Winter Holiday Gift Ideas for the Shoujo Manga Lover in your Life

I forgot to do this last year, but this year, once again I have compiled a list of gift ideas for the shoujo lover in your life.  The complete list can be found at the Crimson Flower Amazon Store.

In general I recommend:

• Manga box sets
• Vampire Knight
• Ouran High School Host Club
• Sailor Moon
• Black Bird
• Attack on Titan
• Figures -- Figma and Nendroids from the person's favorite anime
• Hug Pillows/ Dakimakura -- "Free! Iwatobi Swim Club" is highly recommended

For folks who missed getting the Vampire Knight Volume 19 limited edition with the bundled illustration book, Amazon still has some! Here's a link!

Also, if the person wants to read electronic versions of their favorite manga, then I recommend getting the person a 32 GB iPad mini or the Kindle Paperwhite.

Manga volumes are also nice. Some of my favorites are:

• Card Captor Sakura
• Witch Craft Works
• Summer Wars

If you are unsure, there are always gift cards! Consider giving an Amazon Gift card or a gift card from the person's favorite bookstore. Also for the Amazon shopper, consider gifting the person a year of Amazon Prime so they can buy tons for manga with free 2-day shipping.

Infrequent Series Announcement

With the ending of the Haruca anthology, the future of "A Pair of Blue Wings" is unknown. The series was already on a twice-per-year release schedule. Until the series is complete, we will put that project on hiatus. "Harapekona Majo" and "Tiny Mermaid Matters" are also infrequent series, so until those series have enough chapters built up to be coherent, we will put them on hiatus also. From now on, we will not take on any infrequent series until they are done because it's too frustrating to remember what happens from chapter to chapter while they are in serialization.

New Blog -- Kuroneko's Lovely Mangas

I've decided to make the Crimson Flowers blog a scanlation only blog. Therefore I pulled all the non-scanlation posts over to a new blog and started posting on that blog tonight. The blog is called "Kuroneko's Lovely Mangas". Here's the link. The main focus of this blog will be anime and manga reviews, series and oneshot summaries, and shoujo and josei manga news. The first new post has just been posted here. It covers highlights from Betsuhana issue 1/2015.

Kuroneko003 is taking a Break until December 8th

The holidays are swamping me, so I'm gonna have to officially take a break from CF until December 8th. I will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year and my husband and I are going to take care of some household projects and take some little trips for the next two weeks. CF will start releasing again mid-December.

What I Tried to Read Earlier: "Rafnas" by Yumiko Shirai

Title: ラルナス / Rafnas
Mangaka: 白井弓子 (Yumiko Shirai)
Publisher/ Publication: Fubasha / Gekkan Comics
Magazine: Gekkan Action
ISBN: 9784575844665 
Purchase: Amazon JP / Amazon US / YesAsia / Honto

Synopsis: A second planet has has covered the land. The rivers of floating land are known as "Rafnas", and humanity has split into people must live in the Rafnas and people who cannot. Rima, a Rafnas dweller who has an incredibly high force field, has been named the new observer and protector because she can repel the rivers of debris and animals in the Rafnas. Ragi, a "returned ancestor" works in a mine and represents the "returned ancestors" in Rafnas politics. This is the love story between the woman who "flies" the highest and a man who cannot fly.

First Impressions: Wow! Cool! Looks like there's gonna be a lot action! Ouch! This is some difficult Japanese!

Artwork A: This manga is beautiful! And this is one of the few action manga that where I can follow the motion in the drawings. The backgrounds and the character designs are detailed and full of life.  Each page is a feast for the eyes and fun to look at regardless of Japanese literacy.

Presentation B: I'm so sad the color pages from the magazine aren't included in the compiled volumes. They were magnificent! Instead there are included as black-and-white two pages spreads. Otherwise it's a typical manga compilation. The cover illustration is one of my favorite. Rima looks amazing leaping through the sky.

Story B:  First of all, I only got through half of the volume before the difficult Japanese beat me into submission. So this review will only cover the first 3 chapters. The first three chapters are devoted to world creation. It talks about the Rafnas, the great disaster that brought about the Rafnas, and the evolved humans who live in the Rafnas. The pacing is good and the world is interesting. The male male character Ragi is an everyday blue-collar guy. He's gruff, friendly, and very sincere. Rima is overpowered, but she makes up for it by being very humble and doing her best to protect people from interference of her overpowered force field. Rima is a would-be goddess, but everyone in the world of Rafnas are good country folks, so they don't mind the goddess and treat her like everyone else. As usual, I enjoyed the old-folk banter. Unfortunately, the technical babble got in the way of me fully enjoying the story. I wanted more banter.

Readability Difficult: There is no furigana. Furigana would have gone a long way to help me with looking up the technical babble and the made up arrangements of kanjis. Most of the difficulty comes from taking technical babble in Japanese to technical babble in English to interpreting what the technical babble is expressing. It's hard enough to deal with English technical babble, but the added layer of Japanese made it too time consuming for me to continue.

Overall B+: The pretty pictures are enough to make this a worthy purchase. If this were in English, I'd eat this up, but sci-fi wrapped in Japanese was too trying on my patience. If you're fluent or at an advanced level of Japanese, I highly recommend this title. When people start talking it's a lot of fun!

"Hana and Earth" Question

Sooo... I've found the rest of "Hana and Earth" while organizing my manga magazines. The series finally got it's legs towards the end of the first volume, so I'm interested in reading the rest of the series myself. My questions for the readers of this blog is are you interested in having this short series translated? Here's a link to my original review. I'll put a poll in the right hand column of this blog. Please understand that this group has a certain amount of bandwidth, so if we do "Hana and Earth", then some other new project will get delayed.

What I Recently Read: "Ningyo Oujisama" ("Mermaid Prince") Volume 1 by Yuana Kazumi

Title: 人魚王子さま / Ningyo Oujisama / Mermaid Prince Volume 1
Mangaka: 和深ゆあな / Yuana Kazumi
Publisher / Imprint: Tokuma Shoten / Zenon Comics
Magazine: Monthly Comic Zenon
ISBN: 9784199802164
Purchase: Amazon JP / Amazon US / Yes Asia / Honto JP

Genre: Seinen, comedy, gag

Synopsis: 30-year old Manato Kogane has been unemployed for a year. With dwindling savings and his youth slipping away, his only hope is a lottery ticket. When his lottery ticket falls into a pond, Manato jumps in after it and sees a mermaid. After some contemplation, he goes back to the pond hoping to take a picture of the mermaid so he can profit from the media circus. However when he actually meets the mermaid, she tells him that she is collecting coins from the pond so God will grant her wish to become human and find love. As thanks to Manato for feeding her, the mermaid gives Kogane her coins, but instead of using the coins for himself, Manato offers the coins and a year of his life to make the mermaid's dream to become human come true. And with this, Manato's life with the mermaid Sango begins.

First Impression: Oh, the cover is really pretty, but should I buy this? It might be nasty "surprise". No, it's a clean gag-comedy gender-bending series! I love the artwork!

Artwork A: The color page is gorgeous! I like the watercolor-look of both the cover, the color page, and the black-and-white comic pages. The backgrounds are detailed but don't overwhelm the foreground. The mangaka uses sparkles, bubbles, and glow to enhance comedic and fantastic moments.

"Danshi Gurashi" Chp 2

Recruitment: 
We are in desperate need of proofreaders and QCers. I realize for people who are in school, now is midterms, so this may only be a temporary need. But if you are fluent in English, know English grammar, and pay close attention to detail, we need your help now. If you would like to volunteer, please contact me, Kuroneko003, using the link in the upper right hand side of the blog.
--------------------------
Here's chapter 2 of "Danshi Gurashi". We'll be finishing up this series within a week (most likely by Wednesday). We will not be adding a new series to fill in for it. Rather we we do oneshots.

This chapter plays with the notion of the fujoshi bait and is very conscious of the fact that this series is fujoshi bait. I think it's a sad world where any two people sharing an apartment are assumed to be romantically linked. Most of the time, roommates are just roommates. My guess is that Ryouga's fears are stupid and reflect a lack of confidence on his part. Seriously, why give a rat's ass about something like that?

And now onto the release!

Recruiting: Proofreaders and QCers

We are in desperate need of proofreaders and QCers. I realize for people who are in school, now is midterms, so this may only be a temporary need. But if you are fluent in English, know English grammar, and pay close attention to detail, we need your help now. If you would like to volunteer, please contact me, Kuroneko003, using the link in the upper right hand side of the blog

Oneshot: "Replay" by Yutaka Tachibana

Here is the second oneshot from Yutaka Tachibana after "R-15 Horror", which was released a little earlier. I ask shoujo lovers to push through the horror to read the touching story of friendship in this story. Some of this was hard for me to get through when I was translating it, but I felt the overall story was worth the trip to a place I didn't want to go. I think this is the best oneshot of our Halloween party.

I like Yutaka Tachibana's oneshot shots a lot, so I will be looking out for more works by her in the future. And now onto the release!

I Lied -- "Rocker in Locker" by Tama Yukida

I lied. This is an opportunist release and it's another cute story. There's no horror in it at all. We were going to do a day after Halloween thing and discuss the various traditions around November 1st, but quite frankly, I think we're all exhausted and need a break. Some of those planned oneshots are in some state of completion, so we'll release them after we take a short break and release some of our regular monthly series. I'll detail our plans for the rest of fall and winter in a later blog post.

Thanks to Peonine for a fun translation and thanks to Aricania for lettering.

"Watashi to Kare to mou Hitori" (Me, him, and one more) by Ai Kurimi

Here's a little rest in between the horror. There's still some dangerous supernatural elements in the story, but it's more of a light-comedy romance.

So far I've been enjoying Ai Kurimi's light-comedy romances. Most of the them are mildly smutty like "Sweet Spot". There are several more untranslated oneshots out there, and we will be releasing the oneshots that have appeared in Petite Princess for the past 3 years. They're all so much fun.

And now onto the release!

"Mimi ga Kieta Hi" ("The Day Mimi Disappeared") by Isuzu

Nothing good can come of spending time in an elementary school rabbit hutch, and that's all I want to say about this oneshot.

"The Friend Doll" Case 3

Here's the third story from "The Friend Doll" compilation. There are many questions about what's going on at the end. If you have any theories, please do share. I'm not going to say much about the oneshot, because the fun is in letting the story unfold.

We will finish "The Friend Doll" compilation. Because we had limited time and resources for our Halloween releases, we had to prioritize projects. Expect Case 1 and Case 4 this winter.

And now onto the release!

Regarding Kaoru Ichinose's Works

We get questions from time to time about whether we are translating works from Kaoru Ichinose. We are. We have a couple of lost and untranslated works from her days at Hakusensha and there are two recent long form oneshots, one of which just came out last month. We are concentrating on the long-form oneshots for now. Each is 123 pages long, so please be patient with us. Top priority is the follow up to  "Hajimari wa Suna no Ichiya".  The latest one is called "Tensai Gakusha ni Koishitara" ("If I fall in love with a Genius"). We have the raws for "Taiyou mo Wasuresasete" and "Umewaka Torimonochou", but I have not put them on the schedule yet. We have a Halloween to get through and a bunch of almost finish oneshots from August to release. After that, we will get to "Hajimari wa Suna no Ichiya".

Magical Change Chapter 4

This is one of the short chapters in "Magical Change". Demons guys are hot. 'Nuff said.

Crimson Flower is Recruiting

We are currently recruiting for Fall and Winter projects.  All position are open. Please see our recruitment page for a list of the positions (LINK). If you are interested in joining Crimson Flower for a short term or long term, please contact me, Kuroneko003, using the contact link at the top right-hand corner of this blog.

We will be doing an all shoujo/josei horror Halloween oneshot party and hot and steamy oneshots for to keep you warm throughout the winter. If you want to work on some truly weird shoujo, come join us! There's plenty to do!

"The Ghost Apartment Manager" Chapter 13

This chapter is a continuation of Tatsumi's story. In this chapter, though, the perspective changes to Kanie, the person who Tatsumi is worried about. This time I took the time to give Tatsumi a distinct accent. I probably laid it on too thick. Oh well. There's also some more development of the relationship between Sekka and Usami. I can't seem to think of Usami as being suspicious. I think he's lonely like Sekka and wants to be friends. Granted he may want to make use of Sekka's ability to see ghosts, but given the way this series has been going, he probably wants to say something to a dead loved one or he's just interested in the occult. That's just my guess. I guess we'll see. I'm getting worried about the child ghost. Stories about dead little children are always sad.

And now onto the release!

Announcement: Schedule Rearrangement

My computer crashed multiple times during most of August. I replaced the hard drive and reloaded everything, and now everything is stable. However because of the lost time, we were not able to complete most of the "Summer Heat" oneshots we had planned. We need to move on to work on the Halloween oneshot party, so the steamy oneshots will become our Winter holiday oneshots in December. Most of them were pretty far along, so they should come out quickly when we're done with Halloween.

Recently Read: "Innocent" by Sakamoto Shinichi

Title: Innocent (イノサン） volume 1
Language: Japanese
Mangaka: Sakamoto Shinichi (坂本眞一）
Publisher / Publication: Shueisha / Young Jump
ISBN:  9784088795652
Purchase: Amazon JP 

Synopsis: This series is the fictionalized story of Charles Henri Sanson who was the fourth generation Royal Executioner of France. He served during the reign of Louis 16th. This first volume covers from when he was expelled from school to his first execution job. It is based on historical events, but the details are fictionalized.

First Impressions: Wow! The artwork is gorgeous! But yeeks! There are a lot of disturbing scenes in this manga. I'm not sure I can handle this.

Artwork A+: Both the color illustration and the black and white illustrations are amazing. The black and white illustration are technically excellent as well as emotive. There's detail to drool at for days and fantastical scenes of beauty and horror, sometimes in the same image.

 

There are some scenes of torture which I found unnecessarily erotic considering how upsetting the violence was. But still, the images were lovingly drawn. There is lots of use of light and shadow to make evil people look extra sinister. The drawing styles of the backgrounds shifts throughout the volume.  It's very different than how the faces in the foreground are drawn. I got used to it quickly though.

New Short Series: "Danshi Gurashi" Chapter 1 by Mai Mishikata

We've been sitting on this short series for a while. We finally have a typesetter, so hopefully we can release the rest of the series soon. This series came out in Hana to Yume in 2013 before "Lip Smoke". It reminds me of a modern day "The Odd Couple". The series is pretty low-key and pleasant with a some fan service thrown in once in a while.  Basically it's fujoshi bait, so fujoshi, go at it. I, on the other hand, will take this for face value.

I think Doujima looks like a younger version of Seta.

And now onto the release!

"Kanojo ni Naru Hi -- Another" Chapter 5

When I first saw this frontis page, I thought, "please let Sagara become the school bancho". That would be cool! Maybe it'll happen. Who knows. Anyhow, what does happen sets up for an interesting arc for the series as a whole. The question is whether anyone will actually do it and how does this bleed over into the main series "Kanojo ni Naru Hi".  Oh, ho, ho! I guess we released that oneshot just in time.

A reminder: "Kanojo ni Naru Hi" with Mamiya and Miyoshi is resuming in September in Ane Lala magazine. Of course, we will be translating the series unless and until it is licensed.

And now onto the release.

Manga Review: "Black Rose Alice" Volume 1 by Setona Mizushiro

Title: Black Rose Alice
Mangaka: Setona Mizushiro
Publisher: Viz / Shoujo Beat
ISBN: 978-1421571607
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis: LINK

First Impressions:  I've wanted to read this series for long time, but I've never had the patience to deal with Japanese because of the katakana for the non-Japanese names and the complicated story. I'm glad I waited because the name in the first half of the volume would have infuriated me. I had some inkling of the vampire mechanic in this series, but it's nice to finally read the details.

Breakdown: 

Artwork C+: All of the faces are typical Setona Mizushiro. In a way, the character designs feel recycled from past works. It's not a bad thing, but it did set character personality expectations based on past works for me. The cover isn't that interesting to me, but the artwork that is supposed to be in color are pretty. The backgrounds are serviceable but sparse. They don't really add much to the story and none of the story pages strike me as memorable. I guess overall the art work is just there.

What I Read Recently: "The Ice Queen" by Rikachi

Title: Koori no Joou / 氷の女王 / The Ice Queen Volume 1
Mangaka: Rikachi / リカチ
ISBN: 4063418960 / 978-4063418965
Publisher / Publication:  Kodansha / Bessatsu Friend (Betsufure)
Purchase: Amazon JP / Amazon US / Yes Asia

Synopsis:
Nika is a 3rd-year middle-school student with social anxiety. One day she drops her eraser in class, and slacker Akira picks it up. After school, Nika follows Akira to an ice rink in pursuit of her eraser. There, she discovers Akira's beautiful figure skating and her own love of the ice. Alternatively, Kiwako is a brash young champion ice skater and Akira's childhood friend. Akira tells Kiwako that one day Nika will become her rival. Which genius ice skater will become The Ice Queen?

First Impression:
Oh, the cover is so pretty and it's about ice skating! Uh-oh! Another timid shoujo heroine. Oh, but she's cute and she doesn't hate herself. She just has a hard time finding the words to say and speaking up. I can relate.

Breakdown --

Artwork B+:   The cover initially attracted me to his title.  I like the flaming red hair and the movement of the main characters in the illustration. In the comic, the skating sequences are very dynamic and give a sense of speed and whirling motion.

"Magical Change" Chapter 3

"Magical Change" is back! It kinda got lost in the shuffle, but now that it's found, we'll work to get the series done in a timely manner. There are only three volumes, so it shouldn't take long. The fourth chapter is really short, so we may release it this month.

Not much to say about this chapter other than it's the usual gag stupidity. Phantom shows his Demon Lord self, which I wasn't expecting. I thought he'd always be sweet. But it's good. He's really Maoh, so I'm happy.

And now onto the release!

"Servamp" has been licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment

W00t! Another OS/CF series has been licensed! I'm happy to see so many of the series we've championed get licensed! The first volume will release in March 2015. Here is some more information from Seven Seas Entertainment (LINK). If you enjoyed this series, please purchase the licensed version and support Tanaka Strike and Seven Seas!

We will now remove "Servamp" from our server, like we always do when a series get licensed.

Update! What I Recently Read: "Waltz no Ojikan -- Let's Dance a Waltz" Volume 1 by Natsumi Ando

UPDATE!

"Let's Dance a Waltz" has been licensed by Kodansha USA! Information here! If this series seems interesting to you, please support it by purchasing the book in Spring 2015! It would be a great starter manga for a tween or a young teen, of course, in conjunction with a talk about healthy weight loss.
------------------------------------------------
Title: "Waltz no Ojikan -- Let's Dance a Waltz" (”ワルツのお時間”）
Mangaka: Natsumi Ando
Publisher: Kodansha
Magazine: Nakayoshi
Genre: shoujo
ISBN: 9784063643909
Purchase: Amazon JP / YesAsia

Synopsis: When Hime Makimura was young, her mother told her that she could become like a princess. Now that Hime is in middle school, over weight, and unpopular, she believes her mom's expectations were too high and that the world is a cruel lie. Tango Minami is a popular high school boy who hides his job as a ballroom dance instructor to maintain his image. But what happens when Tango's mom urges Tango to take Hime as a student?! Will Tango's embarrassing job be revealed to his classmates?! Will Hime find the self-confidence needed to be like a Princess on the ballroom floor?! And what will it take to get Tango to dance competitively and challenge his childhood friend Yuusei?

The first volume includes chapters 1 - 4. There is a postcard pack-in included with the volume.

First Impressions -- 
Hime is really cute! She seems like a girl that we shy and unpopular girls can relate to.  The main male character Tango is an ass in a bad way.  I don't like people who hide their true selves for the sake of popularity. Oh gosh, please let Hime understand that being like a Princess comes from the heart and not from her surface appearance.


Breakdown --

Artwork B+: It's typical Natsumi Ando. There are big eyes, flower sprays, and sparkles everywhere. The cover, though, is beautiful and attracted me to buy it before I knew that it was by Natsumi Ando. That character designs are simple and clean. The characters can be distinguished from one another and the character's emotions are easy to read. The dance scenes are very dynamic and fluid and give a sense of the rhythm and the feel of the dance. These drawings are also the most detailed and are quite lovely. I also like the ballroom dress designs. There are lots of frills and flowing fabric that please my maiden's heart.

Presentation C: The dust cover is very pretty. Otherwise, it is an ordinary book. There are no color pages and on some pages, the text is really small because the book is small format. There is a post card packed into the volume. It's flimsy and monochrome, so I'm not sure how useful or collectible it is.

Story C: I like Hime, Yuusei, and Sumire a lot.  Hime has the potential to learn to love herself as she is, and Yuusei and his dance partner, Sumire, are the kind of caring people who could protect Hime as she goes through the process of self discovery.  However, Yuusei and Sumire are side characters who look like love triangle fodder, and the focus of the story is on the relationship between Hime and Tango. I understand that this is going to be a journey for both Hime and Tango, but Tango is too much of an ass for me to believe that Hime feels anything for him initially. I would like it more if Hime was focused on the dancing and self-improvement, while Tango wrangles with his popularity "issues".

While I like having a chubby female main character, I think the mangaka missed the opportunity to do something interesting with that character. Rather than her coming to like herself as she is and showing that body type does not impact the beauty of dance,  Hime is transformed into a Princess after getting put in to dress and having her hair and make-up done. To pile on the insults, Hime losses 40 lbs in two weeks by the end of the volume. And now suddenly-skinny and made-up Hime is a cute girl that Tango notices. This is an awful message to girls. I understand that I am approaching this from the standpoint of an American and that notions of being overweight and lady-like are different to Japanese people. But 40-lb weigh loss in two weeks is a dangerous expectation to set regardless of culture.


Anyhow, this is typical brain-rotting shoujo. There was potential for Hime to grow and become like a princess through her discovery of her natural dancing talent, but instead the story is reduced pretty princess production through hair, make-up, dress, and weight loss, and she's dancing because she's crushing on Tango. It's hurts my soul, but I have to give this a C because it's typical of shoujo to take this vapid viewpoint. But outside of the context of shoujo, this is an F.

Readability -- Easy: This series has furigana and many of the words are spelled out in hiragana rather than kanji. Because I am not a native speaker, the lack of kanji for some words drove me nuts because of the myriad homophones in Japanese. Regardless, this series uses typical shoujo language, so readers used to shoujo should breeze through this. The only things new to me were the dance terms, some of which had weird Katakana. Fortunately, all of the terms were in my iOS dictionary. The entire volume took me a little over an hour to read.

Overall C+: This is vapid and potentially damaging to already fragile tweens and teens. However, this is typical shoujo, so hopefully readers enter expecting purely imaginary fluff. The pretty pictures and Hime's and Yuusei likable personalities save some of the story for me.  However because it follows a strict shoujo formulation, I don't feel like I need to read the rest of the series. If you are learning Japanese and want something to read, this is a good first manga. Otherwise, unless you are a hardcore shoujo fangirl who loves ALL the tropes, you can skip this a miss nothing.

"Kanojo ni Naru Hi -- Another" Volume 1 Extras

Purchase —
     Volume 1: Amazon JP / YesAsia
--------------------------
Finally! Here they are! This big bundle of goodies includes the "Kanojo ni Naru Hi" Miyoshi and Mamiya story that ran in Lala a few months back. I'm glad I waited for the high quality tankoubon version.

In case you didn't know, "Kanojo ni Naru Hi" will be returning in September. It will run in Ane Lala, which is switching to bi-monthly publication instead of quarterly. Of course, we will continue with the series. I'm looking forward to it!

And now onto the release!

Lala Fantasy Oneshot: "Vered no Rosemary" by Hitsuji Harumi

This is one of the oneshot from Lala Fantasy, a special Fantasy themed Lala magazine. The frontis page of this oneshot struck me. It looks like one of those carved cameo. I also like the rosemary wreathe and the ornament in Rose's hair.

I really enjoyed Peonine and Jade's translation of this oneshot. Great job ladies! Ahhh... and Ichi's redraws... Hee! Anyhow, I'm a sucker for royal romance like this one.

And now onto the release!

Oneshot: "Shoujo Jump" by Yuu Kurumi

We wanted to release this during the Winter Olympics, but the release didn't come together until now. Thanks to Ichi for taking on and producing some wonderful redraws! Thanks to Peonine and Jade for the translation! And lastly, thanks to Suzume for lettering the oneshot.

This is an ice skating oneshot, obviously. Haha! I thought it was super cute and I like the action drawings, something we rarely see in shoujo. It's too bad we'll not see any sports shoujo manga soon since the US publishers assume we won't buy the series. Grr...  I hope you all enjoy this confection!

And now onto the release!

"Hanaibara" Epilogue

Here's the short "Hanaibara" extra story that came after chapter 3. I got a good laugh out of this short, but I think it sums up where the story ended. I'll miss these three. Maybe we'll get lucky in the future and see a oneshot with these characters. It seems to happen all the time in Wings magazine.

If you enjoyed this short series, please buy the book and show Mio Kawahara your love. The book is lovely and comes with color pages and some nice extras.  Here are some links to purchase:

ISBN-13: 9784800000996

Amazon JP
Yes Asia ($9.99 + 3.99 shipping or free shipping on International orders over $39)
Honto JP

And now onto the release!

Short Series: Hanaibara Chapter 1

This is a slice-of-life short story from Avarus magazine that we've been working on for quite a while. Thanks to Peonine for the lovely translation. "Hanaibara" is another series that involves an erotic fiction novelist. Are you spotting a trend? I'm glad I waited until the tankoubon released because it includes some gorgeous color illustrations.

Flowers are a motif throughout the story, so to give some context, Peonine provided some translation notes. They will be placed at the end of each chapter.

This series is 3 chapters long plus an epilogue. We will be releasing each chapter and epilogue nightly. Please enjoy as this heartfelt low-key story unfolds.

And now onto the release!

Let's Get this Party Started! Ane Lala Oneshot: "Petite Peche" Story 1 by Bisco Hatori

Let's get our 5th-year anniversary started with the mangaka that begin it all, Bisco Hatori! Yes, before we limited ourselves to unlicensed content, I started scanlating "Ouran High School Host Club". That seems so long ago!

Thanks to everyone for being patience while we completed projects and while I dealt with some tough real-life issues. Hopefully real life will stay stable for me so we can keep moving and introducing you all to some new artists and exposing you all to the cutting edge of shoujo and josei.

As with any anniversary post, I would like to thank all past and present Omari's Sister and Crimson Flower volunteers.  You all are more than I ever asked for or deserve. Seriously, the quality of work the volunteers output is amazing! I feel blessed to have such a talented team.

All right, now, let's get to the actual release. This oneshot is from Ane Lala, a magazine that is advertised as "shoujo for women". Like it promises, the works in this magazine straddle the line between shoujo and josei. Most of the works involve working young ladies making their way in the world, but there are also a few historical and high school girl stories.

Petite Peche is nothing like "Ouran High School Host Club", but it's still very Bisco Hatori. It follows the recent trend of food in shoujo and josei manga. I would LOVE for this oneshot to expand into a series, and given that there is a second story, which we will release tomorrow, I think there is a strong possibility. I welcome any new series that explores healthy friendships between women.

And now onto the release!

Viz Media has Licensed "Baraou no Souretsu"

Viz Media has licensed "Baraou no Souretsu".  The licensed announcement isn't official, but the first volume is listed for sale on Book Depository (LINK). This is most excellent news! And per our policy, we will stop working on the series and remove the downloads from our servers. The first volume is scheduled to release on March 10th 2015 (Haha! Omari's birthday! How fitting for Omari's Sister!). Let's all support this wonderful series and Aya Kanno by purchasing the licensed version!

Volume 1 is available in Japanese.

Purchase: Amazon JP / Yes Asia

The series runs in Princess Magazine if you want to follow the series in real time.

"Kanojo ni Naru Hi -- Another" Chapter 4

"Kanojo ni Naru Hi -- Another" Volume 1 is available for purchase!

Purchase: Amazon JP / YesAsia
------------------------
Haha! This is probably the longest break we've ever taken! If I weren't saving up releases for our anniversary, we would have put out 5 before this one. Rest assured we are working on projects. It's just that we need time to get stuff ready for our anniversary oneshot party.

Anyhow, here's the 4th chapter of "Kanojo ni Naru Hi - Another". In this chapter, Sagara is starting to be pushed into accepting that she is now girl and we learn more details about "emergence." I'm excited for the next chapter because it seems that the story is ramping for a major turn. Hmm... hee! I liked this chapter a lot, and I'm growing fonder of Narumi as the story progresses.

And now onto the release!

Crimson Flower 2014 Oneshot/Short Series Stats

I decided to take a look at the performance of our Valentine's Day oneshots and the other oneshots and short series we've completed this year. I'll just publish the numbers here now, since I haven't made any sense of what the numbers mean. I'm not really sure whether I can.

The readership is normalized against "Risou no Kareshitachi" which had the highest readership.

1. Risou no Kareshitachi -- 1.00
2. Hajimari wa Suna no Ichiya -- .8
3. Lip Smoke -- .72
4. Risou no Ouji no Tsurikata -- .45
5. Ringo no Asobikata -- .43
6. Tobenai Washi -- .4
7. Kuma-san to Issho -- .34
8. Megane no Incubus -- .31

My Ranking from Favorite to Least Favorite

1. Lip Smoke -- shoujo age-gap romance
2. Risou no Kareshitachi -- shoujo horror
3. Ringo no Asobikata -- shoujo psychological
4. Kuma-san to Issho -- shoujo horror (zombie apocalypse)
5. Risou no Ouji no Tsurikata (guilty pleasure) -- shoujo royal social gap romance with historical setting
6. Tobenai Washi -- shoujo fantasy with animal themes
7. Hajimari wa Suna no Ichiya -- Josei desert prince romance
8. Megane no Icubus -- shoujo supernatural high school romance

What surprises me the most is the poor performance of "Megane no Incubus". Granted the female MC wasn't to my liking, but it seems in typical shoujo, this is the preferred type of heroine. Between the first chapter and the last, it lost 37% of the readers. Supernatural high school romances are popular license getters, so I expected it would be popular.  I also thought "Kuma-san to Issho" would do better, but I guess zombies were too far out of readers' shoujo comfort zone.  As for "Risou no Kareshitachi" coming out on top, I know some people were lured by the beginning because it started out like a typical high school shoujo and by the end, they were taken somewhere they didn't want to go. I think the pure shock value keeps small waves of readers coming to it every couple of weeks. "Ringo no Asobikata" seems to be one of those oneshots that only a few people got. I'm actually surprised it's hanging out in the middle of pack. I don't know... feel free offer your explanations in the comments section. "Lip Smoke" and "Hajimari" did well as I expected. No surprises with those two.

Anyhow... a lot of what's planned for the June oneshot party is different from what we done before.

"Baraou no Souretsu" Chapter 6

It's been about two weeks since our last release. The slow pace is because we've begun working on projects for our 5th-year anniversary. I'm not sure whether we'll begin on June 1st or start on June 26th, the actually day of our anniversary.  Either way, it will be a month long event. Until then, our regular series will be a little slow. We need typesetters/letterers for the next 3 months. If you are an experience letterer and would like to help, please send me (Kuroneko003) an email via the link in the upper right hand corner of this blog. Also, we need anniversary banners for the blog. Requirements:

width: 1250-px
height: 150 - 350-px

If you are using art from a fan artist, be sure to ask their permission and tell them what the art will be used for.

And now onto the current release. I don't want to say much about this chapter because if I do, it will lose its impact. Needless to say, I felt many emotions while translating it and I am now convinced that this is the best shoujo series I've read in a very long time.

And now on to the release!

What I Recently Read: "Hanabusa-san: The Guard of the White Horse Loop Line"

Title: Hanabusa-san: The Guard of the White Horse Loop Line
Mangaka: Ritsu Miyako
Publisher: Hakusensha
Publication: Bessatsu Hana to Yume (BetsuHana)
Genre: Shoujo, Slice of Life
ISBN: 9784592187073
Purchase: Amazon JP

Synopsis: This volume compiles three chapters with interconnecting stories revolving around Hanabusa, the conductor of the White Horse Loop Line.

Chapter 1: Four passengers get on the train over several days. One passenger's luggage handle is broken, another passenger is down on his luck and looking for a job, another passenger is newly arrived from the sticks and takes the long way to her station everyday, and another passenger is a dog who was abandoned by a boy.

Chapter 2: It's the city centennial. Is Hanabusa going? Meanwhile two former passengers want to visit Hanabusa, though one passenger is looking for Hanabusa senior, who died five years ago. There is an interwoven theme about clocks and watches in this chapter.

Chapter 3: It's a flashback to Hanabusa's childhool and adolescense. Hanabusa was abandoned on a train which begins Hanabusa's life as a conductor apprentice under the senior Hanabusa. Then adolescent Hanabusa meets a drifter who gives Hanabusa a glipmse of the larger world outside the city and the White Horse Loop.

Note: We never learn whether Hanabusa is male of female.

Artwork -- A: It's about as lovely and detailed as shoujo gets. The two pages spreads are full of flower sprays and lovingly drawn architecture. The character designs are very appealing. Everyone is distinct and clothing details add a nice touch to each character.

Presentation -- A: This is an HC Special, so the book is larger than the usual Betsuhana compilations. There is also a color page. I like the cover art a lot. In fact, the cover is what inspired me to make this blind purchase.

Story -- Chp 1 A- , Chp 2 D, Chp 3 B:  The compilation is broken into three chapters about the daily routine of train conductor Hanabusa. Flashbacks are used frequently to fill in Hanabusa's background. The many stories of the individual passengers are told concurrently and weaved together to create a final connected story.  The first chapter starts a little slow, but once it gets going, it's by far the best chapter. The second chapter went nowhere until the very end, and at that,  it was still unspectacular. The third chapter covers Hanabusa' s childhood and adolescence. Parts of this tale are poignant, but I had a hard time accepting the conclusion the mangaka makes about Hanabusa. Overall, I'd say the stories are uneven, and went a storyline dragged, it was a real slog for me to get through.

Manga Review -- "Mikado Boy" Volume 2

Title: Mikado Boy (ミカド＊ボーイ) Volume 2
Mangaka: Riko Miyagi (宮城理子)
ISBN: 9784088451251
Publisher: Shueisha
Publication: Margaret Magazine
Purchase: Amazon JP / Yes Asia

Synopsis:
Hide and Gin are given their second mission to investigate a teacher at their school who has been accused of espionage.

Mini-Review -- A:
I've been gushing about this series on Twitter, so obviously I'm enjoying the heck out of it. This volume is jammed packed with intrigue and surprises.  By the end of it, I was somewhere I didn't think I would be and, quite frankly, this volume ends on a deliciously unsettling note. I have to ask myself is this shoujo? And how on earth is this series in a magazine like Margaret?!

What I Read Recently -- Manga Reviews

Title: Insufficient Direction
Artist: Moyocco Anno
Publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 978-1-939130-11-2
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis --

Moyocco Anno's biographical manga about her married life with Hideaki Anno

Artwork -- A: The manga is drawn in a fun style that reminds me of newpaper comic strips. It's different from Moyocco Anno's usual style, which was cool. It shows artistic range.

Presentation -- A: Of course I love the bigger book size because it's easier to read. There's a generous appendix that explains the references in the manga. The translation reads very smoothly.

Story -- B: This is a tough manga fairly rate story-wise. There are many references to anime and manga and some inside marriage speak that only married people would truly understand. This means that the manga has limited accessibility. Honestly speaking, 90% of the references blew right past me, but I understand geek marriages perfectly well because I am a geek married to another geek. Anyhow, the compilation is broken into very short episodes that last a handful of pages. This makes for quick reads and small contained gag-based storytelling. I laughed a lot, mostly because the manga hit closer to home than I wanted.

Overall -- A-: I liked this manga. Rompers and Director-kun are presented as an adorable and real geek couple. I also appreciated the quick-hit gag-style storytelling. This is a must for Moyocco Anno's adult fans who have read more of her works than "Sugar Sugar Rune." Younger people and non-geeks will probably find this manga to be inaccessible.
-------------------

Title: Library Wars Volume 11
Artist: Kiiro Yumi
Publisher: Viz (Shoujo Beat)
ISBN: 978-1421564319
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Short Review: Iku faces the reality of war and her participation in it. The standard crying and questioning values comes forth as Iku deals with the possibility that she may have shot somebody. There's also an examination of violent vs. non-violent approaches to protest and how both can be highly politicized. The pacing of the chapter was nice. I read through it quickly in one sitting. This chapter also prompted me to reflect on what freedoms are worth dying for. There is a fun and funny short story at the end of the volume. I was grateful for this respite after such an emotional and weighty read up to it.

I am kinda getting tired of the slow pace of Iku's and Dojo's romance. I want to see what they are like together as a romantic couple in these dangerous situations. The "almosts" and "holding back" are getting on my nerves. I feel like it's inhibiting character growth at this point.

Overall B+:  It's a thoughtful volume, but on the whole I was left unsatisfied with the lack of romantic progress between Iku and Dojo.
----------------------

Title: Voice Over! Seiyu Academy Volume 4
Artist: Maki Minami
Publisher: Viz (Shoujo Beat)
ISBN: 978-1421559735
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

Short Review: Hime is cast in a role and must overcome the misgivings of the sound director. As per every talent or fighting shoujo or shounen manga, Hime has a shortcoming that she must overcome. I loved every moment spent in the chapter showing Hime in her male disguise interacting with Kudo. The rest was standard idol-manga schlock that was handled in standard fashion. There were no surprises good or bad.

At this point I'm only into this series for the relationships between characters. I couldn't care less about the idol storyline.

Overall B-: It's still a fun read and the moments between Hime and Kudo are precious. The idol crap doesn't appeal to me at all.

"Kisu ni Renzoku" is on hold pending the Release of Volume 2

We are putting "Kisu ni Renzoku", the webcomic by Yuu Toyota, on hold until we are sure the volume 2 tankoubon is going to be released.  We cannot finish the series without a paper version. For obvious reasons, I'm not going to "force" images out of the Polaris website. We want to properly buy the book.

Anyone who wants to read the rest of the series can purchase the volume 1 compilation and then read the rest of the series in Japanese on the Polaris website. If another group would like to take on this project, please let me know, and we will drop it.

"Baraou no Souretsu" Chapter 5

This was a particularly difficult chapter for me to translate because I'm very softhearted. This chapter is rather daring for shoujo, and I'm glad Kanno is not shying away from the reality of the time period.

I feel at this point I should remind readers that this is a shoujo re-imagining of Shakespeare's Henry VI and Richard III tetrad. The flow of the series follows Shakespeare's play and European history, but the details of this story are different. Kanno says in her Twitter feed that she's having fun with the original story, so please keep this in mind as you read.  I wouldn't quote anything from this series as historical or Shakespearean fact. One of the things that the proofreaders brought up is that Richard the Duke of York had more children than 3 sons. Another difference is in the Shakespeare play, a child named "Rutland" is the youngest of Papa-Richard's children.  Richard is 12th of 13 total children. Obviously, the change was made for dramatic effect.  Anyhow, I'm sure by now Shakespeare and War of the Roses nerds have rage-quit this series. Oh well. I love this series for what it is, so you'll hear no complaints about the changes from me.

Another note for those of you shipping Richard and Henry: according to history, their age gap is 31 years. Sooooo... you might want to reconsider the nature of your ship.  I'm going with protege, because otherwise, Henry is figuratively offering candy to get Richard to go into the windowless van.

Enough of my rambling. Let's get on with the release!

"Baraou no Sourestu" Chapter 4

First a bit of business:

RECRUITMENT!!!

Redraw Artists -- We need skilled Photoshop redraw artists to backfill when our regular redraw artists are in a pinch. No previous scanlation experience is needed. You just need the drawing skill in Photoshop to work with manga.

Proofreaders/QCers:  -- We need proofreaders/QCers who have a good grasp of the English language, including grammar and punctuation.  Attention to detail is a must.  If you are applying for this position, please make sure your email doesn't have any errors.  Applicants with error-filled e-mails will be automatically rejected.

We are also accepting cleaners, typesetters, and translators, though these are not urgently needed for the group at this moment.

If you are interested in volunteering short-term or long-term at Crimson Flower, please contact me, Kuroneko003 via the contact me link at the top right corner of the blog.

Baraou no Souretsu Volume 1 is available for purchase!!!
ISBN: 4253271812
Amazon JP / Yes Asia
-------------------------------
And now on to the topic at hand!

Thanks to everyone for patiently waiting for this release. Both chapters 4 and 5 were much more challenging than the first three chapters. The redraws were numerous, difficult, and time consuming. I'm glad to have this chapter out of the way. I feel like I've been working on it FOREVER.

This chapter... T_T... Richard... We see a lot about Richard's relationship with his father, who I now affectionately call "Papa-Richard" (*sniff*). Their relationship is so special and lovely. Papa-Richard is also a great father to Edward and George.  We also see something interesting with Cecily. Poor Richard finally gets his cuddle...???  Speaking of Cecily, it's interesting comparing her to Queen Margaret. Their takes on their status and duty are very different. I'm sure somebody could write pages and pages about feminism with these two as the subjects.  And the end of the chapter... well, I have good news. You won't be waiting on the cliff for long. We should be done with chapter 5 by Friday. Though, most likely it will come sooner.

And now onto the release!

Recruitment: Spring Break and Summer Vacation

It's getting to be that time of year! If you have some free time during your spring and summer breaks, please consider volunteering for Crimson Flower. All positions are open, but we are most in need of redraw artists and typesetters.  The time commitment is up to you, so if you can help a little or a lot, we welcome you.  For more details, please see our recruitment page (here).

What I Recent Read: "Hana and Earth" by Sanae Uno

Title: Hana and Earth Volume 1 (Hana to Earth, 花と地球)
Mangaka: Sanae Uno (宇野紗菜）
Genre: It straddles the border between shoujo and josei, slice-of-life
ISBN: 9784253198431
Purchase: Amazon JP / Yes Asia ($9.98 includes shipping to the US)
Genre: It straddles the border of shoujo and josei

Synopsis:
Hana dreams of running her grandparents' healing herb cafe and living an idyllic life under the skies of Hokkaido one day. When her grandparent retire to the city, Hana's quits her corporate job and takes over their cafe and sundry store business. Enter Earth. A long-time customer of the store recommends him as part-timer, but says he doesn't like to be touched.  Earth is a socially-awkward 20-year-old college student who hides his face under glasses and long bangs. When Hana tries to move his bangs, Earth accuses her of sexual harassment. It turns out that Earth is suffering the after effects of middle school bullying. Can Hana bring Earth out of his shell? And how do the two handle their budding attraction to one another.

Volume 1 covers chapter 1 through 4, and the entire series spans two volumes.
--------------------
Initial Impressions: Oh wow! The cover art is gorgeous! Honestly, I bought this book based only on its cover. Ugh... the first chapter doesn't have much momentum. It's slowed down by too much atmosphere.

Breakdown:

Artwork C+: A lot this is a style preference.  The cover is gorgeous and watercolored. Unfortunately, this didn't didn't translate well into black and white. The lines aren't as delicate and panels are sparse.

What I Recently Read -- Mini Manga Reviews

Title: Alice in the Country of Hearts: The Clockmaker's Story
ISBN: 9781937867645
Purchase: Amazon US / Barnes and Noble

Review -- B-: For an Alice in the Country of XYZ follow on story, this is pretty good, but compared to other shoujo in general it's quite middle of road.  This story supposes that Alice falls in love with the Clockmaker Julius.  I've always like Julius, so I thought this was really cute.  Where it fell apart for me was when Julius acted aggressively. It seem very out of character. As with all the Alice in the Country of XYZ books, there is some implied sex, but nothing is shown explicitly. The narration during the scene in this book is pretty bad.  The writing is quite ham-fisted. But... I have to remember that this was written for tweens and teens. If you like the Alice in the County of XYZ books, then this is a must buy.  It could also be a good buy for a teen who wants a little bit of eroticism without explicit scenes. Otherwise, this book can be skipped without missing much.

Title: No. 6 Volume 5
ISBN: 9781612623597
Purchase: Amazon US / Barnes and Noble

Review -- A: Shion confronts his humanity as he and Rat carry out their plan to infiltrate the No. 6 Correctional Facility to rescue Safu. This is a grim volume filled with death and suffering. It made me feel very emotional.  There is a lot to mentally chew on in this chapter, and it is a page turner. Overall, it's another great volume in this wonderful shoujo sci-fi series.

Title: Voice Over! Seiyu Academy Volume 3
ISBN: 9781421559728
Purchase: Amazon US / Barnes and Noble

Review -- B: This series continues to grow on me. I'm not really into Hime.  I think she's quite bland,  but I do like her manager, Yamada P, and Mizuki. This volume focuses on Mizuki's past. I'd say the moral of Mizuki's story maybe be a little weird to American readers. We are used to people overcoming and winning, rather than understanding their own limitations and settling for what they can do. And then there's the blame shifting and the idea of how futile it is to encourage a seemingly talentless person. American optimism dictates that hardwork and determination always pay off and can override innate ability. Anyhow... I found myself knitting my eyebrows at times during the volume (My expectation was, of course, that the talentless character would work hard, become a success, and then kick Mizuki to the curb -- but nope.). At the same time, I understand this way of thinking, because sometimes it's better to redirect a person, rather than watch them keep hitting a wall. Anyhow, this continues to be pleasant cotton candy series. It's nice to read when I need mental vacation.

What I Recently Read -- "Futari no Renai Shoka" Volume 1 by YamazakiKore

Title: Futari no Renai Shoka (ふたりの恋愛書架） ("Their Love Bookshelf")
Mangaka: Yamazaki Kore (ヤマザキコレ）
Publisher/ Publication: Houbunsha / Manga Time Kirara Forward
ISBN: 9784832242616
Purchase: Amazon JP / YesAsia

Synopsis:

Kanako is a free spirited lonely women who lives in and runs a used bookstore, and Akio is a lonely young man who loves books. The two meet at a swap meet and have an instant rapport. They meet again at Kanoko's bookstore, where Kanako impulsively proposes to Akio, only to find out, despite looking like an adult, he's at the end of his third year in junior high.  The story continues when Akio enters high school and mainly focuses on the couple's getting their friends to accept their relationship and their eventual decision to live together. Yes, this is an age gap romance, but it is very sweet and there is no sexual content.

This volume includes chapters 1 - 5 and two bonus stories. The series is two volumes in length.

Artwork B+: It's simple and functional with nice use of screentones giving it a slightly shoujo feel. However, the artwork is nothing special. It doesn't really stand out, but I suppose that's good because flashy artwork would overwhelm this delicate story.


Presentation C-: This book is small, which means the text is small. I have bad eyesight, so the size of the text was a burden on me. There were many times when I had to take a picture with my tablet to magnify the page so I could read it. I bought a magnifying glass to ease reading the second volume.  The text size problem is even worse with the mangaka's handwritten chicken scratch. Some of it I simply could not read despite magnification because there was not enough print resolution. Other wise the dust cover is nice and there is a color page at the beginning.

Story A-:  This is a small story about a couple. I like the way the focus is on Kanako and Akio, and so far, there is no love triangle to weigh the series down. There are only a handful of side characters, and they serve mostly as sounding boards for Akio as he muddles through his feelings for Kanako and weighs whether he should move in with her. Kanako, despite being free spirited, is not annoying. There are times when her pain and loneliness come through. Akio is a "herbivore" but we are not led to dislike or pity him a negative way. I sympathized with both characters and I felt that they are a good match. The magic of this story is that the age difference drops away until the reader is gently reminded of it.

I like the way the story lets Akio and Kanako's romance proceed without sex. Rather, they have small intimate moments that build companionship. It's a very cozy romance, and I love being wrapped up in it.

I did not like Nanao, Kanako's former Professor who shows up in the fifth chapter. This character is a gag androgynous character who, of course, is way too familiar and touchy-feely. It's a tired stereotype.

More details about the story are in my Twitter feed.

Readability -- difficult: This manga series does not have furigana. There were a lot of new words for me to learn and there were slang phrases I wasn't familiar with. I used my kanji dictionary app a lot during the fifth chapter when Kanako's ex-Professor shows up. I also wasn't familar with many of the books referenced in the conversations. I don't know how much meaning was lost, but I'm satisfied with what I did understand.  The size of the text is an issue especially if you are not fluent. I imagine fluent readers can infer the kanji, but for non-fluent readers, making out the radicals is an exercise in patience. If you are comfortable reading without furigana, this is an excellent book to read. I felt it was well worth the time I spent looking up new words.

Overall B+: This is a wonderful slice-of-life age-gap romance. The small text is a big detractor for me, but sweetness of the story more than makes up for it.

What I've Read Recently -- Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin: Activation

Title: Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin: Activation
Artists/Authors: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Hajime Yatate, Kunio Okawara
ISBN: 9781935654872
Purchase: Amazon US / Barnes and Noble

First Impression:  This book has been sitting on my shelf for a while. I've been avoiding this because I feared the old style artwork would turn me off and I know I have trouble following action in seinen manga. Meh... it's a typical gundam story -- there's a faction fighting for freedom from another faction and a single super mech piloted by teenager that can change the tide of the war. And yes, I can't follow the action sequences.

Breakdown --

Artwork A: The mech design is detailed and lovingly drawn. The character design is as expected. However, the characters can be told apart and they are expressive. The color pages are gorgeous and serve to make this a special release.  I count not being able to follow the action as a weaken on my part, so I don't feel it's fair for me to judge.

Presentation A-: This book is heavy.  I couldn't read it for more than 15-minutes in situations where I had to hold the book. My poor wrists couldn't take it. I ended up reading this at the gym on the treadmill or the exercise bike and at home on my desk. Although I like the hardcover presentation and the thick paper stock, I wonder is there a way to get the same look while being lightweight.

As you can see, the cover art is very nice.  There are similar glossy color pages between the chapters in the book.  Also there are some nice bonus essays toward the back the book. This book looks great on my shelves, and honestly I'd buy it just because it looks nice regardless of whether I'd actually read it.

Story C: This is a typical gundam story. None of the characters stood out to me. The main character, Amuro, is blah and the main villain Char is vanilla.  Char is supposed to be an ace pilot, yet he can't beat a noob. Yeah, I understand the main character can't die immediately, but that doesn't mean they have to confront each other immediately. But I digress.  There's some whiny woman who got on my nerves.  I can't remember her actual name, but in my head she's "random waifu".   Anyhow, I couldn't tell you the names of two factions that are fighting and for what specific reason other than "freedom"... but I'm not even sure that's it.  I guess nothing really sunk in from this first volume.  All I really understood was Char's primary mission.  So basically, the story and the characters didn't leave any kind of impression on me good or bad.

Overall B:  I like gundam anime A LOT, but this didn't do anything for me.  However,  I did appreciated the technical drawing and the presentation of this book.  It's a handsome book that looks great on my shelf and I like looking at the artwork.  In this sense I recommend it. If you are looking for a story, though, there are far more interesting mecha/gundam series out there.  "Knights of Sidonia" left a far stronger impression on me than MSGundam The Origin.