New Translation Blog

So... reviews are on hold until the new year. Which is barely a week away but, still, I was planning to have at least one out before the 31st. It might still happen, who knows.

For now, I would like to introduce you to a new side thing of mine: a Translation Blog, where I will be translating dōjin novels as Japanese practice. A few pages of the first novel are already online, go take a look if you feel like it!

MASSIVE ARTIFACT by COSMIC FORGE

Sneaking into the schedule a very short review of this little thing I picked up in my latest OtakuRepublic order - it was cheap and I always wanted to get at least one dōjinshi from this circle, even though I was actually hoping for a different one which seems to be unavailable...

MASSIVE ARTIFACT is a short illustration work by COSMIC FORGE, which usually split their work between Touhou fanworks, and food moefication/guides a la Sayu Studio. This one, instead, is part of a genre I happen to enjoy quite a bit, when well done - 2d characters in a photographic environment. 20 pages, full color, horizontal A4 format. The peculiarity seems to be that the photographic backgrounds are rendered through some kind of hi-def technique called HDRR. The end of the dōjinshi features a long and detailed explanation with pictures, but unfortunately I'm not a photo fanatic, so I can't really go any deeper than that.

What I can say, is that the insertion of the day's 2d moe chick into the photo backgrounds is really well done: there are no abrupt lightning shifts, and one can tell COSMIC FORGE really worked into blending together highly edited 2d and 3d. Even the two distinct elements can hold their own: the photographs, in particular, give that kind of 'nighttime urban cruising' feeling that I liked so much in works from the kojo moe genre, like 廃墟探索部 's Midgard. My only complaint? 20 pages, even for this kind of painstaking work, is way too short - a critique that could actually be moved against a lot of dōjin works. Still, a nice little buy I didn't regret the least.

Heterodox Muse by Can't HUE

JLPT N4 done, hopefully for good. Time to relax... for a year.

Aaaand another dōjinshi I bought on the cover alone. Aside from a few MMOs I'm not really a gamer, and I'm violently allergic to bullet hell shooters in particular: therefore, I had no idea a game named Ikaruga existed, and the very Touhou-reminescent screenshots I found laying around pretty much seal the game as something I'm not going to be interested in. This dōjinshi, on the other hand...



Image courtesy of Toranoana, scanner is broken and
the cover is impossible to shoot with a smartphone.

Contents aside for the moment, I must admit it's one of the best covers I have seen in a long, long time. It really has that Lain-esque feeling I am a sucker for, combined with a glossy surface and shiny embossing that makes it impossible to capture, but a beauty to behold. It's a nice, full A4, B&W aside for the cover, and it came out in distant 2002 - almost 15 years ago! As one might expect, the circle that produced it, 'Can't HUE', is no longer around, and their website is long defunct. According to doujinshi.org all they manage to produce, Heterodox Muse aside, is a second Ikaruga themed work. Such a shame, because the work at hand really manages to combine high production values with one of those elusive qualities dōjin publications often seem to lack - a distinct style.

A distinct style but also an acquired taste, I should add. The tract, which almost seemed penciled but not inked, manages to be both chaotic and restrained at the same time, and it's really reminescent of Blame! era Tsutomu Nihei. It also displays the same strengths and weaknesses as its comparison: Can't HUE's visual style is beautifully gritty at its best, and an utterly incomprehensible jumble at its worst. Still, it's nice to see someone try their hand at something else than the ultra polished, Jump-influenced style that was already the norm in 2002, and seems to be the dominant pick today as well.

I should probably mention the story aspect (the text is mostly dialogue, and not terribly difficult even for an intermediate); but, truth is, there isn't much I can say, as I am thoroughly unfamiliar with the Ikaruga franchise. Without any knowledge of the characters' backstory, the narrative aspect pretty much boils down to 'hot pilot chick shares a bittersweet moment with wannabe Sephiroth'. Not that this is necessarily a flaw: as it often happens in the dōjin world, narration's weight is relatively insignificant compared to the visual aspect.

As it often happens, my blind purchases paid off this time as well. Moving on, I am feverishly waiting for the new Heikinritsu dōjinshi (it's coming out, he told me so himself), and for Sayu STUDIO's newer stuff to come down a bit in price. You might have to wait for a while before the next review, as it will tackle something new for me: a dōjinshi dedicated to a deceased circle member. Happy times...

Dōjinshi - November Haul

Another fairly small haul - a lot of my favorite circles, including Heikinritsu, haven't released anything new in a while so I have been exploring my wishlist a bit.

The big, light blue one is an anthology by long defunct circle SELFISH GENE, which I have reviewed in the past. It's actually a photography collection, some stuff has appeared in other dōjinshi but in a very edited form. Very nicely designed, it includes a DVD (which doesn't seem to work, more on this later).

Then I also knocked off my list Heterodox Muse, an Ikaruga dōjinshi by 'Can't HUE' I have been eyeing for a while mostly due to its stunning cover. I was not disappointed, it's actually not an artbook but a fairly long manga drawn in a very idiosyncratic style, very Tsutomu Nihei-ish. I really hope my Japanese is up to snuff (which reminds me, I have my N4 in less than a week..."

Finally, Massive Artifact is a short '2d chara in photo background' dōjinshi by the relatively unknown COSMIC FORGE, whose usual offerings range from Touhou fanbooks to those 'food guide' thingies I love so much. Design wise it doesn't disappoint, but it's definitely the one I'm still on the fence about, so I'm reserving final judgment until review time.

Antologia 666 - Giveaway

Ed eccola qui, l'antologia 666 pubblicata da Leima Edizioni, contenente i vincitori del concorso omonimo 2015 tra cui anche il vostro carissimo Cristiano. "Cosa ne sarà di me?" è un racconto corto corto, ma credo vi piacerà, come anche tutti gli ottimi scrittori che l'antologia contiene.

Ne volete una copia? ne ho una da dare via (pago pure le spese di spedizione), tutto quello che dovete fare è seguirmi su Twitter e condividere il post (ricordandovi di includere magari sia me che @edizionileima). Tra esattamente un mese sceglierò uno a caso che riceverà l'antologia via posta.

Antologia 666

This one's in Italian only, sorry :S

E' finalmente uscita per Leima Edizioni l'antologia 666, che raccoglie i vincitori del concorso omonimo  di racconti horror in collaborazione col 'Palermo Horror Fest' del 2015. Ci sono anch'io, con il brevissimo 'Cosa ne sarà di me?'. Stay tuned per un piccolo giveaway nel futuro prossimo.

SAKURA REPORT by SAYU studio

Sayu Studio is one of those circles that really hit all the right buttons for me. As I never grow tired of mentioning over and over again (mostly because it's what really sets this place apart from the many excellent blogs reviewing H dōjinshi) I tend to be mostly interested in works that go beyond the typical 'illustration collection' format - rather, I am intrigued by non fiction dōjinshi, dōjin manga, and non-cosplay photo collections. All of this, plus the usual requirements of 'no H' and 'original only'. Yes, lots of requirements, but it makes it easier for me to settle on purchases...

Sayu Studio's dōjinshi have all of this and more. They have, first of all, amazing production value: glossy paper, high quality print, large format. They are exclusively nonfiction, usually focusing on cooking (pasta in particular) or travel reports (like the dōjinshi I will b reviewing today); they skillfully and seamlessly blend artist Nanahime's gorgeous illustrations with photographic food /scenery porn.

My last purchase from Sayu is the item pictured above: SAKURA REPORT, which is for the most part a report (duh!) of a trip to Notojima, a tourist spot mostly known for its aquarium (the famous one where you can walk inside the underwater gallery) and its glass art museum, apparently the only one of its kind in Japan. Both places, and many others, are wonderfully documented in SAKURA REPORT, with plenty of macros, hyper focused pictures and whatnot. Sadly, at least for me, they are also documented by huge walls of text in a Japanese that goes way beyond my level: Sayu's dōjinshi do usually feature lenghty explanations but, so far, I had mostly encountered shorter paragraphs and recipes which I could easily parse. Will be good for practice some day, I suppose... regardless, visuals are still the main thing, and the publication is worth its money on that alone.

The dōjinshi actually features a 'second part', which focuses on... food and household appliances reviews. I do not kid you: there are reviews of bread, ice cream, shoe dryers, jogging items and technology... I am still not sure whether there is a connection between the two parts of SAKURA REPORT, but here they are.

The question is, why should I care about reviews of products I cannot buy anyway (I do not live in Japan, in case you were wondering)? the answer is, design and visuals. Sayu Studio has a knack for designing wonderful page layouts with amazing interaction between images and text, and this one is no exception: the way the sample food is arranged and photographed is downright artistic, and Nanahime's bishōjo are the perfect icing on the cake.

Downsides? the only one I can think of is that I would definitely like to see more of Nanahime: in a full 32 pages dōjinshi there are only three illustrations, a shame as their art style is both distinctive and sleek. Also, as far as I know, they also don't seem to be publishing stuff on their own, so their Pivix and Sayu's books are really the only places where one will find Nanahime's stuff.

All in all, another great delivery by one of my favorite circles. Sayu's 2016 thingy features a different artist whose style I am not entirely bought on, so I postponed purchase for the moment... but it's also dessert themed, another one of my weaknesses. Decisions, decisions...

Zen. by 102

Yes, it's been a very quiet September... not that anyone cares. This was mostly because that month had no haul to speak of, scarce funds to blame. I do have quite a backlog of dōjinshi I would like to review but, for some reason, I am usually more excited about new purchases than older stuff.

Fortunately, October did have a haul (alos courtesy of the people at Otaku Republic serving me a nice coupon). There are now a pretty meaty (and wordy) SAYU Studio work, and an actual full fledged manga in the reviewing pipeline. This time, however, I will be reviewing yet another impulse purchase: the quirky Zen. by an artist who simply goes by the nickname '102'.

As the few who read this blog might have realized, while I do like a sleek, well drawn illustration, I also do think that a good, or at least a curious concept can trump both skill and form. I mean, I will be the first one to admit that Heikinritsu just can't draw that well; yet, the sheer force of the concept, the 'idea' that ties together the illustrations for each of his works makes him my favorite dōjinka by far.
So, when I came across a few images from 102's so far only publication, the relatively unpolished style didn't turn me off at all. In the end, while the craftsmanship in Zen. sometimes comes too close to the point where even I would draw a line, the dōjinshi was still a purchase I didn't regret.

The book is fairly thin, 20 A4 pages or so in total, stapled, full color. There is no text to speak of: aside the title on the cover, and a few contact info on the back of the dōjinshi, the illustrations have no title nor explanation accompanying them. The style, as one can see from the illustrations above, is fairly rough: backgrounds are mostly abstract, the human form is simplified into its basic details, the palette is made up of starkly contrasting full, blocky colors. As far as themes go, the images are fairly fantastic in nature, sometimes whimsical but often with a dark undertone: 102's girls sometimes come very close to reminding one of yōkai, a la kuchisake-onna.

As often happens with a lot of the dōjinshi I enjoy, this one is definitely an acquired taste, and a lot of people will be put off by 102's expressive, at times almost naive style. Still, if one gets into the mindset that surface polish can sometimes take a backseat to the sheer power of concept and imagination, Zen. could definitely be a worthwhile purchase.

DAY DREAMING by 虚空旋律記

DAY DREAMING by 虚空旋律記 (Koku Senritsuki) is a work that puts on display a different side of the dōjinshi world, usually so dominated by manga, character design and moe: it's a short collection of 3d CG fantasy landscapes by 3d artist and photographer Senritsuki. While not without its flaws, it's a fairly interesting work that strikes a note with the progressive rock covers / Bryce aficionado in me.

The book is a bit larger than A4, fairly short (only 16 pages) but in full color. From the design point of view, the dōjinshi espouses a clean, minimalist aesthetics that well matches Senritsuki's renders: every illustration is a full two page spread, which allows one to really dig into the textures and details of each piece. The style is, in many ways, a retro throwback: the artist's renders eschew the mimetic, rich in realistic detail style that has come to dominate the genre; instead, these illustrations have as strong points their monumentality and the charm of their textures, the transparent and semi-transparent ones in particular. Even when the subject is not openly abstract - there are a couple of nature renders - the accent is put on composition and color over realism.

As far as subjects, for the most part we are in Myst / seapunk land: airy, abstract landscapes and architectures that are really geared toward displaying Senritsuki's mastery of refractions, reflections and spatial arrangement. Every image would easily make for a very good poster, or at least a screen background.

The only flaw I really found with DAY DREAMING is that it's really, really short: it features only seven renders for a total of 16 pages, images plus a few notes on the creation process and philosophy. As time consuming as making these had to be, I would have liked to see more: to justify the price tag, I personally would have wanted at least two more renders to be included.

DAY DREAMING is part of a series, which in later volumes also includes actual architecture and natural landscapes. Senritsuki also has a nice Pixiv for all who would like to see more from this offbeat dōjinka.

August (small) haul

New shipment, and it turns out it's my 15th purchase with Otaku Republic! Those good folks not only sent me a coupon for my next purchase, but also a nice thank you letter along with my August purchases. While their prices might not be the most affordable, I have always been more than satisfied by the service they provided: items are always top notch, everything is shipped in a timely manner, and contacts / enquiries have always been handled in the best possible way. Not to mention they have free priority shipping for orders over $50. AND they speak English - if you're familiar with proxy services I don't need to emphasize how important this last aspect is. Highly reccomended.

This month was a chance to catch up with a few random items off my doujinshi.org wishlist, considering that none of my favorite circles released new stuff for C90. One is an issue of design magazine Plotter, which I purchased because I am a sucker for design magazines and because it contains a contribution by all time favorite Heikinritsu. キスをしても触れあえない by 不明人種 is a full blown manga which looks very promising, as well as featuring a fantastic color cover. Day Dreaming by Koku Senritsuki circle is a short but visually astounding 3d CG landscape illustration book, another thing I am a sucker for.

Reviews incoming.

藤倉和音 / Fujikura Kazune

One of the negative aspects of collecting dōjinshi (which adds to the costs and availability, if you happen to collect from abroad) is the essentially fickle nature of the dōjin world at all levels: it's way too common to discover an old dōjinshi by a circle you didn't know, just to find out that they disbanded / stopped producing / fell off the face of the planet after that single publication. There are surely many justifiable reasons for this kind of behavior - loss of interest, the still not insignificant costs of self publishing, the old and tried 'baleet all my indie work once I become famous' practice. Still, I can't help but feel slightly let down when this or that artist quits the dōjin world for good; especially when, instead of at least doing it for the greater good of going mainstream, they simply disappear without a trace, leaving behind a trail of borked websites.

One of these is Fujikura Kazune, who produced under the circle name SELFISH GENE a handful of dōjinshi in the late 90s / early 2000, followed by a couple of volumes of a basically forgotten and impossible to find manga, and then absolutely nothing. The site is a feast of 404s, he has no Twitter and no Pixiv that I could find. Those few dōjinshi however, at least the ones I could get my hands on, are visually interesting and charming works that deserve some attention.

The first one I purchased a while ago is 2001's self-referentially titled Liberation from Fujikura, a full color 28 pages book that is roughly divided between a first half of illustrations, and a second half of short manga stories. The theme seems to be photography and screens (there is more than one hint that Fujikura is also an amateur photographer), which is integrated into the illustrations not only thematically, but also visually: Fujikura's slightly childish, almost chibi characters are superimposed to computer generated backgrounds, manipulated photographies, and all kinds of digital filters. Neither of the two aspects really overtakes the other: Fujikura has an eye in particular for color and contrast, which ties the different visual styles together.

Then, captivated by the graphics and a lower than usual price, I also snagged the prehistoric (1997!) and equally self-referentially titled Introduction to Fujikura. 36 pages with some b&w towards the end. This one focuses solely on drawn illustration, and also features a few works of Fujikura that actually saw mainstream publication on anthologies and magazines.

Pardon the picture quality, but apparently this thing is so obscure there is no entry for it even in doujinshi.org. The illustrations are the main selling point here, as commentary is scarce as well as info - we're not even told in which magazine or anthology the illustrations appeared. Graphically, some will probably find Fujikura's style too simple and plain, as he mostly employs pastel and earthy colors, and the linework is very clean and unadorned. I personally liked it, although this dōjinshi is objectively the least interesting of the three I own from this circle.

The one some might actually find interesting and worth the purchase (should they actually find a copy) is 2000's Minitar, as it is actually more a fanzine than a Fujikura Kazune dōjinshi alone. 28 pages, a mix of b&w and color in a peculiar horizontal format.

 

 

 

 

Only about half of the book is dedicated to Fujikura's illustrations and short story manga (with no radical style shifts than what one could already see in previous publications): more than half of Minitar actually consists of interviews and shortcases of other artists and dōjinka. The main course, obviously, is a fairly long and meaty interview with Metalzigzag, a (NSFW) name that will probably be familiar to those that stalk Japanese image boards and the like. Also featured is a showcase by traditional artist 'Danse sans Musique' and an interview with illustrator / DYI artist / SELFISH GENE collaborator Keiko Sekikawa.

All in all, an interesting trio of dōjinshi which shows a lot of room for improvement that, alas, will simply not get a chance to happen.

City Dwellers - Free

Just a further heads up - my friend Roy Madoy's City Dwellers is a free download for the week on Amazon.com. Download, read, and spread the word.

ルーチカ図鑑 天体観測 by ささきさルーチカ

Although probably a minor thing to most, one of the things I always enjoyed about Japanese books is how standardized the formats are: larger, almost Western sized first print, smaller pocket sized bunko reprints, and that's it. They look nice and orderly on a shelf; unlike the rest of my library, which is a mess of formats and a true headache now that I'm trying to cut a few new rows of shelves...

I particularly enjoy that homely, no frills book size and design that (perhaps wrongly) I associate with pre WWII, up to and including Showa era publishing: rows and rows of equally sized tomes with beautifully simple covers, free of illustrations, photographs or other design frills - not to mention the gorgeously clean typesets.

I have come across quite a few contemporary publications, both mainstream and dōjin, which attempt to recreate that look. One that comes to mind is Ningyou ga Ningyou by NisioIsin; and, of course, the dōjinshi I am reviewing today. This preamble would be largely useless otherwise, right?

 ルーチカ図鑑 天体観測 (Ruchika Picture Book of Astronomical Observations) by Sasakisa Ruchika (as it often happens, I'm cloudy whether the name is an actual name, a circle name, or a nickname for a one- wo/man show) is a strange little thing, one the many impulse purchases I am still undecided whether they've been a lucky strike or a sunk battleship. The booklet itself is TINY: probably an A6 format, if that even exists; page count is also not particularly high, 32 pages total. The paper is very high quality, thick matte paper, and the illustrations are all in B&W.

The contents, in spite of the 'astronomical observations' title, are mostly a data overview of the solar system's bodies and their features or movements, with the last few pages dedicated to actual observations. Frankly, for the most part, it's information anyone could gather through a quick perusal of Wikipedia. Clearly, in this case, contents are not the main point.

The main point is, of course, design; and, from this angle, this little overpriced booklet is a winner. On each page, the text is laid out under a stylish little border, and the illustrations are visually framed in a very compelling way. In spite of the sharp printing quality, the illustrations combined with the typeset really capture that Showa era feel - or, for the more Western minded, that Eighteenth / Nineteenth century natural history feel. Even the cover, while printed as a whole rather than overlaid with glued elements like the days of old, really captures that retro style.

The booklet is actually only one out of a series, which also explores geology and zoology; and the design booklets are just a part of the many items the circle produces, most of them falling under the same 'retro natural history' aesthetics. This one is a good sample, with my only real criticism being the very short page count. Which makes me wonder, what's a 'good' word could for a dōjinshi which makes it Worth your buck? does it depend from type and genre?

Roy Madoy - City Dwellers

Just a heads up that the debut novel of my very good friend Roy Madoy, City Dwellers, is now available as ebook on Amazon. A good read if you like mystery, female sleuths, and quirky settings.

花と砂糖と君が好き by 乙女サバ

花と砂糖と君が好き (I love flowers and sugar) by 乙女サバ is  actually not a single dōjinshi, but a series of six that I've been trying to hunt down in its entirety for the past year or so: I managed to get 1, 4, and 6 so far, as the series has concluded a while ago and, as often happens with dōjinshi, back catalog is tight.

While the first volume was one of my many, many impulse purchases, it also proved to be a fortuitous one: Otome Saba's ongoing series about the misadventures of high school students Sayuu and her friend / foil Kanae is not only charming and very well drawn, with a rough yet peculiarly kawaii art style: it's also fairly simple linguistically, as it uses very little slang, so I've been using it for Japanese practice.

The story is a typical slice of life / fantastic realism piece. Sayuu, a cheerful but perennially dieting high schooler, has a tendency to get lost in daydreaming; while her classmate Kanae is a silent beauty whose gruff demeanor belies her great maturity. In each volume, Sayuu get excessively excited or nervous about something, be it her excessive weight, her plans for the future, or whether she is friendly enough to those around her. Sayuu's hyperactivity then crashes against Kanae's blasé attitude to pretty much everything, sending poor Sayuu into a spiral of self-reflection which takes the form of a daydream sequence - she might find herself climbing an endless staircase when faced with questions about her career choice, and so on. Through the insights of these 'fantastic realist' situations she then understand what needs to be done to overcome her own fears, and usually move a step forward in her more than slightly yuri relationship with Kanae.

The dōjinshi themselves are b&w, but feature very distinctly colored covers with a kind of cout-out lacy border that really adds a touch of charm. Saba's tract is somewhat sketchy, with a few anatomical difficulties here and there, but overall a very good balance between almost chibi cuteness and actual anthropomorphic proportions. There is a vague ongoing story but, overall, each volume can be taken as a stand-alone, as there are really only a handful of characters and their relationships are fairly stereotypical (a few of the volumes feature two of Kane and Sayuu's teachers, as well as a couple of their classmates).

The additional good news is that, on Saba's Pixiv, you can actually read all of the series in its entirety! Which really underlines what a fantastic thing Pixiv is for people like me, always on the hunt for that circle's web site or that dōjinka's long lost works. If then, you want to see more of her work, you can also check out her web 1.0-tastic page.

From the Vault: 'Dōjinshi: Japanese Amateur Manga and its Postmodern Characteristics'

As I was digging through old files, I found this... my Msc thesis on dōjinshi and postmodernity. It's me a bunch of years ago, so take it with a grain of salt; still, I think it discusses a few interesting points nonetheless, and no shit is too monor regardless.

You can find it here.

ボドニとあかいユーロセル by 平均律 / HEIKINRITSU

In the latest batch of dōjinshi arrivals, which you can see here (I know, not the most impressive haul ever but I'm afraid it's going to be like that for a while), I also managed to grab a copy of Heikinritsu's most recent product, the mysteriously titled ボドニとあかいユーロセル, aka Bodoni and the Red Eurocel. What could possibily bring together these two Italian (just like me!) inventions, an elegant font and a red (actually more of a neon pink) masking tape? It's Heikinritsu, so there can only be one answer... yes, high concept too. But I meant the shōjo. The shōjo!

Fifteen pages, stapled, fairly solid matte paper, of course full color - which is to say, b&w and red Eurocel. The format, an A5, is actually fairly small compared to other dōjinshi by Heikiritsu, usually a ful A4. This is not particularly bothersome, since his sparse and somewhat abstract style doesn't really suffer from the reduced magnification of the smaller format. Another interesting thing is that, compared again to the rest of his oeuvre, Eurocel has really toned down the verbal aspect: gone are the long blurbs of most of his previous works, and aside from a short afterword, it's all illustrations from top to bottom.

This dōjinshi could be easily seen as a pendant to Parametric as the two have a lot of things in common: they both present a graphical idea, or concept, that remains constant throughout the work; they both completely forsake backgrounds, in favor of an abstract and essential approach that fully focuses on the girl and the concept; and, in both cases, the girls are pretty damn moe. 

Unlike the mathemathically thick processes of Parametric, Bodoni's concept is fairly simple: girls interacting with an array of items, structures and situations created by simply piling up layers of Eurocel on the page. A girl peers through a hole in the tape; a runner bends down on the Eurocel starting line; there is even a girl having to deal with the distressing situation of having her bag explode with pink tape.

The concept, while of course not completely unheard of, is endearing and is carried on consistently thoughout the book: one might not be a sucker for Heikinritsu's style, unlike me, but the man's inventiveness cannot be denied. As already noted in the preceeding Parametric, the drawing skills have also vastly improved: the tract is less sketchy and is now cleaner, anatomy is more consistent, and finally feet are drawn as they should be.

This might not be my favorite Heikiritsu (that honor goes to Alexander Calder's Sweetheart), but pretty damn close. I'm really digging the direction his work is going, and I'm looking forward to what's to come next. Sadly, until he comes out with something new this is also going to be my last Heikinritsu purchase, as everything else by him seems to be unavailable everywhere...

New Arrivals - July

A fairly small haul this month, since funds have been particularly tight - still, a couple of items long overdue are now off my wishlist.

Main piece is, of course, ボドニとあかいユーロセル (Bodoni and the Red Eurocel) by my perennial favorite 平均律 / HEIKINRITSU, his latest and one of his best: a review could come as early as this evening. Four Sister’s ＆ Tea House Story 4 comes from Akira Kazumiya's 世緋亜・摸細工 circle, I jsut rifled through it but the art style is very cute and the book is actually fairly packed for being a mere 36 pages. Last is ルーチカ図鑑 天体観測 by ルーチカ, a non-fiction dōjinshi that was probably the weakest purchase of the lot, mostly due to its very tiny size and pagecount.

FRAGMENT by 白樺兎師春

Let me preface this by coming clean: I hate, hate, HATE furry, anthro, and anything that has to do with it. It's an instinctual, visceral kind of hate - which is both strange and logical, in a way, when you consider I'm a big animal lover. I systematically avoid anything that has to do with anthro and furry, Western or otherwise, and would actually rank it lower than loli and guro. Enuff said.

I was, therefore, very disappointed when I unpacked a copy of Shirakaba Toshiharu's Fragment, a fairly thick book of the artist's pencil sketches between 2001 and 2004. I must admit that disappointment was partially my fault: being one of the few purchases I actually didn't over-research, therefore didn't realize that Shirakaba Toshiharu is mostly known for his anthro art - which, to his credit, is actually very good (here is the Pixiv), as well as his children's illustrated books. I really liked the cover and the page count was high, so I just went for it.

The book is roughly 100 pages (unnumbered), pencil on a fairly thick, brown paper, glued spine. Aside from a very short closing note, the whole publication consists of unsorted, small sketches, usually six or seven per page. Almost all sketches depict a variety of anthropomorfic woodland creatures in forested environments: they are, as the title suggests, fragments, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the ordering. While this gives the book almost the feel of an actual sketchbook, it also encourages dispersion: many of the sketches look all exactly the same, and the eye tends to wander after a while. You decide if these points are a plus or a minus.

The real problem lies elsewhere. While it's been a long and honored tradition for artists to share their sketchbooks with the rest of the world (think Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo), they are not always fair, indicative deptictions of what the 'actual' art looks like. There are degrees of separation; and, personally, I like sketches that possess a nugget of what the artist's full pieces look like.

The fact is, Toshiharu's best rendered artwork scarcely resembles his sketches (and I'm not talking about degress of completion, I'm talking about arrangement, construction, depth and chiaroscuro); but it also rarely includes furry or anthro. Consider this, for example:

 It's in color, it has great depth and ana almost monumental composition, and it features no furry. It disregards his anthro art's mostly whimsical nature, trading it for a far more convincing arcane, mysterious aura.

The final result being, hand't I bothered digging around a bit, I would have simply assumed Shirakaba Toshiharu to be a middle-of-the-pack furry artist; while he is, actually, a multilayered and evocative artist whose work is very reminescent of European Magical Realism (Fuchs, Poumeyrol, etc.).

Concluding, the thing is: had I been the artist, maybe I wouldn't have released this sketchbook. It doesn't really give us much regarding the artist's process, and it doesn't represent fairly Toshiharu's oeuvre. Then again, who knows? I haven't found a mention of FRAGMENT on the artist's web site, so maybe he just nuked his early stuff from history once he went pro, like many other dōjinka do.

PRETTIES by TIES

Sorry for the lack of pics but, as you know, I don't scan my dōjinshi, cell phone pics just look like crap, and this one is so old there is little to nothing available online. Imagine a lot of girls dressed up as Utena.

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of cosplay: it seems to me as if most, actually all outfits from the 2d world hardly translate into the third dimension, and usually end up having that excessively slick, plastic-like appearance that even the most expensive cosplay simply can't shake off. It seems to me just an excessively expensive hobby with very little payoff.

One thing I do like, however, are photo dōjinshi; especially those that, by design or otherwise, come across as quirky and offbeat. And another thing I do like is fairly old dōjinshi - as in, published at least fifteen years ago. If those two are to meet in a single publication, I could probably overlook that fact that I don't give a damn about the cosplay aspect, right?

And so I put my grubby paws on PRETTIES 4, a dōjinshi cosplay photobook dating winter 1999 (!). 56 pages, glossy paper and glued binding, but mostly B&W (which is just as well, since from what I could glance most of these outfits could drive you insane / colorblind by exposure). Circle goes under the TIES name, which seems to include photographers 露崎せいら (Tsuyusaki Seira) and 藤乃れん (Tōno Ren). I say seems, because this publication is prehistoric by ephemera / vanity publishing standards, so I could find very little info: the web site the back copy provides is dead and buried, and Seira ad Ren's online presences haven't been updated in a while (decades).

The publication includes a diverse variety of cosplay, both when it comes to characters chosen (Utena and ToHeart are however very prominent) and models, who are for the most part... homely. One of the things that struck me, and that set PRETTIES 4 apart from the cosplay photography I am used to, is that it seems to show a (probably imaginary) older era in which cosplay wasn't about how spotless your face looked, or how much cleavage you revealed: most of the featured models are flat as boards, facially unattractive and, in some backstage pics, caught with no make-up on.

The costumes are well crafted and the locales are urban but sometimes exotic (there are a few pics that seem to be shot in Italy!), but an 'amateurish' (in the best possible sense) aura of earnstness comes across through the weird angles, awkward poses and excessive amount of smiles - a refreshing change from the costipated expressions that seem to be the norm in today's cosplay photography. There are also a myriad English typos too, which adds to the charm.

I also could find zilch on any of the models featured, mostly because they go by nicknames so commonplace (Riku, Noin, etc) it's basically impossible to filter results. It also doesn't help that, as PRETTIES date back to 1999, most models are now probably deep into careers and raising families, rather than cosplay. Bonus points for one of the models going by the handle 'Hussy', which I found quite funny.

Honestly, I'm not sure how many copies of this thing might still be floating around, so no comment on availability. Still, PRETTIES 4 (and, I assume, its three predecessors) are a nice window into what cosplay used to be, before exposure and WCS came along.

アルミ、クラフト、ポリプロピレン by 平均律

A few unexpected expenses (adoption of another sighthound! pics and dedicated post coming soon) forced me to skip a month's haul, holding back reviews a bit - not because I have ran out of back catalog, but because the items from my collection that I left out deserve lenghty posts I don't have sufficient time to produce at the moment. This month's haul, however, came in this morning and I can say it was one of the most satisfying so far - even blind purchases have been a resounding success.

Fragment by Shirakaba Toshiharu is a particularly meaty offering, it almost feels like a real sketchbook thanks to the thick, brown paper. 花と砂糖と君が好き is the first volume of a really charming series, of which I own three so far; a review will be coming in the near future. Finally, Pretties is a quirky photobook / cosplay magazine - dōjinshi from... 1999. Jeez, feels like a century ago. I think it was somewhere around that year though that I put my mitts on Rozen Maiden and began my tragic descent into otakudom.

The main piece is, however, a dōjinshi from one of my favorite circles, which I have reviewed before: I snagged a copy of アルミ、クラフト、ポリプロピレン by the always amazing 平均律. This is an old one: not so much as far as year of publication (2004), but within the circle's bibliography: it's so relatively ancient it's only barely listed on the circle's page, no preview available. The site dubs it as a MUJI-themed book: MUJI is a Japanese brand of no-brand house good /stationery, which really seems like the oddball theme that would fall right into Heikinritsu's ballpark. After all, other dōjinshi from the circle dealt with colored cel tape and moefied typesets...

アルミ、クラフト、ポリプロピレン  is 24 pages, B&W with a color cover, in the usual thick, high quality paper used for most of the circle's publications. It's also a fairly wordy dōjinshi, where illustrations usually share the page with blocks of fairly difficult text (which, I admit, I can barely parse). While the main theme is household items, and most of the illustration feature Heikinritsu's signature petite girls interacting with objects such as wardrobes, couches, stationary and desks, there is also the circle's typical emphasis on fashion: his girls are always donned in deliciously abstract fashion, including transparent boots and LBD of various cuts and lenghts. Did I mention he made a dōjinshi about that too?

The usual Heikinritsu caveats apply: if you're looking for sleek artwork in the vein of Senmu or anything reviewed on Nattoli, you will be disappointed: part of the charm of Heikinritsu's illustrations is that they have a raw, almost sketchy quality to them, and the moe aspect never overshadows the theme - also, as I mentioned, this is a fairly early work, and sometimes it shows - especially when it comes to anatomy and proportions. Not to say that the drawing style lacks charm, quite the opposite; what's important is that, beyond being mere sketches, the illustrations are functional to the dōjinshi's theme. And they're still pretty damn moe regardless.

Another Heikinritsu work I got my hands on, another purchase that left me more than satisfied. I am nearing to completing his bibliogaphy, but I'm still missing that Hatsune Miku thing he did a while ago... one day...

 

 

 

ショートホープライト by ぴこぴこリョウ

"Indie as fuck." This is my first reaction when I think back to most, if not all, of my latest dōjinshi purchases. I used to be one of those snobs who would collect fancy 2d waifu / landscape wallpapers from Pixiv, and now I'm using my poor grasp of Japanese to brute force my way through bizarre indie fare such as this ショートホープライト  8 (Short Hope Lights 8) by mystery circle ぴこぴこ (Piko Piko). Well, maybe not so much of a mystery, since s/he has a Tumblr, which is more than can be said for many dōjinshi circles, who seem not to grasp that exposure is the path to emergence. Then again, maybe the obscurity is part of the allure...

S/he (I seem to recall the name Ryo, which is unisex) does a lot of stuff beside dōjinshi, including billboards and album covers, but his/her ongoing series is ショートホープライト, of which I happen to have in my hands issue 8, because starting a series from the near end is the radical thing to do. Same with uncropped pictures.
The cover is a nice red gradient that really makes it stand out from the rainbow / multicolor covers that are the norm in the dōjin world, while the inside is B&W, 24 pages, stapled - it screams 'alternative', like the kind of stuff you'd see on Ikki. The paper seems almost recycled, which adds to the charm but suggests the book will be creases hell in a few years unless I put it in an envelope, which I never do because I'm not a nerd.

Getting to the contents, about half of the dōjinshi is the (ongoing?) nonsensical comedy skit of two main characters, pompadour-swinging Hiropon and Miiko the brat. I should probably add that, if you're into absurdist funny stuff and non-sequiturs, you will really like this: Miiko threatening a murder - suicide unless she gets to perform at the Budokan before the end of summer had me rolling on the floor, and it's exactly the kind of ridiculous, over the top comedy I enjoy best. The volume also includes the equally far-out adventures of Madame Nombre, a French-Japanese expat who gets into trouble for her tenuous grasp of Japan's most esoteric customs (such as aubergine juice, which I wish I never learned was a thing. The only beverage I really miss from when I was over in Japan is Melon Fanta. Slurp). Finally, there is some prose: a short story by a certain Kitamura (no idea who she is), and one by Chiho Tamura (no idea who she is either), but I'm still wading through those so I won't comment on them.

The part that will certainly seal the deal, or make you run for the hills is the art, which is... idiosyncratic. I think the core of the problem is that you simply have to accept it as a style which either makes sense to you in the context of the story and an overall aesthetics, or it doesn't. Pikopiko's characters are little more than sketches, totally out of proportion / anatomically incorrect, and placed against minimalist that most of the times don't make immediate sense; yet, at least to me, these elements strengthen a certain indie aesthetics the artist seems to be going for, rather than hinder enjoyment. It's definitely as alternative as I am willing to get at the moment, yet I found that Pikopiko's simplistic art has struck a chord with me. It's, at the very least, quite cute in a non-moe kind of way - which is extra points as far as I'm concerned.

All in all, a very offbeat piece that some would describe as naive and overly unadorned, but that I really liked exactly for those same reasons. Highly suggested as long as you can get into the mindset.

大臓器本弐ハートブレイク by NEDLOG

WARNING: the following dōjinshi review might contain objectionable material, specifically nudity and guro. Reader be warned.

My habit of buying stuff at random sometimes pays off big time (hello わかりま千円), sometimes it leaves me with some... very strange items. One of the strangest I have come across is short but 'expansive' dōjinshi by a circle going by the name NEDLOG (a Pixiv and a Twitter here), which seems to be a one (wo?)man show by a certain Fuumi, and specializes in what some people would kindly refer to as 'pretty gross stuff' - mostly guro, often with a hint of hentai (and futanari guro too. Brr). NEDLOG apparently also dabbles in Evangelion guro, but unfortunately there is none in the dōjinshi I have in my possession, 大臓器本弐ハートブレイク.

The tame cover belies grisly content. As the title suggests, this 'volume' focuses mostly on cardiac entrails as a concept, offering a gallery of moe-looking chicks opened up, dissected and taken apart in the most bizarre and fantastic ways.

Now, let's start off with the good points of this strange item I'm holding. It's full color, and the format is impressive: it must be at least an A3, which makes it hard to store away but a pleasure to hold in one's hand and leaf through. It's a format you actually don't see very often in the dōjinshi world, where A4 and smaller are the norm.
It's also reductive, I think, to look at something like this dōjinshi and discuss it as merely a guro show-off. Beside the perhaps not stellar, but crisp and lively character rendering - penalized by occasional pixelation at the edges - the 'volume' is a stunning piece of visual design: NEDLOG defnitely knows how to play with the juxtaposition of black and white, light and shadow, color and monochrome, and the result is a captivating visual structure that could hold its own even without its shock content. Occasionally, there are also visual hints of collage art reminescent of - well, I wish I could make a Dadaist art comparison, but what really comes to mind is a Carcass cover...

There are also a couple weak points, aside from the guro content - that will simply appeal to you or not, no questions asked. First, the 'volume' is THIN. Like, really thin. Barely twelve pages, counting the cover. It was also, I seem to remember, fairly expensive for its page count (it's one of those I bought in person while over in Japan). Overall, however, 大臓器本弐ハートブレイク  is a solid work that definitely knows its genre and audience, and might appeal to you if you fall squarely into that fold. The circle produces new volumes regularly, but the latest few seem to have veered toward acid-colored futanari - not really my thing, I'm afraid...

 

 



Accepting suggestions

In order to broaden my dōjinshi horizons a bit - and also see if I can finally get some actual interaction going on this blog - I will be accepting suggestions for dōjinshi you want to see reviewed. You name them, I choose a few - or one or zero, depends if anyone actually bothers - buy them and review them. So you don't have to, as they say.

Here are the rules:

- Must be less than 21 bucks on Otaku Republic.
- 18+ is ok, but no hentai or ecchi.
- Original only, no parodies. Especially Touhou parodies.
- No furry / anthro.

Post in the comments what you would like to see reviewed. Otherwise, next in line is a piece on my 8-books collection of someone you probably never even heard of. You've been warned.

ALFINE 2 by RAVING PHANTOM

Nip, cut, plant, water... and so on. And sneezing, lots of sneezing. This is spring for me in a nutshell. Every year I like more and more fall, when plants finally go to sleep and I don't have to witness the pathetic spectacle of my aubergine plants looking like sad poodles because they haven't been watered for two hours.

My last haul had a dōjinshi that had been on my wishlist for a while, mostly thanks to a few samples I had seen online. Alfine 2 by RAVING PHANTOM (2010) is, in many ways, the exact opposite of what I reviewed last time: we are far away from artsy land, and back into a more mainstream, hyper-stylish kind of amateur publication which actually comes in A4 format, no less than 52 full-color pages and glued spine (which seems to be pretty much the norm nowadays, showing how much cheaper it's gotten to self print - it doesn't take much funds to pump out a high quality product). Even from a material point of view I got as much value as what I've paid and more.

The dōjinshi is a sort of mock- fashion magazine, themed around colors: the illustrations are mostly pin-ups donning contemporary urban and summer wear, set against abstract and vector backgrounds, or stylish font arrangements which are there more as design elements than actual textual content. The RAVING PHANTOM circle, which has been active since 2001, makes ample use of guests, and there are no less than six here, each with one illustration: the only one I was familiar with, and the best one of the lot, is Lunatic Joker, the 'vanity' circle of prolific artist 月神るな (Tsukigami Runa).

The lion's share is taken by RAVING PHANTOM's artist 'Fuzzy', whose shōjo have a very recognizable style: colorful, realistically proportioned and very well shaded. The 'fashion' presented, as mentioned, is very  prêt-à-porter, the kind of clothing one could actually see on a hipster girl walking down Shinjuku. There are no concessions to anime style fashion, nor the kind of extreme stuff seen on Japanese Streets or such. Bonus points for going all the way with the mock/joke, and actually feature fake advertisements - like the one for earmuffs in the back cover of the book.

 A volume 1 of Alfine also exists, as well as a smilar b&w mock-fashion magazine called OMNi (5 issues). 'Fuzzy' also has published a few commercial things on shōjo manga magazine まんがタイムきらら.

Once again, a publication I highly suggest to those who like their dōjinshi to be something a bit more left fiend than the usual Touhou porn stuff, but who like to feel as if they have gotten their bang for their  buck, holding what could be a legitimate publication rather than a indie zine.