Tag Archives: iou kuroda

Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights May 2026

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https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/2050574580306325942

Kio read the first volume of Kuroda Iou’s new manga, Sendou Yasugorou, and loved the realism and sense of tension. (Incidentally, Kuroda is one of my favorite manga artists stylistically, so I gotta check it out!)

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/2050955657168445524

Kio also loves Kuroda’s manga Nasu: Summer in Andalusia, as well as the film based on it. (I didn’t realize the movie was based on a work by Kuroda Iou!)

I’m including some replies to this that I haven’t translated or summarized so I can go back to them once I have proper context.

The sound of Kio’s tortoise walking around is distracting him as he tries to work on a manuscript.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/2052675469255077957

Kio drew supportive fanart for the series Prince Sun Wanna Be a Wife, which is an otoko no ko/femboy series.

A quote tweet of someone who’s correcting a mistaken assumption about an old Animage cover featuring Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service. The erroneous belief is that the cover depicts Kiki three years after the events of the film, but it’s actually supposed to be how she looks and dresses before the events of the film.

Kio recalls reading this issue in middle school, and that it showed how Kiki looks when riding a broom in this outfit.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/2054116994404991321

Kio watched The Sheep Detectives after getting a good impression from the previews. Apparently it’s quite the emotional rollercoaster.

Kio tried Blender for the first time in a long while, and his brain is exhausted.

He watched the new Patlabor EZY File 01, and felt that it was very much a modern-day Yuki Masami series and very Patlabor. Cognizant of the old OVAs, Kio is anticipating some major storylines to develop.

Kio’s tortoise was showing some bravery by stepping outside their home, but quickly came back because it was too cold.

In a Twitter discussion about works people expect might never get a real ending, one title that popped up is Pandora in the Crimson Shell by Shirow Masamune and Koshi Rikudo, which was expected to never conclude but then suddenly came back with a proper conclusion.

In response to the initial tweet, another person talks about how those who criticize Shirow’s works for not having endings do not understand the world of Shirow and the entertainment his manga provide. Kio in turn says that when it comes to incomplete Shirow stuff, he mainly thinks of Appleseed rather than Ghost in the Shell, but that he’s grateful for getting a complete series in the form of Pandora in the Crimson Shell.

Kio makes a pun here, basically saying he feels grateful with all his “ghost,” playing off of the Japanese zenshin zenrei (with all my body and soul) and the idea of the “ghost” as one’s soul/consciousness from Ghost in the Shell.

Kio upgraded to Clip Studio Paint 5.0. He’s normally not so comfortable with new features, but he thinks he might be able to make good use of Smart Shape.

He wants to play Forza Horizon 6.

The Joys of Afternoon and Kuroda Iou

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Recently I found out that Kuroda Iou, creator of Sexy Voice and Robo as well as one of my favorite manga artists, has a new series entitled Atarashii Asa (New Morning) in one of my favorite magazines, Monthly Afternoon. Afternoon was home to Genshiken, and is where Kio Shimoku’s current series about a teenage mom Jigopuri, as well as Mysterious Girlfriend X, are running. Suffice it to say, at this point I am almost, almost tempted to consistently buy Monthly Afternoon even though I understand how much the costs tend to add up after a while.

This got me thinking about why I like Kuroda’s artwork, as it’s a wild style unlike most other artists in the anime and manga industries. If you look at my previous Sexy Voice and Robo review, you can get a good idea of what his drawings entail. He’s detailed but not meticulously so, and his brush usage leans away from the “cleaner” style that is so popular with so many people. Often times his drawings and panels aren’t completely coherent, but I feel like these “mistakes” are part of what make his style so unique. I call them mistakes only in the sense that in the end he did not decide to redraw something so that the thickness of the lines made a little more sense or the proportions of a character’s fingers were more realistic, but ultimately it was a decision, and it’s these decisions of which I am fond.

I’ve mentioned before that his style is pretty much what I wish I had, and it really has to do with conveying a sense of energy that goes beyond “accuracy.” Accuracy has its place in that world, but it is not at the forefront, much to the dismay of people who scrutinize single frames from Naruto episodes. While I don’t think my own style will ever be JUST LIKE his, it’s good to know that he’s still in Japan producing works that hopefully will get brought over to America at some point.

Oh and I found out Jigopuri’s first volume should be out, but that’s it’s not listed on Kinokuniya’s website. Maybe it takes a while for new series to get over there.