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.