Acony and her Army (mildly nsfw)

For the same thing both can be thought and can be.

In the year 285 the Emperor Diocletian determined that the millennium-old Roman state was too large a unit to control so it was best to split it into Eastern and Western halves.  It took the scanlating Rabbits far less time to reach the same conclusion, and so we find along with The Rabbit Reich (on my sidebar), The Club Cowslip.  The Reich is Western with a white background, martial tones ringing in the air, troops marching in and out of conventionality with confidence and vigor.  The Cowslip (Primula veris) is Eastern, shrouded in darkness, languishing in decadent comfort to the very end.

Of course, on festive occasions such as Easter both sites join their forces in celebration.  Last week our Scanlating Blitz yielded five releases in as many days. From Acony through Okamax to Evangelion doujinshi, it was a clear display of the might of the Rabbit Legions.  In this post I’ll take you on a tour of the releases.

No single thing uttered by someone has a single meaning...

1. Acony

The Faberge of our Easter release collection, Acony kicked it off on April 8th.  This is a manga by Kei Toume, a woman as infamous for leaving a trail of unfinished works as she is famous for doing such a darn good job on them. Acony is peculiar because it is something like Kei’s hobby, she releases chapters whenever she has time and is in the mood.  It took about 6 years for the first volume to come out!

I’d rather not say what it’s about, only that it includes supernatural elements, comedy, heavy doses of melancholy and all of it couched in technico-aesthetic goodness.  The first volume has been totally scanlated in French and Spanish (the Spanish based off of the French, I think, though I might be mistaken) but it was incomplete in English so we’ve picked it up.  Go to the website and take a look!  Honestly, you don’t want to make Acony angry.

She did what she did either because of the desires of Fortune, the decisions of the gods, and the decrees of Necessity, or because she was abducted by force, or because she was persuaded by the spoken word, or because she was overwhelmed by love.

2. Eva Ero Ero

Two days later The Club Cowslip brough us this Eva doujin by Yukimi.  There’s some blatant false advertising here, as the cover of the book has Rei Ayanami but the story itself it completely Ritsuko x Maya.  And Commander Ikari plays an important role as well.

This story’s interesting because it could be easily worked into the canonical Eva plot, like Re-Take did with such success before.  Then again, this is way more focused on sensual matters and is very, very explicit.

She is regarded even by mortals as inherent in their bodies...

3. Peony Pavilion

The cowslips continued to bloom and the 11th saw this work come to light.  I’d never actually heard of Zen Yasumori before, but I can see the guy is ridiculously talented.  The subject matter of the story is, well, twisted.  I mean, do you remember that room your Mom told you never to go into?  You know, the old one with all the strange furniture?  And then one day you went in and saw a strange mirror?  And when you looked in the mirror you and your buddy Joe turned into beautiful young maidens with long penises?  If you don’t remember, then this story might help you recover that memory.

Corpses should be disposed of more readily than dung.

4. My Street

The Reich came back on the 12th with chapter four of this manhua.

I must admit I am as confused about the plot here as I was midway through watching Last Exile.  But just as everything came together at the end of Exile, I am sure that this will get clearer as we go on.  During this chapter I found myself wondering how it would look like animated.  I can’t decide whether dark tones or bright tones should dominate.  Please check it out and help me decide!

BTW, how come Maestro Delphine got beat so easily?!  There’s no justice in Animeland.

Water is the first principle...

5. Okamax Filtered

Monday closed the show with a mini-comic from Okama’s Okamax artbook.  I don’t think I have actually written a post on this guy so let me say a couple of things.

This guy can do anything he wants: he’s up there with ABe and Murata in my opinion.  If he’s not as famous it is simply because he’s a horny dude who, rather than keeping a stash of self-made hentai pics all to himself, is comfortable with alienating himself from the mainstream and putting out what he himself likes to do.  Of course, I don’t know him personally but this is my sense of things.

I hear of booksellers refusing to stock the Okamax artbook because it is deemed too risque.  Anyway, this particular story Filtered is Okama at his best.  Think of Hanafuda stripped of its convoluted plot and its superfluous characters, its fox ears and its vain dresses.  5 pages of LOVE.  Period.

***

Head on to The Rabbit Reich and The Club Cowslip and enjoy!

P.S. The captions are quotes from 6 Pre-Socratic and Sophist philosophers.

~ by Haloed Bane on April 15, 2009.