You've gotta salty song

New project! You've gotta love song by Akane Torikai is a collection of 4 oneshots. If you don't know Akane Torikai, she's been getting some traction lately, she is a very interesting voice in the manga world. She started her career as an assistant to Minoru Furuya believe it or not, looking at dates and stuff, she served her apprenticeship on Ciguatera and maybe Himizu. The only thing she picked up from him though is slapping text directly on drawings😑. She is married to Inio Asano and is sometimes described as "female Asano", her work usually deals with gender dynamics and roles in society, I'd say her writing style might be somewhat close to Kiriko Nananan but like I said, Torikai likes to focus on gender dynamics and has an Asano vibe to her while Nananan kinda gets into the ugly side of relationships and stuff and she's got a very "everyday" kinda feel to her stories, visually they are total opposites though, Torikai draws big, Nananan's pages look kinda like storyboards. 

Her art style has a very interesting feel to it, it feels intimate at times, she knows how to compose a page and pace her chapters, she has a pretty distinctive way of drawing hair, you might see it done by others but they all feature very thin lines at all times, while her linework when drawing, like, faces or hands or other stuff features some slightly thicker lines, which is kind of her own thing. She's really good at drawing characters writhing in pain, unmatched maybe.

She's only got a few things translated in english, I'm reading Sensei's White Lie now and I really like it, it has an intro by Moto Hagio on vol 2, it was done by Hi Wa Mata Noboru, they finished it some time ago already so feel free to give it a go, it's about power; the loss of power, the way it's used to prey on the weak and the way it works in relation to gender, as well as the roles of gender in society; Truthfully, I do sense a Himizu influence on this, there are also the portions of black pages with shadows and stuff, pretty Minoru-esque. Her current ongoing is being worked on by a fairly new group called Manga BEAST, I haven't read any of it though so I can't comment on the series or on the quality of the scanlation. You've gotta love song was recently released in France just a few months ago(they also have Sensei's White Lie) and they're going to release another two volume series by her called The Siege of Exiles (or perhaps Castle of The Exiles?), first volume is out, second is coming in april iirc, it's a story set in a near future, a dystopian world in which male birthrates have declined drastically and so men have been kind of reduced to a mere role of "reproduction material" in society. Could be cool, we might do that, but for now I have too many things lined up. The art looks super cool in the previews that I've seen, here have a look

Anyway, Akane Torikai. She's cool as hell, here she is in a commercial for eyedrops. You've gotta love song became a bit of an obsession for me, I just had to read it, so I bought it digitally and orborio ripped it. This first story is really good, it perfectly captures that feeling of depression, of nihilism, and of a woman of her age and in her position. Her use of symbolism is fantastic, impressive storyteller. I really vibe with her, I love the Pixies!

Her star is rising, hopefully we can get something of hers licensed in english soon, France already has three...

I can only hope you enjoy this half as much as I did

You've gotta love song ch. 1

Whatta twist!

This is why I love Minoru Furuya, yeah his comedy is always on point, but it's hard to juggle tones like this... He's a master though. Often when comedy clumsily forces "serious" moments, it comes off as corny and stupid, but there's always a sadness and a suffering in these Minoru manga underneath all the jokes, it's never out of left field.

Saltiness ch. 26

And with that, we have finished Minetaro Mochizuki's collection of short stories. This was a blast! and he's using so many different styles throughout it, he's a really versatile mangaka. Big thanks to Choo for the high quality scans!

The last story was only a few pages long so we bundled it together with ch8 since they're both about the NBA. Inoue would be proud.

Minetaro Mochizuki - A Few Thing I Know About Michael Jordan+2001 NBA All Star Game

And the entire thing (it's huge👀)

Minetaro Mochizuki - Zutto Saki no Hanashi

And now some extra trivia that I picked up from a friend. I assume everyone's seen The Last Dance..? I like basketball but I'm not a sports person, still, it's a good story about competitiveness and I have friends that have never watched an entire basketball game  and they still watched it and loved it. The events of ch8 should take place in 1996, just before the start of the 96-97 NBA season. The Bulls had captured their 4th title. on their way to their second threepeat. There's a random cameo by Charles Barkley in there and I'll just add that this dude's one of the funniest people on television, I always get sent clips and stuff of him from "Inside The NBA", he's entertaining and jokes a lot but he's also funny because he's very honest with everything... sometimes too honest😂. I give you this clip to use against internet trolls.

And some trivia about the 2001 All Star game, it's considered one of the if not THE best All Star game in history, very close and competitive game. The following year, Michael Jordan would come out of retirement to play for his old coach Doug Collins in Washington. He played for 2 years, didn't make the playoffs but still put up some really impressive scoring numbers. He retired for good in 2003, at the age of 40 and he actually even had three 40 point games at that age 👀. As a Wizard, he donated his salary to a relief effort for the victims of 9/11.