Junji Ito's 'Fashion Model: Cursed Framing' serves as an addition to his previous 'Fashion Model' wherein a monstrous model haunts the protagonist as he tries to shoot a film. It is a short read, and it showcases Ito's great ideas that are often the main hook of his one-shots/manga.
The 8-page 'Cursed Framing' follows an up-and-coming model who has a fear of her body being fragmented in photos (those photos that do not show the full body). It is a very interesting representation of the fragility of one's own identity, and the fear that you cannot control other people's perceptions of you and your identity. The
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Dec 26, 2022
'Hyottoshite Gal wa Orera ni Yasashii node wa?' is an anthology of a bunch of different mangaka's takes on Gyaru/Otaku relationships.
It deals with the common trope of gyaru as mean, annoying or scary, etc. (living in a different world from the otaku protagonist) and reverses it to (attempt to) show character development and reveal that *shocker* they are actually nice people (to not judge people based on appearances). This has also become a particularly common trope in more modern gyaru manga, which the anthology explores. I am only really writing this review to highlight the 12th story 'Cheering Song' by Ishihara Yuu, and I would definitely ... 
Dec 19, 2021
Initial Thoughts (after the first 6 chapters that have been published):
- feels too early to say, but this is great!! - feels heavily-inspired by Chainsaw Man (or more-widely Fujimoto - edit: he was his former assistant)!! - great character designs and interesting threads so far!! - another cool take on parodying the shonen genre!! - give it a read and show some love to a new Jump series!! ... 
May 25, 2021
Cinderella Boy
(Manga)
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[rating is not accurate - it forced me to give a rating; i do not wish to rate this one-shot as it is incomplete]
I will start off by saying that I think 'Cinderella Boy' is unfairly rated, since the only available scans online are terrible translations that (probably) do not contain the whole one-shot. I have searched a fair bit for the original one-shot that was first published in the first issue of Kobunsha's 'Popcorn' in 1980, but to no avail unfortunately. It is very sad for such an interesting concept to be destined to live on in the western world as a terrible comic sans scanlation ... |
