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...