Plenty of Nothing

April 2018 Afternoon Cover

The first installment of Kio Shimoku's new manga Hashikko Ensemble is out, and Afternoon gave it the magazine cover. I'm greatly encouraged by the Ogiue/Renko-looking character in the upper left, and vaguely anxious about the Kuchiki-looking character at the bottom. Source.

The meaning of hashikko.

Kurachitto no Machi (2002)

Kio Shimoku had a two-chapter manga called Kurachitto no Machi in 2002, just before Genshiken began. The blonde man's profile is very much in his style of that time. Source.

Kio Shimoku Has a New Series

Kio Shimoku has a new manga starting in February. It's set in high school and ships industrial arts students x choir. The title seems to be Hashikko Ensemble (Temporary). Source.

Genshiken Menu

The release of the Genshiken Nidaime anime in 2013 was the occasion for this three menu cross-promotion.

Genshiken Reissue

The first series of Genshiken is getting reissued in Japan in a five volume set with new covers. Kio Shimoku has always liked high-angle compositions like this one. The cover of the first volume of Spotted Flower has the two main characters looking up at you. And the famous panel of Sasahara's first visit at Kousaka's room in volume one of Genshiken takes the point of view of a ceiling corner. It's a good way for Kio to fit a lot of characters and their stuff into the picture, while putting you the viewer in the role of floating naked fujoshi. Source.

The Moon Is Beautiful, Isn't It

Kio Shimoku moves okatu emotional inarticulateness into the mainstream of the Japanese literary tradition with this exchange in chapter 126. Since Heian times the rule has been the same: if you don't know how to talk about your heart, talk about the moon. Also: Toto Neechan.

Genshiken Cliffhanger

Genshiken chapter 121 ends with Madarame apparently about to announce his choice of partner from among the four members of the Mada harem. This storyline Who will Madarame end up with? has dominated the manga for over half of the run of Genshiken Nidaime, since 2012 at least, pushing aside other questions like Who is the next president? and Will Ogiue make it as a manga artist? In the original run of Genshiken an academic year used to last two or three volumes, but the year of Ogiue's presidency has taken up eleven volumes to date. The current club trip to Nikkō, with its Mada harem kujibiki, has been going on since chapter 107 (first published in December 2014) or over two volumes. That storyline has been drawn out like a bowstring.

If I were writing this story, I'd release the arrow now. I think chapter 122 will begin several months into the next academic year. Someone else will be president, summer Comifes will be coming up or have already passed, there will be one or two new members, some of the old ones will be gone, and Madarame's announcement will already be club history. Part of what will keep the readers' involved will be the fascination of piecing together what happened, and I'm sure Kio will employ his powers of deferral to spin that out, ut there will also be the fascination of time advancing, which has been absent for a while.

I'll be proved wrong March 25th.

The Rule of Thirds

Continuing on the theme of what a good composer Kio Shimoku is, chapter 118 provides a striking example of the rule of thirds. This panel divides into vertical thirds at the tree and the hank of hair between Sue's eyes, and horizontally along the fence roof, and at Sue's mouth.

Horizontal

For someone who works in a language that is usually written vertically, Kio Shimoku makes some lovely horizontal panels. This one from Genshiken chapter 116 puts me in mind of some of the compositions in Dürer's Netherlands Sketchbook, which was in a landscape format, combining a portrait with a townscape. In Rika's case, it's the Nikkō shrine, where her Japanese history nerd side shines brightly.

Shimo-imaichi Station

Top: Genshiken, chapter 107, page 17. Bottom: Shimo-imaichi Station. This stock image looks like it could be the very reference photo used by Kio Shimoku. [Probably not. Shimoku says right in the chapter that he went to Nikko to take reference photos himself. This is what I get for not learning Japanese.]