Sorry for the delay... I used a few hours to think what to write here.
My history with Kirara is as long as my history with this wiki; with Hidamari Sketch being some of the earliest heavily edited work articles when I started here in 2008. Specifically, I was having a bad mood during the mid-2000s and found myself... less capable of enjoying Shōnen as before (I was better known for my involvement in Case Closed before that). Which means... I'm strictly speaking not a Kirara person, but more a Slice of Life person; my association with Kirara, thus, has lots to do with its large share of that market.
I'm slightly drifted away from it this decade, I've to admit. Nothing to do with fatigue, but more because I've been somewhat recovered from Angst Aversion and have been more receptive to more dramatic material (and even that might have to do with some of the Kirara works in the late 2010s, when some of these works—in my opinion—shifts into a more dramatic tone).
While I've been associated with certain Kirara series, there's only two animated Kirara series that I genuinely doesn't like: School-Live!, due to I considering it a horror series, and Bocchi the Rock!, due to the being uncomfortable to watch—being family member of someone with social anxiety of Hitori's scale, I can't watch it as a Slice-of-life piece.
Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
It may be for the best that you overcame your Angst Aversion, because I get the impression the Slice of Life moe boom might be on the way out. A lot of Kirara's post-2021 stuff (at least what I've seen scanlated) isn't what you'd expect the main Kirara magazine to put out. Aside from the two overtly-Yuri Genre series I mentioned, there's also the "office ladies in need of healing" subgenre, with Onee/Loli Cabaret Club (it's exactly what you think it is) and Relax, Yui-san, a manga about office ladies massaging each other while working late at night, which has a very webcomic-ish art style rather than the moe style Kirara has been coasting on for over a decade.
There was a definite tonal shift between when Stardust Telepath started in 2019 and when it got dramatic AF in 2021. I think Kirara had a few anime flops in that period, so I wonder if there was a deliberate editorial shift where they just said to Rasuko Okuma, "Ah, fuck it, make a drama if you want."
In one of her livestreams, Okuma said that her backstory for Umika involved her being bullied by her classmates to the point she believed she was an alien. Kirara put the kibosh on that for being too dark, but then last year they let her release chapter 46.1, which is all about bullying and psychological alienation. So something changed in four years.
Korean scans of Stardust Telepath chapter 48 just dropped. Though I had to rely on MTL, I still had a smile on my face the whole time I read it.
Who knew Haruno was so good at Battle Rapping?
I love this series, and its Genre Roulette. It can go from gut-wrenching drama to a goofy Breather Episode like this, and yet it all feels totally natural.
For one thing, HoshiTele's not an issue for me, but I'll monitor what's coming up. I still prefer works that are positive in tone, or at least, relaxing—HoshiTele, at least, has a light at the end of the tunnel.
Although, what I meant as a "dramatic shift" feels earlier than you suggested. I would say the third volume of KoiAsu (adopted as the second half of the anime and written in 2019/2020) is already rather dramatic by traditional Kirara standards, even just by reading the manga verbatim. I would say my Angst Aversion was gotten over by MachiMazo (which as you noted is always an outlier) and the aforementioned later half of KoiAsu combined.
(If you haven't realized already, the second half of my signature refers to the aforementioned part of KoiAsu—the idea of it fits my job as a biotech researcher. The first half? Case Closed's sixth Non-Serial Movie is one of the rare references to bioinformatics in anime.)
Edited by SamCurt on Jan 13th 2024 at 10:07:21 AM
Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova
Convenient Semi-Friend isn't un-positive, but it's got old exes making trouble and lots of "I don't know what my feelings are, so I'm going to send mixed signals" angst. It's kind of a Dancing Bear. If it were in Yuri Hime, it'd fit right in with Whisper Me a Love Song. Being published in Manga Time Kirara (the main one) makes it strange. I'm still not sure if it's a bold new direction for Kirara or desperate pandering to the Hit-yuri/Bocchi market.
Chimidoro Ice Cream, on the other hand, is positive AF (so far). Even though one of the girls is a literal zombie who rots in the sun and whose limbs break off in a spray of pixelated gore if you tug on them too hard, it has that pleasant "Everything is going to be alright" vibe most Kirara series have. It's just that every time the girls kiss, it's illustrated in the most erotic way possible.
I think what sets HoshiTele apart, even from MachiMazo (which deals with genocide and ethnic cleansing) is that it piles on the drama to Break the Cutie levels. Even into vol. 7, Izumo Itou has Shamiko keep up a hopeful attitude (probably influenced by Itou's own terrible health), but Rasuko Okuma fully commits to breaking the HoshiTele girls down into blubbering emotional wrecks, like in chapter 43.
Launched the page for Hiyo and Vivid!, a new series running in Carat.
Unlike the typical Cute Girls Doing Cute Things schtick, this one is pure mid-2000s-style comedy manga like A Channel (or Lucky Star). It's about a Youtuber who is all smiles transferring into a class with her biggest fan, a girl who is physically incapable of smiling, and the wacky stuff that happens when they bounce off each other.
Finished reading the Hoshitele manga yesterday (up to the latest translated chapter, which is 45), and...wow. Just wow. I was NOT expecting the manga to go where it went at all, after chapter 35 or so.
The entire Bad Alien arc was such a shock for me. Like, the drama in the anime is pretty much nothing compared to the manga, especially Yuu getting emotionally broken to pieces to the point of becoming psychotic. At least now we're moving onto something a little bit lighter, I hope.
Really really good manga, although reading all the post-anime chapters in one sitting without food or sleep probably scarred me psychologically.
Clear prop!
Quite unpredictable
Surprised Convenient Semi-Friend is in Kirara at all, from the description. Sounds pretty ecchi.
From what little I know of this magazine, isn't it supposed to be wholesome Slice of Life / Cute Girls Doing Cute Things stories with light yuri subtext?
"I don't have the power to reverse my destiny. [...] But I'm not going to turn away from my fate anymore." — Kiriya
That is the house brand Kirara built for themselves, yes. But they've had a string of anime flops lately, and "trashy relationship drama with tiddies galore" is exactly what I'd expect an ailing brand to do. Sex Sells, after all. I'm sure the executives looked at the pitiful sales for RPG Real Estate and fumbled around in a panic asking "What's popular?! Domestic Girlfriend?! Uh, do that!"
As for the "light yuri subtext", the author of Urara Meirochou mentioned in an afterword her original main character was a normal-looking girl with a black bob accompanied by her hawt snake-boi familiar. That version was "unceremoniously scrapped" by her editors, and reworked into a half-naked blonde dog girl who lechs over an Expy of Mio Akiyama from K-On! So I'm pretty sure, in most cases, the yuri subtext is something the editors "encourage", and the authors go along with it because they want to get published.
You could make the case the Kirara brand has been samey for a while (probably in large part due to its editors enforcing the house style). But Semi-Friend is such a departure. If it takes off, it has Network Decay written all over it. If it fails, they're probably just going to flounder around some more looking for the next big thing.
I read up to chapter 48 through shitty MTL from the Korean. It's pretty good (in fact, it has my favorite Haruno moment in the whole series), although this cloud of "I could get this from any other Kirara series" hangs over it. But it seems like we're gearing up for a Matataki arc now. I'd prefer if we get back to the weird, off-beat drama and gut-wrenching emotional breakdowns sooner rather than later. It really helps the book stand out from its peers.
Edited by WarriorsGate on Apr 14th 2024 at 12:19:46 PM
HoshiTele Chapter 46 Maidataki is here! Pretty great to see Umika acknowledge that she is improving, bit by bit, even if she is still a bit clumsy when it comes to leadership.
Unrelated: Apparently KoiAsu is ending in two chapters. I really want to watch the anime, so I haven't gotten into it, but I hear manga readers are very sad that it's ending :(.
Clear prop!
If you want to see just how much Umika is improving, there's an upcoming special chapter from Honami's POV that goes into their backstory.
Chapter 46 also brings us the obligatory moment where they introduce next year's club member as a middle schooler at the school festival. I don't know what's going on with that Ume Aoki-looking girl, but I have a suspicion when she's formally introduced, it'll turn out her name is Kaguya.
The Koisuru Asteroid anime was garbage. In the name of science, I went through the first episode and compared it to the manga to find out why it was so awful, and I found multiple instances where they'd adapt the buildup to a joke and then skip over the fourth panel. Or they'd underplay the delivery to the point it ceases to be a punchline and passes by you like normal dialogue. And it had this weird obsession with never going Super-Deformed, even though the manga was full of it.
Yes, they removed the comedy from a comedy manga. Who thought that was a good idea, I don't know, but the sentimentality without the humor just makes it utterly Glurgey.
You're not missing anything by skipping the anime and going right to the manga.
Edited by WarriorsGate on Apr 30th 2024 at 8:55:48 AM
Apparently HoshiTele is getting a live-action drama.
I learned about it when I checked out the synopsis of Okuma-sensei's latest stream (on a side note, if you aren't aware, she launched a Youtube channel to livestream the anime and then smoothly slid into becoming a Palworld streamer afterwards).
Getting a drama usually means the publisher thought to themselves, "This started as a manga, but we think it'll be popular with non-otaku normies (mainly women)." What's funny is that Okuma already made that joke in the manga, where Matataki wants to talk about anime and the girls in her class say, "That's for boys. Let's talk about dramas instead!"
I was honestly really shocked when I found out, considering how poorly the anime sold. Super interested to see if it's any good.
On the topic of Ookuma-sensei, I've been reading her other work, Happy Sepia. Another cute manga, although it reads like a standard Kirara manga with nothing really making it stand out. Maybe the time travel, but that's about it.
Clear prop!
Anime and drama don't have the same target audience, though. So it may be a case of "We think this is a strong idea, but the otaku didn't go for it, so we'll try aiming for housewives next!"
I doubt it'll be good, though. Japanese dramas have a reputation for being terrible, even among the Japanese, and all the clips I've seen (like Futari Monologue and Saki) support that. They're known for being cheap-looking, having cringe-worthy direction that looks like an industrial film, and for featuring awful "acting" from people who want to become bankable celebrities/idols rather than actors. And when I stumbled across a news article that explained the HoshiTele drama will feature members of AKB48, it was like a slide whistle going off in my head.
I'm curious to know if Happy Sepia has an actual ending. I know it got canned before they even released a first volume, and I don't want to bother if it's just going to fizzle out and end without closure. I get flashbacks to Flower Flower (by the author of another Kirara manga, Kanamemo).
I'm really hoping there's at least a small chance that the live action is good. They'd be doing a disservice to the manga if it wasn't.
Happy Sepia was canned after ten chapters, and from what I've heard, I think it just kind of abruptly ends.
Edited by AirplaneNiner on May 5th 2024 at 10:03:35 AM
Clear prop!
In the end it's a promotional tool for the manga aimed at women who don't normally consume Manga Time Kirara. And I guess if it gets new demographics reading the source material, then it's done its job, regardless of quality. Just like 90% of anime adaptations, really.
I watched a few clips of the Laidback Camp live-action series to figure out what's wrong with it. And I think this clip really nails the problem. Aside from the inherent absurdity of giving the characters their manga hairstyles, it seems to be under the impression that it's making an Edgar Wright film. But although the characters make really exaggerated movements, it doesn't put much effort into the editing or cinematography. The crew lock the camera down and film the actresses doing stuff. It comes across like a recording of (not particularly good) live improv. They try and Edgar Wright-ify it with cartoony sound effects in post, but it just looks clumsy, cheap, and cringeworthy.
Based on my attempts to watch the Futari Monologue drama (which left me feeling mostly the same way), I'm not expecting the Stardust Telepath series to be any different.
Like reflections in the glass!
minus to the nonstandard hair colors ofc. Though I'm not sure it would've helped much.
I'm not sure if its a good idea to have this while there is still an anime in production as the latter will likely been seen as more faithful and better and it isn't like One Piece which was running for a decade and had Netflix behind it.
That's not really how the Japanese entertainment industry works.
Japanese publishers follow a "media mix" philosophy, which is a polite way to say, "they cross-promote the fuck out of everything at every opportunity". Many IPs will have a light novel, a manga, an anime, a gacha game, a visual novel, statues, body pillows, and even have the theme song sung by the voice actresses (so they can sell CDs and tickets to concerts). It's all part of a massive marketing push in many different areas, driven by the publishers and the production committees they form with the companies in these various fields to pool their money.
Anime in particular is a giant pit you toss money into and then burn it. It's aired for free (at 2 o'clock in the morning, that is) in order to drum up interest in the IP, but it rarely makes its money back through Bluray sales alone. The publishers subsidize the anime studios to produce it at a loss because they're banking on other revenues streams like magazine and tankobon sales, voice actress concerts, gacha game microtransactions, etc. to make up for it. And many times the anime studio isn't on the production committee, which means they're just outside contractors who get none of the profits.
Airing TV dramas is just another part of the media mix. In this case, TV dramas have more "mainstream appeal" (i.e. they believe non-otaku women will watch it). That's why there's almost no josei anime — the publishers skip it and go straight for the TV dramas instead, since they think that's a better way to reach their audience.
Assuming this chart is accurate, TV dramas skew 70% female, in their mid-40s.
The fact that Laidback Camp has an anime running concurrently with a drama doesn't mean anything, because they're both ultimately glorified advertisements for the source material which are aimed at two completely different demographics.
I launched a work page for Musunde, Tsunaide, which was serialized in Kirara proper from 2019 to 2022. However, it's Spoilers Off for the opening chapters. Otherwise, the page would be Swiss cheese with spoiler markup due to the First-Episode Twist.
The recent end of Engaged to the Unidentified encouraged me to see what else Cherry-Arai has been up to, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that somebody dumped scanlations of the entire series a few months ago, even though Manga Updates
still says only the first chapter has been scanlated.
Tonally, Musunde Tsunaide isn't too different from Cherry Arai's other Manga Time Kirara series, Three Leaves, Three Colors. They're both about high school students who feel adrift and cut off from the people around them — though to say more would spoil the premise. And Musunde Tsunaide clearly takes place in the same world as Three Leaves, Three Colors, because one character seems to be the daughter/sister/cousin of Yoko's trolly maid from that series, Shino Sonobe. However, Musunde Tsunaide stands out by virtue of being a bona fide supernatural mystery. Even more so than Engaged to the Unidentified, which eased itself into supernatural stuff over dozens of chapters. While it's early yet, and it could totally shit the bed with its mystery plotline, I'm hooked so far.
Worth a read if you like Cherry Arai's other stuff.
I finished Musunde, Tsunaide. There's only 39 chapters, so it's not terribly long.
First, the good.
This is some top-notch yonkoma. IIRC, Musunde, Tsunaide was Cherry Arai's replacement for Three Leaves, Three Colors, which had just wrapped up a sixteen year run in Kirara at the time, and she knows what she's doing. The characters are all quirky and endearing, and the comedy between them is fantastic. The main character, Tsunagu, is kind of a stock Kirara lead. You know the type. Yellow-brown hair down to her shoulders. Ditzy enough to commit deeply embarrassing faux pas, but cognizant enough to feel ashamed about breaching the byzantine rules of Japanese social etiquette, rather than laugh her transgressions off like the trolly side character does. The quintessential Japanese self-insert, in other words.
Yet there's something deeply entertaining about both her utter lack of self-esteem, and her blasé attitude towards said lack of self-esteem. Like when her friend tells her to "Be herself", and the only trait Tsunagu can think up to describe "being Tsunagu" is sleeping all day. And when she gets a part-time job, and she gushes with absolute sincerity, "I like this even more than sleeping, because I get money for doing it! But if they invented a way to pay me for sleeping, I'd do it in a heartbeat."
Frankly, I found her overall storyline rather rote (Stop me if you've heard this one before: Her classmates think she's really cool, but through a series of misunderstandings they have a hard time approaching her, which she mistakes for them not liking her) but the comedy and the introduction of Nanairo Torii in volume 2 are so good that, in Cherry Arai's hands, the cliched plot elements become a springboard for greater things rather than a detriment.
The other main characters, who are all nine year olds, are also great. While none of them are a direct copy of Mashiro from Engaged to the Unidentified, together they all give off a certain Mashiro-ness — adorable without being cloying, feisty without being bratty. One of them, Mai Sonobe, is a direct copy of Shino Sonobe from Three Leaves, Three Colors. It's never explained how they're related, except for a wink-wink line about every member of her family being identical, but she is literally just Shino as a nine year old. Apparently Cherry Arai does this a lot, because another member of the Sonobe clan turns up in her Strawberry in Soda Water series.
Now, unfortunately, the bad.
This series was brutally axed by Houbunsha. It does have some emotional closure, but the wrap-up is so hasty one of the main characters doesn't appear in the final chapter. The supernatural mystery element has no payoff whatsoever. And not in a Riddle for the Ages way. In a "just pretend all that foreshadowing in volume 2 never happened, okay?" way. While the series was first and foremost an excellent comedy — and Cherry Arai actually warned the reader to treat as a light comedy rather than look for a deeper meaning in one of her afterwords — it's still a frustrating read since she included things that were clearly meant to be important later, but got handwaved away in the final chapter with a "We'll never understand, so let's just move on with our lives." And Cherry Arai's attempt to justify the title at the end is reaaaaaaaaally sketchy. It feels like it should have another eighty chapters' worth of buildup before it gets dropped on the audience.
At best, I can say the abrupt ending lends it a Shinto vibe about Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, but that's about it.
Ultimately, though, the lackluster ending isn't enough to ruin what that came before it. As long as you go into it knowing the payoff is crap and enjoy the everyday life comedy vibes, then it's worth a read.
In summary, excellent comedy manga with loveable characters, but no closure on mysteries due to probable cancellation.
Curiously, Musunde Tsunaide ended in October 2022. A few months after Kirara hit their slump, with stuff like Slow Loop and RPG Real Estate bombing. I wonder, did they cancel Musunde Tsunaide just because it had low readership? Or was it doing good-but-not-great, and they canceled it to free up their slate so they could begin phasing out their old style in search of something to revitalize their brand? Cherry Arai had been publishing stuff in Kirara since it started, yet she hasn't published anything with them since Musunde Tsunaide ended two years ago.
Edit: After a little research, I found out it was replaced with Mousou Academism. There's little info about it in English, but I flipped through the Korean scans. It's got a (brief) panel of naked girls kissing in the first chapter, supporting my theory they're pivoting towards the yuri market.
Edited by WarriorsGate on May 9th 2024 at 9:35:50 AM
x5 I watched the clip, and personally...it's not bad! It's obviously over exaggerated, and the characters look kinda weird, but there's some sort of charm in it that's hard to explain. It's not good, per se, but I don't think it's bad either. Like a show you used to watch as a kid that you still like, even if it's not the best.
Or maybe my glasses are rose-tinted, I don't know.
Clear prop!
I get what you're saying. It kind of reminds me of the one and only time I tried to watch Kamen Rider, the King Arthur one. But I stopped watching, because it looked like a cheap and cheesy kid's show.
Japanese dramas (the anime adaptations I've seen, anyway) definitely have that "cheap kid's show" aesthetic, even though they're supposed to be for teens/adults. Like Salute Your Shorts or The Secret World of Alex Mack.
Though at the end of the clip, when Chiaki points off into the distance and Aoi and Ena(?) lean in, all I can think of is improv comedians reeeeeeeally struggling to come up with a bit.
Edited by WarriorsGate on May 10th 2024 at 4:53:40 AM
I think that's Aoi, Ena's hair isn't that long. Plus, from what I remember, the episode where they were cooking in the school classroom was with Nadeshiko, Chiaki, and Aoi, and Ena only pops in later.
Or it is Ena and the production sucked enough that she looks like Aoi, lol
Clear prop!
This is a thread to discuss Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara family of magazines, as well as series too new or too niche to merit having their own thread.
So I checked out (and made the work pages for) two of the newest Manga Time Kirara series. And you may notice things are just a little bit different this time around.
Chimidoro Ice Cream is the story of an uptight, super-serious class rep, Hinata, who discovers the new girl in her class, Shion, is a half-zombie. Turns out the only way to keep Shion's heart beating and stave off total zombification is to kiss her and give her some doki doki.
Convenient Semi-Friend is the story of a Bocchi-clone, Suuna, who learns her new roommate, Ruka, is a flirt who likes bringing girls to their dorm to make out with. Since strangers freak Suuna out, she decides the best way to make both of them happy is to became Ruka's exclusive "friend with benefits".
Through the 2010s, Kirara churned out a succession of mostly-chaste, idyllic, pure-hearted teenage girls to provide surrogate daughters for overworked salarymen who were too busy working to start real families. And of course, peppering in light girls' love undertones to lure in yuri fans they had no intention of actually following through on. Well, it looks like after a string of anime flops, that's all out the window. They released two sexually-charged yuri series in as many months, which feels like a pretty intentional decision to go after the yuri market (and the Bocchi the Rock! market, in the case of Convenient Semi-Friend).
Of the two, Chimidoro Ice Cream is the more traditionally Kirara-esque, in both tone and artstyle. But the author always takes care to draw strands of saliva stretched between the girls' lustfully-panting mouths after they kiss, just so you remember what kind of series you're reading. Convenient Semi-Friend on the other hand feels like it belongs in Yuri Hime. It's got a taller, less moe and more bishoujo art style. It's full of blushing and sweating when the girls touch each other. And the special chapter that was published in Carat is outright ecchi.
Seems like BIG changes are in the works for Manga Time Kirara.