Check-in Station Dark Edition: Issue #5 (just wear pants, you bloody idiots!)

I didn’t think I’d go well into Fall before I got back around to this material.  Just goes to show times are hard and life is rough.  If a man can’t find time out of his day for a little pervy manga and anime, then he’s forced to live a very shallow, base life – devoid of true happiness or fulfillment.  Thankfully, I made some time to relax and wade through some truly thoughtless and silly material.  I’ve changed things up a bit again.  Starting with something very light and silly, and then going into some truly sketchy material.  And as always, even the silliest shows can pull some nice thoughtful moments.  As My Lovely Ghost Kana and Recently, My Sister is Unusual both manage to give me some moments that made me think.

Here are the entries I’ll be covering this week in order:

• Chrysanthemum Garden ch0
• Cutie Lips ch1
• Nana to Kaoru ch70
• Hana to Hoshi ch2
• Yuria 100 Shiki ch58
• My Lovely Ghost Kana ch19
• Happy Negative Marriage ch6
• Liar’s Paradox ch4
• Recently, My Sister is Unusual ep3

Chrysanthemum Garden

Chapter 0

What the hell did I just read?!  This is hardly pervy at all!  All it is is some chick hitting on nuns – no matter the age!  Oh who am I kidding!  I used to be Catholic – I’d do the same thing!

[insert Kanye shrug]

What a silly one-shot…

Cutie Lips

Chapter 1

I’m honestly not terribly sure if this manga will be a romance or smut.  But it’s looking very smutty so far.  The chapter is basically

• SEX!
• I like big boobs and bikinis, we need to go to the beach.  The mountains are stupid.
• We like the beach, too.  A cute said she liked it so we’re going.
• We’re at the beach, come along!  Oh you have a bikini on!
• Needless embarrassment.
• Confession.
• MORE SEX!
• Talk about things.
• END OF CHAPTER.

I’ll not call this short series “deep”.  I’m sure this will be a quick and easy read of a series.

Nana to Kaoru

Chapter 70

First of all, I’m quite happy to see that so far the dog won’t be a nuisance, but one of the actual leads for this breather.  Secondly, I’m gonna get this out of the way and state that this is far from my favorite form of this art.  I don’t particularly care a ton for making people act like animals.  It’s just not sexy to me.  And the outfits?  Bah!  Just kinda weird.  But I’m willing to see where this goes.  I don’t think I’ve seen a breather that I didn’t enjoy from this manga.  And this strange form of competition and humiliation has me intrigued.

Right off, the competition aspect is being emphasized.  And we see Nana comparing herself to Tachi.  Objectively speaking, this shouldn’t actually be much of a competition, but she doesn’t know or understand that.  It has long ago been made clear that her and Kaoru are soul mates.  Tachi is just hear for spice.

 

Hana to Hoshi

Chapter 2

Alright, there’s some decent character progression here, and we are a tad more learned after this chapter.  It seems there are some slightly darker underpinning here.  Nothing sinister mind you, it’s just that Hanai seems to have a terrible inferiority complex bubbling underneath her manic personality.  Hoshino seems rather reserved and plain despite her sharp looks.  So we have a classic matchup of opposites, along with the standard communication issues.  It would be nice to learn if Hoshino has anything bubbling underneath that we don’t know about either – well something bubbling underneath aside from her slowly burning passion for Hanai.

On the comedy side of things, I don’t get or laugh at everything, and I fear that Hanai could become unbearable given her hyperactive personality.  I won’t go so far as to call her bipolar, that’s a rather extreme condition that so far isn’t warranted here, but she’s flirting with real highs and lows already.  And all this is coming on the first days of school.  Nothing actually groundbreaking has even happened yet in her life.

 

Yuria 100 Shiki

Chapter 58

Well…  I didn’t ask for a fujoshi or a d*ck chick in my pervy manga, but that’s what I got.  There’s no need to comment on how dumb the arm wrestling premise and set-up is.  This is a sexual gag manga, and I should expect the quickest possible shortcut to a joke imaginable.  I think I was most flabbergasted by the notation pointing out how the “Louie”‘s penis had to be made extra strong for fat Americans!  Oh come on!  Top that off with the fact that “its” older sister Lucy is a complete exhibitionist slut, and I’m starting to think the manga-ka doesn’t care a ton for Americans.

Xenophobic stereotypes aside, I do have something to say about the arm wrestling of the penis scene.  I’m glad that is android penis right there, because the though of someone as strong as her, or anyone arm wrestling a penis makes me nervous for several reasons…

Moving on…!

My Lovely Ghost Kana

Chapter 19

I was not ready for that chapter!  What a beautiful little story, with Daikichi and Kana (& the other girl) noticing how the store manager had been lately, and allowing him his dream.  I can see now why the poor store manager has never been married or had kids at his age.  He will probably be viewed as even weirder after going around town on a date with someone no one can see.  But it really was a beautiful, sligtly melancholy episode.  It’s clearly Chistmas season in the book now, and the alussions towards faith are strong in this one.  And it makes sense.  The store manager’s faith has been strong and unwavering this entire time.  It feels good to see him rewarded for it here.

Wonderful.

Happy Negative Marriage

Chapter 6

Well, it seemed like everything was going well, but I think I can predict the problem here.  Shimako has a drinking problem, and she apparently gets very loose when she partakes – I’m getting the feeling that this may have lead to her sleeping with other men rather easily.  And this may also be the reason he’s getting such a babe to go in with him and think of marriage.  To most she may be damaged goods.  This gets me excited, because this could deal with some very interesting thoughts and perceptions on gender roles, double standards, and just adult relationships in general.  I’m always craving more mature material in a very immature media.  Anime and manga aren’t genres of entertainment that spend too much time dealing with the realistic, but the fantastic.  But to me, I find it fantastic to see that this manga may be dealing with the realistic.

Liar’s Paradox

Chapter 4

Interesting how the chapter teases us with the two lovers being awkward around each other because one of them is showing some regret, while the other desperately wants to push things forward, or at least keep things going.  Though the end of the chapter we get the hint that there’s a very different vibe going down.

I’m amazed at the amount of sexual harassment going on here.  But I’m even more so amazed at the amount of self-denial going on with the main characters.  They’re falling in love, but the woman who is in a long distance relationship still has the option of either partner here.  If she was even slightly devious, she could completely play this to her advantage.  But instead, she appears more enamored by her possibilities.  I’m still having trouble judging these two, but it looks like things are taking the free and loose route of playing the field.  There will be repercussions, but I don’t think anyone is seriously thinking about those.  We’re about to see some very foolish adults have a lot of thoughtless fun, and that’s always fun to watch.

Recently, My Sister is Unusual

Episode 3

What is wrong with me?  I hate this kinda show, but it appears I find myself three episodes into this bad and rote romantic comedy.

The first part of this episode introduces us to a new character.  Yukina is an old childhood friend of Yuuya’s who’s recently moved back into to town and wants to make friends.  She’s the welcome relief from last episode’s bathroom scene, and she comes with a few surprises.  First of all, she has big boobs.  Not only is this important because this is a lewd blog post, but because this is a lewd show, and therefore it’s pivotal to that character’s importance and place in the show, and her personality.  She’s represented as Mitsuki’s antithesis really.  And it doesn’t take long for lil sis to get jealous of the childhood friend who is nicknamed Big Sis.  The jealousy from Mitsuki is one thing, but her unwanted ghost possessor, Hiyori is feeling threatened and only makes matters worse.  It’s all about the boobs this section.  The really important and notable thing though, is that it seems as though Yukina can see them in ghost form, and she seems to have a lewd streak of her own as well.  Could she be possessed, too?

The second part of this episode is fully focused on the lewdness again, and it’s one of my favorite kinds of lewdness – upskirt and panty shots!  I swear, the way this section sets up its gags, you’d think the girls wanted the upskirts or were just dumb.  I mean, it’s cold, terribly windy and all the girls have extremely short skirts on, yet one of Mitsuki’s friends still wants to eat outside!  Hell, she has to be talked out of it!  Yet we still see a fantastic butt shot thanks to that extra aggressive wind.

I guess since plot in this terrible show has to be addressed, we do see Yukina acting quite different for a moment when trying to protect Mitsuki from an embarrassing upskirt.  Though it’s obviously futile.  Give it up girls!  In a show that says one of the character dies unless she consistently acts on her horniness, there’s little hope of any young females avoiding an upskirt or panty shot.  The show demands it, and is almost literally holding a gun to their heads!  I’m getting a distinct impression that Yukina can see ghosts, and may be being possessed herself.  The reasoning for this?  The show thrives on coincidences, it’s almost as though the show itself will die if not pushed forward by a series of them.  So I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the major coincidence of both girls in Yuuya’s life having the same affliction came to pass.

Something that I did forget about was how in the first part of the episode, we see Mitsuki and Yuuya have a conversation about their feeling about joining a new family, and about Mitsuki’s past.  And what we get from it is a very good reason for Mitsuki not being so happy about joining a new family.  Her original nuclear family had a dad that didn’t do much for his wife or daughter, gambled away their security, and left them for younger woman than her mother.  Understandably, Mitsuki’s mom had emotional  and dependence issues and it affected both of them quite a bit.  Mitsuki is clearly still hurt about not being enough to satisfy her mother’s need for companionship, and very untrusting of men in general.  And I can’t blame her, not when she’s had such a sh*t role model of a father.  I don’t know if its happened yet, but her and her mother really, really need to have a talk about these issues.  I doubt they totally disappeared when her mother remarried.

Further Reading:

• Check-in Station Dark Edition: Issue #4 (It’s not gay – it’s penis)