Eromanga Toshokan is a brand new column here at HD, launched in our continuing effort to expose just how much of a sicko Shingo is fans to an oft-downloaded but seldom deeply probed segment of Japan’s visual culture: the wild world of eromanga (no, not the Australian town). For our first entry we bring you a review of the recently released Giri Giri Sisters, the second tankoubon from doujin veteran Kisaragi Gunma. Note: this post is 18+ only and not safe for perusal at work.
Title: Giri Giri Sisters (ギリギリ Sisters)
Author: gumma (Kisaragi Gunma, 如月群真)
Release Date: August 18th, 2007
Publisher: Core Magazine
Imprint: Megastore Comics
Availability: Mangaoh
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At a glance:
Art: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★☆
Ero: ★★★★★
Mangaka Kisaragi Gunma (aka. gumma) has been active on the doujin scene since the summer of 2003, and over the past four years has produced both several volumes of doujinshi and regular contributions to serial eromanga anthology magazine Comic Megastore. The latter resulted in his first tankoubon release Love Selection in June of 2006, and was followed in August of this year with Giri Giri Sisters, his second and most recent volume of eromanga work.
In my opinion the key to Gunma’s unique style is his liberal use of lines as well as tones in the definition of clothing and body shape. This added definition portrays a solidity and sensual realism of figure that coupled with a keen sense of eroticism in facial expressions and proportions has won his work high acclaim; as a follower of his work from his Stellvia doujin days I’ve been quite happy to observe the trajectory that has seen him producing in enough volume to bring out not one but two anthologies of his manga.
In Giri Giri Sisters Gunma applies his trademark rough, full-bodied pen style with undiminished effectiveness, navigating first through the four part story that gives the volume its name followed by five more stand alone chapters and an epilogue. The themes covered are broad, from the four part story of in-law relations that leads the book through the tale of an indignant iinchou, a gravure idol and her younger brother, a very devoted nurse, an equally devoted teacher, and the joys of a private tutor. It’s a read that’s easy on the eyes in more ways than one, with all stories fully consensual and all of the sexiness with none of the bitter aftertaste associated with some harder fare.
In short, this is a book I can recommend without hesitation to anyone at all disposed to the purchase of such items. It has no real negatives, unless you count lots and lots of sex without much room for a deep storyline to be a bad thing; the themes are conventional, but he does them so well that it doesn’t matter.
Overall Score: ★★★★★
Since this is the first piece in what will hopefully become a long-running series I’m looking for comments and suggestions as it gets off the ground. First of all, are reviews of eromanga something people are interested in? I’ll probably do them regardless, but if you think they’re particularly useful (or not) I’d be happy to hear. Secondly, any suggestions on the format, or specific information you’d like me to include? My goal is to be reasonably thorough, so if there’s anything glaringly missing I’d appreciate input there as well.
Stay tuned for Eromanga Toshokan vol. 2~!
Story wise, kinda preferred Love Selection to this one. Art is pretty much the same though.
Yeah, gumma’s style hasn’t changed noticeably since Love Selection. I agree that the stories here aren’t quite as hot… I wonder if he’s been a bit low on ideas of late, it doesn’t seem that he’s done any serial manga work since early this year. A great book all the same, though.
This is why I love HD; I approve of this eromanga reviews.
I liked the inclusion of the ero factor, as some artists may not have a great art, but compensate with a good sense of erotism.
Something I like about Gunma, besides the points you mentioned, is that he has a well defined narrative in his illustrations; some artists just splash the pages with drawings in no particular order.
how to be objective?
>>Nemo_N
I’m glad to hear it! And I agree, I think there are artists who are technically quite accomplished but not so well able to convey the sensuality required for eromanga, and vice versa.
Your point about a clear narrative flow is good; perhaps the most extreme example I can think of to the contrary is Synthetic Garden, whose stuff is so intense and messy that it can’t really be followed…
>>lc
All reviews have an inherently subjective component, so what you’re ultimately getting is my own opinion. I do try to present as much factual material related to the subject as possible, though.
Perhaps you can touch more on the main theme of each tankoubon you review. Cosplay, loli, bakunyuu, etc.
>>Shingo
You know, no one would have known about the town had you not mentioned it… I do, but that’s beside the point, but a Sydney Morning Herald travel article alluded to the two definitions of “Eromanga”.
As for suggestions… “Girlfriend”, illustrated by the artist Bettencourt. Darn’d fine drama, lovely artwork. Best stories (IMHO) are the ones about the airhead and her otaku boyfriend, who is more romantic than she guesses- oh, and hardly any nudity in those stories.
I am definitly interested in ero-manga reviews.
I own all volumes put out by Icarus, as well as Pink Sniper and Domin-8 Me from Eros (with Milk Mama on order). I regularly buy Comic Tenma, which I enjoy dispite not being able to read Japanese. I also own a few h-doujinshi.
So please, continue with this.
I’m digging on the eromanga review idea.
Gunma’s a freaking beast. His take on the ideal female form is unique enough to stand out from the crowd (I love how some of his heroines have legs just shy of being short, something I usually don’t see as erotic or not.) He does the best doggy shots in the bidness and his facials aren’t too far behind.
I do wonder why he does so much incest stuff though. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.
Suggestion for the next one? Iruma freakin’ Kamiri! I have a stack of HGBC releases bigger than my head (I got a big damn head) and I’m sure I’ve wasted more than my fair share of time talking him up with the guys working the Hen Da Ne booth.
Oh, this is great. Your “Creator Spotlight” articles have been very good, and this seems like a nice complement to them..
I look forward to Vol. 2
>>Jankars
Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll try to focus on clearly describing book themes in the future.
>>Sydney2K
I thought “Eromanga” the town was pretty well known for its infamous name… maybe only here in Japan. I’d be curious to see the Morning Herald article.
Looking up Bettencourt’s Girlfriend it seems it’s a seinen manga and not seijin muke; I’ll be focusing on the latter here, I’m afraid.
>>Jeff Flowers
I plan to try to review Icarus titles in the future, if possible; I have a couple of the Japanese editions of their books that I want to get to soon. Legitimately licensed English language eromanga is a cause worth supporting!
>>lostdog
I think there’s technically only one incest story in this book, though you have a point, it does seem to be more than a passing interest of his…
I flipped through the tankoubon Iruma Kamiri released recently, but I don’t think I picked it up. I’ll have to check the bookshelf… it would be a good candidate for review, that’s for sure.
>>YnY-u
Thanks! One of my top priorities right now is to get a new Creator Spotlight up; while Sano certainly deserves all the exposure he can get I think it’s about time to find a fresh face for the upper left corner of the site. ^^;;
Eromanga in Australia…
First time I’ve heard about it. But the funniest damn thing I’ve heard in the past couple of weeks.
I am another supporter of the idea of an eromanga column, and am very happy that you chose _Giri Giri Sisters_, as I am also a fan of Gunma’s work. In addition to themes of the volume in question, IMHO you should include the ISBN so that it is easier for readers to track down the book (perhaps it’s time to become an Amazon.co.jp affiliate?).
While reviewing Icarus and Eros/Studio Proteus’ offers would be good, I am more interested in manga that has not been commercially released in English, especially since I do not know what is actually available.
As for suggestions, perhaps you might review something by Beauty Hair?
>>Agent Wax
Indeed, one of those stranger-than-fiction coincidences that can’t help but inspire a laugh. :3
>>DocWatson
Great suggestions, thanks. I can certainly include more detailed information in future reviews; HD is an Amazon affiliate already, but they don’t ship products tagged “adult” outside of Japan, so I didn’t see the use of including links here. I shall do so in the future.
The vast majority of the manga I’ll be reviewing are books that aren’t commercially available outside of Japan, out of both choice and necessity. In the few cases where material in my collection coincides with stuff that’s come out in the US I’ll certainly mention that fact, as I think supporting the international industry is a Good Thing.
Beauty Hair is a great idea for a review subject. I’d review the original Misshitsu if I could track it down (other than in scans); last time I saw it for sale was for a few thousand yen at K-Books, but that was two or three years ago.
ha, I heard also heard about the Eromanga Inland Sea, in a high school Geography class.
The sad part is that the town of eromanga is so far inland it probably doesn’t have any broadband coverage or decent phone coverage, so unless you bought some eromanga to read, it isn’t going to live up to your expectations.
There’s also the languages of erromanga, so I guess you can speak it too.
And last but not least, there’s nearby “Eromango Island”. I suppose that’s where perverts grow their delicious juicy mangos, among other tropical fruits used as euphemisms, like melons and bananas.
While this column looks good and decent eromanga reviews are always appreciated, any cahnce of doing another creator spotlight? I suppose this counts as sort of a creator spotlight too…
>>Insectice
Thanks for the geography lesson, haha… I wonder how many Japanese tourists go to Eromanga just for the name.
Regarding the creator spotlight, getting a new one up there is a very high priority and will probably happen in the next week or so. I’ve been waffling over who to cover, but the selection is narrowed down pretty well now…
>>Shingo
What is seijin muke- I’m afraid the wiki.jp article is in a language I can’t read (and excite.jp doesn’t seem to like it… hmmm…)
Also, tried looking for the article, but it was a long time ago, so I doubt I’ll be able to find it again.
>>DocWatson
The other thing you need to watch out for is your local Customs authorities. Whilst I doubt that Shingo will review any child porn, it won’t stop any overly diligent law enforcement wowser from detaining the parcel if they feel it violates local sensibilities.
So yeah, buyer beware- and be careful.
Wow…..nice review and the pictures you provide are more than enough to make me want to go and get this book- and I don’t even read Japanese!! Curse you Shingo!!! First it was the figures now it’s books I can’t even read!! LOL.
What I am finding that I like the most of this one review provided are the the pictures shown in that the girls looks “real” and “believeable” as opposed to super sized boobs and anorextic waist lines that is relied upon to sell soooooo many comics and things in general. They have a little bit of size to their proportions. Hats off to the artist.
Overall review of the review- maybe go to full colored circles instead of empty squares- it’s just easier on the eyes to count up. But yeah- please continue to do these reviews. Maybe give an opinion/review what you would consider a “bad” Eromanga book and why. But other than that, spot on feature that I will look forward to again.
“Books I can’t even read” are a time-honored tradition among fans of Japanese 2D culture, no? :D
I agree that one of Gunma’s strengths is that his portrayals of body shape are largely within the realm of realism (though I also really dig the fantastically unrealistic work of other artists…).
Regarding the “squares”, those are actually stars in Unicode / Japanese font; it’s an encoding issue, so if you switch from your default browser encoding to Unicode you should be able to view them just fine. I was thinking of using pngs for the stars instead but I couldn’t resist the ones right there in the character set.
Shingo,
The ISBN would still be useful, as YesAsia can be searched via ISBN as well.
>> Shingo (post #14)
I haven’t actually ordered from Amazon.co.jp ^_^;, so the shipping restriction on adult materials escaped me. Still, there are deputy services.
>> Sydney2K (post #17)
I’m in the United States, which has (or so I gather) a relatively lax policy on importing adult materials. At least, I’ve never had a problem with the hentai art books and laser discs I’ve ordered over the years.
“seijin muke”: “seijin”: “adult”; “muke”: “aimed at / target towards / intended for”–see AnimeLab.com’s dictionary (a port of the EDICT and KANJIDIC files). (I knew seijin, but “muke” I was unfamiliar with.)
>>Jeff Flowers
Roger, I didn’t know that YesAsia carried eromanga. Thanks for the tip. Memo memo…
>>DocWatson
I’ll be listing Amazon links from here on, but I’m not sure why someone would pay extra to order via a proxy service from Amazon when they could use the Rikai plugin or wwwjdic and order at retail price from Mangaoh. To each his own, though.
A note on the Japanese “seijin muke manga” Wikipedia entry: a look at the alternate languages section at the bottom of the left hand Wiki sidebar often does wonders. :3