indigozeal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
indigozeal) wrote2015-02-17 08:39 pm
indigozeal) wrote2015-02-17 08:39 pm
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Doujinshi update #1
The doujinshi I ordered from Otaku Republic arrived today! It was delivered pretty quickly: the package was sent early Thursday and arrived today, even given the mail holiday. (Note, though, that I had free express shipping thanks to a $50+ order.) The items were wrapped securely and were in great condition. While their prices were a bit steep, I wouldn't hesitate to order again if I saw something I really liked.
And speaing of which:
- The Akari Funato doujinshi, which I was initially going to write off as an extravagant novelty with no material in which I was really interested, was easily the highlight of the lot. I recall in one of her sets of Vheen Hikuusen notes how she lamented that no one ever asked her to put together an artbook. Well, these are her artbooks, apparently. Oversize format, artbook-quality glossy paper for every page, utterly lavish and deep, deep use of color on every full-page piece. Even the works where I'm completely unfamiliar with the source material are just spellbinding due to how gorgeous they are. Plus, there's a two-page spread of an image from that Lunar 2 Lemina novel of child Lemina in the garden of the broken-down guild, and the image totally deserves those two pages, because the color and detail of the garden is just sumptuous. (It's also more proof that Funato's "everything I've done for Lunar is in the PDFs" assertion is bunk.) In other news, I've gotta get that book with the Phantasy Star III piece now.
- The Baten Kaitos doujinshi is well-drawn but deals in a rather broad kind of humor: seeing the cast in goofy character-printed underwear, etc. Not for me. It does, however, boast a short manga set after the ice-statue incident in Wazn (where, if Kalas is a jerk to an ice sculptor - and when isn't Kalas a jerk, really - the sculptor will create an ice statue of him in an unflattering pose) where the other party members are goofing off and showing how they'd pose if they had statues, and Savyna is doing finger guns in her pose, which atones for many sins.
- The Mystic Ark doujin features a bunch of disconnected vignettes and art that's one step above "meh." (It's also kind of short - less than 20 pages, with a good portion in the back dedicated to the artist thank-yous & ads & whatnot.) It pairs Remeer & Felys romantically, which doesn't sit right, because they're an either/or choice of protagonist in the game (whose scenario doesn't really accommodate both of them existing at once) and brother & sister in the manga. It's not done particularly well, but you're surprised to find it done at all, etc. etc.
- ...Which brings us to that Lunar doujinshi. The one where I said it didn't seem the artist was mentally well? ...Yeahhhh. That's gonna deserve its own post. He seems to go back and forth between several styles? Like that guy who drew all those manic cat paintings that're always used to illustrate the progression of schizophrenia? But a few of his styles are actually pretty good, but his main style is kind of inexplicably incompetent? Like, he tries to draw pin-ups of the girls, but he has no idea how to draw breasts? They come out misshapen and kind of clumpy in parts? And everything is sporadically interrupted out of nowhere by these ghoulish demonic faces, because the artist is fighting a losing battle with his personal demons? Also, he seems to be a really big fan of Chō Aniki, because then there's this:
.
And speaing of which:
- The Akari Funato doujinshi, which I was initially going to write off as an extravagant novelty with no material in which I was really interested, was easily the highlight of the lot. I recall in one of her sets of Vheen Hikuusen notes how she lamented that no one ever asked her to put together an artbook. Well, these are her artbooks, apparently. Oversize format, artbook-quality glossy paper for every page, utterly lavish and deep, deep use of color on every full-page piece. Even the works where I'm completely unfamiliar with the source material are just spellbinding due to how gorgeous they are. Plus, there's a two-page spread of an image from that Lunar 2 Lemina novel of child Lemina in the garden of the broken-down guild, and the image totally deserves those two pages, because the color and detail of the garden is just sumptuous. (It's also more proof that Funato's "everything I've done for Lunar is in the PDFs" assertion is bunk.) In other news, I've gotta get that book with the Phantasy Star III piece now.
- The Baten Kaitos doujinshi is well-drawn but deals in a rather broad kind of humor: seeing the cast in goofy character-printed underwear, etc. Not for me. It does, however, boast a short manga set after the ice-statue incident in Wazn (where, if Kalas is a jerk to an ice sculptor - and when isn't Kalas a jerk, really - the sculptor will create an ice statue of him in an unflattering pose) where the other party members are goofing off and showing how they'd pose if they had statues, and Savyna is doing finger guns in her pose, which atones for many sins.
- The Mystic Ark doujin features a bunch of disconnected vignettes and art that's one step above "meh." (It's also kind of short - less than 20 pages, with a good portion in the back dedicated to the artist thank-yous & ads & whatnot.) It pairs Remeer & Felys romantically, which doesn't sit right, because they're an either/or choice of protagonist in the game (whose scenario doesn't really accommodate both of them existing at once) and brother & sister in the manga. It's not done particularly well, but you're surprised to find it done at all, etc. etc.
- ...Which brings us to that Lunar doujinshi. The one where I said it didn't seem the artist was mentally well? ...Yeahhhh. That's gonna deserve its own post. He seems to go back and forth between several styles? Like that guy who drew all those manic cat paintings that're always used to illustrate the progression of schizophrenia? But a few of his styles are actually pretty good, but his main style is kind of inexplicably incompetent? Like, he tries to draw pin-ups of the girls, but he has no idea how to draw breasts? They come out misshapen and kind of clumpy in parts? And everything is sporadically interrupted out of nowhere by these ghoulish demonic faces, because the artist is fighting a losing battle with his personal demons? Also, he seems to be a really big fan of Chō Aniki, because then there's this:
.