#Ribon covers

[oratokyosaigunda]

Ribon cover 2023年12月 issue

[jariten]

マリンブルーの風に抱かれて (Marine Blue no Kaze ni Dakarete), Ai Yazawa

[lauraagrace]

I'm so excited to read more of this amazing series from @officialshojobeat! 😍😍

Mio is a beautiful heroine inside and out, and eagerly looking forward to seeing how her story will unfold in volume three!

Also, the covers of this shoujo are SO beautiful! Love how vibrant this one is!

[hotwaterandmilk]

2024 English language manga releases I'm enjoying

Here are a couple of titles I've picked up in English so far this year that I've enjoyed. Most of these I read digitally in Japanese for one or two volumes a couple of years back, but opted to wait and purchase the English print versions for my collection.

I feel like all of these books are worth the purchase price, but don't have the energy to do individual posts for each of them. So here's a very smooshed together post covering a few 2024 reads.

GOGOGOGO-GO-GHOST! from Yen Press

Akechi Ushiro is a heavily flawed, hard-working woman whose disregard for her own wellbeing results in her coming face-to-face with her equally flawed guardian spirit, Masako. The pair decide to combine their forces and begin tackling the obstacles in Ushiro's life using curses.

Hiruzuka Miyako's darkly funny tale of a woman taking control of her life alongside her queer sister spirit is such a delight . Featuring a rough-and-ready art style that helps underscore the macabre elements at play, the entire first volume is scathing in its humour and unashamed in its portrayal of Ushiro's flaws. I was surprised when this one got picked up by Yen Press a while back, but so happy to see it enjoying a stateside release. If you're after something that doesn't always play nice, GOGOGOGO-GO-GHOST! might well be for you.

Edit: If you haven't read it before, this Japanese interview with Hiruzuka is worth reading for a bit more on her background and the creation of the series.

Pass the Monster Meat, Milady! (Akujiki Reijou to Kyouketsu Koushaku) from Kodansha USA

A sweet little fantasy romance between two individuals who find solace in one another despite being reviled by the general public for their interest in monsters. One loves defeating monsters in battle while the other loves cooking them!

Melphiera is a smart, capable heroine while Aristide Rogier du Galbraith is a dashing and supportive hero. The manga art is a bit low in detail, but the characters and story are absolutely worth your time. I'd love to see the LNs that the manga adapts in English someday too. I mentioned in tags before this whole series gives me the types of vibes I enjoy in historical fantasy romance novels, so if you like that kind of content this might be a good title to check out (or recommend to friends who appreciate romantasy but haven't tried manga before).

In The Name of The Mermaid Princess (Mio no Na no Moto ni) from VIZ Media

In a country where being "unhuman" or in some way supernaturally inclined is seen as a curse rather than a blessing, Princess Mio takes medications to suppress her mermaid-esque traits and please her father. Her perspective changes when Yuri, a tutor from her fiance's home kingdom, encourages her to be herself and embrace the things that make her different.

I've seen people say this is a bit too obvious in its parallels between fantasy oppression and IRL issues, but this is a Ribon manga for young girls so yeah it's on the nose but I think it works for the audience it has in mind. Tashiro Miya's artwork here is gorgeous and both leads are quite endearing (Mio is SO freakin adorable I can'ttttt). Overall a solid little series with nicely packaged volumes for those after something for a younger audience.

The Moon on a Rainy Night (Amayo no Tsuki) from Kodansha USA

A romantic slice-of-life tale featuring two high school girls, one of whom is a budding pianist (Saki) and the other a loner who is hard of hearing (Kanon).

I don't normally go much on high school romance but the way this series blends classic GL melodrama tropes with genuine issues in an earnest manner works for me. While we see things more from Saki's viewpoint as she eagerly tries to learn more about Kanon and tries to figure out her own sexuality, we do also come to understand Kanon's thwarted ambitions and the difficulties she has with letting people in.

Kuzushiro's art is quite whispy and cute, with all the characters tending to look quite well-realised on the page. While I prefer romances that feature a character with disability to centre their perspective, I do feel this does a decent job of portraying both girls as they try to navigate their deepening relationship. YMMV on this though, particularly if you are d/Deaf or hard of hearing.

Sketchy from Kodansha USA

Ako is living an unfulfilling life with a dull job and even duller boyfriend, but she suddenly finds herself thrust into a whole new world upon encountering a mysterious young skateboarder.

Sketchy, while ostensibly about women taking up skateboarding is more a snapshot of their individual lives and the role having a hobby plays once you're no longer a child. Ako's story particularly resonates with me (I literally worked her job at a similar age) but all the characters prove interesting in their own way.

Makihirochi's art is a bit more experimental than others on this list and may not be to everyone's taste, but I do think Sketchy is still worth checking out even if you're not entirely sold on the art (which I think has improved since I first became familiar with her work through Itsuka Tiffany de Choushoku o in Comic Bunch). Titles like this, which, let's face it, have low level of mainstream appeal, don't often get English language releases so I highly recommend supporting this one if you have the opportunity to do so.

[holespoles]

Eiko Mutsu Cover of the August 1976 issue of Ribon, a Japanese girls' manga magazine.

陸奥A子 「りぼん」 76年8月号表紙

[arkus-rhapsode]

Manga Publishers: Shueisha and Shonen Jump-What's the deal? (Quick Post)

Hello all, Arkus Rhapsode here again this time with a much smaller post. Recently I've been getting asked by people what a "Shueisha" even is? "Isn't it all just Jump?" Which reminded me how, at least in the west, manga fans really don't understand the difference between publishers and how something like Weekly Shonen Jump is an imprint part of a larger publishing company known as Shueisha.

Shueisha itself has numerous other magazines underneath is such as V Jump (monthly Shonen magazine aimed at middle schoolers), Weekly Young Jump (A weekly seinin series), Jump+ (An online service that allows multiple manga with more range and broad genres), Ribon (A monthly shojo magazine), etc. With the ones containing the word "Jump" being part of the Jump Line of comics which are usually Shonen and Seinin series.

The amount of magazines may vary from company to company so it may be too much to ask of everyone to know all of them. In fact with digital platforms they kinda just blend together. And as someone in North America, I can see the SJ stamp placed on non shonen jump series by viz because they don't use categories like "Jump Comics" at viz.

Now this is information I really don't expect the average western manga fan to know because back in the day, we all had to use stuff like Manga Panda or Manga Stream which would post chapters from One Piece and Naruto alongside stuff like Fairy Tail and the Seven Deadly Sins. So for a lot of people the distinction of what is even inside "shonen jump" can change. Even with modern convinces this makes it hard for some as they think Spy x Family or Kaiju no 8 are shonen jump because they're updated on the SJ app.

This did get me thinking about how much publishers in Japan don't really make the company the "brand." In America, Marvel and DC slap their names on all their comics. This is the "Marvel Universe" or the "DC Universe." Now part of this is because they are a connected universe so they need a single unifying brand so you know what's what in a world with things from super science to mutants to magic. As well as the fact most of their characters are owned by the company. But you see this with things like animation too, its easy for networks to remind you that this is a Cartoon Network show or this is a Nickelodeon show even though they may have wildly different tones or genres or artstyles.

But in Japan, its interesting to see how much Shueisha as a publishing company isn't really concerned with tying its identity with the brand of their magazines. Part of me wonders that if its due to the fact that the publishers of these companies don't actually permanently hold the rights of the series that run in them. There's actually a lot stronger creators rights in Japan and a creator can simply choose to walk away from a publisher, famously Hiroyuki Takei would leave shueisha and take all of the Shaman King franchise to rival publisher Kodansha. Then Tsukasa Hojo and Tetsuo Hara both famous for their work on City Hunter and Fist of the North Star respectively, would create their own publishing company called Coamix and take the rights to their series to bolster the value. And none bigger than Makoto Raiku, a creator heavily critical of his former employer Shogakukan and creators rights enthusiast, would end up taking Zatch Bell with him and having its sequel independently published.

While in the case of Marvel many creators made characters on a work for hire contract which would stimulate that anything they made would become the property of the company.

Now that's not to say Shueisha don't invest in their brand. "Jump Comics" is a brand that possibly gets more promotion than another. As mentioned previously, you only really see Weekly Shonen Jump making manga the focus of their magazine cover. Heck some of the best covers are when you see all the characters inside the magazine hanging out. And my personal favorite is the Shueisha puts on Jump Festa, a convention specifically for jump related announcements and advertising which are almost always host to a massive mural each year of series running under the "Jump" label. I wish more companies honestly did this, particularly Kodansha and Shogakukan, but it Nintendo Direct vs Sony State of Play has taught me anything, its that not every company has that fanbase that'll make a big deal out of everything to sustain such a venture.

[girlyholic]

Ribon Magazine and its Supposed "Landmine Feature"

I thought it would be worthwhile to bring up some semi-recent landmine discourse that happened over on JP Twitter, as it is a direct example of what I've previously discussed about what can happen when random things are labeled as "landmine".

One month ago, Ribon, a highly popular girls' magazine aimed towards a younger demographic, came under fire for "promoting landmine culture". The claim was that the Halloween special issue of Ribon was promoting "landmine women" by having one on the cover, which led to discussions from concerned people about the potential for young children to discover the self-harm culture of landmine girls from such a magazine promoting it.

The initial tweet that sparked the discussion showed a photo of the cover, with the caption:

"Current Ribon, which has manga about landmine women who drink Strong Zero with a straw."

"Was Ribon always like this? I have a feeling this is dangerous..."

"I suppose the day where host clubs and cosmetic surgeons are advertised in such magazines will be here soon. Or is it already?"

Here is the full image of the cover in question:

This is a direct example of what can happen by assuming and labeling completely harmless and unrelated things as landmine from appearances alone.

Ribon was not showcasing a landmine girl on the front, nor were the contents of the magazine promoting landmine culture. The concern stemmed solely from the fact the character on the cover was drawn with what are now widely considered to be "landmine traits", those being, wearing Girly, twintails, and bow accessories, leading to people assuming that this depiction was the endorsement of landmine culture.

This issue of the magazine actually had a feature on Yamikawaii, which is completely unrelated.

Here is an article about Ribon magazine that includes this topic if you'd like to read a little further.

Landmine culture still has an overwhelmingly negative perception among the public, to the point where a beloved girls' magazine came under scrutiny for possibly exposing children to harmful subject matter for having a girl with twintails wearing something vaguely Girly-looking on the cover. Where could people have possibly gotten these negative impressions from, if landmine is now "widely considered to be a positive term", as it has been claimed?

Once again, please don't label random things as landmine, as it can contribute to the drastically altered perceptions of that thing in the public eye due to the negative associations that make up the landmine stereotype and culture.

[dailykodocha]

Ribon Magazine November 1996 Cover Scan by Daily Kodocha

[blushyeleven]

This fic is ofcourse dedicated to my online bestfriend @lopsicle because it is their birthday!!! I absolutely love you so much and I’m so glad that I made my tumblr acc because meeting you definitely had to be one of my favourite parts of it. Almost a year ago we met and I don’t regret one moment and everyday we have gotten closer and I really appreciate all the times you have listened to me, listen to my paragraphs about a few pokes i got from chanelle or just listening to me talk about my bad day. I’m so grateful fr you being the most understanding and amazing friend. I hope you have the best day and get everything you want. I love you lop🩷

note: This fic is very rushed so I am very sorry about that😭

Warnings: tickles, light swearing.

Characters: Lee!y/n ler!jennaortega

𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚢𝚏𝚞𝚕 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜

Your eyes flung open. 8:30am. You had a restless night sleep, I mean, it was your birthday eve. And it was now your birthday. You turned around to find your bed.. empty? Nothless you flung yourself out of bed and skipped down the stairs to were you presumed your girlfriend, jenna would be. And you were right. You swung open the living room door to find jenna sat on the floor, putting a few neatly wrapped presents in some gift bags. You also couldn’t help but notice the living room covered in sparkly confetti and baloons. Your jaw dropped slightly as jenna turned around and her eyes widened with excitement as she ran up to hug you. “Goodmorning! Happy birthday!!!” She exclaimed “Thankyou! This is really sweet” you said with a smile “ofcourse! You deserve it!” You looked around at the hard work jenna had put in, but you smiled to yourself as you saw two empty cans of energy drink placed on the coffe table “how long have you been up?” You asked “a few hours.. but that doesn’t matter! It’s your birthday!!” She exclaimed again. You rolled your eyes jokingly and giggled as she added “and.. we’re gonna get your favourite for breakfast… maccdonalds breakfast!!” Your smile widened “yess!!” And you sat down with her on the sofa as ienna pulled out her phone and started adding a lot of food items to the menu. You couldn’t help but giggle that Jenna ordered 2 coffees and very sugary items.

After you finsishrd the delivery driver was estimated to be around 30 minutes. Perfect.

“So what are you waiting for? Open your presents!” You noticed a lot of neatly wrapped gifts and sparky gift barks. Even a sash with “happy birthday” written in big, bold, gold letters. You smiled. Jenna was so sweet, she really didn’t have to do all of this. You couldn’t have asked for a better girlfriend. She was the best gift you could have ever received. Your eyes darted at the array of gifts, debating what one to open first. You started with a box shaped present after seeing a hand written note saying “to my beautiful girlfriend, I love you more then anything. I hope i can make you have the best day and give you everything you deserve and more, love from your favourite, jenna” you excitedly teared open the bright pink wrapping paper to reveal a Pandora box with a silk ribbon tied to the box. You unfolded the Ribon and carefully opened the box to reveal a silver necklace with an infinity sign and heart attached to it. Your heart melted. “Jenna! Oh my god! This is adorable!” You threw your arms around her again and grabbing her cheeks before kissing her. “Thankyou so much, i Love you more then anything” you said in a more gentle tone as jenna just smiled at you before saying “ofcourse, anything for you, but that’s not just it!” You raised your brow and realised there was another box inside the bag, this one relatively the same size but it was another Pandora box. You opened the second box to find a silver Pandora bracelet with matching charms and a few extra, like a pink crystal and a star. your eyes grew. “Jenna!!” She giggled “you really didn’t have to do this!” You said, overcome with emotion. “Well duh, ofcourse i did, It’s your birthday!” She ended that sweet sentence with a kiss to your cheek. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you” you smiled, happy was a colossal understatement. You spent a few more minutes opening the rest of the gifts from family and friends and placing them all on the coffee table and all of the cards on the shelf.

You let out a sigh, not a sad sigh, more of a “that was so fun” sigh as you sat down on the sofa. Ofcourse, Jenna took this as an invite to sit right beside you, cuddling you and embracing your warmth. Since you were both still in your fluffy pjs you were both very snuggly. “You know..” she said with a small giggle. “Oh I dont like were this is going” you said with a returned giggle. “Well, you know how people give each-other birthday bumps?” She said very randomly. “Yesss?” You said with another giggle, this time more curious and you debated wether you should be slightly concerned. “Well, maybe we should make our own version!” She said cheerfully. “What do you mean by that?” You said not completely understanding, but intrigued by the idea. “Well, when people do birthday bumps they punch the person in the arm, how old they are indicated how many punches they get.. but! We should do something similar but not with punches!” She carefully explained and loved the fact you were actually on board with her idea. “Hm.. okay! You got any ideas?” You asked. “Hmm.. well.. maybe just a few pokes! It’s playfull enough but also harmlessss..” she trailed off giving you a smile that you could never resist. “Okay! I like the sound of that!” You said, challenging her slightly. She then sat up, sitting opposite you. “Great! 20 pokes for the birthday girlll~” she said as she began poking your arm. It started of fine but then she moved down your arm as she got to poke number 5 and shortly enough her prodding finger reached your side and poke number 6. You immediately jumped at the touch and let out a high-pitched shriek as your natural reaction was to put your hands out to try and cover/protect your sides.

“Oh?” Jenna snickered with a knowing smile. “I- jehenna!!” You said trying to wipe the stupid smile of your face and the small blush that appeared across your cheeks. “Forget the pokes! I Almost forgot how ticklish your were!” She said before reaching her hand out to scribble at your side for a second. “JEHENNA!” You jumped and tried to bat at her hand “THIHIS ISNT FAHAIR” you said as you fell onto your back from giggling intensely. “This is fair! Instead of pokes you just get tickles.. actually what number was we at? 6?.. oh! That looks like 14 more minutes of tickles for you!” She teased as she then sat on top of your thighs, just below your hips and used both her hands to scribble into your sides. Her fingers moving at a rapid pace. “14 MINUTES?” You coughed out “ILL DIHIEE!!” Jenna thought about it for a second, she thought about the fun she would have and thought of the consequences for afterwards. “Okay, fine! 2 minutes!” She said, Coming to an agreement with you. “FIHIHINE!!” You said reluctantly through your blabbering laughter. She smirked to herself. “Oh? You actually agreed!! .. I mean.. I’m just taking a wild guess here but maybe you agreed because you don’t mind this?” She said with a very teasing and mischievous tone. “SHUHUT UHUPP!!” Was your best comeback because your mind was to scrambled and fuzzy to think of any quick-witted answers. Jenna just snickered to herself “well, I guess I better make these 2 minutes count!” She said before crawling her hands to your stomach she then started clawing into your stomach at full force. “AHAHAHHAHAHAHAH OH MY GOHODD!!” You wriggled as best as you could but you and Jenna both knew there was no escaping.

Jenna then sneakily dipped her hand under your fluffy pj shirt and began wiggling her fingers onto your sensitive, bare stomach. You squealed again before falling into another round of heavy laughter. “AHAHAH FUHUCK!! HOHOW LONG HAS IT BEHEHEENN?” You asked, Not desperate for it to stop, you were just over dramatic. But rightfully so, you were way to ticklish for your own good. “30 seconds” she giggled.”NOHO IT HAS NO- HAHAHHAHA” your own sentences were cut of by your abrupt, explosive laughter.

Jennas nimber fingers then moved to your worst spot. The spot that made you cry with laughter. The spot that was just in the brink of unbearable. And what made it worse was that she said exacrly 1 minute and 12 seconds to target it. As she slowly lowered her hands they finally stopped at their destination. Your hips. Your eyes widened in mostly fear, but with a twinge of excitement as your stomach was swarmed with butterflies. “Jenna.. c-come on..” she evilly smirked on-top of you. She didn’t exactly say anything, but she didn’t need to. Your reaction was enough to give her the get go that she so desperately wanted. She then started to lightly trace her nails around your hips causing you to let out the most soft, adorable giggles with the most beaming smile. “I- ahahahha- o-oh my gohohoddd..” Jenna then started to speed up her fingers, little by little untill her fingers were at full speed, racing across your hips. “AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!! FUHUHUCKKK!! JEEHEHENNAAA” your mind couldn’t concentrate on any other thought but how much that this tickled. The sensation flowing through your body. “Oh you really are so ticklish y/n” she mused seeing you wiggle about in helpless laughter. “AHAHAHAH SHUHUT UHUPP” she continued to use her black-painted finger nails to absolutely wreck your hips making you react with erupting laughter and piercing squeals. But as quickly as it started jennas time was up.

“Oh my god! That was so fun!!” She smiled, clearly very proud of herself and slightly smug. “Y-yeah.. if you say so..” you said, half-agreeing but refusing to admit to her that you also enjoyed that. But luckily unfortunately for you, Jenna could see right through you. “Oh come on, you know you enjoyed that!” She said smugly. “Shut up. As if!” You refused to let her mischievous and cocky demeanour get to you. “whatever you say, birthday girl.. but we both know you didn’t completely hate that” okay, that one was kind of hard to ignore. “I- s-shut up! I’m.. im Gonna go get a Glass of water” you said trying to change the subject but also because all of the laughing dried your throat out . “No! I- i mean.. don’t.. not atleast untill the delivery is here.. please?” Jenna said hopefully. You raised an eyebrow as your suspicion was now at a peak. But you decided to listen anyway. “Okay..” ding dong. Talk about perfect timing?

“That will be our food!” Jenna jumped out of her seat and scurried to the front door to collect your food. “Thankyou!” She said befire shutting the door and looking back to see you stand in the doorway. “Follow me!” She said excitedly again and opened the kitchen door. To wich you did follow her and when you entered the kitchen you were met with another surprise. On the island counter was a vase full of pink and white tulips with an enveloped card at the bottom with plates already layed out for the both of you on the island. You eyes watered. You didn’t know how much more of this you could take. It was do sweet and thoughtful and you couldn’t wrap to mind around what you did to deserve all of this. Jenna was just looking back. Her grin also beaming as she watched you become estatic but also emotional. She opened her arms again, warping then gently around you as you were absolutely lost for words. “Happy birthday, I love you more then you could ever know.”

[chibivesicle]

Gokinjo Monogatari got an English release. I am just - feeling like I got my wish from 1998.

That's right, I'm alive but not very active on the meta for the time being. 2023 sped up for the second half; work got crazy busy for Q4. I worked up to Dec 18th through several weekends so yeah, needed some recharge time.

I don't know how I missed this, but thanks to watching Coleen's Manga Recs, I discovered that the one shoujo manga title that I had been wanting an English release for has finally arrived. Gokinjo Monogatari by Ai Yazawa!

I discovered Gokinjo Monogatari in '98. One of the local comic stores had the first three tankobons and I bought them based on the cover artwork alone.

It wasn't until undergrad I was able to meet a few more people and figure out more than just the name and artist. I tried to find the translation of the manga online, but was unsuccessful. I have to remind people that before scanlations, you had to buy a tankobon and hope you found the text based translation which would have the text according to page number and what panel location. I read a fair bit of Kenshin that way, but sadly, this series was not that popular with readers in the States. I've been moving my entire adult life hauling my three precious volumes of the manga hoping that someday I would first, collect volume 4-7 to complete the picture and that I'd have my matching English version. Granted, I haven't done a good job of looking for volumes 4-7 when I've been in Japan . . . or using the internet either.

As if to spite me, the follow up manga, Paradise Kiss, did get a translation in 2002 from Tokyo Pop which exists in the same universe as Gokinjo Monogatari. Note that a previous manga's characters show up at the Flea Market in Monogatari as well and Yazawa likes to keep a lot of her series tied together. Eventually, the scanlation of the series appeared and I read it around 2011. I'd only found an episode or two of the anime during the golden age of file sharing, but didn't follow through on it. I wanted to read the manga before watching the anime. In 2017, I visited the Manga Museum in Kyoto, got to see a cool display about Ribon magazine and of course they had Gokinjo Monogatari merch! I bought the file folder set and stickers! I bought the Gokinjo Monogatari UT shirt from Uniqlo featuring Ribon series. Yet each time I found more stuff, the universe got the last laugh. Japan released the collectors set with four volumes, there was a French translation, German etc and never one for English. So, you have to realize how I absolutely lost my mind when the thing I'd figured would never happen, happened! Not only was it a thing, I'd even missed the December 2023 release date -at least I didn't have to wait for a pre-order to get volume 1.

I'm happy to see that this version included some of the original color pages!

It has a few more at the end with a photo wall of Mikako's outfits. Everything about the style of this manga, I absolutely love. The fashion goes so hard even now. I get nostalgic with all of the mid-90s Japanese street fashion which has a mix of 60s mod and 70s flare. I think the series also does a good job of capturing that awkward time in your teenage life when you are trying to figure out how to act with people you are interested in. But failing to sort things out. Unlike a lot of other high school manga series, this one stands out with the much more "normal" appearance of the students. I remember picking it up and thinking that the characters looked like they could be my peers; though there is no way Mikako's outfits would pass my high school's own liberal dress code where dyed hair and piercings were permitted. Her bare midriff would get her in trouble . . . Funny how now when I look at it, this is a very unusual high school set up for a Japanese reader likely coming from a more regimented school environment with a uniform and strict dress code. I never thought about it at the time. More that I was plotting my own hair dying plans for when I moved out of the house for undergrad just like the characters had - while still in high school. I did read Parakiss back when it came out from 2002-2005; however, it never really resonated with me the same way a series that I couldn't even find a decent translation for. I started to watch Nana but couldn't get into it at all. Maybe it was my mindset or the fact that I wasn't the mood for young twenty-somethings figuring their shit out.

Yet, here I am in the winter of 2024, and I have volume 1 of the collectors edition format of Gokinjo Monogatari and I'm still loving every little bit of the story as I read it. Perhaps, Parakiss and Nana were more edgier/grittier than something like this which is why they never quite clicked with me. I wanted my fashionable shoujo drama but not over the top. I'm not sure what I'll write about it. It isn't a well known series both due to the fact it is from the 90s and that it is shoujo but perhaps I can reflect on what I was drawn to it all those years ago and what I think about it now.

[oratokyosaigunda]

Ribon cover 2024年10月 issue

[jariten]

田渕由美子ベストセレクション  すてきなボーイフレンド編 (Tabuchi Yumiko Best Selection: Sutekina Boyfriend Hen), Yumiko Tabuchi

[thishadoscarbuzz]

Class of 2022

An annual ritual returns! We are here to welcome the This Had Oscar Buzz Class of 2022! Off the top of the episode, we celebrate friend and former guest (and, spoiler alert, next week’s guest) Pamela Ribon on her Best Animated Feature Short nomination for My Year of Dicks and lament the To Leslie episode that could have been. We also get into the Riseborough situation and previous nominations that were rescinded. And of course we have our returning categories for movies we’re happiest (and saddest) to have missed out on Oscar nominations, most surprising to miss, most forgettable movie to receive Oscar buzz, and our most anticipated for a future episode.

Links:

The 2022 Oscar nominations

Joe covering 2022 Oscar stats for Vanity Fair

Robert Daniels for the Los Angeles Times

Rebecca Ford for Vanity Fair

Vulture Movies Fantasy League

Subscribe:

Spotify

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher

[hotwaterandmilk]

I was going through some older photos and realised I'd never posted these or discussed this art book so hey, easy Friday night post!

Originally released in June 2017 for the "Tanemura Arina Genga-ten ～20th anniversary～" event held at Seibu Ikebukuro, this art book is 144 pages of pure Tanemura lace, frills, and saucer eyes. If that interests you then you'll absolutely love this book, if it isn't your thing then probably best to avoid it.

Unlike Tanemura-sensei's previous artbooks which were produced for standard retail sale, this 20th anniversary volume was limited to sale at the exhibition (+ through Housaidow) and highlights select art works that were on display for the artist's anniversary along with some comments on the illustration's context etc. (So if a picture was used as a bunkobon cover, or perhaps a colour page in Ribon, it's noted.)

While a lot of earlier artwork in this book has been published cleanly in previous publications, there's a lot of newer art that hasn't seen a nice release like this before (including reprint volume covers and images from series like Neko to Watashi no Kinyoubi, Akuma ni Chic x Hack, Idolish 7, and 31☆I Dream that haven't been printed this cleanly or clearly in a collection until this book).

Also included here are some new (at the time) illustrations that Tanemura drew for advertising this particular event (which feature as the front and back covers).

Although this book isn't comprehensive by any means, it does contain a LOT of illustrations and they cover the first 20 years of her career, so there is plenty to keep fans busy here. The comments for each picture give some insight into Tanemura's thought process with certain images and exactly which ones stand out and are truly memorable to her.

Overall print quality is high for an event book and even though its resell price these days is quite high (usually over 6k yen) it is a worthwhile investment for anyone who wants a snapshot of Tanemura Arina's works because this feels like a deeply personal collection of images, shared with us for a reason, and I appreciate that.

Plus y'know, I'm a tragic for some 90s/00s nostalgia.

Anyway I scanned some pages from this before I decided to step back from scanning so I might share a few of those in the future.

[holespoles]

Mutsu Eiko Cover of Japanese girls' manga magazine Ribon

陸奥A子『りぼん』表紙

[kits-shrine]

Meeka playfully covered her eyes, “surprise me~” she sang.

Ribon chittered a laugh before disappearing into the chute. Tsukuyomi smiled at Meeka softly pouring himself another cup of tea "What will... you do... today my child?"