The start of October means a new anime season, and there’s a lot of new shows I’m looking forward to. My main concern is having enough time for all of them. We’ve got manga adaptations I’m looking forward to like Shy, MF Ghost, Under Ninja, Migi and Dali, and Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer in Orange. Then there’s not one but two rap/hip hop battle shows in Hypnosis Mic season 2 and Paradox Live. And then Otona no Precure, the first sequel to feature past Precures as adults! For those who might be feeling tired of isekai, I think this season is gonna be one to remember—and even if you love isekai a ton, there’s still plenty to go around.
Thank you to my October Patreon subscribers below!
Kio kind of wings it with the color, but thinks that the work wouldn’t be that different even in B&W. Kio likes the color palette in Star Wars in general.
Kio mentions that this Jedi is not to be confused with this girl from Kio’s 18+ doujinshi. However, he realizes that he might have certain preferences when the characters he came up with in 2010 and 2022 are so similar.
Ogiue and Ohno might technically fall under this category too. Kio includes an old drawing of Ohno cosplaying Leina from Queen’s Blade and asking Ogiue to cosplay as Leina’s little sister Elina. This is a voice actor joke because the original Ohno (Kawasumi Ayako) voiced Leina and the original Ogiue (Mizuhashi Kaori) voiced Elina.
After seeing a weather report that the temperature is going to be 35 degrees C (95 degrees F) after a typhoon, Kio is reminded of a line about becoming accustomed to torture.
Kio got through 70 pages of his eromanga manuscript, but then wasn’t sure of a certain part and ultimately decided to put in twice as much effort and drew the whole thing.
In response to the passing of Terasawa Buichi (author of Space Adventure Cobra), Kio describes Cobra as an accumulated mass of sense. (That sense seems to mean like an artistic/aesthetic/creative sense.)
Kio took a lot at the author Shima Tokio’s 18+ doujinshi, and was not only surprised at a development that happens in the middle, but that Shima would have the time to draw this on top of working on a serialized manga.
Kio read a comic drawn by Nagata Reiji, a person who left being a surgeon to become a manga artist, about that very experience. Nagata was apparently also serialized in Afternoon, and Kio decided to buy one of his manga.
9月22日（金）からTSUTAYAにて『げんしけん』POP UP SHOPの開催が決定いたしました！ 新作グッズの販売や記念ノベルティなど盛り沢山！！
Kio has been meaning to tweet about the Genshiken pop-up shop at all TSUTAYA stores (that began on September 22nd) but kept forgetting to do so. (Check out the replies as well for lots of Kio thanking very excited fans.)
A tweet about the start of the Genshiken pop-up shop event, with Kio retweeting and responding to various photos taken by fans of the displays, including those lamenting items being sold out.
I’m happy and grateful that the full Hi Score Girl manga series by Otoi Rekomaru is out in English. It’s one of those manga where, once upon a time, a US release would have been a pipe dream. A nostalgic nerd love story premised around Street Fighter II and the 90s Japan arcade scene? As significant as that era was in Japanese gaming history, it’s a niche among niches. And yet, here we are.
I first discovered the series eight years ago, and was immediately won over by two things. First, there was the eccentric nature of its main duo: the obnoxiously loud gamer kid Haruo and his friend/rival/love interest, the reticent and rampaging Akira. They initially meet at an arcade and feud over a Guile vs. Zangief matchup, and though they never stop butting heads, it’s silly and sweet how they essentially communicate through gaming. That’s not metaphorical either; Akira pretty much never talks. Second, the portrayal of the 90s games and the way Haruo based his very outlook on life on them could have only come from a genuine place. Otherwise, jokes like “messing up the secret select code for Akuma” and “Akira having sympathy for big grappler characters because she feels bad about how little they get chosen” wouldn’t land so well.
The characters age over the course of the 11 volumes, going from elementary to high school and growing alongside the rapid developments in gaming technology. Their transition into adulthood is concurrent with continuous upgrades to Street Fighter II, the advent of 3D fighting games like Virtua Fighter, and so on. A nice narrative device to be sure, but it’s actually surprising seeing how much Haruo actually matures as he comes to understand responsibility in his own way. He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but his convictions are real.
Hi Score Girl reminds me a lot of one of my all-time favorites, 81 Diver. The art is similarly rough, and the core relationship is as much a rivalry as it is a love story (if not moreso). That’s actually pretty rare in manga focused on het romance, and is usually the domain of fujoshi-adjacent works. But it’s convincing here because of how Otoi portrays the genuine desire for connection, and the way that gap is bridged through gaming. Sure, the premise of a boy meeting an ultra rich mega gamer girl is unrealistic in many ways, but the portrayal makes me want to believe in their love.
In addition to the authenticity of the passion for fighting games, I think what ultimately makes Hi Score Girl work is that while Haruo kind of exists primarily in his gaming-obsessed mental space, the life lessons he draws from games are ultimately his own. He’s a guy with an imaginary friend who gives him pep talks and acts as his conscience, and that friend is often just Guile. Haruo and Akira imbue greater meaning into games, and the games reciprocate by providing them the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, the comfort of friendship, and the joy of love.
I don’t know if it’s the record heat waves or just the sheer amount of things going in life, but the summer has felt incredibly long. But now that it’s the final stretch, I’m sure I’ll be missing it soon enough.
During this time, I also managed to watch both Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider, so expect some reviews of those sooner than later. In the meantime, I’d also like to mourn the loss of gfycat, which provided many a useful moving record for both mirth and study. I didn’t use the site much for Ogiue Maniax, but I have been updating a few posts here and there.
September Patreon subscribers! Thank you to the following—
A post about the new Hololive dog twins and their preferred name pronunciations.
Kio Shimoku
Kio mostly talks about Elden Ring, but also, check out that high-resolution Ogiue art!
Closing
I watched the Hololive Summer 2023 concert, and it was a blast. There were some issues with the viewing platform that ended up with the entire Day 1 concert being streamed for free on Youtube for the next month, and I’m thankful for that because it meant being able to easily watch Holotori strut their stuff over and over. The fact that Day 2 has holoX’s performance of their new song, “Labyrinthine Labyrinth,” as part of the free preview makes me feel like I won a small lottery again. I also highly recommend checking out the last song in the Day 2 preview, especially those who love 80s anime.
And now Hololive Myth 3rd Anniversary is coming up! It’s amazing to reflect on how much time has passed, and how directly it’s tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. No, I will never forget about that.
This month, Kio mostly talks about Elden Ring. But we also get to see a high-quality version of one of the best covers he ever drew (no bias from me, clearly).
Even after 100 hours, Kio is having trouble in Elden Ring. In many places, he feels that he would never have been able to figure things out without strategy guides. (Forgive me for not translating this in greater detail.)
Kio keeps seeing figures and illustrations from Elden Ring but for the most part has no idea who anyone is, seeing as he’s only played 16% of the game.
Reflecting on his time with a much older FromSoftware game, King’s Field II, Kio recalls his experience. Despite the fact that it wasn’t really “open world,” finding out how one area of the game connects to another was very exciting.
There was a remix of AKIRA music playing at the gallery, and Kio wondered where it came from. Turns out that it was new arrangements done for the gallery. Kio wants a CD of it.
High-quality version of the cover to Genshiken Volume 6, as well as just the art of Ogiue. Needless to say, I love this cover and volume to death. Also check the thread to see lots of people posting their copies (and variations).
After the whirlwind that was July, I’m genuinely glad that things are slowing down for me. That said, I’ll be writing and posting my review of Otakon 2023 (as well as three guest interviews), so while I physically won’t be doing a lot, I’m still gonna have to hunker down and do some serious blogging.
Hopefully, you’ll all enjoy what I have to offer.
Thanks to all my Patreon subscribers. I hope you’re doing okay in this weather.
I stopped putting my little messages at the end of my posts asking people to check out my Patreon, thinking that it was probably annoying people more than anything. Would readers mind if I included it again?
Kio attended a live screening of the newest How Do You Like Wednesday?, which included people from the cast. It was a fun and unusual experience. He did not attend in Ikebukuro.
Kio made these Madarame drawings as part of a special collaboration with the series Love-yan, which features a protagonist who resembles Madarame. Kio also vaguely denies knowing about the Rocking Spark attack from Ultraman and how similar it looks to Madarame’s pose.
Kio recalls how tough it was to live on the top floor (6th) of a building because of how hot it got in the summer. He tells fellow manga creator Kusada to take care of himself amid some very high temperatures.
The first tweet states that really good artists can draw Image B, where the frame is mostly taken up by the left leg. Kio says that he tries to draw B but can only really do A.
Kio has played Elden Ring for over 50 hours and is over Level 50, but only just reached Limgrave.
He can’t get the timing for rolling and such down, and while he played King’s Field, he hasn’t played later FromSoftware games aside from Shadow Tower and Dark Souls.
This past week, the Gaogaigar 25th Anniversary Exhibition in Japan featured a surprise announcement: A new entry in the Brave Series has been greenlit! Brave Universe Sworgrader is heading our way, albeit with a caveat. Unlike all its anime-based predecessors, it will debut as a web manga.
Sworgrader isn’t totally alone in regards to not coming out the gate as an anime. The sequel to Gaogaigar Final, King of Kings: Gaogaigar vs. Betterman, started off as a web novel series before being adapted into a manga. Other old anime have also received novel-only nostalgic sequels, such as Raijin-oh and even the magical girl title Ojamajo Doremi. One major difference is that Sworgrader is wholly original, though the teaser art and the whole “Brave Universe” thing seems to imply that the previous Brave Robots will somehow be involved—even the shelved sequel that only ever got a spotlight in video games, Baan Gaan.
I do feel a mix of joy and sorrow in all this: It’s great to see Brave franchise make something of a comeback, but also a shame to know how diminished it is compared to its heyday. I suspect that something like a 90s throwback robot toy franchise isn’t going to attract the massive kids market that was tuning into Exkaiser and such thirty years ago (otherwise this would at least be a mobile game). It’ll mostly be banking on the adults who had grown up with the old shows, and merch will probably be premium figures and model kits, as opposed to children’s toys.
That all said, it’s worth pointing out that despite likely having more “Big Friend” appeal than anything else, the main characters are clearly cut from the traditional Brave cloth: They’re kid heroes through and through. So many retro-style series prefer to have characters who are at least in their late teens in order to be more relatable to that older audience, but I kind of admire the creators of Sworgrader for trying to be faithful to the Brave spirit. Gaogaigar really hit its stride once the shackles of toy advertisement were loosened, and Sworgrader is potentially going to be like that from Day One.
In addition to overseeing the entire project, Gaogaigar director Yonetani Yoshitomo is also the lyricist on the main theme for Sworgrader; something he’s had experience doing thanks to Gaogaigar and Betterman. In fact, similar to Sworgrader, Gaogaigar vs. Betterman has “opening” and “ending” themes despite there being no anime. Thetheme will be sung by Tamaki Nami, who got her debut in anime singing the fourth and final Gundam SEED opening, “Believe.” All this takes me back to my very first time in Japan in 2005: a year when Gaogaigar: Grand Glorious Gathering was on TV, and I could hear Tamaki’s SEED openings while in the supermarket.
And while I believe a Sworgrader anime will have some trouble coming to fruition, not all hope is lost: One of the credits on the project is Aono Yuka (Shinkalion Z, Brave Beats) as “Animation Character Designer” as distinct from “Character Designer” Tsunashima Shirou, the artist of the Jinki franchise (talk about another throwback). Similarly, there are separate credits for “Mechanical Design” (Ookawara Kunio, Miyauchi Toshinao) and “Animation Mechanical Design” (Mutaguchi Hiroki) Maybe we’ll see some cool shorts, at the very least?
Whatever form Sworgrader takes, I look forward to seeing its arrival. I will neither automatically love it or hate it, but I do hope it brings joy and excitement to all.
July is a packed month. Not only do I have Otakon at the end of the year, but I’m also in LA this weekend for Anime Expo and to see today the first HololiveEN live concert, Connect the World! Back when tickets became available, I almost missed them entirely, but I got lucky that there was some available after the initial prerelease sale. I fully intend on writing a review of the experience.
I won’t be lying when I say that I’m nervous about attending large events after just getting over COVID a month ago, but I will be masked as much as humanly possible for my sake and others’. I hope everyone else treats others attending these big gatherings with respect and compassion.
Thank you to my Patreon subscribers at the start of this summer season!
I got to conduct an extensive interview with a 20-year veteran of the industry. Tabata goes into detail and working with the late, great Kimura Takahiro.
Anime Expo and Connect the World has many powerful individuals I’m interested in, but Otakon has Iwao Junko: the voice of Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura. Here’s to hoping I can get an interview with her! It would be a dream come true.
Gundam manga artist Tokita Kouichi shares a photo of a first-era Gundam model kit. Kio reacts by saying that the instructions are from before they changed how joints work on Gunpla models.
Kio’s tortoise has been walking quickly around in their home, being hyper. Kio comments that outdoor spaces would be good for it, but the actual outdoor space available right now isn’t all that big, so this is the best he can do right now.
The reason it’s so hyper is because the warm summery weather is affected it as a cold-blooded creature.
Kio visited actual sites from some How Do You Like Wednesday? Specials. The first tweet shows one of 12 bridges featured, and the second is Suigou Sawara Ayame Park.
Kio thanks a fan for sharing a Monthly Newtype video about manga in 2008, the height of one of the host’s teen years. Genshiken and Spotted Flower both get mentioned briefly. (See 23m45s in the video below.)
Kio later tweets about the video separately, commenting that he likes how writer and host Mafia Kajita says that Spotted Flower has had one hell of a development.
As Kio sees artists tweeting about whether they got into Comiket or not, he is working on his (unrelated) erotic doujinshi. He’s been drawing but also cutting content out, so even though he’s drawn 30 pages, it feels like only the beginning.
Working on his new ero doujinshi seems to be an endless task. It includes things like fretting over which erotic sound effects to use, like “guchu” vs “gucho.”
Kio, after getting his ass kicked by the boss Margit in Elden Ring, goes back to drawing ero manga. He likes how he can just skip bosses and explore elsewhere in an open world game.
Kio got through 63 pages of his ero manga manuscript, but is setting it aside to get some of his professional work done. Apparently, the next part is the climax.
OGIUE MANIAX 