RAMBLE by 田中寛崇

After last time's review of an actual manga - a very good one, actually, and soon to be the first full manga volume I read in Japanese! - we are back to dōjinshi, and an illustration one to boot. They're actually my favorite kind of dōjin work, the one that in my eye distances itself the most from official manga. Sadly a *lot* of contemporary dōjinshi really obsess over the hyper-polished shōjo thing, which I'm not really against but feel it's starting to be a bit overdone. So, my best purchases happen to be those that really channel a, umm, 'alternative' vibe we could say? A little example of this is one of my most recent purchases, RAMBLE by Hirotaka Tanaka.

It's a very slim booklet, A5 format and barely 16 pages, but full color - and what color! Tanaka's subject are young women, but his visual style leaves no room for googly eyes, frills, or beachside parties. His illustrations take the subject as a mere pretext for vibrant, acid colored explorations of space, depth, and contrast. His young women, drawn in a simple yet realistic style by Japanese dōjinshi standards, are pitted against mostly industrial backgrounds, enviroments the artists simplifies to their essential lines and spaces. Color, the real strength of these illustrations, foregoes all pretenses of realism, focuing instead on the interplay between complementary and constrasting hues, with a bias towards the clash between blue, and warm tints in the yellow spectrum.

So yes, another interesting purchase from an artist I'll be keeping an eye on. RAMBLE is actually a few years old (2015) and, according to a card that came with it, was a companion to a real-life exhibition, Getting Better, that took place at Fewmany, some sort of arts and crafts space in the heart of Tokyo.

ゆかりちゃん by 綱本将也 and 結布

So, when I opened the latest shipment of stuff from Japan (my first order with Mandarake, and it was... interesting. Will retell the whole story with the next review) I realized I made I mistake I managed to skirt around up to that point - I bought two non-dōjin works thinking they were dōjinshi. To be fair, they were catalogued as such on doujinshi.org, so it's not entirely my fault.
So, two one-off manga tankōbon: one is a crappy softcore thing from the early 2000 that looks like it was made in the 80s, probably not going to review it. The other one is far more interesting, and a mistaken purchase I actually didn't regret.

ゆかりちゃん (serialized on Jump Live, 2015) falls fully into that bizarre line of... I'm not even sure there's a name for it? 'strangely special interest food manga' perhaps? And the foodstuff, this time around, is furikake, a seasoning that I didn't try when I was over in Japan, but that apparently is washoku to the max. The manga's protagonist, Yukari, happens to share her name with a brand of furikake, which she also happens to be a huge fan of - mostly because her late mother loved it, and her father cries in joy at the mere taste of furikake, be it sprinked on rice or lining a glass tequila-style.

So yes, 100% slice-of-life territory: in each chapter, Yukari prepares a new furikake featuring recipe (which is also fully explained at the end, in case you want to replicate it), while getting closer / getting to know better one of her classmates, people whom her mother cared about, and so on. Story-wise, it's not bad, but it's nothing never seen before either. People get closer, they care for each other, heartwarming moments and all that. Some cringe around this brand of over-the-top heartfelt emotional soft drama - I don't, but be warned that mileage may vary.

The real reason why I bought this in the first place (thinking it was a dōjinshi) is the artwork. The artist is Yuu, an artist I've been following for a while. Their art, especially when it comes to the human figure, is nothing short of amazing, with a distinctively semi-realistic, 'not-too-moe' style I really dig. Being a manga, the designs and tract are of course slightly simplified compared to illustration work, but this doesn't detract any from Yuu's craftsmanship and command of layout.

So, a good 'accident', though next time I'll be on the lookout for an actual Yuu dōjinshi to read up and review.

P.S: Yes, you can buy Yukari furikake. According to the insert, there was even a Yukari packaging featuring the manga's heroine, but 2015 is a long time ago, and I couldn't find a link. Shame...