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killjoy-prince · 2 months

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Do you have any shoujo manga recommendations? I recently read Sasaki and Miyato and realised that I have been severly missing out!

Sure!! Thanks for asking me!

First, in case you haven't read it yet, Sasaki and Miyano has a spinoff that starts six months before the plot of Sasaki and Miyano called Hirano and Kagiura also by Shou Harusono.

This one focuses on Sasaki's friend, Hirano and his new dormmate, Kagiura. I know Sasaki had extra stories with them but the spinoff gave them an actual story. It currently has about 23 chapters and a light novel with the light novel being the first thing that happens chronologically. No anime for it as far as I know. The back of the first volume has a timeline of where events fit (this came out when Sasaki was up to Volume 5)

Speaking of novels, Sasaki and Miyano has two novels, one focusing on the characters' first year and one on their second year. I haven't read them yet so I'm not sure what exactly happens in them but if you can, check them out!

OK, now for other recs!

Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku by Fujita

This one is really cute! An office worker and otaku named Narumi Momose got dumped by her boyfriend when she got outed as one. Feeling awkward about running into him at work after the bad breakup, she quit her job and got a new one at a different company. This time, she's determined to keep her secret under wraps as to avoid another incident. However, this may prove to be hard when she finds out her childhood friend and fellow otaku Hirotaka Nifuji works at the company and almost outs her on her first day. She meets up with him after work to catch up and when Narumi tells him about her recent breakup, he asks her why not date an otaku. Specifically him. She rejects it at first but when he says he can help her in life, video games and with her booth at Comiket, she agrees.

There are three couples this series focuses on. The second couple knew each other since high school and have been dating for about a decade and work at the company with Narumi and Hirotaka. The third couple is the younger brother of Hirotaka and a gamer who goes to his college. It's a lighthearted comedy about office worker otakus and navigating their relationships. A lot of references to anime, video games, BL, GL, you name it. Like Sasaki, this was a webcomic posted on pixiv so the pacing and layout feel similar, at least to me. There are 11 volumes (6 volumes if you go by the English translation bc they combined two volumes into one for 5 of them and then the last one is by itself). I mainly got into this one bc Hirotaka was aesthetically my type. I remember seeing the first volume cover at kinokuniya when only the Japanese version was out and being like "I need to find out what this series is bc I need to meet him"

Kimi Ni Todoke by Karuho Shiina

This was a series I read when I was in high school. High school freshman Sawako Kuronuma has been feared and misunderstood by her peers all her life due to her appearance. It was so bad that her classmates call her Sadako since she looks like the character from The Ring. She had resigned to her fate of never making a friend until popular boy Kazehaya starts talking to her. The more time he spends talking to her, the more her world opens up and she starts making friends and experience things she hadn't been able to before this point. As they spend more time together, love blossoms between the two characters.

There are 30 volumes and 38 episodes. I read up to volume 18 and then stopped because that was the most recent volume at the time and I kinda forgot about by the time more volumes came out. But that was my fault not the manga because this series is really really cute!! A term I've coined for myself when I read this was whenever Kazehaya and Sawako were being cute together, I'd exclaimed "THESE ADORABLE LITTLE FUCKS!!" because they are so adorable to each other. The friends Sawako makes are really cool and fun in their own right. If you want some really cute, tooth rotting sweetness, I recommend this series.

Princess Jellyfish by Akiko Higashimura

Tsukimi Kurashita is a jellyfish fanatic that lives in Amamizukan, a woman only apartment building that houses other woman with their own fixations. They are considered NEETS and have a strict rule of no men allowed in their living space. Tsukimi's love for jellyfish came from going to a jellyfish aquarium with her mom before she died of an illness when Tsukimi was a kid. She goes to a pet shop regularly to visit a spotted jellyfish she's taken a fancy to that she named Kurara. When she sees that the employees put a moon jellyfish in the same tank, she fears for its life as the moon jellyfish will kill Kurara if not taken care of. However, her fear of talking to normal people lead to a misunderstanding with the employee until a stylish person comes to her rescue and they take Kurara back to Amamizukan. The next morning, Tsukimi finds out the stylish person she brought back to her home is an illegitimate son of a politician and cross-dresser named Kuranosuke Koibuchi.

There are 84 chapters and 11 episodes of this series. I read up to about chapter 74 before stopping for the same reason I did for Kimi Ni Todoke. It's a really fun time. The characters are funny and sweet, the situations are entertaining, it's just a fun o' time. And the art is really pretty!!

Skip and Loafer by Misaki Takamatsu

Mitsumi Iwakura moved from her small town on the outskirt of Ishikawa Prefecture to Tokyo to start high school. However, she gets lost going to school on the first day due to the culture shock and seems at a loss at what to do. That's when she meets Sosuke Shima who was late to school himself and travels with her to school. The series follows Mitsumi as she experiences school life in the city and meets lots of new people and makes friends with Sosuke along for the ride.

There's currently about 59 chapters and 12 episodes of this series. I started reading it when the anime was announced and I had a fun time reading it. I really enjoyed Mitsumi and seeing her learn and broaden her horizons as she goes to school and hang out with Sosuke and everyone else. It's a nice story!

Given by Natsuki Kizu

High school student Uenoyama Ritsuka is a guitarist in a instrumental only band with college students Akihiko Kaji and Haruki Nakayama. When going to his usual hiding spot for lunch, he finds Mafuyu Sato sleeping with a guitar with broken strings in his arms. Uenoyama offers to fix it and when he does and plays a note, Sato begs him to teach him how to play. Uenoyama is reluctant but gives in when Sato persists. After spending some time together, Uenoyama finds out that Sato has a beautiful singing voice and invites him to join his band.

There are 9 volumes, 11 episodes and a movie, with another movie on the way. The series focuses on three relationships. The first is the relationship between Uenoyama and Sato, the second between Akihiko and Haruki and the third between Sato's childhood friends Hiiragi and Shizusumi. The art is really pretty and the characters are so good!! I really enjoyed the story a lot! My favorite character is Hiiragi and I can't wait for the next movie to come out because they're gonna cover his story then and I wanna hear him sing!! (Also his seiyuu is Fumiya Imai AKA seiyuu for Akito Shinonome so double reason why I wanna hear it) Also, Imma use this as an excuse to post a page I really wanna see animated bc I can hear it so clearly in my head.

Bloom Into You by Nakatani Nio

Yuu Koito, lover of shoujo manga, always dreamed of being confessed to and experience that heart pounding feeling she sees happen in her books. However, when she's confessed to by a guy in middle school, she feels nothing and rejects him. Now starting high school, she's left confused on what her lack of feeling means. When she sees the student council president Touko Nanami turn down a boy, she asks her for help with her situation. But when Nanami confesses her love to Koito, will she feel that spark she's being hoping for? There's 8 volumes, 13 episodes and 3 light novels starring a side character. I'm up to volume 6 of this one and I'm really enjoying it!! The story is engaging, the charatcers are interesting. I like that Yuu isn't a pushover, she's a bit snarky and doesn't let Touko push her around. And I like how Touko comes off as a competent student council president but she has a more vulnerable side that she only shows Yuu. They pair nicely with each other.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun by Izumi Tsubaki

OK I know you know this one already but this wouldn't be a rec list made by me if I didn't include it. This is my favorite series ever. It's mecore. Me-coded. Me. Second year high schooler Chiyo Sakura finally gets the courage to confess her love to Umetarou Nozaki, a guy in her grade. However, she messes up the confession and says she's his biggest fan instead of "I like you". Nozaki, in response, gives her his autograph and then invites her to his house. She accepts but once they get there, he has her do inking on a manga he makes. Turns out, Nozaki is a manga artist under the pen name Sakiko Yumeno and he's had his eye on Sakura for a while because he wanted to bring her onto his team as an inker. She agrees to join so she can get closer to him.

There's currently 14 volumes, 12 episodes and an OVA split into six 5-mintue parts. This series has me dying of laughter with every chapter. The characters are fun, the story is fun, it's just a fun time! There are three main couples with some side couples and duos that get their own time in the spotlight as well. The main ones are Sakura and Nozaki, Sakura's friend Yuzuki Seo and Nozaki's screentone assistant and first year Hirotaka Wakamatsu, and Nozaki's background artist and third year theater club president Masayuki Hori and "Prince of the Drama Club" Yuu Kashima. Other characters like Mikoto "Mikorin" Mikoshiba, Mayu Nozaki, Yukari Miyako, Ken Miyamae, and Mitsuya Maeno all bring their own brand of fun to the table. This series made me laugh so much I couldn't read it in class to slack off because I'd laugh out loud and disrupt class. I've yet to read another series that made me do that. I cannot recommend this series enough. Please read AND watch it if you have not already. Nozaki is starting to gain awarness. I lose my mind whenever I see it happen. I wanna see it happen. It's been 13 years!

Imma put an honorable mention here because I haven't read or watch it yet but I've heard Horimiya written by HERO and illustrated by Daisuke Hagiwara is really good. I wanted to but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

That's all I have for right now! If you've already read/watched all of these already, lmk and I'll list some more!! Hope you enjoy! ^_^

#prince's ask tag #i might have lost the plot a bit but hopefully this was helpful lolol

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animehouse-moe · 1 year

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Heavenly Delusion Episode 8: The Immortal Order

Searching for answers for both Maru and Kiruko, the pair are led to the headquarters of the Immortal Order. But, we quickly find out things are not at all what they seem, and we begin a spiral into a horror framed episode. Freakish human experiments, amputations and unauthorized surgeries, a thing you cannot call a human any longer being kept alive by technology, and something that lurks in the basement. What a terrifyingly good episode.

Hirotaka's overarching sense of direction was always something that would lend itself well to horror with how it holds static framing and places the focus on the interactions and acting of the characters, but paired with today's episode director I really feel like they took it up another notch.

There's lots of effort is placed on separating Maru and Kiruko in the layouts, whether it's vertical or lateral distance, or even not placing both within the same scene. But alongside that there's also a surprising amount of closeups on the characters to trend more towards the typical aspects of horror.

In terms of closeups, I really like these two because of how the characters move through the scenes. The second in particular is really impressive thanks to how well the light is animated.

Anyways, moving forward. Today's episode director comes in very strong with very angled shots to continue to add to that suspense and space within the basement that the pair explore. And even better is that they adhere to Hirotaka's sense of voyeurism and allow objects to occlude our view of the scene, so you end up with shots like this one of Kiruko carefully exploring the basement for any signs of a hiruko.

It's just really, really well suited to the fear and tension that the episode builds for this piece, giving viewers plenty of opportunities to get worked up about what's lurking behind each corner and in every shadow.

Also in terms of selling horror, this cut of Kiruko walking is really great. We're faced with her head on rather than being shown her back, so it goes in the complete opposite direction of Hirotaka's style to provide a scene far closer to horror in origin and feel.

And now we arrive at the climax of this horror, which I think they do an outstanding job with. They restrain themselves and don't go for jumpscares or anything primitive or childish within that range, and instead opt for that seeping terror. Something that appears slowly, but remains absolute in the character's vision, something that they are forced to recognize and become aware of as it creeps towards them.

Once more, you'll also see that they make full use of intense camera angles and closeups to bring that horror closer to the surface. To take the first person perspective of Kiruko looking down at the monster, and then follow up with a closeup on their reaction, it's a really great approach to cultivating and expressing that fear to the viewer.

Also, while you might be able to say it's "only" a stylistic choice, the color palette once Kiruko finds the big/parent hiruko becomes skewed. It's a really really great and subtle difference that gives viewers a visual cue as to what's happening, to sort of hint that things aren't exactly as they seem. Such a great idea considering the manga was unable to play with color to provide hints and context clues to readers during this piece.

Anyways, just more of the aggressive camera angles, layouts, and close ups because they're so damn good.

And then there's the icing on the cake with this sequence. The desperation in Kiruko's voice, the slow but deliberate movements to show Kiruko how unstoppable these monsters are, the terrible sounds that arise from their bodies. It's all incredibly harrowing and disturbing, and continues to play right into the hands of the staff. High overhead camera positions, intense angles and first person perspectives, closeups that provide the intensity and fear in each moment, and a soundtrack that plays directly into that fear. It's just such an incredible scene that caps off the brutal and terrifying basement sequence.

Anyways! We've made it out the other side of the horror, so I'll just touch on a few other clips and aspects of the episode, because largely speaking, this basement sequence is where we're led.

Yes, there's pieces about Kiruko's nerves getting to her because she's got a chance of meeting Dr. Usami, but the pieces like that are rather clear cut and well enough expressed that I don't feel a need to touch upon them.

So, the cool pieces. I really like how static the framing is on Maru and Kiruko's conversation with Liviuman. They continue to make use of that first person perspective within this conversation as well, which leads to some great scenes, and even pieces that prep viewers for horror, like this dolly zoom. Of course, the sequence isn't without its opposing scenes that play further into that sense of voyeurism and tie into the high angle and distant direction of the basement sequence. It's really impressive how well they're able to juggle the two opposing approaches, and reconcile them with one another to create a cohesive feel.

Before getting to the last real piece of discussion, I just wanted to mention how well the comedy does in this episode to break tensions and restart the process of building it back up. Just the right amount of pause before engaging in the humor, and it's very casual and simple stuff that doesn't take much to be well delivered. A really simple piece, but I feel like it does a good job of giving breaks and helping the episode feel less like a constantly spinning wheel, and more like a varied climb towards its peak.

So, the very last piece: Liviuman and The Immortal Order. I really like how they depict both of these organizations in the anime, with the additions of motion and sound. Not that you can't get the same vibe from both in the manga, but that it's a far stronger felt experience in the anime.

Liviuman is sensationalist, they're over the top and incredibly into what they're doing, believing themselves to be perfectly in the right as a group against most of technology. It's just... hard, to fall in with their side when The Immortal Order has been nearly indifferent to the protests of Liviuman. Even further is the fact that Liviuman's leader, Mizuhashi, had their leg amputated, but admits to the fact that they suffered an injury to it. They pretty well neglect giving the entirety of the information in regards to the issue, as Mizuhashi themselves sought out treatment from The Immortal Order.

Anyways, I'm getting a bit off track, the point is that the anime does a really great job of showing the dichotomy between the terrible and unethical Immortal Order, and the faithful and pure Liviuman with sequences like this one. You really get a feel for how things are actually going down between the two groups when you get to see one of them like this.

And that brings us to the end of this episode. I would say it's very much one that serves to show viewers things, rather than one that weaves foreshadowing and theories into it. In a sense, it's a really straightforward episode about getting Maru and Kiruko into The Immortal Order. But, of course, Hirotaka, Production I.G, and Ishiguro sensei are all far better than that, so we get a look into how religion and other forms of belief are able to twist and malform populations. The simple act of not understanding allows groups to twist perception and belief and create sensationalist movements that, say, isolate humanity from technology. So at the end of the day, there's still some higher takeaway from the episode alongside it's incredible cultivation of horror and fear.

#heavenly delusion #tengoku daimakyou #天国大魔境 #production i.g #mori hirotaka #kiruko #maru #anime review #anime recommendation #anime and manga #anime #horror anime

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