The Doujin Bin

... winter in going, soft breezes blowing, spring time, spring time, soon will be here.

I’ll be honest, this doujin already holds a tiny special place in my heart because it’s based on a nursery rhyme I’ve heard countless times in my childhood.

It’s a short, but emotion-packed story that explores what we don’t see in the show that much: How damaging the events of FMA actually are to the psyche of two children.

When the Elrics go to rest in an inn, Ed’s night quickly becomes overtaken by nightmares. Nightmares of Al inside the Gate, of them being swallowed by the black hands and Truth finally taking away all of Ed’s body.

As Ed awakes in cold sweat, Al is there for him like he always is - he wraps Ed in a blanket and sings the cuckoo lullaby to him, reminiscing on how Trisha sang that very same melody to them when they were younger. Finally, Ed can sleep.

The art style fits in perfectly with the story. It’s sketchy and rough but in that way it also conveys the overall emotion very well.

It features a plethora of Ed’s attempts on seducing Roy. They start innocently enough: Annoying Roy until he pays more attention and such, but quickly escalate into Ed waiting naked in several parts of Roy’s home (namely the bed and the bathroom).

Roy, being a decent human being, collects Ed’s clothes and makes sure he gets dressed again. Although Roy also says that he’d prefer to just “ravish” Ed instead of Ed taking charge. This causes Ed to, rightfully, snap and punch him in the face, but - in the end - it finally leads to both of them letting go and having a good time. Naked. In bed. With Ed giving Roy a surprise blowjob and Roy being ... Roy ... and doing the rest.

And the same goes for the doujin itself, actually! Part of it is a novel, but the few pages of novel are covered in nice illustrations and beautiful decorations in the corners and on the sides of the pages.

The story in this one - or rather, the three stories that can be seen separately or as one longer story - is a comfortable mix of romance, shenanigans and straight up porn, as it centers around Roy and Maes stargazing on a late night in the office while on the phone with each other. In the novel part, things get quite heated quite quickly. In the library. 

As they walk home together, Maes is completely unable to keep his hands to himself and the two of them basically make sure to get to Roy’s place ASAP for some extended privacy. Which includes after-sex-cuddles and noseboops. And we all live for the Hyuroi noseboops, right?

It takes a slap across the face for Otabek and some serious talking until they finally level with each other and confess.

Yuri’s next performance is with Otabek’s assistance.

They do the glove thing. Yes, the one from the Welcome to Madness OVA. Yes, it’s just as amazing as it was in the anime.

Most of this doujin is set in the boys’ academy days. We have a lot of simple, but pretty in-action shots of them (well, mostly Roy) at the shooting range and even some scenes in the cafeteria and the classroom. It gives the whole thing a very natural-feeling setup. Roy is usually grumpy and Maes usually trying to cheer him up. I was pretty surprised how well this relatively rough style can convey emotions.

Their first time (which is mostly hinted at) seems messy and confused, just frantic touching in the bathroom. It’s awkward, but kinda cute and does kickstart their relationship.

They do get closer, but then distant again as Maes gets more and more popular among the students. This drives Roy back to the shooting range. When they meet again - when Maes tries to drag him away from sulking -, Roy is almost violent in his desperate attempts to be close to Maes.

...

But after they talk it out, calm returns to both of them. The story ends with them watching the leaves fall.

Still - it’s an adorable doujin. The first half of it is shenanigans of Maes and Riza trying to convince Roy to talk to Ed. This includes these cute sample pages.

It’s basically Maes going “you should hug him, people hug people they like”, resulting in Roy blowing him up. Yet, both Maes’ and Riza’s efforts aren’t in vain - Roy ends up talking it out with Ed at the library and clearing things up about them.

Seriously though, I LOVE the idea in this one. Depending on which side you open it, the doujin offers you a different story. Fits the name, too.

Now, most of this doujin is NSFW, but the facial expressions convey so much emotion you don’t even really need a plot. The stories both play out post-canon, one of them depicting the two enjoying a casual life in their shared home on the countryside, while the other - also post-canon - plays out somewhere else. It’s much rougher than the other one, like none of them is really sure how to react.

Like I said, the facial expressions are top notch in this one and really make it stand out.

This is the two-page fold out poster at the start of the doujin, so I guess you know what you’re getting into with this one.

The general story of this doujin is that the things that happened in Ishval never leave Roy alone. No matter what happens, he is still on the battlefield, the memory is still burned into his mind.

He will have vivid flashbacks of Ishval or the times when he let himself get fucked for a promotion, he puts his gun in his mouth while thinking about ending it, he vomits his guts out because of what he’s done. He will break down in the middle of the street just *screaming* for two pages straight.

And Maes is always with him. They try to be there for each other, but Maes can’t understand all of Roy just like Roy can’understand everything about Maes. They try to make it work, but it doesn’t, and it’s so raw and full of emotion while pretending to be all rational.

The style feels incredibly raw as well, almost experimental like a fever dream. It’s wonderful to bring the message of the burdens of war across. It’s one of my favourites and a must-have if you’re into Roy angst.

In the first one, we have Luc who’s trying his best to be social and make some friends in the castle. He’s being accompanied by Shiro through all of this and learns some valuable lessons about teamwork.

... followed up directly by a story about Gremio being very upset because he thinks Tir is hiding porn magazines under his bed when he’s actually just preparing a surprise present for Gremio.

The third story features Seed and Culgan teaching Jowy swordfighting (at Jowy’s request) in Muse. They’re interrupted by the Beast Rune’s wolves which Jowy slaughters with ease.

(which is why we’re pinging @pazsune2 right here)

It also features Nash’s adventures in Suikogaiden including Hix and Tengaar being cute, the Kobolds dancing (because why not) and a fight with Seed and Culgan.

Also, Shu still has the weirdest ideas in the weirdest places. This time, rubber duckies and bath tubs.

There are a multitude of short stories. Some of them are longer, some are just one or pages long. It’s a repeating theme, for example, that Shu has most of his ideas during mundane situations, like in the bathtub or on the toilet. One is about Pilika exploring the castle and winning at Chinchirorin.

Tir is reminiscing about his time with Ted, focussing on the Soul Eater and what it does to its bearers. Camus and Miklotov are sword fighting to impress girls, Flik and Shu have some conversations about Odessa, Riou gets a pep talk from Nanami, and so on.

Also, this happens.

It’s ... nice to have something that focuses on the characters as a whole, living together in the castle and still having fun despite the war and the situation with the True Runes and the responsibilities. It’s also great for headcanon purposes and sometimes pairing off unlikely pairs of characters in friendships and interactions. But the very specific kind of humour and the very short stories that just seem like snapshots of something bigger make it hard to get really involved.

This doujin shows two sides of one complete story; While Angelo is back in the ruins of The Holy Isle Of Neos to fight the vengeful souls of the people who died when Rapthorne was summoned, Marcello awakens back at the Mystical Spring where he has to fight the creatures these souls send out to capture and kill him.

Angelo knows the souls want to get revenge for what Marcello has done to them, so he fights twice as hard to save his brother. He manages to defeat the souls and make sure they go to Heaven. At the same time, Marcello has visions of the children who died on Neos and of the children who have to grow up without parents - all thanks to him.

When he hugs one of these children and apologizes, the visions changes to him hugging young Angelo.

It ends with both of them leaving on an adventure to start a new life.

It’s a gorgeous doujinshi and the fight scenes are incredibly well drawn. I find myself re-reading it all the time and relishing in all the emotions portrayed and the fact that this thing has a happy ending for both of them.

It’s the story of Maes encountering Roy again in Ishval after not having seen him in a while. He hasn’t seen him perform Alchemy yet and isn’t feeling too good about Roy him being send to fight on his own.

Maes follows him and lands in the middle of a fight and heavy gunfire etc. Roy saves him, punches and scolds him for endangering himself.

They choose to stay and fight together and I might have described it to friends as “They protec, they attac, but most importantly they choose to have each other’s back“ because I’m a dork.

As you could probably tell by the front and back cover, this doujin is mainly comedy and fluff. It has a lot of adorable shenanigans with Tir, Pan, Cleo, Ted and of course Gremio and also some cute borderline romantic scenes between him and Tir.

Let me start this off with: The art is absolutely gorgeous in this one. I love the soft coloring on the cover, it really fits the doujin’s overall tone!