One of my luckiest finds while overseas was this beautiful collection of Arina Tanemura doujinshi, alongside the full set of Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne keychains (gacha prizes)! 💖💖💖

Arina Tanemura is one of my favorite artists of all time. Her works were so emblematic of the shoujo manga scene in the 1990s and early 2000s. She was my top inspiration when it came to my own art! 🥰🥰🥰

From what I gather, these are official doujinshi published under her penname, meguroteikoku! In true shoujo fashion, the insides are printed with colored ink:

(unfortunately I won't be showing the contents, as they're a bit less SFW than I was expecting LMAO)

The 1st chapter is WEIRD. You’re immediately thrown into this high school setting that’s so out there it’s practically otherworldly; they make the hierarchies in Hana Yori Dango seem tame and realistic. The main character randomly yells ‘you should fall in love with me!’ to the male lead before these few introductory pages are even over, and though her feelings have been pretty clear thus far, it’s a pretty high emotional jumping point to start a 12 volume romance at. How did we get here, for the little details that we’re given about her and Shizumasa’s history to mean so much to her? The immediate answers that we’re given in these first chapters seem shallow at best and nonsensical at worse amidst all of Haine’s screentone-heavy monologuing over her immediate, fluttery feeeeelings rather than the rationales justifying them.

But then!!!

…Why.

when I started shipping it if I did: So to start with I don’t actually strongly ship anyone in Kagepro (ShinAyaki being the sole exception now), and any Kuro ships especially make me uncomfortable. x.X However, I can enjoy them for sheer crack/aesthetic purposes.

my thoughts: Pls keep Kuroha away from all members of the MekaDan kthx.

What makes me happy about them: Nothing only tears and despair. OTL

What makes me sad about them: Realistically speaking, it’s pretty tragic considering Shintaro’s “bromance” with Konoha. ;( I’d still like to see an expansion of that scene in LTM where Konoha seems to fight through the possession in order to turn the gun on himself, and Shintaro tries to stop him by taking the bullet instead. 3

things done in fanfic that annoys me: Tbh I’ve never actually read any Kagefic, let alone KuroShin - so I have no idea what kind of content exists for the latter (nor do I think I want to know >>; ).  

things I look for in fanfic: See above.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Shintaro with Ayanoki.  Kuroha (or rather Clearing Eyes/Saeru) can go die alone in a ditch for all I care. =3=

My happily ever after for them: See above.

who is the big spoon/little spoon: More like “big snake/little snake” amirite? ;P *shot* (Man I want to see a mental showdown bw Saeru and Ayaki in their snake forms now hrngh *flails*)

It’s small but I think they’re neat 👁👁