A private funeral was held by close family members Along with the announcement, Comic Fire published the manga's 19th chapter in a rough draft form and will announce the release of the third compiled book volume Kurihashi's Occhan Bokensha no Sen-ya Ichi-ya manga is an adaptation of Gin Kanekure and Gigi's light novel series of the same title. The manga launched on Comic Fire's website in December 2021 Kurihashi drew the manga adaptation of the Infinite Ryvius anime series in 2000. ComicsOne published the manga in English Kurihashi launched the three-volume Maniac Road manga in 2002, followed by its spinoff manga titled Pretty Maniacs in 2004. ComicsOne also published Maniac Road, and DrMaster published Pretty Maniacs in English Other manga by Kurihashi includes Dungeon Master, Kurogane Pukapuka Tai, Nocturne - Yasōkyoku, and Ouka Houshin Sources: Comic Fire's X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information     Back to the top page No reproduction or republication without written permission Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. The page may not be displayed properly if the JavaScript is deactivated on your browser Japanese version Episode XX: Maniac Road My dad is an otaku he would spend several weekends a year at model train conventions my brother and sister along and leaving us to entertain ourselves in the hotel pool while he geeked out with other middle-aged men about O-scale locomotives to try to turn the younger generation into model train aficionados of course – who wants to have the same hobbies as your dad -- although I did enjoy some of the old science fiction novels he loaned me Takezou Muto is a homeless nerd of indeterminate age who collapses on the street in Akihabara while looking for a pre-release copy of "P Hyoro Meeko Wars III." The hapless drifter is found in the garbage and nursed to health by three sisters who run an electronic store; mature-woman housekeeper type Haruna, rebellious high school girl Aoba their family electronics store is on the verge of bankruptcy suffering from competition with unscrupulous rivals and the big new geek store on the block Cauliflower (a parody of guess which chain of otaku megastores?) To pay back the sisters for their hospitality Takezou promises to help them with their marketing and inventory and turn their store into the awesomest nerd store in all of Akihabara the middle sister (the "I hate otaku" type) is annoyed by Takezou's presence in their home since he is a ragged and apparently stinky otaku (It's established that he smells bad – although as Takezou says The way modern day people worry about odors is just an obsessive compulsive disorder!")  But the older sister and the younger sister like him and so Takezou ends up living with them and working hard to make the store a success Takezou tries a new way to help out the store which usually involves rubbing Aoba's nose in some obscure aspect of otaku culture and getting her to grudgingly admit that she likes it he talks a bit about how to run a business and shows us some example of how the heartwarming power of the otaku can overcome  various problems such as what to do when your boss fires you because you punched your coworkers because they messed with the Dollfies you keep at your desk (The answer: show your boss how fun it is to make dolls he will be shopping at Maniac Road for doll outfits.) also likes Haruna and tries to interfere with their relationship like Coach Mitaka to Takezou's Godai There isn't much sex: the kinkiest thing in it are a few obligatory breast jokes and is a few girls with unicorn horns on their foreheads (which always makes me think of one thing But what about  those who would say that all of this is an unhealthy glamorization of war and that Kurihashi is probably some right-wing military freak Takezou's answer:  "Some say that we love fighting these beautiful works of art are demolished!" Well When Takezou puts a bunch of battleships on display in the store an American veteran even shows up to examine the craftsmanship "I manned this lookout," reminisces the Japanese guy "I served on this ship," muses the American They turn to each other in a moment of tension and then join in a manly hug Kurihashi convinces the girls to join him in a paintball game with his paramilitary-looking buddies  out in the wilderness is skeptical and thinks they're a bunch of dangerous  militants Takezou objects: "Those kinds of people are not true gun lovers Air guns and model guns are made to safety standards several times that of real guns Every time we hear the news that some stupid guy used the gun to harm the gun cries!" In other words: airsoft guns don't kill people THINGS KURIHASHI LOVES #3: WARGAMES. In yet another chapter,  Takezou tells the young'uns about old-school military  boardgames, like the kind that used to be made in America by Avalon Hill (although the example he uses is a Gundam game) My dad used to collect these games too: these super-complicated games with rules printed in 5 point type games with cheap hexagonal boards and hundreds of  paper  chips for figures games with titles like "Sinai" (yes – a board game about the 1967 Arab-Israeli war – I wish I was kidding) and "Franco-Prussian War" and "Nuclear War 1972" Takezou explains how military wargames came about and how they eventually got replaced by videogames: "The rules became more and more difficult Eventually it turned into more of a math drill than a game the game's progress was a kind of death spiral of improvements…soon these games were all made into video games and the board game itself saw its demise." yes…Shinsuke Kurihashi loves military geekery and he proudly defends his fandom against the haters presenting all this as being as pure and innocent as possible I think this is at least a legit as Genshiken presenting porno  dojin makers as being loveable Maniac Road also has chapters about non-military figure models the obligatory Comic Market chapter (in which dojinshi is translated as "amateur comic") but it's clear where Kurihashi's preferences lie And therein lies another very personal reason why I like Maniac Road… THINGS KURIHASHI LOVES #4: TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAMES it's usually presented in the usual oversimplified viewpoint where the game master is the "bad guy" and the players are the "good guys." Not so in this manga where Takezou gives this explanation of tabletop RPGing: "A tabletop roleplaying game is a game made from the story created between the game master and the players The Game Master creates varieties of possibilities to various scenarios it's up to the GM to make sure the game is fun!" Takezou  introduces the girls to his friend Professor Tomozuru the "glistening star of the RPG community," one of the best GMs in Akihabara Then the five of them sits down to play a tabletop RPG in which they play characters against type (Aoba plays the Takezou-esque character and Takezou plays the cute girl) and must solve a mystery aboard an airship in a science fiction world (It's not even the usual boring fantasy RPG setting.) Entertainingly with people dying and the GM admitting "Yeah we kind of went in a bad direction." It's a cute sequence and the most realistic portrayals of RPGs I've ever seen in a manga Earnestness is Maniac Road's greatest strength…but also its greatest weakness The biggest problem with Maniac Road (apart from the aforementioned blandness) is that tries too hard to convince you of the awesomeness of cosplay Takezou is obviously a mouthpiece of the author and in every chapter he goes off on long speeches about why you should care about some old-ass fandom thing or why Thing X is awesome There's no subtlety or distance from the subject Genshiken is cool because it doesn't try too hard whereas Maniac Road overexplains everything with its frantic desperation to pass on these priceless gems of otaku culture before all the old nerds die off It's the desperation of a nerd who really likes what he likes and wants you to like it too but it comes off like listening to your parents tell you about how anime was back in the day it isn't frantic and high-volume enough to turn into a self-parodying depiction of over-the-top fanaticism.) in which the otaku obsession of Takezou was continued by a new cast of three new cute girls But Pretty Maniacs is just more of the same it's like Kurihashi is making his middle-aged otaku sensibilities more palatable by speaking through the skins of young women the original Maniac Road is simple manga about a guy who really loves what he loves I was shocked to discover that Maniac Road even has a two page spread about that most obscure of Japanese hobbies…model trains it's like this manga was actually written by my dad Saitama Prefecture--For the first time in 33 years will introduce a new Spacia limited express train that connects Tokyo’s Asakusa district with the Nikko-Kinugawa area in Tochigi Prefecture the Spacia X was unveiled at the Minami-Kurihashi train yard here in April inspired by “gofun” pigment used on the Yomeimon gate at Nikko Toshogu shrine The train also has hexagonal windows reminiscent of traditional arts and crafts such as “Kanuma Kumiko” wood latticework and bamboo weaving The first car features a cafe counter that serves beer The Spacia X offers a wide variety of seating options including the “Cockpit Suite” private room with a capacity of seven The design for the “Cockpit Lounge” in the first car was inspired by the interior of the Nikko Kanaya Hotel and other structures Premium Seats on the train are electrically reclinable The limited express train is installed with latest motors and operation equipment capable of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent compared with the current model Four Spacia X trains will be introduced by the end of March next year making two to four round trips daily connecting Asakusa Station with Tobu Nikko and Kinugawa-Onsen stations Magnitude-5.0 quake jolts many parts of the Kanto region ‘Zombie Train’ aims to scare daylights out of passengers Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages No reproduction or republication without written permission.