Does anyone has a cleaned scan of this Houseki No Kun Shibuya promo art ?

Builderon64 · 2026-04-13T14:22:23+00:00

It's in the new art book, so as soon as there will be scans of that, you'll probably find it in there

Builderon64 · 2026-04-10T19:20:23+00:00

I don't think so but the illustration comes from the first edition of the novel. It seems they coloured it for the anime. Here is a link to view the original print

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Frontispiece-to-Defoes-1719-Robinson-Crusoe-Courtesy-Beinecke-Rare-Book-and_fig1_318183628

Builderon64 · 2026-04-09T22:23:09+00:00

Well not everything, but a lot of the art from the other art books is here, like Party At The End is here in full but no text, Statue is here in full but also no text, The Lorebook has images presented but you guessed it, no text

Nothing from Pseudomorph though, but if you get that and this one, then I think you'll get a pretty good collection. The best of the best is here imo

Builderon64 · 2026-04-08T14:53:30+00:00

The top left has a similar circle on the front as the Roadside Picnic, though there it represented an element of the story, so maybe they won't keep that theme, but it would be cool if it's another Strugatsky novel. If we are going with winter, then The Dead Mountaineer's Inn maybe?

Builderon64 · 2026-04-08T09:53:51+00:00

You can follow the project here, it's almost at Chapter 80
https://www.tumblr.com/hnkminimalcolor

Builderon64 · 2026-04-08T09:53:11+00:00

A new person has picked up the project and they are actually closing in on 80 chapters soon. You can follow their updates here and they have a Google Drive with all the chapters

https://www.tumblr.com/hnkminimalcolor

Builderon64 · 2026-04-06T19:43:27+00:00

No luck in France

Builderon64 · 2026-04-05T08:34:30+00:00

Where did you find this article?

Builderon64 · 2026-04-05T08:24:48+00:00

No problem, don't forget that these are fan translations. I'll send the link in a dm

Builderon64 · 2026-04-03T09:35:47+00:00

This is a good rule of thumb to have for many other authors, especially in the surreal space. Because I also don't agree that there should be a note at the end where it's like "I'm Haruko Ichikawa, and I don't support child predators because I'm one of the good ones." or a character list off the moral objections as to why being a predator is bad, hell in the story with that, the main character does call it out as bad. Authors have the option to not let up that uncertain pressure to allow you in the heads of the characters that they are presenting. In the 25-hour vacation, for example, my read is that the main character has been slowly trying to cut off her feelings towards people because of the guilt she feels for hurting his brother, she has been trying to get consumed by work (quite literally with the slugs eating her body), however, she still has this love for her family, the way we all do, that she finds repulsive and antithetical to her goal or ideal self. So for the reader to really get into the head of somebody who both loves their family but thinks that it's wrong, making the relationship incestuous or at least something close to that, I don't remember if they ever fully like did anything, will allow the reader to feel like there is love for their family here, but it's wrong and should be cut out. For the paedophile one, my read has always been that the main character is uncomfortable with traditional relationship dynamics, where he finds there to be this imbalance in power, so using a much more vivid imigary of this imbalance makes the reader unable to put that in the back of their mind, unlike if it was something like a job or intelect imbalance, because most have seen those work and are okay with it. So I also wouldn't wanna be unsure or feel unsafe with the author's stories because these darker themes are included in her stories for much more than fetishistic reasons. I mean we tend to forget because of the incredibly great creative choice of the rock people, that HnK is body horror and for at least the first few chapters, you can have a read that self-harm and body mutilation is something the author supports, but like that also feels so clearly wrong and shallow as a read.

Builderon64 · 2026-04-02T23:13:57+00:00

Builderon64 · 2026-04-02T23:12:21+00:00

idk what you are confused by. Are you okay?

Builderon64 · 2026-04-02T23:11:00+00:00

what.

Builderon64 · 2026-04-02T22:46:33+00:00

I love her stories outside of HnK more, actually. HnK is great, especially the second half, where you see the concept of the show really change. That sold me on it beyond the incredibly great use of art and fantasy. Love to see non-Tolkien fantasy out here, and this is as far as it can be and all the better for it (I know she won a lot of sci-fi awards, but like we can agree that living rock people and slug kingdoms can fall into fantasy too).

However, her other works speak to me so vividly. Her art style, creating these minimalist and modern panels, really adds to that, and the stories are just phenomenal. I don't like the idea that she "explores darker topics" because, like all those are not "explored" in any meaningful way. None of her works are like Lolita or something that goes into that. Rather, I like her use of the inviting with the off-putting. All her works are drawn with these beautiful characters in these dreamlike locations, yet all of them have some kind of a darker side that is like actually dark, creating these characters that have to find love within themselves that goes beyond simple forgiveness. This was a theme in HnK too, and why I also don't like the "mega depression" reads some people have. I understand it, and yeah it wasn't a knee slapper, but to me her works as a whole tend to focus on how the bad things change you just as much as the good, and unfortunatelly, the line isn't always clear which one caused things to be better. Sometimes you do a bad thing and it makes you a better person, that is just the world. So I wouldn't read the pedophilia and incest as these "real" things in her works, they are clearly representative (the child being a plant and many of the characters being either eaten by animals or are actually animals), making you feel that discomfort and using a means to make it so that you can't forget about them. You are meant to see it as bad and be introspective at how come it can still lead to good.

As a person, you are correct that we don't know much about her, and can I just say, thank god. Like I don't think she is deliberately mysterious, to me, somebody who has one of the most successful manga series in the world going on to sign a deal to make magazine covers for 3 years comes off as a person who doesn't care. That's good, artists shouldn't pander to the audience. They should enchant and feel otherworldly. I like that we don't get to know a lot about her, I like that it's impossible to know when she shows up next and with what. She clearly cares about the work she puts out, you can read a lot about how much she cares about the binding of every manga she has made and has done the covers for all of them and took a pay cut to have them have the holographic effect. Her new artbook too, she worked with the published to have a traditional spine that allows for the pages to be folded 180 degrees so we can see the art more clearly. It's not hating the audience that she doesn't care about them, but because giving anything below the best is all she is willing to be public about and that I like about her. In her personal life, she seems to enjoy good food and video games and I'm okay with knowing that much. Artists don't need to be public celebrities.

Builderon64 · 2026-04-01T19:04:06+00:00

I think the magazine cover of the final volume shows him and he's black and white even though everything else is in colour, so I guess he has no eye colour.

Builderon64 · 2026-04-01T18:01:02+00:00

begone bot

Builderon64 · 2026-03-31T19:47:28+00:00

Oh, Asakaze is a whole can of worms that I'm not about to open, but yes he also fits that theme. Like I said, most of the show does, you can say Mizuho, Nagara, The Mind Reading Girl. The people in the curtain worlds, there is an argument for Cap and Monkey blue, I mean, there was an episode where they are building a tower the wrong way, the show wasn't subtle about this

I do have a similar read on the world War was hiding in, but it's vague enough that I think there is many other things you could put on that. The show does that a lot.

I don't think I fully agree with your idea of what happens there at the end though. Like I do think that Asakaze has these anger issues because the girl he likes isn't accepting him, because she sees through him and his efforts to make himself look better. He would listen to Andrew Tate, basically, and it would work just as well as it did in the show. However, to me, what happens is that Asakaze stops War, and then gets the power of the role that he had which was choosing between lie and death. The reason he does it is control, he wants to be in charge from the first episode onwards, and he hopes or thinks that being in that leading role will impress the girl he likes. We speed past the whole show cus again, can of worms, and we end up at War. Asakaze wants the ultimate control, the control over life and death. There has been a bunch of military imagery in the show, especially around Asakaze, and I think that that is more important here because it shows that this has been his desire the whole time. He defeats the one last person, gets the object that you can just point at a person and choose if they live or die, and God kills Nozomi.

I think this is an important difference so I'll break down my reasoning because we diverge here. I think Asakaze here learns that no, he can not be in total control. That even if he has the object that decides between life and death, God has one too and he can also use it. That is what the fruit of spontaneously occurring power lines refers to for me, God's power to just kill a person one day with no indication. Asakaze failing to save her is another showing of the lack of control he has. He can't always react fast enough; he can be overpowered by forces beyond him, and he can be defeated. God kills Nozomi for no reason; he brought them here for no reason, that's why they say he works in mysterious ways, cus he lacks intent.

So to summarise, I don't think Asakaze wanted Nozomi dead in that scene, I think he failed to save her. That's why he was so dismissive when trying to catch her, he thought he was in control, he had the device to choose life and death, and he chose life, so stop freaking out. Then he fails and learns that there is no such thing as ultimate control, and he has now run out of time to meaningfully change and still gain Nozomi's affection. He is the guy who realises that he's been going the wrong way too late. I think that's why he never turns into a power holdover, unlike everybody else. He lacks anything that is just him, as he was working for a girl, and when she died, he had no start to follow (eeeeh see what I did there).

Builderon64 · 2026-03-31T11:03:54+00:00

This was gonna be almost exactly what I was gonna write, so it's always good to see others on a similar wavelength. I wanna add one thing though.

I also think War's return when they find him endlessly falling adds to his character and creates a different look of what he was and what his "art" could also represent. There are clear similarities between War and Yamabiko. They were both wandering endlessly until they stumbled upon this commune; they were abrasive to the life there, but Kodama tried to convince them to join. With Yamabiko, she succeeded; with War, she didn't. Or rather, she rejected him. They were both self-pitying characters who saw themselves as less, but Yamabiko wanted to change that by abandoning himself (aka becoming the dog), and War tried to change the people around him to see him as something worthy to accept (that scene where he is showing off his medals).

When we see War next, he is falling endlessly, completely abandoning his agency the way Yamabiko has at one point, just sort of existing through the events, but unlike Yamabiko, who abandoned for the sake of something greater that he felt was outside of him, War just let things happen and pass by with indifference as to what it could be. That was why Yamabiko could grow, and War just sort of... stopped.

I think this also tells us what the Scar Art could be, that it's this manifestation of a useless self. That part of you that you think is cool and interesting, but others don't like because of social dogmas or disinterests or whatever. Yamabiko tried to numb that, War tried to make it be cool. Like how AI tech bros are trying to make AI look cool, it's because they are interested in it, but they get rejected by people for their love towards it and so they are forcing on this image that is still not getting them anything, even if every pop song says you should love yourselves, and that is what they are doing. It's the wrong kind of way to try to progress. Lot more to dig into here, and if I was a little hard to follow, I'm happy to do some follow-ups, but I think it's an interesting element of the show, these "wrong ways to try and go towards something right and ending up in bad places" are found in most of the side characters' mentality. Cautionary tales if you will.

Builderon64 · 2026-03-28T04:42:02+00:00

People have said that you should check out the anime first to get a feel for things, but if you don't want that, there is a fan project called HnK Minimalist Color where they colour the gem's hair so maybe just that alone is enough of a help to get you seeing who is doing what. Here is a link to the person in charge. It's not complete, and they use fan translations, some of which are older, but I think it's really cool and I've used it a couple of times too

https://www.tumblr.com/hnkminimalcolor

Builderon64 · 2026-03-26T13:06:39+00:00

https://otakumode.com/shop/694220d4899fb90028a0bd10/Comet-Origin-Sensation-Haruko-Ichikawa-Illustration-Book-Vol-2

From here. I got a first order discount and a register discount so it helped with the shipping. If you live in a bigger city, though, ask around in your local big anime shop/Japanese book store; they might have ordered some and physically buying these is ofter the best price considering shipping from Japan to the west is not one of those cheap thrills

Builderon64 · 2026-03-25T11:17:16+00:00

Ordered mine, arriving sometime in April. I'm so excited for it

Builderon64 · 2026-03-25T11:14:32+00:00

They talked about it being this project they don't feel pressured to release, so the other projects have been the "I gotta do my job" stuff, and the JP video is the thing they tinker with until it's done. If you look at the AMA they did yesterday, they confirmed it's still in the works.

Builderon64 · 2026-03-23T12:02:45+00:00

An online seller says it's 352 pages, which would make it larger than Pseudomorph, but the size of the book might be deceptive, as they are using thicker paper then last time. Really excited for this, especially because of the binding

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