A few months ago a new publisher publishing directly from Japanese creators emerged that’s fairly unique — Irodori Comics, and in particular, them launching a non-erotic doujinshi line. That’s what leads us to Irodori Comics Aqua, and with a couple titles available for purchase digitally, it was finally time to go check them out. Since they’re all pretty short, I put the 5 titles I reviewed together. Note: I got all of these on ComiXology.
Title: Raincoat Kids
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural
Publisher: Irodori Inc
Creator: Yoimachi Meme
Translator: Ed Ayes
Raincoat Kids is a beautifully drawn work where by the end I said, “…What am I missing here? Why do I not like this?”
Following a message left on a lantern, Minato guides his little sister, Shizu, and her “bodyguard”, Toka, to see their father in Tokyo. But it’s not your standard Tokyo — every city they’ve gone to is either submerged in water or it’s just raining a lot, and the three can only travel via walking or boat (unclear at this point if there’s any other sort of transportation), and each city seems to have something distinct about them. One of those cities involves a ghost, which ends up getting Minato to recall his difficult past and abandon his two companions.
Reading and looking at the art is great. It totally has that all-ages feel, and the drawings of the city, the water, the lantern, etc., is fantastic. Shizu is so cute. There are also some really creative moments, especially when Minato starts getting haunted by the ghost, where even the comic bubbles and text reflect the harrowed state he’s in.
So all that said, I’ve read this twice, and walked away wondering why this didn’t feel engaging. Maybe it was the different types of stories of varying length. Maybe the reason these three are traveling isn’t all that compelling to me. Maybe it would’ve been better to have two characters instead of three. In whatever case, by the end I was just wishing I liked this a lot more, but realize that I’m fine with just reading this one issue of Raincoat Kids.
Justin’s rating: 2 out of 5
Title: Love Letter For My Love Then and Now
Genre: Romance, Slice of Life
Publisher: Irodori Inc
Creator: Yuuki Satou
Translator: Ed Ayes
Kazuya has had a crush on Miki since elementary school, middle school, and high school. Each year he wrote a love letter to give to her, and promptly chickened out on doing so. But lo and behold, as grown adults, he manages to finally deliver those letters to her!
…As they’re, you know, already boyfriend-girlfriend. What in the wide world of romance is happening?!?
Love Letter For My Love Then and Now is at least a neat spin on the rom-com genre: these two, Kazuya Kawaguchi and Miki Toda, are already together. What we end up going through in about 32-33 pages is what happened before then — and it might’ve involved some pride. They both end up meeting up at a high school reunion, and promptly deny that they saw each other at school (they did). With their lies intact, they both try to maintain this until Kazuya ends up stepping in to get her away from two annoying dudes after the reunion. This leads to one big reveal, the two getting to know each other, and then these two somehow managing to both be at his apartment (that’s due to a rainstorm!). All in all, this leads to them managing to formally go out.
Which leads to this question: would it have been better to save the reveal about the love letters at the end? Or not even share them at all? I think if it was a longer title, it would’ve made more sense to do that. For a rom-com it’s always a question of will they or won’t they get together, and unless the stories that lead up to that set up in the first chapter is good/great, you risk losing that audience really fast since you know that they’re a couple.
But the structure of this doujinshi title and it’s relative length makes the early reveal work in its favor. You combine that, how these two characters interact, and the artwork, and you get a work that feels quite wholesome and sweet. There are many questions that I’d love to have answers to that won’t be answered because of its length. But the strongest one for me is how is this couple doing now that they’re together? I’d really love to know that! For sure recommending this one.
Justin’s rating: 4 out of 5
Title: No Guard Wife
Genre: Romance, Slice of Life
Publisher: Irodori Inc
Creator: Yano Toshinori
Translator: Ed Ayes
No Guard Wife is two things: simple and horny. Juri Takasaka has been living with her boyfriend/co-worker for years, and all is going great — until he asks to marry her. Overwhelmed with joy, she accepts and commits to being a full-time housewife.
The main hook for this one is seeing Juri’s attempts at trying to be extremely lovey-dovey to her husband — from simple things such as making bento boxes to emerging out of the bath with just a towel on — only for said husband to end up being more lovey-dovey to her first! That generally just means we see these two adults in a normal relationship, complete with either lots of love…or lots of loving each other directly.
So in general, your like of No Guard Wife is gonna depend heavily on if you’ll enjoy seeing Juri getting super confident/then aroused/then embarrassed or somehow bashful. That’s it. It’s not hiding anything else. About the only time where it abandons the one-page of Juri’s blushing face is when the two go to the beach — that’s a multi-page story, with extra chapters. And it’s pretty short — 22 pages.
So all of that said, I did appreciate a couple of the stories of Juri going after her husband, with her husband being thoughtful in his responses. The drawings of Juri are great (and voluptuous). Not sure I’ll remember this a month’s time, but if more stories involving these two occur, I wouldn’t mind giving them a read.
Justin’s rating: 3 out of 5
Title: My Wife Is an Oni
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Irodori Inc
Creator: Yamato Nadeshiko (Studio Nadeshiko)
Translator: Ed Ayes
Long day at work, time to head home, relax, and have your lovely oni wife wielding a knife awaiting you at the door.
No seriously, for Tomoyuki, his wife is an oni. And wields a knife.
Mitsuki and Tomoyuki have known each other for a long time, and it eventually leads to the two getting married. We basically just get her reaction to her hard-working husband, who seems to show up late a lot. She’s the classic strong (well, she is an oni), tsundere type, but she does love Tomoyuki. She dotes on him whenever he ends up treating her (like when he remembered the first time they met) and it’s kinda cute seeing a fairly short guy giving a shoulder massage to her. And in pretty much every chapter she’s always angry with him and wielding a dangerous weapon (even the pan!) — and by the end of the chapter this changes.
One thing that helps is that we get the story from both perspectives. So we get a chapter where Tomoyuki says his wife is an oni, but then we’ll get a chapter where Mitsuki enjoys spending time with him at the house. Because of this, it makes each other’s reactions fairly fresh. The art works well enough for me in that it’s nowhere near a turn off, and the pages clearly emphasize what’s going on in each panel.
So in short, My Wife Is an Oni was really fun. Would love to see more stories involving these two love birds.
Justin’s rating: 4 out of 5
Title: Riverbed Projector: Lights of the Sumida River
Genre: Supernatural
Publisher: Irodori Inc
Creator: Yoimachi Meme
Translator: Ed Ayes
Tadashi has been getting visits from his classmate Sumida. Why? Because after a harrowing event at his school, he’s shut himself in his room and hasn’t left his house. Sumida, whom he doesn’t know well at all, has been providing him with any handouts and school updates. Nothing seems amiss, until, after she leaves a notebook at his house and he tries to take it back to her, he learns there’s no one in his class named Sumida. This then begins something far larger than he might’ve thought…
Well, I’m assuming it’s far larger, but the manga ends at a cliffhanger, so my immediate reaction was, “No! I wanted more!” There’s a bit of explaining that has to be done — namely, who is Sumida, and why was she going to his house? What are those pictures he has plastered on his wall? What exactly was the event that left him unable to leave his house? Some of these questions were answered, but others are left unanswered, and when I got to the end I was not the happiest camper.
That’s a good thing, because everything about Riverbed Projector was fantastic. The art, which is from the creator of Raincoat Kids, is still good, with drawings representing Tadashi’s mental state, how he acts around people (his mom for example), and when he shows up at a certain area are drawn really well. The story is intriguing not just from the questions it leaves, but because of how it leaves Tadashi. It’s clear he’s not well, and he’s gonna have to remember something to likely get out of it. I was slightly disappointed at one aspect of the twist, but since this isn’t the longest story, it’s probably best to keep it simple.
Anyways, I do hope another chapter of this comes out soon, as it kept my interest and I for sure want to read more of it.
Justin’s Rating: 4 out of 5