insaneneko

New Ameiro Paradox by Netsuke Isaku is out!!! My copy is in the mail and *knocks on wood* should arrive in a week or so. Along with the new Ten Count manga by Sakurai Rihito. I was disappointed by Ten Count volume 3 because it felt gratuitously smutty without enough of the psychological stuff I really enjoyed in the first two volumes, but I’m hoping volume 4 will be good.

Had a laugh listening to an episode of the Guardian Books Podcast because the music editor read Morissey’s new fiction book and it was awful. He called it the worst book he’s ever read. The sex scene he excerpts is….I don’t know if there’s a word for it, the entire scene is really rather repulsive, with an erect cock called a “bulbous salutation.” If you’re wondering, yes, Morissey is the singer Morissey.

So Kekkai Sensen actually ended. It was an okay ending, but I think they should’ve tightened it up to a normal episode length and aired it back with the rest of the episodes. I think it lost a lot by having such a long gap, and I thought it was flabby enough that they could’ve cut stuff out. But at least it didn’t suck. :P

Read some fanfic for the series, though sadly there doesn’t seem to be much. Am gravitating towards Klaus/Leo even though I don’t believe in the pairing at all. I think it’s because I stumbled upon an author, nekokoban, who writes very lovely stories with that pairing.

meminerunt omnia amantes is a longer fic in which Klaus is hit with a curse and there is a bit of angst. The author recently followed up with To Those With Love, which is set after the first fic and has Leo meeting Klaus’s family. Who are charming, if overwhelming. I hope there’s more in this universe. In an unrelated story, Climb Every Mountain, Leo wants to get it on with Klaus and is frustrated. It’s really adorable. Leo’s attempts to get advice and the unwanted advice he does get are just awesome.

Also got into Wincest. I figured I’d dive in one of these days, just hadn’t gotten around to it. Lots of crap, of course. What is killing me is all the alpha/omega fics. They are everywhere in all fandoms, so you hit them constantly. I’ve read a bunch, a handful were actually good* (or at least decent), but a lot of it was just too….icky? I hate the biological determinism and don’t see the point. The Wincest ones I do like tend to be set when they are younger, back when they are with their dad (who, according to fandom, was a terrible father. Is this canon?). So much teenage angst! So much incest angst! With demons, etc. thrown in! Lovely, lovely stuff.

So far my favorite (though a WIP) is Brothers by Sera_Necto23. It’s really fucked up and I assume the characters are nothing like canon, but the author really puts together a world and a dynamic that just works. Also, very dirty. And angsty.

*One “good” alpha/omega fic I came across is a Free! Sousuke/Haru one called Boundary Waters. It’s one where the alpha/omega dynamic comes about from some kind of attack in a war or something. Haru’s rage at the crappiness of a world gone bad and he having drawn the short straw is very well portrayed.

Another Free! Sousuke/Haru fic I thought was very well done was another AU, Artist, Imitate Thyself by orphan_account. Haru is an art student who likes sex very much. He hooks up with Sousuke and continues on as AWB (acquaintances with benefits). It gets serious and quite a bit angsty.

The Natsume Isaku Fan Book arrived, and it was better than I had hoped it would be. It has a bunch of shorts, one that is a x-over in a public bath and more than one from Ameiro Paradox, Doushiyoumonaikeredo, and Tightrope. I guess those because they won the readers favorite awards…I was surprised by Tightrope's ranking, but perhaps the existence of the OVAs helped that one. I enjoyed the other manga artists’ shorts as well. Is it just me, or does Kaori Monchi just make everything seem more perverted? She did one of Tightrope. My favorite has to be Amagure Gido’s short for Doushiyoumonaikeredo. OMG so cute! Kurokawa has to decide whether he wants a drunk (and thus adorably open) but prone to falling asleep Shimano or a sober and tsuntsun but up for sexy times Shimano, and takes a gamble that he can get Shimano *just* drunk enough to be adorable but not drunk enough to just fall asleep.

There are also lots of 4-koma bits and pictures both color and B&W. So pretty! I’m happy to learn that Ameiro Paradox is definitely going to be continuing. I am with the fans in that Doushiyoumonaikeredo and Ameiro Paradox are my favorites.

On my not-so-favorites, I wasn’t that interested in Ayakazri Zoushi and Heart no Kakurega. The former just wasn’t that interesting, and the second…the couple in the first volume was meh, and I am not a fan of series that go from one linked couple to another so I didn’t pick up the second volume.

I finally watched the Tightrope OVA, and…it was so bad. I had really low expectations and was still horrified. My god, the production values were CRAP and Natsume Isaku’s character design does not translate well to anime. Or was it because the production values were so crap that they did a crap job of designing the characters? It was painful to watch, so I skipped around. And WTF was that midi garbage that was supposed to be the opening music? The voice acting was great (man, Ryuunosuke’s “Nao~~” is great), but overall... :P

I’m really worried about my previous order now, over a month overdue. The Fan Book arrived in about a week. Is my package lost? Do I have to reorder all the books in that order? ;_; I want to read volume 2 of Ikasama Memory! GAH.

Yesterday I got a small order from Japan that made me UBER HAPPY. My happiness was slightly diminished when I realized that Castle Mango volume 2 (the final volume!) was out and I hadn't ordered it. But back to the happy stuff...

Ameiro Paradox volume 2 (also final volume!) by Natsume Isaku: LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. Can I say love some more? It keeps the light, humorous touch of the first volume, just with couple-issues (rather than becoming-a-couple issues) as well as the work stuff. Onoe is adorably dorky and you can so see why Kaburagi can't help but be in love. SO CUTE. ( my favorite bits )

Super Lovers volume 5 by Abe Miyuki: Still kinda odd, but now that the twins are truly settled in their roles I feel more comfortable. I still can't get the hang of Haru and Ren's relationship and Haru in general just baffles me, but I can deal. Not *that* fond of the new character introduced in this volume and the developments that come from it. Haru being an overprotective mother hen and total dork never stops being amusing, though. And the commentary from the peanut gallery (everyone else, mostly the twins and the other workers at the cafe) are great.

Silver Diamond volume 25 by Sugiura Shiho: I had previously bought volume 26 but forgot to stick volume 25 into my shopping cart. (My chagrin when I got my box and realized I hadn't ordered 25 was huge. HUGE.) Oooh, man. I love this series so much, and I really want to get my hands on volume 27 (the end!) when it comes out later this month. How much better can it get? It's fantasy with great characters and great friendships, in an interesting world. In the end, though, I love this series because it has heart and the angst/bad-shit isn't overdone. The reveal re: the sanome was pretty awesomely nasty but not over the top, mainly because we see it through the eyes of someone who is uber-repressed at this point. I want to know how it all goes down!

I will have to do a mini-order consisting of SD 27 and Castle Mango 2 for later this month...

I figured I should do a "I LOVE THIS" post because sharing the squee is always a good thing. So...the following are things I love.

Castle Mango volume 1 by Ogura Muku (art) and Konohara Narise (story) is a manga I picked up thanks to wednesday_10_00 and OMG the cute is pure love. It's about a high school student who lives at the love hotel his mother runs (his father had run it until his death) along with his younger brother. They have themed rooms and a porn production decides to use various rooms for their movies. The director is a gay guy and the high school student gets it into his head that the director may have designs on his younger brother. So one night when the director is brought by his co-workers to sleep off major drunkenness the student decides to pretend they've had sex and guilts him into dating him. As a condition he wants the director to stay away from his younger brother. The director is a nice guy and vows to keep his hands off the student until the student is 18, but they do have interactions that bring them closer. Really adorable interactions that mostly emphasize intimacy rather than sex (sex =/ intimacy!). I so look forward to the next book. The student is one of those capable but not emotionally expressive kids, and he has a father complex. He wants to string the director along long enough to protect his younger brother, but finds himself drawn to the director. I worry about Konohara Narise springing a horrible turn of events later on as this series is so far mostly fluffy and sweet, but I'm going to classify my fears as just being a worrywart. Oh yes, and the art is fabulous. ♥

Merry Checker by Suzuki Tsuta is a spin-off of a manga I haven't read, Sangen Tonari no Tooi Hito. It's about a salaryman who runs a BBS-ish site where he writes about other people in a very perceptive and amusing manner. At a RL meet-up he gets to know a popular blogger who everything thought was a high school student (female), but turns out to be a very tall adult man. The story is sweet but not cloying. The salaryman and the blogger are both nice mature guys, dancing around their attraction to each other. The story doesn't fall into a lot of the genre cliches and just makes me feel warm and fuzzy. It is a bit shallow, but I can get behind this kind of shallow. My biggest complaint is that there should be another volume. I want to see them act adult and nice! And dorky with awkwardness and apologetic when they feel like they've hurt/offended the other person! The art is fabulous and the ( last panel of the manga ) is pure gold.

Switching to novels, Sore wa tsumi na anata no sei by Hagino Siro and illustrated by Natsume Isaku is something I reread quite often and had planned on summarizing because I love it so. Unfortunately I've become quite lazy lately (and it is LONG), so I'll just squee about it. It's about a high school student, Saiga, who is dumped by his girlfriend because she's fallen for some awesomely cool looking guy named Natsuki. He is incensed and goes looking for Natsuki to see for himself, and ends up falling down the stairs in front of him. And is confronted by a very good looking and very nice guy. He becomes a bit obsessed and basically stalks him. Except his stalking sucks and he's found out very quickly by Natsuki. They end up hanging out together. Saiga realizes over time that he's fallen for Natsuki, but Natsuki is very very very dense. Natsuki is used to keeping people at a distance because he's so good looking he's had people fawning over him his entire life, but isn't very perceptive when it comes to people he's let close. So Saiga has to make the first move. There is a lot going on in this quite long book (almost 300 pages) because Natsuki is dense and Saiga is spastic (and thus isn't the most efficient at getting what he wants). ( some things I really like about the sex ) Of course, the art is wonderful. Saiga is splendidly spastic in that way Natsume Isaku is very good at portraying in her manga.

Beauty & Ghost by Umino Sachi and illustrated by Isaka Jugoro starts off and ends hilariously. Sato Seiji is a salaryman who doesn't really like his job but feels pressured to do well because he's quite capable and is depended upon (and he's proud). He's even more stressed lately because of a younger employee, Sakaki Kouta, who he doesn't care for and is also quite capable. How does he deal with the stress? He finds kids in a playground and tells them scary stories. He is filled with unholy glee at the look of pure fear on their faces. He learns that Sakaki can't handle scary stories and is again filled with unholy glee telling scary stories to Sakaki and getting that white faced reaction. And get revenge for being a problem in his life. When he pushes Sakaki too far, not letting him cover his ears to avoid hearing any more scary stories, Sakaki shuts him up by kissing him. So cliched! But still so funny to read! The relationship develops over time with Sato being tsundere and Sakaki being one of those puppy-dog types. Very cliched but very funny.

I don't know what to say about Kiraboshi Dial by Natsume Isaku. I like it, but don't love it. It's about a doctor who goes to a small village and meets the very nice villagers and a very odd rich guy who likes to pay everybody for everything. The doctor and the rich guy both have their own problems that come out and are sort of resolved in their interactions. The art is pretty as always (love the not-very-graphic sex scenes as usual), but the story and the characters just didn't sparkle. I didn't find anyone super adorable at any point like I usually do in Natsume-sensei's stuff....

I listened to the cd drama hoping it'd make me love the manga, but I found it lacking. I think this is a story that needs the visuals to make it work. The voice actors were excellent (esp the rich guy!), but they couldn't make up for the fact that I wanted to see what was going on. I felt frustrated more than anything.


( some rather large pics )

I read Natsume Isaku's newest manga Free Punch and wished desperately for more Shimano and Kurokawa. Not that Free Punch sucked or anything. It was cute. The first story is about a very happy and enthusiastic teacher and his very manly yet adorable student. It's really cute, especially when the teacher makes wobbly eyes. And when you learn of the teacher's past (his picture as a teen is priceless!), and his "master!" outbursts. XD;

The second story is about high school dorm roommates. The uke is very nastily aloof. The seme is a normal guy. This is totally Natsume-sensei's thing, and she does it well. I think I liked this one better simply because I like prickly tsundere-ish ukes and the poor semes who love them.

What really excited me, however, was coming across a booklet with a Doushiyoumonai keredo side story about Kurokawa becoming worried at Shimano's increasing popularity with males as well as females. OH, how I love this couple! The cd drama didn't quite do it for me because Shimano's voice felt wrong, but I might give it another chance.

I can't wait to hear Tight-rope's cd drama since I love love love kansai-ben. I hope the voices don't throw me off...

Tight-rope by Natsume Isaku was the perfect salve for a crappy day. Most of the manga is about childhood friends normal guy and son of yakuza. It was extremely conventional and not quite as shiny as Natsume-sensei's other works, but still a pleasant read. Son of yakuza is very fixated on normal guy in a romantic but puppy-dog kind of way. Very been there, done that, but what made me smile is that they all speak kansai-ben. Even the banal sounds just a bit better in kansai-ben, I think. The problem is normal guy who is just too...ambivalent about his feelings towards son of yakuza. He totally knows how son of yakuza feels (since son of yakuza doesn't hide his feelings) and wants to be close...but he just doesn't want to take that next step. Even though he knows he's basically torturing the poor son of yakuza. Yes, it's that kind of story.

What was very shiny was the Doushiyoumonaikeredo story included in this volume. I love that couple (and Shimano's dad) SO MUCH.

I'm glad to see Natsume-sensei's art looking better with each volume. The characters have her distinctive look but look more refined.

( some pics and general squeeing )

I adore Doushiyoumonai keredo volumes 1 and 2 by Natsume Isaku. It's about a salaryman and his boss and their romance. It's cute and silly and fun. I love that though the two aren't perfect, neither are they irritating. Shimano, the salaryman, isn't just any salaryman. He's the son of the company president who will someday succeed his father. He's good-looking, smart, good at everything. His boss Kurokawa doesn't treat him particularly well, but Shimano comes to appreciate Kurokawa's gruff kindness. Yeah, it's been there, done that. But it does conventional so well. And they make such a cute couple. It also helps that I really like this artist's style.

( much squeeing with many pictures )

Junjou Island by Sunahara Touko (author of another favorite book of mine, Seventeen Drops) and illustrated by Natsume Isaku is a delightfully ridiculous light-hearted comedy I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It's not quite crack, it's just...retarded. In the best possible way, at least in my opinion. I could not put this book down the first time I read it, zipping through it at breakneck speed so that I could get some sleep. I finished with a big grin on my face and went to bed not regetting (much) how awful the next day was going to be--I figured I'd be planting my face into the keyboard when I'd inevitably nod off... I wasn't even too stressed the next morning when I woke up late and had to rush to get to work on time--I had forgotten to set the alarm clock in a post-reading daze of happiness, apparently.

Sakiyama Kouhei, a 20-year-old college student, has two big problems. First, he can't leave the island he was born and raised on. Every single time he tries to get off, the weather turns really bad really quickly and prevents him. Second, he has a "stalker." Hinase Ryo is the rich, good-looking, completely clueless "prince" of the island who has been in love with Kouhei for the last 11 years. Nothing Kouhei does (including having girlfriends and telling Ryo that he does) clues Ryo into the fact that he doesn't like Ryo, thanks to Ryo's selective hearing/seeing/comprehension and unbelievable optimism (I love to use the phrase "magical thinking" to describe Ryo's mindset). Kouhei ends up doing things like tricking Ryo into running errands to make him go away for a while. As anyone with even a passing aquaintance of BL would know, this story is about how things (finally) change between the two of them.

While I may squee about this book, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it willy-nilly. To me this story falls into the same category as Kodomo no Hitomi or Yome ni konaika, in that it is a patently ridiculous story that you kind of have to "buy into" to enjoy (if you don't, you may end up irritated and frustrated). Personally, it kills me with its silly child-like sweetness. It is overflowing with a kind of earnest, pure fairy-tale quality. Neither of the main characters nor the story irritated me, even when they ran into some fairly cliched (or really retarded) roadblocks to happiness. I found this combination of earnestly hetare seme + earnestly clueless yet devoted uke a winner, all around. I was laughing with/at/for them for most of the book, while still being touched/saddened at the apppropriate times.

( the summary )

( the pics )

( the omake manga )

"Ryoute Ippai" by Suzuki Shoko is the ending from one of the Arlsan Senki OVAs and a lovely, lovely song. I thought it was appropriate for this book because of a) the image of an armful of flowers and b) the lyrics in general--so sweet and about always being together! Download the song here and check out the lyrics here.