Haha, two weeks in a row! I can’t make Tythanin write all of my articles for me, after all. Today I’m going to talk a little bit about a fan favorite, the circle FLIPFLOPs. Ah, where to start with this circle. For me, at least, FLIPFLOPs was one of the earlier doujin circles I became aware of (thanks to avid fan translators) as I was getting into Touhou and fan works were only starting to become the phenomenal boom that they are now.
A little scrunched here, but click them for the full image.
The circle itself is, to my knowledge, composed of two people: Takahata Yuki (who also has a personal website and Akiyama Ginko with Takahata taking up the role of illustrator. As a circle, FLIPFLOPs is pretty much perfect in delivering cute slice of life styled stories that lean back and forth between light-hearted and dramatic. While they still do Touhou doujinshi, they are less frequent now with their focus on professional work. This includes the manga-turned-anime about Shinto deities and antique stores called Nekogami Yaoyorozu, and a futuristic cyber-runner themed manga called Suzulog, as well as several other works for TCGs and video games (Namely Etrian Odyssey). I haven’t read much of Suzulog but I can tell it is definitely one of their more dramatic works, blending a (relatively) bleak futuristic setting with occasional humor and otherwise heart warming stories. On the former’s angle, for all of it’s faults I did enjoy Nekogami even if it felt like a watered down Touhou with heavy yuri implications and Sega references. While some may not like it, that’s totally okay in my book.
Someone call Aoki Ume, I need to make this blog wider. 🙁
As for their actual Touhou doujinshi, at least for me their most iconic series was the Residents of a Touhou Town seasonal doujinshi. While Variant Youyoumu and Scarlet Sacraments were also pretty awesome, I liked the Residents series for its laid back humor and also mahjong jokes. I’ll shamelessly admit that I enjoy fluffy and silly slice of life stuff probably more than recommended for my blood sugar levels, though. Give them a read if you haven’t, and if you want to purchase a hard copy, please swing by our shop!
Even in this blog, FOE!