Kuro Lala One-Shot: "Girl on a Platter" by Meca Tanaka

This one-shot is in line with "World End Garden" and "Ryuu no Moriuta".  It's shorter than either one-shot, but I feel that this one-shot is better than "Ryuu no Moriuta" because the main female character, Tsubame, is much more likable.  ("World End Garden remains my favorite one-shot.) I sorta wonder how the story would have been different if "Ryuu no Moriuta" has a stoic female character like Tsubame.  In terms of Meca Tanaka works, this one-shot feels very different to me.  It's much more mature and has a little more bite in the underlying message than the other works I've read.  I love it!  I hope to see more works like this from Meca Tanaka in the future.  I also hope she does more one-shots because this one is really good.  Thank you Tanaka-sensei :).

Onto the links!

Update 9/26/2011:  Page 8 reworked.  You may want to re-download it for your private archive.
Links to "Girl on a Platter":  (Zip) (PDF) Updating files

Next up!  We are making a last minute scramble to complete "Rex Fabula" chapter 2 for Bakeneko's Lair, "Akagami no Shirayukihime" chapter 26, and the final "Hana Kimi" After Story featuring Sano and Mizuki.  We've got 4 days...I can guarantee "Rex Fabula" and "Hana Kimi".  AnS will most likely come out after Magnolia in early October.

One-Shot: Ryuu no Moriuta ("Lullaby for a Dragon")

Here is Akizuki Sorata's latest one-shot, "Lullaby for a Dragon".  I think this one-shot is visually gorgeous and the main character Kito is interesting.

Links to "Lullaby for a Dragon":  (Zip) (PDF -- mobile and tablets)

More Thoughts on this One-shot:
Despite the beautiful artwork and interesting lead male character, this one-shot ultimately fails for me.  Shuen is immature and acts like a self-indulgent 3-year.  Personally, I would have longed for the day to be free of Shuen's non-stop crying, whining, and tripping.  Shuen's immaturity is a fatal wound to the story since there's no way for Kito to have a deep and meaningful romantic relationship with her.  It's so bad that I think the story could have proceeded without her and focused exclusively on Kito's worries about becoming a heavenly Dragon -- losing his humanity, the loneliness he's always felt, and whether he can live up to the villagers' expectations.  In order to have Shuen be a meaningful part of the story, there had to be some strong romantic feelings involved.  Kito had to have something to lose in order for there to be dramatic tension.  But, Kito was already detached from the world and consciously detached himself from Shuen.  I was VERY peeved.  There was supposed to be some grand romantic act that leaves Shuen with a momento of Kito -- preferably a baby to continue the Dragon clan bloodline...and not some half-assed come hug me moment and the ending peck on the cheek.  UGH!!!  So much FAIL!!!

Anyhow...I'm done translating Akizuki Sorata for a while.  I'll gladly edit the images, but I can't take anymore complicated word-salad that amounts to "meh" with no emotional payoff.

One-Shot: "Nanairo no Mukou" ("The Other Side of the Rainbow")

Finally!  Here is our big spring one-shot "Nanairo no Mukou". I've been wanting to translate this one-shot since it came out, but 74-pages seemed way too daunting.  I'm very proud that we were able to complete this one-shot in a timely manner.  A big thanks to all the Omari's Sister volunteers who worked on this :).

This one-shot is not all that it seems.  Don't be fooled by all the rainbows.  Like "World End Garden", this story has a range of emotions.

Oh!  Here's a little explanation of the English title I chose.

"Nanairo no Mukou" literally means "the other side of the seven colors".  In Japanese there is one word, "Nanairo", that describes the 7 prismatic colors.  I though it would sound kind of goofy to call the one-shot "The Other Side of the Seven Prismatic Colors", so I chose "Rainbow" because that's what we call the 7 prismatic colors and rainbows are a key thematic element in this story.

I really love the easy and fluid drawing style presented in this one-shot and felt inspired to make a wallpaper.  I made is all watercolorly.  Right click on the images below to download the wallpaper.

1600x1200 pixels

1920x1080 pixels

And now on to the links!

Links to download "Nanairo no Mukou": (Zip) (PDF -- tablets and mobiles) Updating files...come back in 15-minutes.

My thoughts on this one-shot:

I really wanted Ryousuke to find his sister in Nijigahara.  I wanted him to know that she was all right and for her to forgive him.    But, I guess that would have been kinda cloying. Moving on...this story reminded a bit of "The Wizard of Oz", or should I more precisely say the song "Somewhere over the Rainbow".  I always thought that was a song for very sad people because only people not satisfied with life in the real world dream of a better life in a world far away.   In this story Ryousuke is probably near the lowest depth of childhood pain.  His sister just died and his parents are splitting up and there's nothing Ryousuke can do about it. Consequently, he decides to run away from home and hopes that his parents notice.  I don't like the message let at the end of this story that running away from home will bring families back together.  Divorce is a hard thing, but it never has anything to do with the children and children can't do anything to bring their parents back together.  I think, though, that importance of his running away is that Ryousuke did something.  Good or bad, he made a statement and his parents finally took notice of him.

I really love the easy and free drawing style in this oneshot.  Almost every page in this one-shot has the manga equivalent of beautiful cinematography.  I want to spend the weekend relaxing in Nijigahara sleeping under trees and eating peaches.   Nijigahara looks like the embodiment of spring to me.

Next up!

Next up is "Akagami no Shirayukihime" chapter 24 followed by the one-shot "3 Hearts".  "3-Hearts" is a really beautifully drawn one-shot.  I'm looking forward to releasing it :).