What if the future becomes the past? Imagine that riots, plagues, and international war bring about the collapse of civilization. Imagine the “Japan Era” becomes a memory, and samurai like those of old battle it out among decaying skyscrapers. Aoteru Misumi, an agricultural planner, lives in such a world, the world of the Sangoku period.… Read More First Impression: NIPPON SANGOKU: The Three Nations of the Crimson Sun
Yuru and Asa, “the children dividing day and night,” are twins. One of them was born at the end of the night, the other with the first light of day (so far, we don’t know which is which). Consequently, their fates are as different as can be. Asa now spends her life indoors in a… Read More First Impression: Daemons of the Shadow Realm
Time is a funny thing: There is a certain vertigo to it. Sometimes, a carved stone older than civilization pops up in the river of my city—a city with a wall built by a Roman legion, Renaissance palaces, and Visigoth churches once ransacked by Napoleon’s soldiers. As the years go by, these backgrounds become landmarks of my own… Read More The Elusive Samurai, I: Tokiyuki and the Baptism of Fire
We descend from the clouds and hear the sound of a siren. The 20th century has just begun, and Lili Ichijoin is arriving in Edwardian London on an elegant steamboat after a long journey. Lili is a painter, and she’s here to represent Japan at the prestigious St. Thomas Art Academy. Starry-eyed, determined, and perhaps… Read More First Impression: Love Through a Prism
A girl of noble birth is playing hide-and-seek in a wooden palace in 1758, Japan, when a fire begins. Like dragons, the roaring flames consume the place. Those who have escaped the inferno despair of saving the girl’s life, but when her father cries out in anguish, Gengo Matsumana hears his call. The young samurai… Read More First Impression: Oedo Fire Slayer -The Legend of Phoenix-
A high school girl is being pushed by the multitude exiting a train when a stranger with bright violet eyes stands up and takes her to safety. Yoi Takiguchi has a slender frame, a boyish face, and a serious, no-nonsense personality, and will always come to the aid of someone in need. It is no… Read More First Impression: In the Clear Moonlit Dusk
Yashiro, a man in a striking orange trenchcoat, wanders under the streetlights of Tokyo, heading to a card game. He shivers at the thought of the money he has lost already and the cost of food, rent, and taxes these days. But his night is about to get more complicated: Suddenly, a bloodied high school… Read More First Impression: Scum of the Brave
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