"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!

"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!

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.
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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.

Surprise Josei Oneshot: "Hajimari wa Suna no Ichiya" ("It Started with an Evening on the Sand") by Kaoru Ichinose

It's been a while since we've translated anything by Kaoru Ichinose.  This is a short josei oneshot that appeared in Harlequin Romance magazine. It's too bad this short oneshot wasn't a prologue for something larger, but I'll take it! Hopefully we'll see more from Ichinose-sensei soon.

And now onto the release!

My Favorite Unlicense Shoujo and Josei Manga of 2013

This seems like a pointless list for me to make because most of the unlicensed manga I love I make into Crimson Flower projects. So I thought I'd talk about some of those and a few titles that are on my radar. I'm limiting this list to shoujo and josei since the only non-shoujo/josei title I bought was "Kerberos in the Silver Rain". All right, so lets get on with it!

Favorite New Series/Oneshot Compilation of 2013

1. "Baraou no Souretsu" by Aya Kanno
2. "Kanojo ni Naru Hi" by Akane Ogura
3. "Haikyo Shoujo" by Tsukiji Nao
4. "Lip Smoke" by Mai Nishikata
5. "Hanaibara" by Mio Kawahara (currently being worked on for CF) 
6. "Kanojo ni Naru Hi -- Another" by Akane Ogura
7. "Boku no Hitsugi de Bansan o" by Nari Kusakawa
8. "Kisu ni Renzoku" by Yuu Toyota
9. "Honjitsu, Akane Hiyori" -- Today's Weather is Akane by Yui Sakuraba (planned for CF in 2014)
10. "Jinrou Chronicle" by Lay Mutsuki

Notes:

"Hanaibara" -- An illustrator, Hassuku Yanase,  moves into a country house his eccentric grandfather left to him.  Living in the house are an erotic fiction writer, Soyogo Muro,  and his younger sister, Kanako Muro, who he uses as his model for his works.  Yanase decides to be the illustrator for Soyogo's latest work. (Okay, technically this is seinen since it ran in Avarus).

"Today's Weather is Akane" -- Akane promises to marry Shu when he returns from abroad. Akane is expected to continue on her father's traditional Japanese restaurant, but when Shu returns, he wants to open a Western style restaurant instead.  Meanwhile, Akane's father bought Natsuhiko, who is ALWAYS irritable, into the family business for the obvious reason... heh-heh... It's a typical historical shoujo love triangle, but it's very done well while keeping the drama to a minimum. This is a wonderful easygoing short series that I hope CF will bring to you all in 2014.

Honorable Mentions:

• "Anniversary" bu Yu Uemori
• "Bread and Butter" by Hinako Ashihara
• "Princess Ledahlia" by You Higuri

Favorite Oneshots of 2013 (Translated this year)

1. "Boushi no Ue no Oka" by Nao Tsukiji
2. "Puzzle" by Morie Satoshi
3. "Tosagare Renren" by Nari Kusakawa
4. "Blushing Boy MacArthur" by Lammy Uchimiya
5. "Kutsunashihime" by Akanatsu

The most fun project I worked on this year -- "Lovely Vampire Weddings". The artwork was too lovely and the stories were infectiously sweet.

I know many of your have the chance to read a lot more unlicensed titles that I did, so please share some of the glorious finds on you favorite list.

What I Read Last Week -- August 25th - August 31st

"Helter Skelter" by Kyoko Okazaki
General Impression:  I was hesitant to purchase this title because I don't like fashion/actor/idol manga. And given the cover, I didn't feel like reading anything about a character with body dysmorphia. Yeah, yeah beauty is skin deep. I already know this.  And the series started off exactly as I expected: the main character Liliko is a crazy bitch who transformed her ugly self into a beauty through excessive plastic surgery and now her body is falling apart.  So... that was the first 3 chapters... I also most stopped there because I was bored and the frenetic drawing style was grating on my nerves. But, I pushed on.

Beginning around chapter 4 things got interesting as a prosecutor starts looking into a series of suicides linked to the same plastic surgery clinic Liliko frequents. This part of the story more than made up for the crappy beginning and I was finally hooked. During all of this, a bunch of weird sexual stuff happened that I didn't understand. None of this made a difference in the story to me, and therefore could have been and probably should have been dropped.  Because the art is shit, I had a hard time telling one black-haired character from another and I didn't know until the end that Liliko's manager was female. There is sex in this manga, but it's in no way titillating or pleasant. Honestly, most of the time, I didn't know what the hell what happening and I assumed it was some kind of weird torture (???) and then moved on.

To sum things up, I ended up liking "Helter Skelter" taken as a whole, but the beginning is craptastic and preachy and there's a lot of fairytale BS sprinkled in the narrative that seem very forced.

Breakdown:
Art: F -- it's ugly and frenetic and some characters can't be distinguished from others because it's so crappy. There were facial expression I couldn't read and I was so annoyed that I almost couldn't get through the series.

Story: C (first three chapters -- D:  totally unoriginal and annoying. Chp 4+ -- B -- the suicide investigation was interesting, the rest was throw-away) Basically, this is a possible narrative for  every starlet who burns out spectacularly and end up dead before the age of 40.

Overall:  I recommend reading this for the strong mystery story that unfolds after chapter 3, but if possible, don't pay full price. (Yay, for josei, but how about something that doesn't try so hard to be deep?)


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"The Betrayal Knowns my Name" Omnibus 1 by Hotaru Odagiri
General Impression:  Yuki is adorable and Zess is HAWT!  I didn't expect to like this series this much.  I figured it'd be the usual supernatural save the world from evil story with BL undertones. But the main relationship is a love that transcends times and gender, and is very much like the main relationship in "Kyou Kara Maoh". I'm a sucker for this kind of relationship, so I'm onboard with Yuki x Zess. Of course, Yuki is needed to save the world, and that's meh; but surrounding that are a bunch of interesting side characters who make up Yuki's "family" and short connected story arcs that present sub-villains whose mysteries must be unraveled before they can be defeated.  It's the typical formula for a neverending supernatural shoujo. This of course worries me, because I hate neverending stories. I imaginee at some point the story will jump the shark and I'll give up on this series, but for now I'm enjoying it.

Breakdown:
Art: A -- it's gorgeous flowery shoujo. Everyone is handsome and beautiful and the backgrounds are detailed. The action was easy to follow and I wasn't so distracted by the beauty of the artwork that I couldn't actually read the dialog.  The story and art meshed well together.

Story: B+ -- It a typical supernatural shoujo, but the characters are enjoyable and the narrative is well told. It's easy on the mind and on the eyes. I do hope that there is some kind of twist coming to distinguish this series from other supernatural shoujo series so I don't get bored.

Overall:  I recommend this first volume for the beautiful artwork and well told, but predictable story. Give Yen Press all of your money so we can have more manga like this.

New Josei Series: "A Pair of Wing of Blue" ("Ao no Souyoku") by Fusanosuke Inariya

This is the last of the josei series we are debuting at this time. This one came out of nowhere in Haruca magazine.  I started reading the first chapter and I couldn't stop.  I strongly felt that this could be a special series, so I jumped on it without hesitation. I hope the rest of the series lives up to the promise of the first chapter.

Haruca comes out quarterly, so expect chapters once every three months.  The next chapter will release in Japan in early September.

And now on to the release!

Initial Exploration into Josei

In an effort to find some more mature content for Omari's Sister and Bakeneko's Lair, I've been exploring josei manga.  By "mature" I don't mean sexual and violent content. What I mean is content that revolves around women who are older than teenagers or stories that do not take place in high school or junior high.

It's been a hard genre to research because so much it is what I'd consider pornographic, and apparently so does US Customs, because certain magazines will get caught in US Customs for DAYS. And then there's the age difference manga that may get you in trouble with the law or, at the very least, on a law enforcement watch list. The josei waters are indeed scary waters to brave, so if you are going to blindly try stuff out like I am, proceed with an abundance of caution because the Japanese don't label their porn/hentai or inappropriate age difference content.

Leaving that topic aside, once you cross the "smut" off your list, the list of magazines to look at becomes a lot more manageable. This is exactly what I did because smut is not my thing. I'm more into the suggestive drawing with sensual text for sexy time. I'm still exploring content, but here's what I've discovered so far (my faves are highlighted in green):

Office romance and slice-of-life:

• Kiss
• Kiss Plus
• Ane Lala
• Cocohana
• Feel Young

Fantasy

• Aria (magazine is sold as shoujo but the tanks are sold as josei)
• Itan
• Haruca
• Nextcomic F (specials)
• Zerosum (Magazines are sold as shoujo)
• Zerosum Ward  (Magazines are sold as shoujo)
• Rinka

 Variety

• Petite Princess (sold as shoujo)
• Princess Gold
• Wings (sold as shoujo)
• Avarus (feels very josei even though it's sold as seinen)
• Rinka

If you want to decrease your risk of running into smut when blindly choosing magazines watch out for these signs (applies to josei, ledicomi, and shoujo):

• It's on your local Japanese bookstore's list of hentai
• The title contains the word "Renai"
• The cover image looks like something from a bad romance novel
• The women on the cover is half naked and doesn't seem to be enjoying it ("rapey" alert)
• The man is holding the woman's face as she's trying to look away (another "rapey" alert)

Also, watch out, because at least on Amazon JP, a few of the smutty ledicomi are listed with the shoujo.  Use the rules of thumbs above and you should be safe. This is a prime example of a magazine I would not touch: http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00ECFY8R0

Since there seems to be a GAPING info gap with regards to non-smutty josei, it think it may be worth my time to do a more in-depth survey and spread some knowledge.  Perhaps armed with some knowledge we non-smut josei lovers may be able make better decision about what licensed and unlicensed content we read, as well as make more recommendations to US licensors than "Chihayafuru" and "Princess Jellyfish".

If you read Japanese and would like to help with this, please let me know by contacting me at omarissister@gmail.com

Also, look out for our josei releases!

Some Thoughts on Josei Manga

I've been following the Tumblrs and Twitter feeds of US and Japanese publishers. Lately Kodansha USA has been answering fan questions.  You should check out their Tumblr (LINK). This morning there is some discussion about josei manga. It seems the observation is josei manga doesn't do well in the US despite many attempts.  The exception is "Nana". This got me thinking about my limited exposure to josei manga.

First of all, I get bored with josei manga quickly. "Nana" got on my nerves, "Butterflies and Flowers" got repetitive and I didn't finish the series. I don't even look at anything from DMG/DMP.  I have enjoyed:

• "Sakuran"
• "The Midnight Secretary"
• "Tramps Like Us" ("Kimi wa Petto")
• "Paradise Kiss" (If you haven't read this series, you should. And please buy it to support Vertical Inc, a wonderful and passionate publisher.)
• "Nodame Cantibile" 
• "No. 6"

While thinking about this topic, I've launched a large purchase to check out the latest licenses (except for "Happy Marriage?" because everything I've seen on Tumblr about it makes it look rapey unappealing to me.) I'll write something up as I read my purchases.

Okay, back to josei! As for finding josei content for Omari's Sister, it's been extremely difficult. The vast majority josei are office romances with rapey softcore porn overtones.  I don't understand the Japanese fall-in-love-with-your-rapist fantasy. It's a disgusting notion and I can't and won't support it. There is also a lot of slice of life dramas... ugh... boring... I end up gravitating toward fantasy, supernatural, and horror series and oneshots. I particularly love fairytale redos.  I think that's also the inclination of the readers of this blog.  However, so far we are getting a lot of office romance licenses. I can't say whether this is a mistake or not. I also can't recommend buying this stuff if you don't like it, because it doesn't mean we'll get more different josei. Rather it means we'll get more office romance because the publishers will think that's what we want. It's understandable since the publishers don't have extra money to take chances.

As for performance on Omari's Sister, the josei works we have selected have been received extremely well. Our readers read the hell out of "Lovely Vampire Weddings". It blew past all of our other series 6x, with the exception "Kanojo ni Naru Hi" which is performing similarly well. Butakai Ouji also get a lot of readers and lots of positive feedback. I don't know whether this is bias because the selections suit our audience or whether this is a true signal that readers want fantasy.  Regardless, I would like to see a fantasy or sci-fi josei license to test the waters.  I doubt it's going to happen anytime soon because the US publishers are extremely cash strapped.

To wrap things up, if there's licensed josei manga you like out there, buy it so there will be more josei licensed. Money always speaks louder than words.  Also, if you have an interest in josei, let the publishers know and send them your wishlist. They may not do much about your specific request, but it's good to let them know that there's general demand. And as a personal request, get out there and support Vertical Inc. with your dollars. Vertical is probably our best bet for non-office romance josei, so let's do our best to keep the printing presses running!