Are we seriously at the end of the year? This means I have to think about who my favorite characters of the year are going to be. In the meantime, I’m also feeling the pain of denying personal purchases due to import tariffs. Will I ever get that Soul of Chogokin Shinkalion?
Of course, that’s small potatoes compared to the hardships other people have had to face in this economy, and I feel very lucky I can even complain like this in the first place. I hope that on top of people having enough to eat and roofs over their heads, that the arts can provide comfort and joy in tough times. To all artists, writers, and other creative types: Don’t underestimate yourself.
Thank you to my patreon members. May you enjoy the holidays, no matter where you are.
The print edition of Spotted Flower Chapter 50 is out [and so is the digital edition now!]. There will be one more print chapter and then two digital ones after this, due to Rakuen: Le Paradisending.
Rakuen: Le Paradis, the manga magazine that runs Spotted Flower by Kio Shimoku, announced that it will be ending in February with its 50th issue, with its web supplements going to March. While nothing is definite forSpotted Flower, the chances of it allso ending then are pretty high.
Rakuen has been a truly unorthodox publication. Rather than running weekly or even monthly, issues are released every quarter. The content is intended for mature readers, but that idea really runs the gamut. It’s been home to sexually charged adult dramas such as Spotted Flower, but also visually experimental works from panpanya (Guyabano Holiday), fetish territory like that of Kurosaki Rendou, and even gentle high school romances. In terms of different demographics as genres, Rakuen really defies easy categorization.
I hope that a spiritual successor emerges in some form. Just having something that takes the idea of “adult manga” and embraces all possible definitions of the idea was a real breath of fresh air.
It’s anniversary month for the blog again! I’m mentioning it here in the hopes that I don’t forget to write a milestone post in time (like I did a few times in recent years).
I’ve also been enjoying the new anime season. I feel conflicted about Tojima Tonzaburo Wants to Be a Kamen Rider, though. Great show so far, but as a big fan of Shibata Yokusaru’s previous work 81 Diver, the anime art isn’t ugly enough to capture his full power. I’ll still probably keep watching it, though.
As for the Patreon, here are my sponsors for the month. Many thanks to them all.
Also, V4Mirai’s DJing, retro game–loving VTuber turns out to be a Genshiken fan. Check the video!
Closing
I have been considering doing Patreon-exclusive or at least early previews/rough drafts of posts on Patreon. Is that something readers would be interested in?
PS: People shouldn’t go hungry because the powerful want to escape accountability.
Kio drew a short comic about one of the model kits from the 1/00 scale Volks Super Modeling Series: Daccas the Black Knight from The Five Star Stories.
At first, Kio talked about how it feels like he was doing nothing, and all of a sudden the release date of the adult video adaptation of Zenbu Sensei no Sei. 2. is almost out. But then he realized that he was definitely not “doing nothing,” and was drawing a manuscript, doing research for it, revising it, and even scrapping the whole thing sometimes. (NSFW)
He also made a drawing of his own replicating the ad for Zenbu Sensei no Sei. 2. There’s currently a sale going for both the prequel and the new stuff until November 23. It’s also available on DVD.
Back in 2019, manga artist Kotoyama was just coming off of his snack-themed comedy series, Dagashi Kashi. So when a new series of his launched, I wondered what it would be like. Would it also be a kind of silly comedy fueled by character interactions related to a specific gimmick and a dash of romance? Or would it be something more standard for a shounen manga, with superpowers and greater drama?
The answer turned out to be “Yes, and also yes.”
Call of the Night (Yofukashi no Uta in Japanese) is the story of Yamori Ko, a boy who has stopped going to middle school and is suffering from insomnia. One night, he decides to leave his apartment to see what his town is like around in the late hours. There, he encounters an eccentric girl named Nanakusa Nazuna, who seems older than she looks, and offers to help him sleep. Ko agrees to try out her services, but soon discovers that she’s actually a vampire. Rather than being scared for his life, however, he gets an idea: If life right now sucks, why not become a vampire? The only problem: In order to turn, one must fall in love with the vampire first, and Ko has no idea what love is supposed to feel like.
Unlike the eight-volume Dagashi Kashi, which is largely short and episodic vignettes, Call of the Night has a serial narrative over a whopping 20 volumes. The relationship between Ko and Nazuna somewhat resembles the dynamic between Kokonotsu and Hotaru in Dagashi Kashi, but it’s really its own thing—a dynamic geared towards momentum and development, rather than stasis.
While Call of the Night initially feels it can go on forever at a pace reminiscent of another favorite series in Mysterious Girlfriend X, it then proceeds to break its own “rules” time and again. As it adds interesting twists and wrinkles to its story, the manga achieves a nice balance between genres and the emotions it invokes. Because the series keeps adding ingredients and formulating new recipes in itself, I find it to be a very Shounen Sunday manga. This is historically the magazine of Touch!, Inuyasha, Detective Conan, etc., and Call of the Night feels like it exists in the space between these and other iconic Sunday series.
The everyday hijinks make way for a genuine friendship, and the answer to whether it will turn into romantic love always feels like it’s right around the corner yet also somehow far in the distance. And as the story progresses, the cast of characters expands and details about how vampires like (and unlike) Nazuna move through human society help to expand the world and create new stakes. There are even some supernatural brawls straight out of a battle manga. And through all these events, Call of the Night still manages to feel grounded and low-key, and also still tapped into that initial malaise that plagues Ko.
Silly yet serious, simple yet full of intriguing little complexities—Call of the Night is worth a read. I think it has something even for those who aren’t fans of vampires and the supernatural. It’s ultimately the story of a boy and a girl who come from very different circumstances who find common ground in the late evening hours, and the world that unfolds before them.
PS: It really is awesome that the anime version got the ending theme to be its namesake, “Yofukashi no Uta” by Creepy Nuts.
Mono Monet, a VTuber from the agency V4Mirai, recently revealed herself to be a Genshiken fan.
What’s more, I was directly involved in this reveal! During a chat about a different topic, I was specifically called out by Mono for having “Ogiue” in my name. It spurred her on to start talking about the series, and the possibility of doing a Genshiken watchalong at some point.
This is the second time I’ve seen a VTuber explicitly express a fondness for Kio Shimoku’s title. (The first was when FUWAMOCO from hololive sang “Kujibiki Unbalance.”)
The above clip is over 20 minutes long because Mono talks about not just her love of Genshiken itself, but also Evangelion and what she looks for in fiction. It’s quite interesting overall, and Mono is just full of good takes, particularly when it comes to the appeal of flawed and messy characters.
I feel like I’ll never be used to this, but another one of my favorite creators has left us. Kasai Sui, author of the historical fiction manga Giséle Alain, passed away on September 12.
With a drawing style reminiscent of Mori Kaoru (A Bride’s Story, Emma) and Miura Kentaro (Berserk), Kasai’s art was stunningly gorgeous, and really captured that Harta Comix style. Giséle Alain follows a young and wealthy tomboy by the same name who opens her own “all trades” business taking care of odd jobs, and it is one of the best manga I’ve ever read. The art is simply gorgeous, with character expressive and lovingly rendered—particularly when it comes to Giséle herself. The period clothing, architecture, and little details are some of the best I’ve ever seen in manga. The story, told through the little adventures of our heroine and eventually her complex relationship with her own past, is something that drew me in deeper and deeper.
Giséle Alain ran for five volumes before going on hiatus in 2014. I was looking through the archives of this blog, sure I had posted something about it over the years, and I was shocked to discover that I had not devoted a single post to this series. I think a part of me was still holding out hope that Giséle Alain would return, and that I would be able to write about Kasai’s work then. Alas, I guess this is my review now: Go read the manga if you can.
I didn’t follow Kasai closely, and I kind of regret that now. For one thing, I never quite realized that Giséle Alain stopped serialization because the author had become ill. Nor did I know that they had a wife who is also a manga artist. I also wasn’t aware that Kasai had opened a Pixiv Fanbox, and had been posting to it off and on for the past six years, and I wish I could have been supporting them this whole time. During this time, Kasai’s output fluctuated a lot (I assume due to health issues), but their art remained incredible. They even tabled at Comitia last year! A part of me wants to take up drawing again, being faced with the mortality of an artist whose work I adored, especially because they were close to my own age.
News articles have also revealed that an extra Giséle Alain story was actually in the works and close to completion before Kasai died. The author had tweeted innocuously just four days prior, and it seems like everyone assumed this was going to be her triumphant (albeit limited) return. I really hope we get to see this extra story, even if it’s in disorganized pieces.
Kasai’s Fanbox is going to close paid subscriptions after October 31. Visiting it is a great and convenient way to see the work of a master.
I need to say it: I’ve been worried about the world. We’re seeing government silencing of creative expression, bullying and pressure to silence video games and other artistic projects by credit card companies and payment processors, and a media engine that seems obsessed with trying to convince everyone that red is blue and up is down. It reminds me of every time an overblown hype machine tries to convince us that NFTs or generative AI are the future, except it’s targeting big organizations and regular people who haven’t been paying attention for the past 15 years to a fascist propaganda machine.
I feel some relief that people managed to push back against the attempts to censorship, but also some disgust over the way organizations and companies with real money and power are so ready to capitulate. Having so much influence should make you geared to fight back, not bend the knee.
A new anime season is starting this month, and I hope I can enjoy it.
As for the Patreon, here are my sponsors for the month. Many thanks to them all.
This month, I’m going to be doing a lot of fun things not necessarily related to anime and manga. I’m thinking about whether to write about them for the blog, but leaning heavily towards “yes.”
Sounds like Chapter 50 of Spotted Flower will have a hell of a finale. It’s not clear whether this means the end of the series, or it’s just the final scene of the chapter that’s a big deal.
Different stores in Japan have different purchase bonuses for Volume 8 of Spotted Flower! Almost all of them are basically different girls in skimpy swimsuits.
It also seems like Kio will be including something like a doujinshi with Volume 8.
There will be a live action adaptation of Kio’s erotic doujinshi sequel, It’s All Your Fault, Sensei.2. Here’s an NSFW tweet with a barely censored picture of the actors.
While visiting Obata Castle in Ibaraki Prefecture, Kio heard a loud roar coming from the south. Then he remembered that the JSDF’s Hyakuri Base is there.
OGIUE MANIAX 