Gurihon (Hideo Azuma) - "Dream Girl"

    I think this is the most beautiful story I've posted so far.

    Yes, I recognize that really isn't saying much. My original intention for this scanlation project being to translate guromanga, I didn't necessarily think I'd be working on stuff like this after a few months. But after deciding that translating stories from the doujinshi mangazine Cybele would be of some value to the anglosphere otaku community, I've become a little preoccupied with cuter stories than those written by mangaka like Jun Hayami.

    Originally released at Comiket 14 in the May 1980 issue of Cybele, the magazine's fourth edition, "Dream Girl" shows the legendary bishoujo mangaka Hideo Azuma (writing under the pseudonym Gurihon) at his most cryptic. Baring some resemblance (in my opinion) to experimental gekiga styles which were in 1980 represented most notably by Garo magazine, and particularly to the "dream" stories written for Garo by gekiga master Yoshiharu Tsuge some ten years before this one-shot's premiere, the story carries an impressively solemn tone for a work of only five pages.

    I chose this story for translation not only because it was in Cybele, but also because it reflects in an innovative way Azuma's desire to "erase himself" from his lolicon manga--something I elaborate on in my post on Azuma's first Cybele story, "Little Red Riding Hood in Wonderland." While that story aims to accomplish the erasure of what scholar Patrick W. Galbraith called the 'heroic male inserter' by replacing human male characters with Fritz the Cat-esque funny animals, "Dream Girl" instead effaces the wandering protagonist by depicting him in silhouette. Though his outline indeed resembles the scruffy design Azuma would typically use to insert himself into his manga, the shadowy figure has a greater capacity for the vicarious fantasy of readers. Though this may sound similar to the often faceless, oblique perverts so common in hentai today, Azuma instead uses this technique to offer a more self-aware--and self-critical--perspective on hentai and lolicon consumers.

    After originally appearing in Cybele, resources like Wikipedia suggest that the story was first included in Gansaku Hideo Hakkenden (Counterfeit Hideo Hakkenden) in 1985, but I've had some trouble verifying that information. However, I can confirm that it was for a fact included in the 2006 volume In a Veil of Darkness (in Japanese, Yoru no Tobari no Naka de). The raw scan I used for this upload was taken from the Cybele version.

    Though it's certainly not for everyone (as nothing I translate is), and certainly not to the taste of the forum-dwelling masturbators most likely to stumble upon this (as is probably the case with most of what I've translated), this wistful manga attests to why Hideo Azuma was--and remains--so highly respected by otaku, manga critics, and historians.

P.S.

    I've had a few people reach out to me with very kind words, including comments specifically about the Cybele translations. I'm incredibly thankful to any and all who are reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy the things I share!

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Hitomi

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Jun Hayami - "Miserable After School"

     Because I'm starting a new semester in grad school, the translations I've been working on may have to take a back seat for awhile. I do intend to keep translating things, but I'm not sure how many new projects I'll be picking up in the next few months. We'll just have to wait and see. 

    For that reason, though, I thought I'd go ahead and upload another one-shot from the Jun Hayami collection I've been slowly working on, Jun ni Monukari wa Aru: Hayami Jun Jisen Saitei Sakuhin-shuu. This story, filthier than the first story from this collection, premiered in Manga Galtopia before being included in this collection in 2001. Though far from being Hayami's most poetic piece, it features Hayami's beautiful signature art style, as refined as the tastes of those who will get the most use out of the material.

    Despite my commitment to my schoolwork, there are some releases readers can expect in the near future. I have another short one-shot from Hideo Azuma coming soon, and more Hayami is sure to follow.

    Until then, enjoy this scatological catastrophe, the sort of which is but an everyday occurrence in Hayami's bleak world.

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Mangadex

Hitomi

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Leonardo da Hideo (Hideo Azuma) - "Little Red Riding Hood in Wonderland"

     After translating Waho Konoma's "Alice the Little Squirrel" one-shot from the second issue of the legendary doujin magazine Cybele and referring to Patrick W. Galbraith's book Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan in my corresponding blog post, I decided that manga history geeks like myself would probably be more interested to read something from the inaugural issue of Cybele. Of course, Hideo Azuma's contribution to that volume was a natural choice.

    First published under the pseudonym 'Leonardo da Hideo' and later reprinted under another pseudonym, 'Leonard da Chinpo', "Little Red Riding Hood in Wonderland" debuted in Cybele at Comiket 11 on April 8, 1979. In 2015, the story was included in the collection Wonder Azuma Hideo Land.

    In the first chapter of his book, Galbraith highlights this story specifically as emblematic of the Lolicon Boom that Cybele ushered into otaku culture at that time. He draws a parallel between boys love manga, which was at that point the dominant genre at Comiket, with lolicon through this story because it eliminates male characters and emphasizes exploration of gender and sexuality without the intervention of a 'heroic male inserter'; Galbraith cites Azuma's desire to "erase himself" from the work in much the same way that many boys love manga 'erased' female bodies from romance narratives in order for its creators and audience to engage in gender and sexuality play while unburdened by the restrictions that gender normativity imposes. Here, Azuma is able to transgress what was then considered an 'unspeakable' taboo; acknowledging the 'kawaii ero' or 'cute eroticism' in shoujo manga or in the works of Osamu Tezuka.

    If I haven't yet made it clear enough, I thoroughly recommend Galbraith's book to anyone interested in gender and sexuality studies within manga. But to get to the one-shot itself--it's a Little Red Riding Hood parody featuring strictly bishoujo and funny animals. Yes, once again, this is furry shit. But this yiff is of legendary stature. Even if you're not really into funny animals, perhaps you'll appreciate that this work is essential in tracing the roots of contemporary eromanga.

    I should also mention that this piece is packed to the brim with wordplay and innuendo due to its extensive use of hiragana which could be translated in multiple ways dependent upon the kanji chosen. In multiple places I took liberties in an effort to compensate for what would be lost in translation, and at other points I included notes to describe the wordplay present in the Japanese. I'm satisfied with the translation as a happy medium between the literal and the localized, but this should be taken into consideration when reading.

    Enjoy!

P.S.

    A few of the notes I left in the early pages had to be written in such a small font size that some readers may have difficulty reading them, so I'll include them here:

(p. 1) - Here, Azuma is mocking the manga series Nippen no Miko-chan (1972-1984) written by Seika Nakayama (under the pseudonym Reiko Yabuki). The series was created to advertise a correspondence course in calligraphy.

(p. 1) - The pseudonym Azuma assumes here ('Amarashii') means 'ridiculous'.

(p. 2) - This is, of course, another pseudonym for Hideo Azuma. The second time this story was published, it was under the name 'Leonard da Chinpo'. 'Chinpo' is a word often used by children to mean 'penis'.

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Mangadex

Hitomi

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Rachi Meliae (Waho Konoma) - "Alice the Little Squirrel in Wonderland"

    Perhaps this isn't exactly 'grotesque' in the way that this blog's tagline suggests that my translations here would be. However, I think it fits in that it's what might be historically characterized as 'deviant' erotic art.

    To cut to the chase, this one-shot by Rachi Meliae (a pseudonym assumed by mangaka Waho Konoma) is furry shit. Maybe at the time it was released in 1979, it would have been classified as a funny animal comic in league with Robert Crumb's series Fritz the Cat. All in all, it's a short, silly one-shot gag manga with a bishoujo squirrel protagonist who I'd compare to, among other characters, Chibi-Neko from Yumiko Ooshima's The Star of Cottonland, a series which began its run about a year and a half prior, in March 1978. Chibi-Neko is sometimes identified as otaku media's very first nekomimi girl, but because I can't think of a good source at the time of writing, I'm not going to confidently make that claim. I will say, though, that Konoma's character Alice is among the earliest animal girls in the history of otaku media.

    Speaking of otaku, I'm behooved to acknowledge that I wouldn't know about this one-shot if it weren't for scholar Patrick W. Galbraith's progressive 2019 monograph Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan, which primarily concerns itself with the history of moe, the 2D complex, and state-sponsored restrictions on the ways in which people write, read, and interact with characters in a cosmologically liminal two-dimensional space. Of course, this means that a large portion of the book discusses lolicon and the Lolicon Boom of the early 1980's. Konoma's one-shot appeared in the second issue of the doujin manga magazine Cybele, the magazine which precipitated the Lolicon Boom after its first issue was released at Comiket 11 on April 8, 1979 (Konoma's one-shot, within the second issue, was released a day ahead of Comiket 12, on July 27, 1979). Cybele, a precursor to later bishoujo eromanga staples Lemon People and Manga Burikko, was published by the phenomenally influential mangaka Hideo Azuma and his publishing operation, which he called Mukiryoku Production. Even the manga in Cybele which were not Azuma's own contributions carry a distinct resemblance to Azuma's signature, Tezuka-influenced style, and "Alice the Little Squirrel in Wonderland" is no exception.

    This is all to say that Konoma's one-shot is an artifact from a pivotal moment in manga history, during the conception of a style that would go on to define the 1980's and influence works like Urusei Yatsura and Creamy Mami. I hope you enjoy it.

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Hitomi

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Jun Hayami - "Cold Fish"

    Jun Hayami is my favorite mangaka. Never have I felt catharsis quite like the kind I find in Hayami's scathing expressions of self-loathing and haunting, melancholic art style.

    After first appearing in an issue of Manga Galtopia magazine, this ero-guro one-shot was the first story in Hayami's 2001 collection Jun ni Monukari wa Aru: Hayami Jun Jisen Saitei Sakuhin-shuu, which I plan to translate fully.

    Hayami's sense of humor comes to the forefront here, but the cruelty of his world remains.

    I hope you enjoy!

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Mangadex

Hitomi

nhentai

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