While we're waiting for the next dōjinshi shipment, or for me to get off my as of late unusually lazy ass and translate a real weird thing I got my hands on, I have sort of an oddity. It's going to be a short review, as it was that sort of impulse purchase on the cover alone that I sometimes do, and I'm not sure it might be of interest to my readers (which statistics tell me do exist, so stop being shy and drop me a line XD). It's... a bike travelogue.
チャリン子の旅 vol 2 is, as you might guess, the second volume in a series of five dedicated to author CCSF's bike pilgrimage of every station on the Chuo line, which I understand to be some sort of popular thing to do, at least judging from the gazillion videos on YouTube. Sorry to all experts on the topic, I came very close to becoming a train otaku but never quite made the jump...
Regardless, we're not talking train here, but bikes. The beefy, glossy A4 volume (full color!) reads like a crossing between a travel guide and a day trip diary of sorts, consisting almost entirely of snapshots of landmarks with commentary, taken on the second day of said trip. Occasionally a map is included, showing which point of the Chuo line we're at. The pics are sort of small: the point doesn't seem to display photographic skills, they are the sort of snapshots of rest areas, tunnels, streets and natural landmarks one could take on a weekend outing.
Four pages only are dedicated to two very short, 3D CGI comics featuring the author's fictional stand-in, cute young girl Mizuno. The author themselves mention that the inspiration for this travelogue partially came from Kino No Tabi, so I guess a bishoujo mascot was in order. Fun fact: my copy has corrections added with stickers, meaning it's the first edition - yes, this travelogue was popular enough to have multiple runs.
チャリン子の旅 vol 2 dates 2012, and the circle's blog has been inactive since 2017, so I'm guessing there are no new works on the horizon. Aside from this multi-volume exploration of the Chuo Line by bike, CCSF also produced a Negima! tie-in novel, and a Mari-sama! location pilgrimage guide, as well as participating into some sort of ur-circle, "F-kai", dedicated to anime reviews and, unlike CCSF, seems to be still active.
Comments
Post a Comment