Comic Market 86: Ajisai Denden アジサイデンデン / Kawakami Rokkaku

Headlining Lilith Fare

Months ago, Ajisai Denden's Kawakami Rokkaku posted to Twitter, and later to the circle's website, pictures of Darkstalkers / Vampire Savior's Morrigan and Lilith Aensland, and eventually the circle produced a release for Comic City 35 in June.  It seems that previous release was merely a preview of coming attractions, as the circle has revealed the sister succubi on the cover of the circle's Comic Market 86 offering.

Comic City 35: Ajisai Denden / Kawakami Rokkaku

DiSuccubi

Ajisai Denden books have a glorious hand-forged look to them that makes them immediately likable--while I have no living clue what circle artist Kawakami Rokkaku's work method is like, I can imagine a drafting desk, a pivoting lamp, and a holy ton of pencils and pens and watercolors getting sacrificed to craft his gems.  Certainly the circle's latest for Comic City 35, featuring Darkstalkers and Vampire Savior's femmes fatales Morrigan and Lilith Aensland, has all the feel and telltale linework of this master craftsman. 

Comic Market 85 Preview: Ajisai Denden / アジサイデンデン

Harvest Gravure goddess

No one would have blamed Ajisai Denden for being done with Spice and Wolf's Holo after the success of their canon-worthy releases, Harvest and Harvest II, but fortunately for us, the beguiling wolf-in-the-wheat has returned to entrance us once more with an onsen-based, gravure-style approach at Comic Market 85.  While the preview pages appear to be light on text, they are downright leaden with the talents of this greatly under-appreciated circle.  

Comic Market 84: Ajisai Denden / アジサイデンデン

A bright-as-day victory lap for circle's Darker Than Black work

After the circle's triumphant, nearly canon-worthy treatment of Spice and Wolf at Comic Market 83, and this year's Code Geass parody from Comic1☆7, I was greatly looking forward to see what Ajisai Denden had in store for fans at Comiket 84.  Naturally, my luck being what it is, the circle's next release is a retrospective, as the circle will be releasing their first series-specific soushuuhen, in scores, collecting at least the circle's four previous Darker Than Black full-length features, all featuring blind, emotionless Finnish doll Yin.  The circle reports a 140-page length, including 26 pages in color.  

Comic1☆7: Ajisai Denden / アジサイデンデン

After they finally finished up the achingly sweet Spice and Wolf parody Harvest at Comic Market 83 last December, I'd been anxiously awaiting more news from Ajisai Denden in anticipation of their next parody work.  The answer came in the middle of March, when the circle released a very simple black-and-white sketch of C.C. from Code Geass on to their site with a note saying there'd be more to see at Comic1☆7.  Finally, we have the cover and some preview pages, and it does seem that the circle is taking a slightly different approach to ero doujin this go-'round.  It seems to be an extremely text-heavy work, with the ero illustrations serving more as a background, rather than a typical comic layout.

 

Comic Market 83: Ajisai Denden / アジサイデンデン

Finally, time to reap the harvest of this most fertile crop

Back in June 2011, Sunshine Creation 52 saw the release of Ajisai Denden's splendid non-ecchi Spice and Wolf parody doujinshi Harvest.  The creator notes in the back of the book stated that that the circle had to leave out the ecchi content due to a time crunch up to the book's release.  Now, a year and a half and, dumbfoundingly, another Spice and Wolf ero book later, the circle will finally hold up their promise with the release of Harvest II at Comic Market 83.