Recently, I made a tweet that got over 100,000 likes.
This is not a brag. I had nothing to do with its success, seeing as it was someone else’s words—a famous moment in Twitter history that I was simply sharing.
What actually matters is that it gave me a glimpse into what it’s like to actually go viral on social media, and it made me realize something: Popular People Social Media is a significantly different experience from what the rest of us see.
I’m not famous in any real sense, and I’ve used Twitter mostly to toss ideas into the void—not unlike what I do with this blog. Up until now, the number of notifications I got didn’t matter, and more recently, I’ve mostly been using them to keep up with specific accounts: Kio Shimoku and Haachama for example.
If my social media accounts were always the way my Twitter had been when the above tweet started getting serious attention, it would be nigh-unusable—at least in terms of how I prefer to engage with it.
So what I’m saying is, if you get 100k likes on a regular basis, my condolences. It’s possible that you have a social media manager or something, but if you don’t, then I hope you’re mentally in a good place.
Kio discovers late that there was a Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei talk event and exhibition featuring the anime’s voice actors as well as the author Kumeta Kouji. Tsuchiyan, a person involved with Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’s manuscripts replies to Kio and thanks him. Apparently they’ve met before, back when stuff was original airing.
Kio enjoys a Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei afternoon movie, and plans to watch the evening one as well. (I think this has to do with the SZS exhibit mentioned above?)
A person who is staff for anime radio shows realizes Kio follows her, and gets excited. They’re a big fan of Genshiken. Kio replies that he followed her on Twitter to make sure he doesn’t miss another event like the SZS stuff.
Kio’s ideas for most of the Genshiken LINE stickers, with him asking for suggestions. I asked him if he was planning on having them available internationally, but he said he didn’t even know that was possible.
Kio drew the belly band art for Volume 2 of the manga Oshibana. He’s a fan and retweets the author Shima Tokio’s work quite often. Shima thanks Kio, and Kio mentions really liking the main heroine and wanting to draw her.
Kio got the new Panpanya manga collection, titled Yuriika. He wasn’t able to read the comics in it when they were first being published, but he still take his time and get through them now.
Halfway through Elden Ring. Kio thinks the game is amazing because when you first start out, becoming the Elden Lord seems unthinkable, but as you progress, the notion starts to feel real.
With his work for Rakuen magazine out of the way, Kio concentrates on trying to finish his ero manga manuscript. He originally wanted to get it done and ready to sell by the end of the year.
Kio finally finished the manuscript for his next erotic work, and it turned out to be a whopping 134 pages. Someone likens his output to Ogiue’s, which Kio denies.
Whenever Kio listens to the boss music from the Elden Ring soundtrack, he feels like he makes good progress while working on manga. He’s also 50% through the story but hasn’t fought a lot of the second-half bosses yet.
Kio saw the Japanese animated film TheImaginary, which exceeded his expectations. He couldn’t help but view Rudger and Tot through the eyes of a parent.
There are some surprises with Rudger’s voice, as the character seems to change gender in the movie. [Note: I’m not familiar with the film myself]
Kio talks about the fact that he’s been using Twitter for a few years now, and if it were to go away, he’d probably return to having no internet presence. He also calls “X” a stranger/kid he doesn’t know.
Kio bought a copy of It’s All Your Fault, Sensei. While he normally skips straight to the action, this time, he watched the whole thing and enjoyed it.
He mentions that there are certain limitations to showing internal climaxes in live-action stuff compared to manga.
The Kuma Miko manga is ending, and Kio gives his thoughts. It’s a series where after every chapter is over, he feels a need to express something difficult to say. He’s not sure how he’s going to feel after it concludes, given how many laughs he’s gotten out of the series.
Kio realizes he’s been mixing up the Bastole and the Botune Aura Battlers from Dunbine, despite having both model kits as a kid. He’s not the only one either.
Influential Japanese author Sakemi Ken’ichi passed away on November 7 at age 59. Kio remarked that it was too soon. Sakemi won the 1st Japan Fantasy Novel Award in 1989.
Kio finds himself losing concentration more easily than he used to, and worries that he wouldn’t be able to do a normal serialization like he used to. He follows this by attempting to work at the speed he used to when doing monthly titles and succeeds, but doesn’t know if he could do the same the next day.
Kio saw The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of Gegege. He liked the detail that Kitaro’s dad is actually tall (normally in the series, Kitaro’s dad is only an eyeball on top of a small body.)
After seven years, Kio’s PC is starting to make funny noises. He had it just for making manga, but he’s considering getting something that can handle 3D, and that he can play games on.
I occasionally picture myself old and gray and still writing Ogiue Maniax. You really never know what the future might hold, but tomorrow will be 16 years since I started, and it increasingly feels like that vision might come true.
Blogging this year has been more of a challenge through reasons somewhat beyond my control. I’ve considered reducing my posting schedule further, but I do worry that it’ll put even more pressure on me to make every blog entry some kind of refined masterpiece.
That said, I do think I might be imposing overly high standards on myself. Recently, I was recalling the earliest days of Ogiue Maniax, when I let just about anything escape my brain and end up in a post, and I’ve started to wonder if I should make at least a partial return to those days. I’ve positioned myself as someone with a degree of insight, but maybe I should be more comfortable having some mediocre opinions every now and then.
Funnily enough, what made me think about returning to the basics is the continued and active enshittification of Twitter. Over the past seven years or so, I decided to let my more off-the-cuff thoughts exist on Twitter while I devoted longer form things to the blog, but now that everything is on fire on Twitter, I might very well find myself spit balling right here. I’ve joined some alternatives like Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, but am still unsure of where I’ll land.
Ultimately, what Ogiue Maniax has become is not so much a career or even a life‘s calling, but something much simpler. It’s a place for me to question, be it myself, others, why I feel the way I do. It’s a place for me to anchor my passion. And sometimes it’s work, in a certain sense, but I’m really only beholden to myself and the notion that I can grow by writing. This is a home online I’ve been building for the last 16 years, and each post is another brick. Will I ever be done? Let’s see.
Not much to speak of this month, but I did post this right before Halloween, so there might be something interesting in the next few days (that I’ll be posting in November).
Kio defeated a Gargoyle outside the Bestial Sanctum in Elden Ring, and also is 33% through the story after beating Radahn. At first, he thought it’d be too strong, but managed to pull it off using the Watchdog’s Staff.
Kio wanted to re-read the vale tudo arc of the karate manga Shura no Mon (Asura’s Gate), which made him want to re-read the Showa arc of the similarly named but unrelated manga Shura no Toki (Time of Asura).
When asked if his next manga’s going to be fighting-based, Kio denies it.
Kio saw the movie Undercurrent, and thought it was a really good adaptation of the original.
Kio plans to watch the “Jungle Revenge” special for How Do You Like Wednesdays, but only got four hours of sleep, and is thinking he might doze off partway. Seems like this special is a follow-up to a DVD that was released six years ago.
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.
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).
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.
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 