ひつじ雲の帰り道 by Itodome

 Another purchase entirely made on the cover alone. I was entirely unfamiliar with Itodome (いとどめ), though there is some pretty good stuff to be found on their skeb profile.  It's a sort of slightly unpolished style, the anatomy is occasionally a bit shaky but I really dig the painterly, almost watercolor feel most of their (digital, I assume) works have. Subject is, for the most part, the usual fare; consisting of fanart, chicks, and... umm, planes? Cool stuff nonetheless.

ひつじ雲の帰り道  (literally, "the cumulonimbus' return home") is a nice little yuri manga from 2021's Winter Comiket, 24 pages in black and white - which, in this case, fits the overall sepia aesthetics of the cover art. The story is a well worn yuri trope: teacher and pupil fall in love, omg scandalous, they reunite once the student is no longer jailbait. We are fully within the canon, with no real risks taken with the story, but Itodome's drawing style, flowy as the genre commands (to the point of abstraction at times) really carries this one. Some facial expressions are a bit shaky at times, and it's not always super easy to read the action given how abstract the tract can get, but overall it's a style I still like a lot.

Not much more to say about this one. A nice little thing, definitely worth a look if you can snag a copy (good luck lol). 

"Frame" by Syo5

 Yeah, very few and sort of grungy pictures for this one. Reason: it's printed on a glossy paper that, for some reason, is very resistant to being photographed well; and, as you know, I'm vehemently against unbiding stuff. Weird, because the cover - and the cover only - is on matte paper... well, one more reason to actually check out the provided links, isn't it?

Frame is a short, full color, square format 2018 collection of works by illustrator / animatory syo5. Apparently, they're sort of a big deal, working mostly as a freelance artist for book covers, and as a director /animator for music videos. This last bit is actually unsurprising, as the illustrations collected in Frame have a cinematic quality, in the literal sense: we are often presented with a sequence of images, as if we were looking at still frames of an animation. Colors are rather somber in general, and the grain has a sort of faded quality, as if looking through a hazy glass -- a visual style you can see in their video works as well, see for example Minami's Ame Wo Matsu, for which Syo5 directed and animated. 

The dōjinshi is super short, 16 pages total, so one could argue there isn't much meat to it, considering that the collection lacks any sort of textual contextualization, from which I assume it to be a crop of personal works or practice pieces. Not the kind of stuff I usually enjoy - it's a bit too mainstream and polished for my taste - but, judging from their Twitter and Instagram following, I'd definitely in the minority. You might enjoy it! 

"NKR80 vol.2" by Narume

 While it might not be apparent from the stutt I review, I am a big fan of pixel art. I am, after all, also a Doom and Strife modder, and making custom graphics for those games pretty much means creating pixel art. It seems to me as if there are two main "school" of pixel art nowadays: one one hand, those who adopt the nostalgia angle, and lean more on the simple, blocky nature of the style; on the other, a lot of pixel artist who choose instead to focus on 'realism', so to speak, creating images that, while still generated pixel by pixel, could easily pass for non-pixel illustrations.

"NKR80 vol.2" (2019) is an illustration collection by pixel artist Narume, whose work for the most part falls into the latter category: their illustrations, usually bishoujo with a modern edge, reveal their pixely nature only upon close inspection, a fact that is well exemplified in this 16 pages, full color, square format collection: almost all images are presented along with a detail close up, which clearly show how Narume created them pixel by pixel. Neon tinges are predominant, leaning into that waporwave-ish aesthetics which seems to be very popular among modern pixel artists. Subjects, as mentioned, don't vary much, being all essentially pinups.

Upon comparison of the full image and the closeup, one can't help but marvel at Narume's artistry. The restrained color palette, and its greatly simplified monochrome backgrounds, really lends a vector-like clarity to each image, which greatly helps preserving definition and cleanliness. It's overall a very summery collection, basking in aqua tones to complement the abundant helpings of purple and pink neon lights. 

A short but pleasant treat, not much to say except enjoying Narume's skill with the pixels. They also have a pixel manga series, if you're interested, and a store full of cute stuff. 

"Bouquet" by Ukketori et al.

 As you might notice if you've been reading my reviews for a while, I often end up writing about stuff made by people who... don't really make stuff anymore. I guess since (with many exceptions) dōjin work falls under the rubric of "amateur work", it is something that more often than not either turns into actual professional work; or becomes one of those "yeah, when I was young I used to sell my stuff at Comiket" moments a mom or dad with two kids and a mortgage will reminesce about in their middle-age. Sometimes they also go pro, and simply try and hide their dōjin past (ahemShigeoHamashimaahem).

Hence, a lot of the circles whose works I cover are no longer active, and all of their ephemera (websites, blogs etc) are lost forever in the ether. Again, there are dozens exceptions on this blog alone, but it's pretty normal for me to check the links provided in a dōjinshi's credit page, and get a bunch of 404s. 

This is why I get particularly excited when, on the other hand, I manage to find leads who take me back to more info about the author of a work I enjoyed, and who might be working at a reduced capacity or no longer at all. Especially nice when this didn't happen for tragic reasons, but because they're simply living their best life. 

"Bouquet" is a 2012, 60 full color pages hybrid photobook / illustration work by a team led by artist ukketori, helped by cosplay photographer soramimi and a cast of four models: boo-chan; myuu-chan; chii-chan; and Himemiya Mahore. Pardon the -chan, I assume all involved parties are well in their thirties or more by now, but they're still likely my same age or even younger, so yeah XD 

One special treat is that, while pretty much all of the participating parties haven't really updated their blogs in a while, we can still find online an fc2.com blog that is essentially a making-of this dōjinshi.Things seem to have gone something like this. Ukketori, who is a professional artist who is still active, or was until very recently (more on that later) gets together with her high school friend boo-chan (mostly a boys' love cosplayer) to make a book where a few of ukketori's illustration will be turned into cosplays, who will then be photographed by cosplay photographer soramimi. Then, ukketori produced more illustrations based on these photographies. 

The result is a very charming, tasteful operation that really captivated me. Ukketori's illustrations, while well within the bounds of PIXIV-style manga, are colorful and lively, really selling the character's design and traits, both the stand-alones, and those reproducing soramimi's colorful pictures. All four models each have their own flair, from boyish but cute boo-chan, to superpink Himemiya, and you can tell from their expressions and gestuality that they must have had lots of fun during the photoshoot. The outfits are sometimes revealing, but always stay on the tasteful side of things - no ecchi here, which is fine by me. The most fanservice you get is some catgirling, which is played more for cute than anything else. Also, unlike many photobooks, we are actually treated to abundant miscellaneous information about all participants, including a short interview with each of the models.

The book itself has a couple of pseudo-sequels, each still using ukketori's illustrations, soramimi's pics, and a few of the models already showcased here. If the quality is the same, I'm definitely going to track them down.

Now, from what I could tell, most parties involved seem to be no longer active, with the four models' activities stopping by 2015, and soramimi going MIA around 2019. A little internet sleuthing didn't haul much - as you can imagine, a bunch of onomatopoeias are sort of a thin lead for an internet search. The two exceptions seem to me Himemiya Mahore, who is a professional photomodel / cosplayer and has quite the following; and ukketori herself, who has produced a number of commercial works (including a 2021 Olympics tie-in) up until around 2019, where she became somewhat less active. 

What else to say? a fun dōjinshi, a cool time capsule from twelve years ago (I was still in uni back then! time flies) and a chance to do a little bit of sleuthing. A good time was had by all. 

見た目地雷系幼馴染 by tetto

 Sometimes I get that Japan somehow managed to spring out another fashion trend at the top of every hour - usually a minor variation of an already existing one, sometimes with some controversy attached as a bonus. It just churns trends. 

One such trends is so-called 地雷系 (jirai-kei), literally "landmine fashion". From an aesthetics point of view, it's really nothing more than a minor spin on that McGoth we used to associate with places such as Hot Topic a few years (or was it decades?) ago, plus a smattering of color, usually pink, here and there. Been there, done that, really nothing to write home about. The entire novelty of the style lays in the controversy that gives it its name: from what I gather, this style is associated with "landmine girls", aka girls that prop a cutesy goth exterior with involvement in drugs, alcohol, street partying, the rich kids gangs lifestyle etc etc. I mean, would you willingly step on a landmine, or date a "landmine girl"?

This lengthy tangent comes about because it's essential in order to understand the joke behind the series of  dōjinshi tetto dedicated to their very own landmine character - one such publication being 2022's  "見た目地雷系幼馴染" (Landmine girl childhood friend). Offering their own admittedly slightly ham-fisted twist on the stereotype, this dōjinshi (full color, 24 pages, stapled) shows, in a series of full-page pinups, the daily life of a landmine girl that does everything a landmine girl is not supposed to do: cook a healthy meal, help the aged, dote over cute animals, give her bus seat to a pregnant woman, etc etc. She is occasionally accompanied by a nonplussed, more stereotypical landmine friend; and occasionally addresses an invisible, arguably male friend, visual novel style. 

Yup, this is the entirety of the skit. No complaints from me, as the very light subversion of the stereotype is fairly amusing, and tetto's tract is cutesy enough, while firmly rooted in an anime aesthetics. Essentially the dōjinshi is a series of visual punchlines, which would make it perfectly fit for eventually becoming a 4-koma or a comedy anime. 

All in all a very simple but cure operation, worth taking a look. 

I made more stuff for Quake and Doom

 Yup, it's that time again. I made a few maps for both a Quake and a DOOM community projects:

"The Marshes" for Map-center's RetroJam: 

And three maps (!) for Doomer Boards Projects 67, Marble Hill. These will probably be my last DOOM maps, so enjoy them while you can. 

As for regular business, still chugging along with my Strife mapset, writing new stuff, more doujinshi on the way (finally!) and mostly just trying to survive this abysmally hot summer.  

I'm on Bandcamp now!

 As per title, you can now find all of my past MIDI music on Bandcamp, pay as you like or get it all for free to reuse in your projects, with credits. I plan to periodically update with new music.  

Enjoy!

"A Midsummer's Day Resonance" by Saitoh Kagura

 So yeah, long time no see. Haven't fallen off the face of the earth yet, just needed to take care of a few projects (my first trad published novel is coming out this year!) and odds and ends. Plus I've been in a bit of a hiatus when it comes to dōjin purchases, but I do have some new material on the way so reviews will be coming soon. I know I have a rather... umm, 'silent' public XD but stats say people actually enjoy reading this blog, so here we go.

Today it's a very quick one, a few notes about a visual novel I have actually played years and years ago for the first time, and that I have replayed recently - A Midsummer's Day Resonancenull (夏の日のレザナンス) by Kagura Saitoh, who in spite of what VNDB would tell you, has actually made more stuff through their semi- professional dōjin circle "Resonance"null, mostly phone games I haven't played so I won't comment upon. Inactive since forever and ever but, by now, is that even a surprise? most of the stuff I write about is dead and buried anyway.

Still, A Midsummer etc is definitely worth a play. Without going to much into the details of the fairly light story (one of those "Dandelion Girl"-ish soft scifi slice-of-life thingies Japan loves so much), I will give you a bunch of reasons to bother downloading this little game:

- English localization, in case you don't speak Japanese. And, should you want, the Japanese version is fairly approachable even by VNs standards. 

- A female protagonist- in fact, a fully female cast. There is a touch of yuri but it's super light, and the focus is more on friendship and 'senpai admiration' than love proper. 

- The art is simple but effective, just a bunch of backgrounds, a few portraits and a handful of intermission sketches. The indie cred is off the charts. 

- Very cute music, and occasional touches of humour. One of the characters is your typical ditz, and she's used quite effectively here without being overplayed. 

- Very short runtime, doesn't overstay its welcome.

So yeah, reccomended, not only as a product itself, but as a historical piece of VN localization. Like most of Park's Insani translations, one could add. Because yes, there was a time in which, save for a few happy islands like this one, either you knew Japanese, or VNs were a no go. Crazy, huh?

Caffè Arti e Mestieri

 Strange stuff you find sometimes in thrift shops. There is one such shop pretty close to where I live, and I sometimes wander there to see if they have something of interest (mainly 90s Sperling&Kupfer novels, which I sort of collect). Lo and behold, I find nothing other than a book in Japanese! How did it end up in the heartland of Italy? Pretty interesting story, I must say. 

You see, in what's pretty much the city right next to the one where I live, Reggio Emilia, there is a rather famous restaurant and coffee shop, Caffè Arti e Mestieri. Or, rather, I should say 'there was', as the establishment has been under new management for more than a decade now. I know nothing about this new management, but under the old one Caffè Arti e Mestieri used to be pretty much a fixture of city life, renowned both for its cuisine, and for the many art exhibits that took place in it. 

One thing many do not know (and neither did I) is that the coffeeshop also had an offshoot in... Tokyo. Unfortunately I couldn't find any information about this dining place - I assume that, as often happens in Tokyo, it didn't last more than a few years - but one such product of this parentage was the book I am reviewing today, aptly titled Tasty Italian Cuisine of Caffé Arti e Mestieri. 

Unlike what I usually review, this is not a dōjinshi, and it shows: hardcover, full color (date is 2005), it's really more of a coffee table sort of book. It does contain recipes, but the bulk of the book consists of pretty pictures of tasty- looking italian food with the restaurant's verdant locale as a backdrop. It's pretty much food porn: money shots of polenta, pizza, pasta and various regional cuisine displayed on lush table settings; interspersed by portraits of Alberto and Enzo, Caffè's creators and long-time manager and chef, busy preparing such dishes; and a few simple shots of the emilian countryside.

 A very idealized portrait of Italy (I can tell you, I live there, and it's one of the most polluted places in Europe), but still I had to pick up the item: not only it was cheap, but it reminded me a bit of those 80s and 90s cookbooks that my grandma and mother used to keep handy for when family notes failed them - which didn't happen often, but sometimes it did. Add to it that I've always been a sucker for cool coffee table books, and this rather curious item is now in my collection. Cool stuff. 

Jessie by John Smith

 So yeah, when I bought this 2016 dōjinshi by John Smith (a circle name, in case you didn't figure that out) I actually wasn't aware of them being sort of a big shot - from their web site and twitter I discover now they also do commercial work, cover art for novels in particular. 

Jessie is a small-sized, full color collection of illustrations ranging from pinups in abstract landscapes, to recreations of realistic scenes that I assume were either photomanipulated, traced or copied from pictures of real life locales. Little matter as, much like Inio Asano (one of my favourite mangaka), John Smith's tract injects new atmosphere in these protorealistic locales -- and, let's face it, with 3d modeling and such it's hardly a practice to scoff at. 

What matters is John Smith's visual style, which I happen to really dig: their wiry, flowery female figures almost seem at times almost created with traditional media (which I don't think is the case?), and reminded me a bit of another dōjin artist I have covered before. Just the right mix of materiality and abstraction. One could argue that the subject matter is the same old bishoujo but, at this point, who cares? I'd argue that, in the context of dōjin art, little girls are the new still life. Just a convenient subject the artist injects their own style into. As I mentioned before, some locales seem to recreate rewal life locales - probably American? the dōjinshi is, as customary, scant with info save for a few contacts. 

All in all a nice little sample of an artist that has seemingly moved to greater things. You can find much more art on their Instagram as well. 

Stay tuned, as the next review will be a double look at some very interesting ephemera...

プロニート家を出る by ですそーど

 Having been a NEET for quite a few years myself (before I fixed my life and... who am I kidding, my life is still a lovable mess lol), I always had a soft spot for the NEET character, expecially when it's played for comedy value over the social plague that it actually is, I guess - if you still buy into the 'get rich, find wife / husband, two and a half kids' meme. I don't, but that's neither here nor there.

I am, however, yet again reminded of how little of a weeaboo I am when ですそーど's プロニート家を出る starts dropping names I am only vaguely aware of - I do know Kantai Collection and Love Live are sort of a big deal; but, as you can guess from the topic of this blog, I approach Japanese media from a slightly different angle. I'm certainly nothing like the dōjinshi's protagonist, your average overweight otaku who thinks he's a modern day samurai (and uses samurai Japanese, such a pain to translate) because he's fighting evil... in Kantai Collection. 

Out of the blue he leaves the house, to install himself in the playground just across the street, where his first virtuous action is to help a cute but clueless middle schooler become a Love Live pro. Little he knows that his neo-samurai ideals will land him in hot waters with the girl, her friend, and his own little sister...

I do like comedy manga, especially when it doesn't devolve into the trite 4-koma format (I do like Azumanga a lot though). DeathSword's lines are super rough, and so is the lettering, but this only reinforces the alt-culture jabs delivered at the expenses of popular JP- culture products. The crude visuals are, in the end, functional to the manga's genre and topic. The story is, of course, simple and pretty much your stereotypical 'otaku makes fun of otakus' gag, but I won't hold that against the author - with such a limited number of pages you can only elaborate to a point. 

A fun little comedy dōjinshi, love it or leave it. No intention to oversell it, but I liked it! sadly, doesn't seem like the author has done much since 2014...