atelierpenny | An ode to/autopsy of Ueshiba Riichi, my favorite manga artist

Do I even need to say anything! Look at this stuff!

Whenever I'm reading something this guy has put out each chapter takes me forever. Simple panels remain extra simple, usually the character surrounded by midnight black. But when he goes all out it is absolutely unique and jaw dropping. His art style has changed a lot over the years, especially with his two newest and most popular works (Mysterious Girlfriend X and Ookumo-Chan Flashback respectively, which I won't cover here cuz a ton of people have already talked about them online). In Discommunication, his art is at its most amateur, but it fits the themes of the work like a glove. These two total weirdos love each other and they don't really know why. Matsubue asks Togawa for strange favors, though none of them are traditionally romantic or sexual whatsoever. Each character does not really emote too strongly, making the reasons why they are the way they are even harder to decipher. Togawa fumbles around in the dark, trying to grasp on to something she can explain to herself, much like the reader tries to decipher the gorgeously maximalist scattered religious symbolism splayed across the busiest panels. We view all of Matsubue, all at once, and its kinda overwhelming, but theres really no other way to do it. Matsubue has superpowers but that is only confirmed by a side character and it honestly rarely even comes up in the early chapters. Even though these two are more than a little unorthodox, it is really clear that they love each other through it all, and the artwork serves this narrative perfectly.

Once you get further into Discommunication, the actual plot starts happening and it shows a lot more of its cracks. Tis an unfortunate case of the mystery being a lot more fun when it is actually a mystery. The main two start making magic clones of each other and bullshit like that and many of Riichi's... tendencies start coming out. To be upfront, unfortunately as is the case with many good manga artists, Riichi has a lolicon streak. It is not as prevalent here as it is in the sequel manga we are going to talk about, but it definitely stains the later chapters a bit and just generally does not feel within the tone of the work before that point. It is a lovely read as a weekly sort of series before the plot starts doing its thing. Later on in the series is the appearance of fan favorite character Touko, a weird alcoholic spirit powers girl who befriends the main two. She is the protagonist of the sequel series Yume Tsukai (which strangely has an anime even though Discommunication does not; the anime is not very good).

Yume Tsukai's art is more stunning than ever. More and more of the maximalist tapestry pages are present here. Oh right. The story. Touko and her younger sister who Riichi is way too ok drawing extremely naked Rinko work with outright lolicon Hajime and new girl Satoka use their dream superpowers (which involves transforming toys in the real world and themselves into superweapons) to destroy nightmares and solve mysteries in the dream world. The first case takes a majority of the manga's runtime. Middle school girl Eri, hopelessly in love with awfully written trans woman Youko, enters the dream world with the ritual of fire. Youko reveals she has led 24 other girls into the dream world, at which point they reveal they are all pregnant. Youko and Eri have sex and Eri turns into a mechanical penis monster that eats Youko. As this happens, Rinko and friend of the two Kei show up to see what the hell is happening with all of this. And THAT is just the first half of chapter one. Yume Tsukai takes its dream logic as extreme as can be, showing something horrifying or strange or disgusting or beautiful nearly every page. It is kind of exhausting to read. Whenever I actually can understand what is going on its usually something pretty awful or at least awfully written. Thankfully the fan translation has lovely translators notes that can explain at least some of the symbolism this series is rife with. Sometimes a chapter will solely focus on one insane scene or idea, like the entire school getting trapped in magic bubbles containing gender swapped versions of themselves they have sex with. For what its worth, the first arc is definitely the strangest one by far, and the series takes itself a lot more seriously with the second arc (thankfully so, since it is about abuse).

I'm torn by Yume Tsukai. On one hand, this art haunts my mind even to this day and I read this manga years ago. I reread some choice chapters every year or so just because there is no other feeling like being drowned in this manga. The artwork is some of the most incredible shit I have ever seen for a manga the plot of which is disorienting at best and outright offensive at worst. Mysterious Girlfriend X is almost certainly his best work. I think it hits the best middle ground between being weird and still having the absolutely jaw dropping artwork that made his first two works even worth talking about. So if you wanna read anything from this guy just read that and call it a day. But if you wanna dive into the unknown, sifting through sand to find sparkling gemstones of pages, these two manga are waiting to be pried open.