Personal Collection: Comiket 19 - Anime Research Group Espial (Shio Sato / Riho Yagisawa / Aya Shishioin) - ESPERANTO Vol. 9 - Sekigahara (1981) (C19) [アニメ研究会 Espial (佐藤志生 / やぎざわ梨穂 / 獅子王院綾)] えすぺらんと VOL. 9 - 関ヶ原 (1981) 昭和 56 年

One of the most elusive, rare titles to grace the web, Esperanto as an imprint has seldom gone to market and is exceedingly hard to acquire, much less in this shape. This particular book I got from Mandarake thinking it was something totally different (one comes to find that you cannot trust all Mandarake listings as it was cataloged incorrectly).

This is an early post-broadcast work by some of the most important, prolific female Aniparo illustrators of their day - Shio Sato (Haruka Sato, Simone Yotsuya), Riho Yagisawa (Meiko Hayashi) and Aya Shishioin (A name that is an amalgamation of both Aya and Shio's pennames, though is of the author Aya Katsura) penned this work, whereas it was later available at Comiket 19. At this time, these artists were quite important contributors to texts such as Monthly OUT and Animage during its tenure as a subculture magazine. Anime Research Group Espial was present when Hideo Azuma and his friends first unveiled Cybele during the tenure of the circle's brief history. An offshoot of both circles Syndicate as well as Tokyo Animenia Army, this work encompasses each author's sensitivity to literature, Japanese history and pop culture under the veil of both mecha and BL.

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Additionals:

This work could technically be considered a sub-imprint of the Let's Play Around With Char circle as it was distributed from the same address as many of those particular works in Yokohama.

This is a historial Edo era themed Gundam work with the inclusion of Daram Zuba from Space Runaway Ideon. Based on the very real Battle of Sekigahara, a decisive battle which occurred on October 21, 1600 in what is now Gifu Prefecture, Japan, at the end of the Sengoku period, this work includes a rather heterosexual Garma x Iscelina manuscript by Shio Sato as well as a yuri crackship work between Mirai x Kycilia. Aya Shishionin and Rio Yagizawa contribue manuscripts while Ryutoshi letters/contributes a short story. Julie Asakura serves as letterer as well as treasurer within this circle though is often not named.

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