Imperfect Spectrum by 4LS

Yeah, long hiatus, deal with it. Unless you pay for my dōjinshi, this is what you get.

Today's and upcoming.

The unfortunately-named Katawa Shoujo, by 4LS, is a project that is particularly dear to me, as a bystander at least: I followed the people behind it since shortly after the very first thread on 4chan in 2006something, and religiously read and posted on their developer blog as the project came veeeeerryyy sloooowly to fruition. Was the result the best OELVN? probably not, but a very close second (best one, in my opinion, is still Ori, Ochi, Onoe). The plot still follows Japanese school romance VN tropes way too closely for satisfaction, the music is subpar, and the art department ranges from very amateurish to actually pretty decent.

Regarding this last point, one of the many offshoots from Katawa Shoujo is a series of artwork collections, coming out more or less twice a year for Comiket, featuring illustrations related to the visual novel, by the project's own artists as well as guests. At least ten have come out by now, and they go out fast; a testament to 4LS's rabid fanbase, considering you either get them by proxy, or by trip to Japan. I've been wanting to own at least one for a long time, and so I finally snagged a copy of the CM84 offering, titled Imperfect Spectrum. Lucky for you, 4LS also made this available as a digital download - for once, you can actually take a look at the thing I'm reviewing!

Very flimsy, only 16 pages or so, but in full color, and all illustrations are full-page too. Project artists such as Weee, Moekki, and Mike Inel stand side by side with guest artists like Monica Ray or Ambi07. Almost all illustrations are pin ups, with some group scenes and some comedy sketches thrown in for good measure.

The result? a mixed bag.  The ones who really shine are, in my opinion but also not surprisingly, those who actually worked on the artistic aspect of Katawa Shoujo: Doomfest and Mike Inel in particular, manage to create illustrations that, from a visual composition and coloring point of view, redeem the rather bland subject matter. Most other contributions are nothing more than cute illustrations crafted by fans for fans (most of them also appear on the Shimmie, Katawa Shoujo's online fan art dump), with a special hell reserved for trolls (Monica Ray and Climatic, really?).

In the end, nothing special as a collection of artworks per se, but a nice piece of memorabilia for those who, like me, have seen 4LS's project grow from a 4chan thread trolling poor Raita, into a pretty good amateur production.

ホクサイと飯おかわり by パコキリン

So much for Saturn living Gemini...

So, the much hoped for brand new, exciting new year still has to happen, it seems. Still (sort of) out of a job, aching leg and nothing to watch on TV. I have scheduled to take a new course this April, learning new skills and maybe see if I can turn things around a bit. Only time will tell...

My latest dōjinshi catch featured some items that were on my wishlist for a while, but turned out not to be particularly exciting, in the end. I'm still not sure if I'll end up reviewing them, to be honest.
One discovery that didn't disappoint, however, is パコキリン, the dōjin circle of a certain Suzuki Sanami - who actually turns out to have quite the commercial curriculum too. Might have to pick up some of her stuff...

This time around I got my grubby mitts on ホクサイと飯おかわり, which is an unusually beefy dōjinshi, clocking at 96 pages, including a color insert. The dōjinshi dates from about four years ago, but it already shows the distinctive style that Suzuki displays in her illustration work as well. She has a thick, vibrant line work that I really dig. It doesn't get as messy as with some other artists, and it always remains readable and well laid out on the page.

As one could guess from the cover, the theme is food. The protagonist, clearly a self insert, is a mangaka with a penchant for getting into food-related trouble; be it the search for more, or the search for a way to get rid of those extra few kilos... she often drags her assistants into her hijinks too. There is a particularly funny story about how a session of late-night jogging turns into a hunt for a most elusive dish, created by combining the most unlikely assembly of konbini purchased goods...

And yes, recipes are included. This one was a real fun discovery, and I'll be looking to buy more of Suzuki's output, be it commercial or dōjin.

The Favorite One by Chico

Very short review post because I have very little left to review (my finances are not exactly great at the moment), and because I actually have very little info on this dōjinshi - it doesn't display any info but the circle's name (no date, no web media, absolutely nothing), and it's one of those impulse purchases entirely based on an eye-catching cover. Eye-catching for me, at least...

The circle's name is Chico and, unlike what one might expect for the very industrial-looking cover, this is actually a shojo illustration book. Very short, only 12 pages, but it's full color and al images are A4 size. Chico's illustration style is extremely plain, using very Steins;Gate-ish color palettes which I happen to really enjoy. I wish I could peruse more from this circle, but it seems as if they have no internet presence at all. Not even one of those broken Japanese blogs even the smallest, defunct
circles seem to have. What a shame...

As far as I know, Chico produced only one more dōjinshi (Constellation), and a participation in a dōjin anthology. Only the former is still available, I might snag it if I find it for a suitable price.

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.

おたまと影の変態記3 by あびゅうきょ

In spite of its deceptive title, あびゅうきょ's omnibus おたまと影の変態記3 has very little hentai within, especially if compared with the artist's more extreme (and, fortunately, progressively rarer) forays into futanari and such. The 2015's meaty book (134 pages, B&W as usual) instead features a variety of short works, commentary, sketches and stories that don't neatly fit into あびゅうきょ's usual themes - military technologies and extreme jailbait porn. All in all, this is for the best: unlike his usual offerings, which can be really hit and miss depending whether you buy into his otaku-like obsessions and his peculiar, detailed yet deformed art style, this omnibus displays a variety of different styles ad themes, which don' necessarily make this book for everyone, but at least broaden the appeal a bit.

There are, of course, あびゅうきょ's trademark scantily-clad nymphets, but the collection also includes some hilarious Evangelion fan-art (given the artist's usual topics, I'm surprised he hasn't produced more); a short manga featuring an anthropomorphic cat who, for once, doesn't engage in lewd acts (yes, あびゅうきょ has produced quite a few anthro-futanari dōjinshi); and a few illustrations drawn in a different, distinctive style that, while still entirely his, clearly shows that あびゅうきょ hasn't merely pulled his many retro references and visual cues out of a hat.

There are few flaws with おたまと影の変態記3, one of them being that, as it often happens with あびゅうきょ's works, some pages are so overloaded with images, vignettes, side doodles and handwritten text, they become literally impossible to parse. There are also some anatomical imprecisions (including あびゅうきょ's trademark stocky proportions, but those by now are more part of his style than anything). These are, as usual, trifles if you happen to enjoy this artist's anarchic visual world, as I happen to. This collection is probably a good entry point into あびゅうきょ's world, especially if you're not interested into extreme fetishes or military paraphernalia.

As a footnote: for some mysterious reason (probably hidden in あびゅうきょ's atrocious handwriting) there are quite a few color pages at the end of the book dedicated to gag manga by a certain 森野優樹 whom I never heard of before. They are incongruous and forgettable, and they can all be seen on the artist's Pixiv regardless.

AKAZUKINCHAN あかずきんちゃん 増刷版!! by モクタン / TOEKOMST by Ward

Yes yes, long time since my last update (save a farewell post I regretted pretty quick). One of the reasons is that my purchase schedule had become quite erratic, so I had very little material to actually review. Fortunately, I might FINALLY actually have a day job soon, so I might be able to indulge once again in what's pretty much my only vice - buying doujin.

For now, quick reviews of two standouts I bought recently. The first one is AKAZUKINCHAN by モクタン, member (along with fellow artist Sei Umehara) of the circle Wonderworld Studio. As one can see from the circle's web site, Wonderworld Studio is all about stylish, high contrast visual work, both in manga form, and of the purely illustrative variety (including some professional output). I actually strongly suggest checking out the web site, since (unusual for doujin artists) there is a lot of freely available material there.

AKAZUKINCHAN, as the title suggests, is a modern retelling of the well known Red Riding Hood fable, where the titular girl becomes a busy big city errand girl, and the wolf a metropolitan hipster. I personally never cared much for fables and retellings of them, so I was in it merely for the visual aspect, which is nothing short of stunning: モクタン has an amazing eye for design, and actually uses to their advantage the powerful constrasts that black and white can create. His style reminded me, at times, of big names like Kumeta, or Sayman. Definitely an artist to keep an eye on, if you're into very anti-moe, contemporary stuff.

Another standout purchase was one of my favorite kinds of doujinshi, a multi-artist illustration collection - the weirdly titled TOEKOMST ('future' in Dutch, or so Google tells me), which packs into a mere 24 color pages no less than nine (!) artists: Ward, Marthe, Tonomura, Tetsuya, Dan, Kaji, Tuchiyama, Wawon. Unfortunately, and this is big peeve of mine with some doujinshi, there is no bio or info page for any of the artists, who also have such commonplace names that it took some supreme Google-fu to track down some info on them (on a Deviantart page, of all places! feel free to explore).

Some of the artists, like the Japan residents Marthe and Ward, actually have some pretty high profile professional work under their belt, a recognition they definitely deserve. The art book in general is of a fairly high quality, to the point that none of the artists really stand out as a weak link: from Tetsuya's mechanical sci-fi concept art, to Tsuchiyama's tongue in cheek moepunk, every one of them manages to grab one's attention in spite of having only three pages or less to themselves. I was particularly impressed by Wawon's supremely intricate art style, so warm and glowy it almost approached traditional media.

平均律の《空》の本 by 平均律 / map03 仮面の街の昼と夜 by 丸紅アパートメンツ

Double review this time, and an overdue one too. Thanks to the recent Alitalia fiasco, and the usual incompetence by those... ahem, fine folk at SDA, I had my latest purchases stuck in limbo for what seemed like forever. And they'd been sent by priority shipping too! Anyway, better late than never, so here go my impressions on yet another Heikinritsu from the past, as well as the most recent dōjinshi by one of my most recent favorites, 丸紅アパートメンツ (Malbeni Apartments).

Heikinritsu's own site presents 平均律の《空》の本 (literally 'Heikinritsu's 'Sky' Book) as a 'collection of sky themed illustrations. Which is kind of true, I guess, as there is a sky in each full page (sometimes double spread) illustration. Still, as always, the real focus of the artist is on his trademark petite bishōjo, whom he places in a variety of landscape that always feature a sky, be it a summer blue one, or a fiery one at dusk.

Hailing from 2003, 平均律の《空》の本 is still an 'early work' of sorts, and displays some of the anatomical uncertainties I had seen, for example, in アルミ、クラフト、ポリプロピレン. Still, his eye for color and composition is amazing as always, and there are already hints of that attention towards abstraction that he will further develop in later dōjinshi. All in all a very nice, albeit short treat, and another one off the list of Heikinritsu back catalog.

My impulse purchase for the month was map03 by 丸紅アパートメンツ, an excellent artist I had recently spotted while browsing through Japan's side of Pinterest; I was particularly captivated by her amazing color illustrations of surreal, you guessed it, apartment scenes.

map03, however, is actually a fairly thick (66 pages) b&w manga, which ostensibly narrate the author's own trip to the city of Venice, and the happenings and mishaps therein. I'll be honest, the tract loses out a bit by the absence of color; nonetheless, the vistas, the paneling and, of course, the theme reminded me quite a bit of something like Aria, which it also resembles in the way it mixes travelogue with surreal imagery. To 丸紅's credit, I have to say that her grasp of anatomy and perspective is actually better than Amano's...

So, another small haul that got into my mitts two dōjinshi worthy of attention. Sadly, at least according to the artist's site, map03 is currently sold out, so managing to find a copy might be tricky.

'Memory Hole' on Patreon

While waiting for the next batch... I am now on Patreon! My writing, including my latest work 'Memory Hole', is available as a serial for minimal pledge amounts. Love me? read, share, support. Especially share, which is just as valuable as monetary support at this stage of my writing career.

DAWN by みけねこりんご / 幻想探行記 by ゆずりんご

Two reviews for one this time around, mostly because these two artbooks are both very, very flimsy... 16 and 20 pages respectively. As an added bonus, both circles have りんご in their names, though unrelated - at least as far as I could tell...

DAWN by みけねこりんご(the circle name of うろこ) published 2009 is, as mentioned, a fairly thin artbook, but one that visually packs a punch. While the artist has been recently dedicating their craft almost exclusively to Danganronpa fan art, DAWN is simply a full color collection of unrelated illustrations, where thematically the lion's share is taken by armed and dangerous bishōjo of all varieties.

While there might not be much variety as far as subject matter goes, the artist definitely displays a strong sense of both color and composition, developing complex color palettes that enhances the curvy, wavy qualities of their pinups. An unusual amount of attention is also paid to backgrounds. Such a shame that, as far as I could gather, the circle hasn't published a thing since 2013 outside of occasional Pixiv updates and Danganronpa fanart.

The other collection of illustrations I picked up in my last shipment is 幻想探行記 by ゆずりんご, published in 2009. While there seems to be a single artist behind the Yuzuringo name, the dōjinshi actually goes through three or so quite different visual and thematic styles, ranging from slick digital illustrations and pinups in a clear manga inspired vein, to items that display a closer affinity for traditional art.

While, as usual, I am left wishing that both dōjinshi simply had a higher word count, DAWN and 幻想探行記 were overall two very different, yet worthy additions to my collection of illustration works from little known artists. Next time, yet another Heikinritsu from the past, and a whole new, very interesting artist...

SAVOYA by サボテリアン

Through one of NHK's typically incomprehensible mazes of reruns and chronological chopping, it seems as if my favorite show, At Home with Venetia in Kyoto, is still running - there were at least two seasonal specials filmed in 2017. Even the reruns are amazing; that woman lives exactly the kind of life I would like to lead, if I had the financial security I currently don't possess.

I started with this little side comment because the dōjinshi I'm reviewing this time is probably the farthest one can get from... well, anything sunny and countryside-ish slice of life-y. Among my most recent purchases was yet another dōjinshi I bought on its cover alone - an illustration collection by a certain SAVOYA, whom I never heard of before.

B5, B&W, 36 page, and I'm pretty sure it's not Reimu on the cover. Inexplicably, SAVOYA is actually another name - seemingly used only for this publication - of illustrator サボテリアン (Saboterian), who actually has a web site and a Pixiv page to their name, and whose work was featured in a Pokémon themed anothology a while ago. The illustrations featured here are all original work which is partly germane to this dōjinshi, and partly appears in color on the Pixiv page linked above.

Stylistically speaking, the visual coordinates of SAVOYA's art are fairly clear: there is a bit of that 'scary kawaii' aesthetics a la Murakami, but mostly we are in Ueda Hajime and Dowman Sayman territory, from which SAVOYA borrows the extremely dynamic compositions, the willowy and often abstract body anatomy, and the sketch-like quality of the tract. While, as mentioned, some of the originals (linked here) are in color, often the compositions work just as well - sometimes even better - in B&W.

Thematically, we are in rather extreme, sometimes borderline guro territory. We range from exploding shoujo to monster avatars, through a facial of raining testicles (yes, that too). As often happens in these cases, the vile subject matter is redeemed by SAVOYA's skillful use of composition and line, which sublimates the body horror into a compelling visual which works as design as much as illustration. Though the stylistic coordinates are very different, SAVOYA's work reminded me somewhat of Nedlog's.

Overall, a little quirky surprise whose subject matter might not be to everyone's taste but that, at least visually, is sure to make an impression.