Mangaka of the Month – Midorikawa Yuki

MIDORIKAWA YUKI

(緑川ゆき)

March

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Pen Name: Midorikawa Yuki (緑川ゆき)

Hometown: Kumamoto, Japan

Date of Birth: 23 May 1976

Her pen name ‘Midori-kawa’ (green river) was given to her by her sister, who named her after one of the rivers in their hometown. It was her older sister who made her start thinking of becoming a manga-ka when she was in middle school. She debuted in 1998 with her one-shot, Coffee Hirari (珈琲ひらり) and won the “Fresh Debut Prize” for the 18^th LaLa Manga Grand Prize (LMG). Her first published story, Akaku Saku Koe (あかく咲く声) received Athena Shinjin Taishou by Hakusensha in 1999. Her most popular series, Natsume Yuujinchou (夏目友人帳), has been adapted into an anime with a forthcoming 3^rd season July this year.

Midorikawa Yuki chose Hakusensha was due to her interest in some of their published works, such as Boku no Chikyuu wo Mamotte (Please Save my Earth)and Doubutsu no Oisha-san (Mr. Veterinarian). Some other works and manga-ka that have influenced her are Shinohara Chie’s Umi no Yami, Tsuki no Kage (Darkness of the Sea, Shadow of the Moon) and Mochizuki Karin.

Mushroom Manga~ Shinkuu Yuusetsu & Kokoro Botan

Hello sweet peas! It feels like ages since I’ve posted something! Arawr suddenly had this blogging-spurt which came out of nowhere. While she took the helm of posting, I’ve been working on the the blog layout as you can see; made a new header and created some gifs which took me AGES(still a newb). I’m trying to fully utilise the trial of my photoshop CS5 before I downgrade and use the ancient CS version(which I hope will be able to achieve 99.8% of the same results with CS5).

I’ve also been slightly pre-occupied with our side-project, Weekend Betsuender – our scanlation team which will debut with a one-shot called Natsu No Kakera by Amano Shinobu. I doubt that we’ll be able to debut soon considering that I’ll be extremely busy with university during the next two weeks.

Announcements aside, here  is my mushroom manga post:

Shinkuu Yuusetsu (真空融接)

Manga-ka: Bikke

Genre: Fantasy, School Life, Shounen Ai, Slice of Life, Romance

In this country, every person has to be matched up with a partner. Partnerships are made around when you turn three or four. The doctors decide who gets paired together. One person acts as the ‘supplier.’ The other as the ‘receiver.’ It is impossible for a ‘receiver’ to continue to live without periodically being given power from the ‘supplier.’ And in the same way, it is imperative for a ‘supplier’ that a ‘receiver’ accept some of the power generated within their body. This ‘power’ can’t be made anywhere other than inside a ‘supplier’s own body… So for the ‘receivers,’ we ‘suppliers’ are completely indispensable….

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I went slightly ga-ga over reading this – correction, I went completely ga-ga. It’s the cutest thing I’ve read in a while though I haven’t been reading that much throughout these few weeks. I believe this is the first time I read something from Be x Boy magazine (or was it Be x Boy Gold?). I’ve seen these magazines constantly in stock in Japan Centre without fail and they cover serialisations in the shoujo, josei, shounen ai, and yaoi genre. So anyway, back to Shinkuu Yuusetsu, this is a terrific manga as a whole regardless of whether it’s shounen ai. It’s a first class piece of work and I’d place it right next to Seven Days – no, actually make that one step above. I really hope this gets licensed because I really need to collect this(not sure whether it ever would since it’s been 4 years since publication. I might have to get the Japanese copy instead).

The story’s concept is what will distinguish this manga from many others of it’s type. It’s an original, and I have never meant that word more than I do with Shinkuu Yuusetsu. If you’re afraid of venturing into shounen ai, this is a chance for you to experience a good one. The first chapter can easily be read as a one-shot. The first couple of pages might seem like a chore to read but it’s all explanation and background information which really in itself is quite interesting. The idea of people relying on each other as ‘supplier’ and ‘receiver’ is genius and the act of kissing to ‘re-charge’ isn’t executed in a gimmicky way just for the reader’s pleasure though I have to say it really is quite cute.

One-Shot for the Weekend – Furou Kyoudai (不老 姉弟)

Furou Kyoudai (不老 姉弟)

Manga-ka: Shiwasu Yuki

Genre: Comedy, Shoujo, Supernatural, School Life

In the bathtub together, in the restroom together…what is the reason these twins can’t be separated even for a moment…?

Published as a one-shot in Hana to Yume October 2009, where it won the 34^th Annual Hakusensha Athena Newcomer Award. It started serializing in Hana to Yume on March 2011.

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First of all, there’s a short version and a long version. It’s basically the same story, but I preferred the long version since it allowed more time for the story to develop.

I also found it a lot more funny =D

It all sounds very incest-y, so if you’re thinking of avoiding this just because you aren’t a fan of that genre… don’t. Don’t avoid it, and don’t run away from it. It’s pretty platonic, actually. If you are a fan of incest, just read this anyway. There’s a lot of sibling love going on to keep you pumped >=)

I’ve been wondering what it was that seemed different about this little twin one-shot, and I think I figured it out – they’re gloomy. As in, both are gloomy. I find that manga that usually have twins in them have them either ultra hyper (i.e. Hikaru and Kaoru from Ouran High), or have opposite personalities (i.e. Rin and Yukio from Ao no Exorcist) or just be there as a sort of background dual-sound system. Gloomy characters are less common as protagonists – gloomy twins even less so. It’s a nice, different take on it. Come to think of it, both of them are kind of like Sawako from Kimi ni Todoke (may chungky smite me).

The supernatural take in Furou Kyoudai isn’t unused, but the sort of angle it takes is quite sweet. And funny. I really liked the humorous lines in this one-shot; it didn’t make me cackle hysterically, but it did give me an enjoyable laugh. A nice sort of laugh to experience after the whole week just devoured your energy like a Zubat spamming leech life.

steamiest bathroom scene eva XD

 

Extra: Best typo of the week!

chungky: it should be better this way right?

arawr: uh…  I dunno

chungky: oh just die and say yes

 

-arawr >=3

Manga-Talk: AKB49 – Renai Kinshi Jourei (恋爱禁止条例)

AKB49 – Renai Kinchi Jourei (恋爱禁止条例)

Author: Motoazabu Factory

Artist: Miyajima Reiji

Genre: Shounen, School Life, Gender Bender, Romance

Urakawa Minoru cross dresses as a girl to participate in a female idol group audition (AKB48). The main objective is to help the girl he likes, Yoshinaga Hiroko, pass the audition. Yoshinaga Hiroko’s dream is to become like her favourite idol who is in the AKB48 group. This audition happens to be her final try, so Minoru crossdresses as Minori and took part in the audition to make sure she realizes her dream.

I don’t quite know how I did it, but when I skimmed over the title I read it as AK47. Then I went through the genres, which was shounen (okay, quite predictable), school life (I suppose semi-auto rifles and high school can go together), gender bender – wait. Hold up. What? What da heck does a gun have to with gender bender? So okay, I go click on it, finally read the title properly and just decided to give it a shot after reading the summary.

Mushroom Manga! Ao no Futsumashi & Saruyama!

Ao no Futsumashi (青の祓魔師)

Manga-ka: Katou Kazue

Genre: Action, Adventure, Shounen, Supernatural, School Life

Satan is the god of demons; but there’s one thing that he doesn’t have, and that’s a substance in the human world that is powerful enough to contain him!
For that purpose he created Rin, his son from a human woman, but will his son agree to his plans? Or will he become something else…? An exorcist?

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What with all these yellow flowers that I’ve never seen before sprouting all over the place recently, I have decided that it is the time for spring. Therefore I am mushrooming one of the manga that have been adapted into anime for this Spring 2011 – Ao no Futsumashi, that most may know as Ao no Exorcist.

A little bit of Asuka 1+2+4/11~

Hello everyone, just a couple of pictures to share from Asuka 1+2+4. Only bits and pieces! I’ll start with Asuka 1 and work my way to Asuka 4. Asuka 1 is the one with Barajou no Kiss on the cover.

Asuka 25th Anniversary Mini Postcards.

This is what it looks like on the back. Scissor marks for you cut them out. They’re really small though, I don’t see what you can do with them besides making them as a bookmark maybe?

One of the best freebies. Asuka’s Calender featuring beautiful illustrations from serialisations of Asuka. It’s March now and it’s Yakumo’s turn. Yes, this is what I wake up to every morning. Pretty illustrations.

Spring 2011 Anime! **Updated

* 18/2/2011 – Well, I say updated but in the end I’m still getting it off moetron lol

** 20/3/2011 – Updated… Again! Same source, you know where it is =)

-arawr >=3

>–<

I might be getting ahead of myself for the next season (haven’t even watched half the anime for this season) but here’s the lineup for the 2011 Spring anime that I stumbled upon from moetron! Oh, just to note it may not be complete =P

Anime Amped! Mahō Shōjo Madoka★Magica (魔法少女まどか★マギカ)

Mahō Shōjo Madoka★Magica (魔法少女まどか★マギカ)

Beloved family, good friends, laughter and tears – these things make up the ordinary life of Kaname Madoka, a second year student of Mitakihara City Middle School. One night, Madoka dreams of a mysterious dark haired girl struggling against a terrible evil; the next morning she discovers that the girl, Akemi Homura, has transferred into her class. This encounter will lead to an incident which will alter Madoka’s fate forever.

Genre: Fantasy, Psychological, Thriller, Tragedy, Magic, School Life

Status: Currently airing, planned for 12 episodes.

Directed by Shinbou Akiyuki, produced by Aniplex, Shaft and Nitroplus. Written by Urobuchi Gen with original character design by Aoki Ume and music by Kajiura Yuki.

Rated PG13 (bloodless violence)

arawr: Okay, I actually looked up the rating and some sites said R17 and others PG13. This isn’t a kid’s show but I don’t think it’s that adult either, so I chose the lower boundary.

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I started watching Madoka Magica under the (very) insistent recommendation of my brother – who I had strongly suspected to have gone mentally deranged back home while I was away – I mean, he was telling me to go watch a mahou shoujo anime. There was no way I was gonna watch some sort of PreCure show – then he started going on about what it really was about. I would say he glorified it a little too much since it didn’t meet the sort of earth shattering impact I thought it would  – but, despite all that I do believe that Madoka Magica is worth the watch for the Winter 2011 anime lineup.

One-Shot of the Weekend: Love-Stalking – End of Summer

*WARNING MATURE CONTENT*

Title: Love Stalking: End of Summer

Author: Hazuki Kanae

Artist: Hazuki Kanae

Genres: Josei, Mature, One Shot, Romance, Smut

Yuki feels stifled in her own home because her parents nag her to study, study, study. When she finally goes off the deep end and sees her parent’s faces as textbooks, you know she just has to get away, right? So at the beginning of summer she leaves a note promising she’ll be back by the next school term, and ends up living with one of her classmates and his older brother for a couple of weeks.

Collected in a tankōbon entitled Love Stalking! The one-shots were serialised in Muteki Renai S*girl magazine.

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Arawr was suppose to post this weekend’s one-shot but the task was inevitably handed to me since she was caught up in some sort of mid-life crisis.

Anyway, let me establish this one-shot contains smut.

There are graphic scenes.

If you’re under 18 please been warned, if you’re scared of graphic nature you’ve been warned too. Please do not skip the mature rating if you know you’re uncomfortable with it.

If you can tolerate mature content but you’ve had bad experiences with them I suggest you read Kazuki Hanae-sensei’s work, she executes her stories really well. Smut manga can have awesome stories too. I don’t think this particular one-shot is ground-breaking but I think it’s still a good one.

I actually went through a couple of opinions about this particular one-shot and it appears it isn’t exactly the favourite among the 4 short stories collected in the tankoubon. Let me tell you why I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed how the storyline isn’t all that predictable(a very subjective word but I’ll still use it^^) and it strayed away from the more mainstream plotlines; I really liked this barely there love triangle. The reader is actually left with some nice ambiguity in the end and I welcome that at all times if it’s done properly and it was.

The heroine went through some obscene acts with a not so likable male character which I didn’t find very appealing. What I did like though, was that she didn’t regret her actions and she stayed true to herself. This isn’t exactly the type of story where you would enjoy having your children aspiring to but I guess that’s smut for you. I personally wouldn’t like the thought of my children getting it on with some random stranger they’ve just met.

I hate to be a little party pooper but I have to add that under-age s** is quite prevalent in our society and as much as I try to avoid that fact I know it’s true and because it’s true it strengthens the manga’s realism. Smut manga always requires a great deal of realism in the story to be a success in my opinion and I think this piece of work achieves that. This is josei and if you do not know what josei is, it’s a genre targeted towards more mature women hence less innocence. I’m not that interested in smut for the sake of fan service.

Last comment:

If you haven’t been following her current ongoing work Suki tte Ii Na Yo/Say “I love you,”(which is also contains smut) you have frankly been missing out! I’d be willing to call it a perfect example of a high school romance manga, it really is that good; you can read more about my opinions here if you’re interested^^.

Rating: 3.7/5

*if there are any errors i’ll fix them later. i need some sleep.

Kamisama Kiss Vol 1

Title: Kamisama Kiss/Kamisama Hajimemashita

Author: Julietta Suzuki

Artist: Julietta Suzuki

Genre: Comedy Fantasy Romance School Life Shoujo Supernatural

Status: Ongoing

Nanami Momozono is alone and homeless after her dad skips town to evade his gambling debts and the debt collectors kick her out of her apartment. So when a man she’s just saved from a dog offers her his home, she jumps at the opportunity. But it turns out that his place is a shrine, and Nanami has unwittingly taken over his job as a local deity!

– ShojoBeat

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Read the sypnosis? Reminds you of something? Yes, there are certainly quite a number of plots that begin with the protagonist been kicked out of their homes and parents running away – how very convenient to start off an adventure. A fantastic formula I say; you get rid of the parents and the relatives, then you’ll have nothing to bind the main character down. They’re free to do whatever they want – such as living with a youkai. Now that’s pretty normal.