#Kinyoubi wa Atelier de

[animehouse-moe]

Friday at the Atelier Volume 1: Saury

With about as weird and abrupt a start as you could imagine, Friday at the Atelier volume 1 is a story that... develops, into a mix between a slice of life and romance only after office worker Emiko Tamaki voices her desire to have a final meal of saury before she chooses to die.

It's eccentric, odd, and it certainly plays into the surreal nature of the world that Tamaki finds herself gravitating towards- but is perhaps a manga that won't find a massive audience over here.

A sort of mixed bag of subdued expectations, this first volume does well to set the tone for the future, and provides would-be readers with a lot of content to take in- which I take about in more detail in the full review at Animehouse.

[beneaththetangles]

The saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” We prove it every week here on Reader’s Corner, but rarely more so than in this edition, when we show beauty in tengu love; explain how a beautiful and admirable lead does not a good spin-off make; and explain how a provocative title and cover made hide a sweet love story. All that, plus the newest volumes of hit series like Issak, Bocchi the Rock!, and Handyman Saitou in Another World; the final release of the Ningen Fushin manga; and more on this week’s Reader’s Corner!

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Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World (Vol. 6) • Bocchi the Rock (Vol. 4) • Friday at the Atelier (Vol. 2) • The Hachioji Specialty: Tengu’s Love (Vol. 1) • Handyman Saitou in Another World (Vol. 5) • Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards (Vol. 2) • I Wanna Do Bad Things with You (Vol. 1) • In the Name of the Mermaid Princess (Vol. 3) • Issak (Vol. 9) • Rejected by the Hero’s Party, a Princess Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside (Vol. 1)

(Read More)

[mangatxt]

reads, week one

one of my news years resolutions was to better track my reads this year. here are some manga i read this week along with quick summaries and reviews:

01. snow and ink / yuki to sumi / 雪と墨 by unohana miyuki demographic: seinen genre: drama, romance rating: 3/10 summary: a desperate ousted royal hires a criminal on death row as her personal guard. she expects him to kill her. instead, they fall in love. notes: this is the walmart version of firefly wedding. the female lead has no personality, the pacing is all over the place, the central coupling is like if elizabeth holmes got together with machine gun kelly, and the world building makes zero sense. but the funny parts, both intentional and unintentional, are very funny, especially the ex-fiance-turned-willing-third-wheel.

(bonk)

02. one more step, come stand by my side / ato ippo, soba ni kitte / あと一歩、そばに来て by takeda touryuumon demographic: seinen genre: drama / short story collection rating: 7/10 summary: short story collection, largely centered around the relationships between people going through deeply traumatic experiences notes: gorgeous art. my wife whom i loved dearly is the best of the collection and deserves its flowers. ten minutes later the cops showed up was an unexpected favorite. while all had intriguing premises, many of the stories felt rushed and underdeveloped, particularly a tranquil first night, and to a certain extent, the cover story when the time comes as well.

03. sleeping dead / スリーピングデッド by asada nemui demographic: josei genre: bl, horror, drama, psychological (heed CWs) rating: 9/10 summary: high school teacher sada is stabbed in an alley while protecting a student from an attacker. he wakes up strapped to a cold table in an unfamiliar home with a strange hunger. notes: come for the gorgeous cannibalism art, stay for the harrowing and surprisingly sensitive exploration of sexual trauma. (side note: this has got to be the only time i actively didn't want a mangaka to publish post-ending omake though lmao)

04. mermaid scales and the town of sand / aoi uroko to suna no machi / 青い鱗と砂の街 by komori youko demographic: josei genre: slice of life rating: 7/10 summary: after her parents split, tokiko moves from tokyo to her grandmother's home in a small coastal town, a town where she was once saved from drowning by a mermaid. everyone in town tells her it can't be possible, but strange things keep happening... notes: charming art and poignant story about loss and growing up. really captures the remote seaside vibe. satisfying ending.

05. friday at the atelier / kinyoubi wa atelier de / 金曜日はアトリエで by hamada sakura demographic: seinen genre: comedy, romance, slice of life rating: 7/10 summary: an overworked woman with nothing left to live for agrees on a whim to be the nude model for a surrealist artist in exchange for homecooked fish. notes: autism-to-autism-communication.png

(the only reasonable reaction to getting socks for your birthday)

06. centuria / ケントゥリア by kuramori tohru demographic: shonen genre: dark fantasy rating: 8.5/10 summary: after their fellow slaves are mercilessly slaughtered by an indebted captain at sea, pregnant mira and stowaway julian make a deal with an eldritch sea creature to protect mira's unborn daughter -- in exchange for mira's life, julian will inherit the power of their dead compatriots and fight to give diana a better life. notes: gripping dark fantasy story with some brilliant character writing that hits many of the same poignant emotional beats as vinland saga's farm arc -- but it's still pretty early. i kind of wish this ran in a monthly magazine instead of jump so that it didn't have to do its story-telling at such a breakneck pace, but it is what it is.

07. sekai no aikotoba wa mizu andou ikori sakuhinshuu / 世界の合言葉は水 安堂維子里作品集 by andou ikori demographic: seinen genre: fantasy, psychological, sci-fi / short story collection rating: 7.5/10 summary: 9 distinct surreal stories about humanity and its relationship to water notes: the stories in this range pretty wildly in quality -- but fusion? ugh. i had to put my computer down and stare at the ceiling for a while.

(wait. hold on a minute. i think i need a moment. wait wait wait. hold on. i need a moment...)

08. kokuhaku / confession / 告白 -コンフェッション- by kawaguchi kaiji (art), fukumoto nobuyuki (story) demographic: seinen genre: drama, thriller rating: 8/10 summary: two climbers are injured and stranded on a remote mountain a snowstorm. certain he'll die, one of them admits to a gruesome murder ten years earlier. but when the other finds shelter and they might live, they both wrestle with the truth and its consequences. notes: kind of like reading kaiji, but the guys are bouba instead of kiki. suspenseful from beginning to end with a solid if a bit predictable plot, likely due to time constraints. kawaguchi's expressions are detailed and over-the-top in their emotion, which makes the work a bit surreal and nostalgic for an earlier era of horror manga

[wrenala]

Friday in the atelier

(Author and Artist HAMADA Sakura)