Original Doujinshi Review: Blindfold Play by Shiwasu no Okina

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Doujin Review: Kyonko to Issho

Doujin Review: Kyonko to Issho

I have never been a fan of the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise. Sure, I’ve heard of it – but more like I had been bombarded with it. Mostly with second-hand accounts from everyone else who had actually watched the series. That was why when given the chance to watch the anime I just said “No”, since I’ve already learned enough to know what’s going on and had grown too desensitized to want to know more.

     That’s why I was surprised when I actually liked this little number.

     This doujin features a gender-flipped version of the cast but mostly it focuses on the two main characters. A male Haruhi (Haruhiko) and a female Kyon (Kyonko) looked more adorable than the original couple, especially when the latter seemed to have the last say in the relationship.

Believe that.

     The sex scenes are decent and sweet enough for a vanilla, but what really sells this story is the back and forth banter of the two leads. Most especially Kyonko, probably the only character I’ve seen in any doujin works that can still snark during foreplay.

    Another good thing about this doujin is that even if you do remove any connection and semblance it has to the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise, it can still be a worthwhile read even as an original work. The dialogue is funny on its own and is enough to tell its own story independent of the source material. For fans of the series, the story gives us a good look into the relationship of its gender-flipped leads. By itself, the script shows us a decent slice-of-life portrayal of middle-school club members who are interesting themselves.

     As an added bonus, near the end we’re treated to the sight of a female Itsuki. Still the same personality-wise, it looked like the artist gave this gender-flipped version a bit of Mikuru’s hairstyle and outfit. And speaking of Mikuru, her gender-flipped version never did show up here. Not even mentioned once at all.

     I thought that was all it is to the story when I got to the afterword. Then I saw the last panel.

 Who knew a male Nagato looked so solidly built?

     Cheers to vlad, Nagexe, Altereggo and masamune of Circle Credit and littlewhitebutterflies.net for giving us this. As well as the author Akikan for this stroke of brilliance. I did some liberty on rearranging some of the panels for the sake of presentation. In case anyone minds, I invoke the right to disclaimership.

One-Shot Manga Review: Koe no Katachi (The Shape of the Voice)

 One-Shot Manga Review: Koe no Katachi (The Shape of the Voice)

Be nice kids...

A would-be doujin was the last place I expected a story like this.

    Here I was browsing through the latest uploads in my favorite hentai doujin site (read: porn), and I come across this little entry that stood out from the rest. There's no sex in it, no innuendo, not even nudity. All it had was the story of a deaf girl suffering from the teasing and bullying of her grade-school classmates.

    That was all it took to reel me in.

    Koe no Katchi (trans: The Shape of the Voice) is a one-shot manga that had one the 80th Newbie Best Mangaka Award and, after some difficulty, ran in the February edition of Bessatsu Shounen Magazine and in Weekly Shounen Magazine. The reason it was difficult to publish was because of its content, which showed a bitter and unabashed look at bullying in schools.

    The abuse was hard to stomach, and at some points hard to believe. Your mileage might vary on this one, but readers are guaranteed to be either surprised or shocked (maybe both) at the unfettered display of annoyance and outright disdain for the girl. Even more so when you see them brush off all responsibility of it and took their frustrations on the one person who tried to point out their hypocrisy. Said person, who was the narrator, was also the only one who apparently had grown guilty of their teasing and had just started standing up for the poor girl.

     The portrayal of children as bastards and adults as irresponsible have never been portrayed so vividly. This was only a 60-page work but there was a goddamn boatload of emotions evoked here.

    The last seven to eight pages gives us what maybe the only sense of relief in the story. A chance for closure, redemption, and an open-ended development for a pairing. And, according to some forums online, the chance for some serialization.

    Koe no Katachi was a recent scanlation released by the Futari Wa Pretty Anon translator group. The author Ooima Yoshitoki is a new name in the manga community and, personally, someone I've added to my list of favorite up-and-coming authors.