ShadowBay, From the depth of eBay Options

[KarmaInferno]

I don't suppose these T-shirts are legit, then?

Pity, I would like to have a "S" logo shirt in black like that.



-karma

[Kagetenshi]

Well, there's also the fact that if someone really was crazy enough to drop the cash on a set of the manga and then send them to me, I don't want to discourage them (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Doing a little searching, I can't find anything else by the author (斉木一馬), or even a page that uses the name that isn't about the Shadowrun manga; it may be a throwaway pen name, or maybe it's just someone who didn't make it (or didn't decide to continue) in the manga business. Lots of sites list the manga's existence, but I can't find any that actually have it for sale or list a review.

Wait! Ok, I found someone who claims to have read it, and they say there are a lot of interesting characters. That's… not very informative, but at least I have evidence that there exists someone who has read this series, and that they liked it.

(I also discovered that geocities.co.jp is still operating. How about that?)

~J

[Kagetenshi]

More info:

The writer of the manga apparently worked on eromanga in the late '80s/early '90s under the name 未津島えり (this isn't uncommon at all, in terms of ways to get started in the business). The commentator I found (here) seems to think that after the Shadowrun manga was finished the writer changed pen names again and went back to eromanga, but doesn't know the new pen name (and it isn't clear on what basis the page author thinks that).

~J

[Ancient History]

Would you want to go into excruciating detail about your knowledge of eromanga?

[Mr. Man]

There are actually some really interesting shadowrun books available only in Japan.
I find the play example books fascinating.

There was a thread about this a few years ago, unfortunately all the image links in the first post are broken. Here's what I could pull from archive.org:

PHASE 1 IMAGES

Elf and Ork

Shaman and Hermetic Mage

Street Samurai and Decker

Mini-Manga Explaining Drain

Mini-Manga Explaining Karma Rolls

PHASE 2 IMAGES

Mini-Manga Explaining The Benefit of Wearing Armor

Mini-Manga Explaining How the Dice Pool System Works (with real wading pool akshun ™!)

PHASE 3 IMAGES

Shadowrun Guns

Mini-Manga Explaining Rolling Dice (or something)

[Draco18s]

404'ing chummer.

[Kagetenshi]

Elf and Ork is simple transliteration.

The page explaining drain: in the first panel, the character getting nailed with a spell says something that I can clearly identify but can't understand the meaning of (it's the name of a former country in Japan). Below that, the caption says "Lesson: powerful spells wear you out easily!" (alternately: "the ease with which you tire yourself out is related to the power of your spells!"). The girl says "It's that kind of thing… ha ha ha". The guy says "Is that really all you have to say?"

The armor explanation: side caption: "Damage Resistance". Caption for the girl: "Unarmored". Caption for the guy: "Armored Jacket". Speech bubble: "Let's run an experiment, shall we? The difference in the defensive power between these two…". Next panel: "What will happen if we shoot them with a gun?" Last panel, girl's caption: "all torn up" or "in tatters", guy's caption: "somehow fine", guy's speech bubble: "Hey! That was dangerous!", final speech bubble: "Whenever possible, avoid getting into shooting fights [gunfights] without protective gear."

Pool explanation: title: "Dice pools are?" Guy: "Hmm… even if I roll the dice normally, there's no way [it's no good], it seems [I guess]…", Girl: "…At times like this:", second panel sign: "dice pool", guy: "add the dice pool…", last panel: "fight with numbers of dice!" (not really able to come up with a good translation for this; it makes sense in the original).

The guns are just transliterations of the name (the lower two items being a monowhip and an Ares Predator).

Last explanation: "A successful test is…?" Middle panel: "roll a number of dice equal to the rating of the skill or ability in use." Guy in the corner: "don't throw them!" Lower right panel: "if the individual dice are equal to or greater than the target number, success!" Right Bunnygirl: "Wonderful!" Left Bunnygirl "Congratulations!". Lower left panel: "in the event that all are 1s, it's an absolute failure!"

They curiously don't discuss non-botch failures.

~J

[McCummhail]

The page explaining drain: in the first panel, the character getting nailed with a spell says something that I can clearly identify but can't understand the meaning of (it's the name of a former country in Japan). Below that, the caption says "Lesson: powerful spells wear you out easily!" (alternately: "the ease with which you tire yourself out is related to the power of your spells!"). The girl says "It's that kind of thing… ha ha ha". The guy says "Is that really all you have to say?"
~J

It's worth noting that Bizen is a method of pottery firing named after the ancient province,
alternately, just the kanji could lead us to "before prepared" making it a delectable pun.

I was reading about the comic on a site and they went on for a while about how nostalgic it was to think about the comic.
The comic drew from a lot of new source material not yet available in print in Japan when it was released,
so a number of people remarked on being surprised by adepts and such in the comic.

Still have yet to find any scripts or anything useful though.
It was a very niche product.

[ravensmuse]

Would you want to go into excruciating detail about your knowledge of eromanga?

Well, actually...

[Kagetenshi]

I apparently can't leave this alone: after some more searching, it appears that the author of the Shadowrun manga did some more eromanga work for a small magazine under the name 有冬伊里; it doesn't look like a collection was ever released under that name.

~J

[Blade]

Dibs on the official Shadowrun eromanga when it appears on e-bay (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[ravensmuse]

Dibs on the official Shadowrun eromanga when it appears on e-bay (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

So you're eagerly awaiting the hot new release of Red in Tooth and Claw then, huh?

I tried poking my way through my usual suspects for raws and came up short. Then again, a lot of my logins have expired, so no dice there.

And I'd love to have a discussion of eromanga artists that have and haven't gone legit. It's a fun piece of trivia.

[Draco18s]

So you're eagerly awaiting the hot new release of Red in Tooth and Claw then, huh?

Was that the Ryumyo/Lung slash fiction Chrysalis wrote?

[Kagetenshi]

I had some Dunkelzahn/Damien Knight slashfic back in the day.

~J

[ravensmuse]

Was that the Ryumyo/Lung slash fiction Chrysalis wrote?

It's the name of the Ryumyo / Lung slash manga that I used to have a sig message for, but I don't remember if they were the subject of Chrys' story either. I'll have to go back and read that.

[Draco18s]

It's the name of the Ryumyo / Lung slash manga that I used to have a sig message for, but I don't remember if they were the subject of Chrys' story either. I'll have to go back and read that.

It was Ryumyo and Lung, I checked my PMs before making the post (yeah, I didn't delete it).

[Bull]

Yeah, we're drifting off the subject here a bit (And into territory best left private. Take it to PM or IRC (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )

[Ancient History]

I don't understand this one. More explicitly, I don't understand why it was cut out of the comic book. So you can frame it? Do people do that outside of bad Bruce Sterling novels? For $5.99 I hope it comes with a frame. Or the rest of the comic book.

[ravensmuse]

There's a small fanbase for ephemera like that. Someone will probably frame it and stick it in their collection room.

[Ancient History]

I don't much go in for Shadowrun minis. Not my thing for gaming. I do have quite a few due to various opportunities here and there - dragons, immortal elves, deep discount bins and going-out-of-business sales - this one deserves a mention, however. It's a Ral Partha sculpt for FASA, part of the minis released for 3rd edition, and which (in my experience at least) are harder to find, probably due to FASA buying Ral Partha and then shutting its doors...anyway, pricewise you can actually find this model cheaper from Ral Partha's successor Iron Winds.

White Wolf Magazine #33; I mentioned magazines a page or two ago and this is another example. A modicum of research (I had to get off my hairy red ass and walk over to my shelf, y'all can just bing it or check pen-paper.net) reveals that this is a brief Shadowrun adventure set in New Orleans. Published long before Hurricane Katrina and (small aside) Beyond the Storm: Shadows of the Big Easy.

I know I said I wasn't much of one for minis, but I do love me some Grenadier boxed sets. Maybe not this particular one, but others I have known. I remember them fondly, like the pain from an old wound.

Earthdawn art might seem only tangentially related (and it is), but I just couldn't justify plugging the Earl Grier pieces that always seem to be up there. Not that Earl Grier isn't a good artist who has done some great pieces for Shadowrun; many an old-timer remembers his insect spirit merges with fond nightmares. It's just that I'm pretty damn sure most of those have been sold already.

[hobgoblin]

heh, slow day?

[Straight Razor]

Which is how I now own three copies of the Street Samurai Guide: the original uncensored edition, the regular censored edition, and the (presumably) rarer censored-but-in-a-different-way edition.

what are on the pages that are blacked out? I have wondered that for years...

[Ancient History]

heh, slow day?

Anything to get away from the 24 December fiction.

what are on the pages that are blacked out? I have wondered that for years...

Improved Personal Explosive (IPE) grenades and Firepower™ ammo. Due to changes between SR1 and SR2, these two pieces of gear became obsolete.

[hobgoblin]

ah yes, i recall the firepower entry from the back pages of SR2, saying it no longer applied.

[Ancient History]

Couple winners here...first up, a complete set of the Shadowrun Manga for what I reckon is a pretty reasonable price as these things go.

Also in the international field, a (currently very cheap) run of Ausralian Realms Magazine, with its Shadowrun articles.

A bit of a rare item - I didn't even know this existed - a Secrets of Power Trilogy Gift Set, unopened and with the slipcase box intact and minty fresh. I was at first a bit skeptical since I'd never even heard of a gift set of these books, but it appears legit.

Finally, one for the strangeness pile: Shadowrun 3rd Edition in a binder. Literally, it looks like somebody tore the book apart. Each page appears separately bagged and there are little tabs dividing chapters. While I abhor book butchery, this does seem to be a highly practical item for the discerning gamemaster (of an SR3 game), and the price is right.