I was really excited to see the new work from Aka Ringo based on the preview images for Hanamaru and the excellence of the previous AZ + PLAY winter Comiket publication, 0 [LOVE]. So for me personally, the bar was set a little too high and Hanamaru fell way down under it.

This 24-page (including covers) staple-bound publication is full color, and the illustrations that are included really are excellent. But in short, there really aren't a lot of illustrations. Aka Ringo likes to have an illustration, and then a "process page" of sorts, which was also present next to the art works in 0 [LOVE]. Additionally, the cover art work of Flandre Scarlet appears again inside the doujinshi. So this leaves us with technically six illustrations in a 24 page book. Ouch.

So yeah, you're seeing everything this book has to offer in terms of art work in this post. It's strange but, if it had been a 12-page book with only six illustrations, I wouldn't have had such a negative reaction to it and it would have been a lot more expected.

The last few pages cover web arts and other publications, along with a bit from the artist. I can't really recommend this, but hey, maybe these illustrations will re-appear in a compilation with more quality and substance someday. Feel free to let me know if I'm being unfairly negative about it, sometimes I just get an opinion and it's hard to see the positive.

On a side note, I'd like to announce that the search function (in the top right corner) on the site works properly now. If you're looking for Touhou, just type that in and you'll see results from all the blog articles that mention it, along with relevant images titled or tagged with it. You could even search 'panties' ;D Try it out!

• Title: Hanamaru
• タイトル: はなまる
• Release Date: 12/31/2009
• Pages: 24
• Buy: Toranoana