make sure to pick up the rest, if only for the art.

The Favorite One by Chico

Very short review post because I have very little left to review (my finances are not exactly great at the moment), and because I actually have very little info on this dōjinshi - it doesn't display any info but the circle's name (no date, no web media, absolutely nothing), and it's one of those impulse purchases entirely based on an eye-catching cover. Eye-catching for me, at least...

The circle's name is Chico and, unlike what one might expect for the very industrial-looking cover, this is actually a shojo illustration book. Very short, only 12 pages, but it's full color and al images are A4 size. Chico's illustration style is extremely plain, using very Steins;Gate-ish color palettes which I happen to really enjoy. I wish I could peruse more from this circle, but it seems as if they have no internet presence at all. Not even one of those broken Japanese blogs even the smallest, defunct
circles seem to have. What a shame...

As far as I know, Chico produced only one more dōjinshi (Constellation), and a participation in a dōjin anthology. Only the former is still available, I might snag it if I find it for a suitable price.

マジカルガール・オルタナティヴ by 平均律 / 東京胡同案内(価格改定版) by ヘリオトロープ

A slightly steadier influx of cash means more dōjinshi right in my mailbox! Truth to be told, aside for a WoW subscription and the occasional belt sushi, that's pretty much all I spend my entertainment on - I'm a library aficionado, and rarely if ever watch movies. This month's special because I managed to get my hands on yet another book by my favorite 平均律, which actually leaves only one more dōjinshi from him before I complete my collection... along with that, I also got a nice little thing by ヘリオトロープ, one of those rare circles that completely forsake animanga , and instead use the dōjin as a display for more 'traditional' art forms such as photography.

But let's go in order. マジカルガール・オルタナティヴ is a mostly b&w, 28 pages work by 平均律, whom I have reviewed several times on this blog. It came out in 2005, meaning - because yes, I know what you're thinking - it predates Madoka Magika by quite a few years. The theme is, however, somewhat similar: contemporary-styled magical girls, in a sort of 'profile bio' format. The dōjinshi is, as usual, fairly verbose, and there is actually more to read than there is to see: the magical girls' designs are fairly interesting and curious, but they are usually dwarfed by the mass of text on every page. The 'theme' also feels slightly less engaging than usual, perhaps because it's somewhat more typically dōjin, unlike Heikinritsu's latter stuff, where the theme is a certain aesthetic or artistic procedure. All in all a decent product, but it definitely shows how far he's come, more than anything else.

東京胡同案内(価格改定版) is, from what I could gather from the credits, is a 2011 collaborative effort between jack-poy film, ketch+, and ヘリオトロープ (web presence defunct). It's a very small booklet, 12 pages of a narrow, tall A5 format; but it's full color and, visually, quite impressive. It's a sort of prose poem (atrocious Engrish translation provided), which really doesn't add much to the amazing background pictures of Tokyo's seediest angles that really are the centerpiece of 東京胡同案内. Dark yet hypersaturated, super-sharp and bizzarrely angled, the dōjinshi's creators offer a visual treat that is really unlike most kojo moe-like doujins. The city takes a msyterious, ethereal-like atmosphere, which falls in line with ヘリオトロープ's take on their most common subjects - usually ruins and the like.

This was half the purchase of this month. I will discuss the remaining two in a later post, for different reasons (I could not find anything on the author of The Favorite One; and the other is a bizarre uni otaku-club report or something like that. More reading is required...)

漫画雑誌 山坂 第七号 by 山坂書房

I am currently translating one of my recent dōjinshi purchases from the folks over at Otaku Republic - which also happens to be one of my frequent impulse purchases, dictated by cover design alone. I have to admit I have a soft spot for that hyper-realistic, 劇画 inspired visual style that this cover nails perfectly. The book is, however, actually an anthology by the circle 山坂書房, which very loosely follows the title's 'countryside' theme, declining it in a variety of ways. Results are uneven, but there is some really good stuff in there. Six mangaka are featured, each one with their distinctive visual and narrative style - and all of them, at least from what I could gather, are fairly well known fixtures of the underground manga scene.

 My personal favorite from an art point of view is がんばれチャグ by ひうち棚, the heart-warming misadventures of a rural factory worker, whose wild fantasy puts him at odds with a variety of increasingly zany coworkers. Tana really nails the old-time, 'serious' manga style visually (and, in a way, keeps true to its origins as societal critique), yet from a storytelling point of view the accent is on a brand of bittersweet comedy I really happen to dig.

Another highlight are the bizarre, surrealy 4-koma by 山坂ヨサンセン: almost entirely devoid of words or dialogue, as well as background or context, their little skits entirely focus on the two main characters' strange interactions, largely based on punny wordplay and manzai-like routines. Mileage greatly varies according whether you consider - as I do - manzai one of the greatest forms of comedy under the sun. Otherwise, 山坂ヨサンセン's stunt might fall a bit flat.

The remaining works range from bizarre tributes of Osamu Tezuka that completely flew over my head, to the standard 'countryside nostalgia' stories the Japanese seem to love so much, peppered with nearly unintelligible country slang and inflections. They're not bad, but they don't reach the quality of ひうち棚 or 山坂ヨサンセン's work. All in all a pretty good anthology (and one of many from this circle) for those who are not into moe or the usual illustration fare.

おたまと影の変態記3 by あびゅうきょ

In spite of its deceptive title, あびゅうきょ's omnibus おたまと影の変態記3 has very little hentai within, especially if compared with the artist's more extreme (and, fortunately, progressively rarer) forays into futanari and such. The 2015's meaty book (134 pages, B&W as usual) instead features a variety of short works, commentary, sketches and stories that don't neatly fit into あびゅうきょ's usual themes - military technologies and extreme jailbait porn. All in all, this is for the best: unlike his usual offerings, which can be really hit and miss depending whether you buy into his otaku-like obsessions and his peculiar, detailed yet deformed art style, this omnibus displays a variety of different styles ad themes, which don' necessarily make this book for everyone, but at least broaden the appeal a bit.

There are, of course, あびゅうきょ's trademark scantily-clad nymphets, but the collection also includes some hilarious Evangelion fan-art (given the artist's usual topics, I'm surprised he hasn't produced more); a short manga featuring an anthropomorphic cat who, for once, doesn't engage in lewd acts (yes, あびゅうきょ has produced quite a few anthro-futanari dōjinshi); and a few illustrations drawn in a different, distinctive style that, while still entirely his, clearly shows that あびゅうきょ hasn't merely pulled his many retro references and visual cues out of a hat.

There are few flaws with おたまと影の変態記3, one of them being that, as it often happens with あびゅうきょ's works, some pages are so overloaded with images, vignettes, side doodles and handwritten text, they become literally impossible to parse. There are also some anatomical imprecisions (including あびゅうきょ's trademark stocky proportions, but those by now are more part of his style than anything). These are, as usual, trifles if you happen to enjoy this artist's anarchic visual world, as I happen to. This collection is probably a good entry point into あびゅうきょ's world, especially if you're not interested into extreme fetishes or military paraphernalia.

As a footnote: for some mysterious reason (probably hidden in あびゅうきょ's atrocious handwriting) there are quite a few color pages at the end of the book dedicated to gag manga by a certain 森野優樹 whom I never heard of before. They are incongruous and forgettable, and they can all be seen on the artist's Pixiv regardless.

平均律の《空》の本 by 平均律 / map03 仮面の街の昼と夜 by 丸紅アパートメンツ

Double review this time, and an overdue one too. Thanks to the recent Alitalia fiasco, and the usual incompetence by those... ahem, fine folk at SDA, I had my latest purchases stuck in limbo for what seemed like forever. And they'd been sent by priority shipping too! Anyway, better late than never, so here go my impressions on yet another Heikinritsu from the past, as well as the most recent dōjinshi by one of my most recent favorites, 丸紅アパートメンツ (Malbeni Apartments).

Heikinritsu's own site presents 平均律の《空》の本 (literally 'Heikinritsu's 'Sky' Book) as a 'collection of sky themed illustrations. Which is kind of true, I guess, as there is a sky in each full page (sometimes double spread) illustration. Still, as always, the real focus of the artist is on his trademark petite bishōjo, whom he places in a variety of landscape that always feature a sky, be it a summer blue one, or a fiery one at dusk.

Hailing from 2003, 平均律の《空》の本 is still an 'early work' of sorts, and displays some of the anatomical uncertainties I had seen, for example, in アルミ、クラフト、ポリプロピレン. Still, his eye for color and composition is amazing as always, and there are already hints of that attention towards abstraction that he will further develop in later dōjinshi. All in all a very nice, albeit short treat, and another one off the list of Heikinritsu back catalog.

My impulse purchase for the month was map03 by 丸紅アパートメンツ, an excellent artist I had recently spotted while browsing through Japan's side of Pinterest; I was particularly captivated by her amazing color illustrations of surreal, you guessed it, apartment scenes.

map03, however, is actually a fairly thick (66 pages) b&w manga, which ostensibly narrate the author's own trip to the city of Venice, and the happenings and mishaps therein. I'll be honest, the tract loses out a bit by the absence of color; nonetheless, the vistas, the paneling and, of course, the theme reminded me quite a bit of something like Aria, which it also resembles in the way it mixes travelogue with surreal imagery. To 丸紅's credit, I have to say that her grasp of anatomy and perspective is actually better than Amano's...

So, another small haul that got into my mitts two dōjinshi worthy of attention. Sadly, at least according to the artist's site, map03 is currently sold out, so managing to find a copy might be tricky.

'Memory Hole' on Patreon

While waiting for the next batch... I am now on Patreon! My writing, including my latest work 'Memory Hole', is available as a serial for minimal pledge amounts. Love me? read, share, support. Especially share, which is just as valuable as monetary support at this stage of my writing career.

DAWN by みけねこりんご / 幻想探行記 by ゆずりんご

Two reviews for one this time around, mostly because these two artbooks are both very, very flimsy... 16 and 20 pages respectively. As an added bonus, both circles have りんご in their names, though unrelated - at least as far as I could tell...

DAWN by みけねこりんご(the circle name of うろこ) published 2009 is, as mentioned, a fairly thin artbook, but one that visually packs a punch. While the artist has been recently dedicating their craft almost exclusively to Danganronpa fan art, DAWN is simply a full color collection of unrelated illustrations, where thematically the lion's share is taken by armed and dangerous bishōjo of all varieties.

While there might not be much variety as far as subject matter goes, the artist definitely displays a strong sense of both color and composition, developing complex color palettes that enhances the curvy, wavy qualities of their pinups. An unusual amount of attention is also paid to backgrounds. Such a shame that, as far as I could gather, the circle hasn't published a thing since 2013 outside of occasional Pixiv updates and Danganronpa fanart.

The other collection of illustrations I picked up in my last shipment is 幻想探行記 by ゆずりんご, published in 2009. While there seems to be a single artist behind the Yuzuringo name, the dōjinshi actually goes through three or so quite different visual and thematic styles, ranging from slick digital illustrations and pinups in a clear manga inspired vein, to items that display a closer affinity for traditional art.

While, as usual, I am left wishing that both dōjinshi simply had a higher word count, DAWN and 幻想探行記 were overall two very different, yet worthy additions to my collection of illustration works from little known artists. Next time, yet another Heikinritsu from the past, and a whole new, very interesting artist...

SAVOYA by サボテリアン

Through one of NHK's typically incomprehensible mazes of reruns and chronological chopping, it seems as if my favorite show, At Home with Venetia in Kyoto, is still running - there were at least two seasonal specials filmed in 2017. Even the reruns are amazing; that woman lives exactly the kind of life I would like to lead, if I had the financial security I currently don't possess.

I started with this little side comment because the dōjinshi I'm reviewing this time is probably the farthest one can get from... well, anything sunny and countryside-ish slice of life-y. Among my most recent purchases was yet another dōjinshi I bought on its cover alone - an illustration collection by a certain SAVOYA, whom I never heard of before.

B5, B&W, 36 page, and I'm pretty sure it's not Reimu on the cover. Inexplicably, SAVOYA is actually another name - seemingly used only for this publication - of illustrator サボテリアン (Saboterian), who actually has a web site and a Pixiv page to their name, and whose work was featured in a Pokémon themed anothology a while ago. The illustrations featured here are all original work which is partly germane to this dōjinshi, and partly appears in color on the Pixiv page linked above.

Stylistically speaking, the visual coordinates of SAVOYA's art are fairly clear: there is a bit of that 'scary kawaii' aesthetics a la Murakami, but mostly we are in Ueda Hajime and Dowman Sayman territory, from which SAVOYA borrows the extremely dynamic compositions, the willowy and often abstract body anatomy, and the sketch-like quality of the tract. While, as mentioned, some of the originals (linked here) are in color, often the compositions work just as well - sometimes even better - in B&W.

Thematically, we are in rather extreme, sometimes borderline guro territory. We range from exploding shoujo to monster avatars, through a facial of raining testicles (yes, that too). As often happens in these cases, the vile subject matter is redeemed by SAVOYA's skillful use of composition and line, which sublimates the body horror into a compelling visual which works as design as much as illustration. Though the stylistic coordinates are very different, SAVOYA's work reminded me somewhat of Nedlog's.

Overall, a little quirky surprise whose subject matter might not be to everyone's taste but that, at least visually, is sure to make an impression.

ハ短調 by HEIKINRITSU / 平均律

And the collection keep growing...

Sadly, my most recent shipment from the folks at Otaku Republic has been mysteriously delayed on the Japan side - which is unusual to say the least, as it contains no H material, and as far as I remember customs never even bothered checking my packages before. Should be here in a couple of days.

Fortunately, however, I had another shipment on its way, a single dōjinshi which I just had to fit into my monthly budget, since it happens to be an oldie from my favorite circle, HEIKINRITSU / 平均律. This one not only came in on time, but it also contained a complimentary pack of transparent covers. Pretty badass and useful, as I usually never bother to protect my purchases beyond shelving.

I reviewed this one-man show's work a bunch of times, so unless this is the first time you stumble here, you should be pretty familiar with the kind of stuff he does. While, on the surface, Heikinritsu seems to offer collections of somewhat traditional bishōjo illustrations, each dōjinshi has a cohesive conceptual core which ties it all together.

As the musically themed title suggests, ハ短調 (literally C Minor) is no exception. I'm not sure many people could convincingly pull off a bishōjo personification of one of Bach's fugues... The format is a B5, part of it is B&W, but the first four illustrations are in a wonderfully minimalist color, of which the cover above is a great example. Heikinritsu is a master at making blank backgrounds actually work in favor of the image's composition and balance, rather than against - they never come across as an easy copout, but instead constitute an integral part of the illustration's economy.

Crappy pic but I'm not going to bend my copy.

There are only two very minor gripes I have with ハ短調, which actually are shared by other works by Heikinritsu. The first one (which also explains why my reviews of this circle's work are very short compare to my fanboyish enthusiasm) is that it's really, really short. 24 pages overall, but this includes the front title and credits, so the actual illustration page count is a fair bit shorter.

The other aspect, which is actually more of a shortcoming on my side (I'm not very good with Japanese jargon) than a fault per se, is that Heikinritsu's dōjinshi are fairly packed with complex text, which sometimes overtakes the illustration it accompanies. It's an essential element of course, as the concept behind each book does need a bit of explaining to be fully grasped, but I can't help feel the balance is at times a bit off. This is, fortunately, not really the case with ハ短調: here, the text explanations are treated as part of the image's composition, rather than merely as explanation tags or footnotes.

These are both incredibly minor complaints, which I mostly put down so I wouldn't come across as a total fanboy. Heikinritsu is by far my favorite circle, and the work it delivers is consistently engaging - especially if you are into math and procedural graphics, I suggest you check out アルゴリズミック・ビューティ. 

FLOWER vol. 1 - 10 by D.K.

While waiting for my most recent purchases to arrive (which include some VERY underground stuff, even by dōjinshi standards, and a very very vintage Heikinritsu), I will try and keep the blog warm by spending a few words on a series of illustration dōjinshi which were actually among the first I bought, during my trip to Japan way back in 2013. There, in Nakano's Mandarake, I got my hands on issues 1 through 10 of FLOWERS, by illustrator D.K.

What's interesting is that, in fact, a few illustrations from this series have appeared in an official, English language publication too. In 2008, Del Rey published a grand total of two issues of famous Japanese pop lit magazine FAUST, featuring a lot of big names like NISIOISIN, Kouhei Kadono, Kinoko Nasu; and a short story by Tatsuhiko Takimoto, the famous author of Welcome to the NHK. This story's illustrations, by D.K., also appear on FLOWERS vol 4.

While today - at least judging from his most recent works - he seems to dabble more in 3D CGI than anything else, the issues of FLOWERS I have, ranging between 2004 and 2008 (though an omnibus came out in 2012), are fairly traditional collections of bishojo and action illustrations and pin-ups; as well as selections from the character designs he did for series like Nier, Casshern and Kamisama no Puzzle. Each book is fairly thin, around 20 pages; some are full color, some B&W, some split.

D.K. has a very recognizable style, focused on complex poses and facial expressions, which really shows his professional background as a character designer. This is, like often happens in such works, a double edged blade: as there is little to no story or context to the pinups, the whole 'weight' of the dōjinshi rests on the the appeal of the illustrator's skills and virtuosism. This is not inherently a fault, but it definitely makes the work somewhat repetitive, especially considering that D.K. never strays at all from a handful of themes: fighting girls, robots, a few monsters here and there. This criticism, I readily admit, might also be part of a shift in my own tastes - I used to love illustration collections, then I discovered Pixiv, and now I mostly buy dōjinshi manga and novels. Additionally, some padding is provided by illustrations that appear in more than an issue, in color and B&W versions.

All in all, an excellent collection of pinups, but also a marker of my shifting tastes. It's unlikely that I would buy a whole series like that nowadays - and, in fact, I find D.K. newer, more thematically complex stuff far more enticing. You can try out for yourself the excellent web browser game Aragai, for example.

アルゴリズミック・ビューティ by 平均律 / HEIKINRITSU

Fun Fact: I really wanted to buy and review the latest Sayu Studio but, it turns out, it's cheese themed... and I hate cheese. Like, I can barely stand looking at melting cheese.

Sending manuscripts out, and applying for academic positions has pretty much turned me into the ultimate patient guy - waiting and waiting for the payload is second nature to me now. Which is all good, because it means the time between Heikinritsu dōjinshi flies by without me even noticing.

アルゴリズミック・ビューティ is the Comiket 91 (winter 2016) offering by what has become my favorite circle by far, 平均律 / HEIKINRITSU. I have reviewed a bunch of his previous publications, highlighting the way in which they do more than merely present us with cute moe girls, and instead manage to actually get a 'high concept' across; often, but not exclusively connected to some aspect of graphics and design practice. After all Robert Yamamoto, the man behind the circle, works as an art director in Tokyo. 

アルゴリズミック・ビューティ (B5, 28 pages, B&W aside for the cover) could be considered a direct continuation of 2014's パラメトリック, a dōjinshi which blended the typical moe chick fare with math-based procedural graphics. This new book picks up some of the algorithms already seen in the previous volume, but adds more procedural graphics and even some interesting concepts in the way the girls are drawn and portrayed. Overall, アルゴリズミック・ビューティ feels more thought out and complete than パラメトリック, and definitely beats the amazingly quirky but slightly thin ボドニとあかいユーロセル.

As before, I won't even pretend to understand the math behind the procedural graphics used by Heikinritsu - to his credit, he adds a short bibliography at the end of the work, so you can try the algorithms yourself if you feel like it. The black and white doesn't detract much from the illustrations, in fact it does the opposite, allowing us to fully focus on the forms and shapes the girls are designed within. As I mentioned, even the girls diversify a bit this time around: there is a procedurally star-generating magical girl (a theme Heikinritsu fully explored in one of the few dōjinshi of his I don't have), an Asuka, and a variety of ballerinas, and girls with teddy bears (!). 

There are a few very very very minor anatomy problems (feet are still drawn unconvincingly, which is surprising considering Heikinritsu draws hands very well) but, beyond this, it's very hard to find faults in アルゴリズミック・ビューティ. The only flaw I could point out, which is actually sort of a good point, is that the dōjinshi feels kind of short: it could have definitely used 4-5 more images, or maybe a couple color illustrations. In fact, I would love to see a Heikinritsu anthology, or a thicker sketchbook publication.

Overall, another Heikinritsu, another good purchase. While アルゴリズミック・ビューティ still hasn't replaced アレクサンダー・カルダーの恋人 as my favorite dōjinshi by this circle, it's a very strong offering, which makes me look forward even more to what he might cook up for Comiket 92. 

Small Haul - January

JLPT didn't go as good as I had hoped... and, a usual, it's the listening section's fault. Goal for December 2017 is to improve on that side. Any pointers? I had good past experiences with a few online language exchanges platforms, otherwise I might have to resort to the good ol' pen pal system...

I've also been playing some Factorio. Not my kind of game, I'm more of a mindless MMO kind of guy, but one of the game's merit is that, for the first time since high school, I had to use equations.

Small haul for January, mostly to justify the shipping expense of Heikinritsu's new thingy, アルゴリズミック・ビューティ. So far it really feels like a パラメトリック part two, which is great as the latter was one of my favorite experiments from the circle. It also means more math talk that will simply fly over my head, but cute girls will more than make up for that.

On the right is 1000elegy 100wonders syllabus 千変挽歌百不思議 導入手引, a... very strange sort of fictional syllabus for a Battle Royale style school? lots of collage-y pages and walls of text which, fortunately, don't seem to be too far beyond my grasp. On the left, 武蔵野茶房 総集編 2, a sparse manga which, at a glance, looks like something Hitoshi Ashinano would have written.

First review will be, of course, Heikiritsu's, then followed by the others. Good stuff.