Series: GALS! Artist: Fujii Mihona Publication: Ribon Magazine (03/2001) Details: Ran-chan Maemuki Hatsugen Seal Source: Scanned from my personal collection

Items NOT in Saya’s Collection (but mentioned or listed somewhere) part 2

And now,for the GBC/GBA games! The title is a lie,some items are in her collection as screenshots. Games marked with an asterisk were sent from Japan,may have a note about the item regardless of how the item was obtained:

Game Boy/Game Boy Color games/consoles: -White Game Boy console (Japan-only variant) -Sakura Taisen Game Boy Color console * (Japan only variant) -Pocket Monsters Midori (Pokemon Green,not released outside of Japan) -Akazukin Chacha -Kinnikuman: The Dream Match -Tokyo Disneyland: Mickey no Cinderella Shiro Mystery Tour (based on the Tokyo Disneyland attraction of the same name,known for having the Horned King from The Black Cauldron as the final “antagonist” of the attraction) -Tokyo Disneyland: Fantasy Tour * -Cardcaptor Sakura: Itsumo Sakura-chan to Issho! * -Chou Gals! Kotobuki Ran * -Hamtaro: Ham Hams Unite! (bought in America,since she lived there at the time of the game’s release) -Pokemon Card GB2: Great Rocket-Dan Sanjō! * -Sakura Wars GB * (came with her Sakura Taisen Game Boy Color)

Game Boy Advance games/consoles: -Purple Game Boy Advance console -Chobits Game Boy Advance console* (Japan only) -Navy Blue Game Boy Advance SP console -Backyard Baseball -Pokemon Fire Red (bought during her 6th book) -Pokemon Emerald (bought post-series) -Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town (bought post-series) -Cartoon Network Block Party (bought during her 5th book) -Chobits: Atashi Dake no Hito * (came with her Chobits Game Boy Advance) -Tanbi Musō Meine Liebe (part of her collection,but this one is the box and cartridge) -Ed,Edd n Eddy: Jawbreakers! -Hamtaro: Ham Ham Heartbreak (bought before her series began) -Hamtaro: Rainbow Rescue * (released in only Japan and Europe, got the Japanese edition)

Super Gals! Is so fucking criminally underrated. That fucking show shaped who I am as a strong person from middle school to now.

Chou Gals! Kotobuki Ran II

I was expecting the Gals' games to have more text than Kuro-chan's so I knew I couldn't enjoy them thoroughly, but since I really like the subject matter, I made the effort to try and translate as much as I could so to give out a more complete review of both titles. Unfortunately I'm an idiot who thought Google Translator would be of any help. Well I did learn that "kushite kudasai" means "please"! A-at least that's what I think it means. Though, I did get the jist of them, mostly. Anyway, these games have been also developed by Konami, one in 2001 and the sequel in 2002, just when the original airing of the series finished its course. Luckily unlike our black and white cyborg cat, the two Gals gaming chapters have different gameplay; in any case, once again the graphics and sounds are spot on in both chapters: these games also feature beautiful background shots to show various locations from the manga and detailed sprites of clothing and accessories. The first one (posted a few days ago) is much more story-centered, it almost plays out like an RPG in visual novel style. After asking an uncomfortable amount of personal details to the new player (along with the expected name, gender, birthday and bloodtype I was also asked to insert a crush name, telephone number and email address!) the main menu shows quite some options, and it's clear from the many offered minigames this is supposed to act like a gals' phone device, with the many dedicated apps that sometimes are shown throughout the episodes. There's a love meter, a fortune telling application, a "mail system" which I suspect sends and recieves messages via the infrared port, and even a cable link mode in which I suppose one can exchange their player data. Moving from gimmick features to more substantial sections, there's a photo gallery of various shots from the cartoon, which I think can be printed once unlocked, since one of the main things gals are doing in the cartoon is obtaining photo stickers from purikura machines; and a "wardrobe" section where the player can dress up six characters (the three main gals + three main boys of the manga) with clothing and accessories unlocked during the main games. It's interesting to see how girly clothings can be put on male characters as well, how progressive xD One of the two Kotobuki Ran 1's main games is a quiz section via SMS. The game lets you choose a player character and an adversary among the anime cast and gives out questions based on the actual cartoon and manga. Answers don't have to be chosen from a list, rather written from scratch using the texting system on your in-game cellphone, racing against your opponent to send out a correct answer as soon as possible. Last but not least, there's finally the main adventure, which feels exactly like a legit episode: as you might have guessed, this one focuses on cellphone usage and throughout the story the player recieves texts and needs to reply to them. Unfortunately these are both parts in which require decent skills in reading, writing and forming japanese sentences. It really is one game you can't play without knowing the language, so sadly I can't go further than these basics explanations. Thankfully Kotobuki Ran 2 (shown above) is much more action based! It didn't subject me to a third grade to start out a profile and the main menu is much more streamlined. Among the minigames there's the usual wardrobe option, updated with more clothing choices and characters to dressup; a link-cable or infrared communication section; a menu of... husbandos and waifus??? Basically it lets you choose a character name among a list and it adds it under your own name in the titlescreen. This... still confuses me, but it exists, so :/ Let's talk about the main mode. Once again, the main adventure is structured like a well drawn and nicely coloured visual novel-style episode, though each task (usually dressing up for a specific occasion) is completed not with texting, rather through a Puyo Puyo styled puzzle level. The player stacks up coloured falling blocks, and with a "bomb" block, whenever a chain combo is triggered, they can change a part of Ran's attire (headgear, top, bottom, footwear) with a roulette-styled random choice. Definitely something that can be completed even with minimal knowledge of the japanese language, and therefore a much safer purchase if you're a western Gals fan. Again, both games are finely developed and look really nice, but the language barrier is very strong (especially in Kotobuki Ran 1) and only fluent japanese speakers and writers would be able to enjoy it; on top of it, people who don't know the source anime or manga will find the whole thing pointless, so we're talking about a very restricted audience. Considering the very mild reception of the Gals' anime in Italy, it comes as obvious as to why these games stayed exclusive in their origin country; my only hope would be to find a translation patch somewhere on the big Net!

Yay! Fujii Mihona has announced the release of the first of her self-published digital GALS!! anthologies in English! You can purchase the digital book here via her BOOTH account for 550 yen.

There may be a few things that don't flow as easily for an English audience due to the GALS!! sequel series not having an official English-language release. However, if you're a fan of the characters from the OG series you should be able to follow most of it. A print version may happen in the future if there's enough content to warrant it.

Personally, I think it's very exciting to see an establish shoujo mangaka directly releasing digital content for English-speaking fans in an affordable and accessible manner. Please support Mihonacchi by purchasing this volume if you're in a position to do so as this has absolutely been a labour of love for the artist and it's a fun little read.

From now until April 2nd 2023 Fujii Mihona will be selling a variety of things on her BOOTH page as part of the virtual event, NEOKET4. Featured in this pretty solid line up are a variety of physical items from GALS!! and Ryuu-ou Mahoujin such as mirrors, acrylic keyholders, acrylic stands, t-shirts, can badges, tapestries, pillows, and more (including an umbrella which sold out almost instantly).

Now this brings us to the digital works Fujii-sensei is releasing;

An original GALS!! anthology (which is more like a one-shot)

A Ryuu-ou Mahoujin prologue which begins the Chi no Maki arc (with the series gaining an "official" English-language name for the first time, Magic Circle of the Dragon Kings).

Interestingly the description for the GALS!! anthology states in English that it will be receiving an English translation in the future with news to come so stay tuned, I guess!

At this stage there are no plans to release these digital works in a physical form, but if these plans change they will be announced through Fujii's official channels.

All NEOKET4 releases from Fujii Mihona's "Studio Mihonacchi" circle are available for a limited time only, with sales ending April 2nd, so please get in quick if you'd like to order (I think at this point it's way too late to bother saying she was manning her own digital stall this evening, as it's all over... but she was at one point which is awesome).

I had already ordered the one thing I definitely had to buy from this event, which was the Rino acrylic stand (I have a soft spot for Ryuu-ou Mahoujin) but I'll probably also get the digital manga as I really want to check out Ran with dark hair in the GALS!! anthology and omg am I ever keen to read more Ryuu-ou Mahoujin.

Anyway I don't have a lot of insight on this event or these items on a Friday night, I just thought I should give them a quick shout-out because I am always down for a popular 90s Ribon artist to make some noise on Pixiv/BOOTH!

Series: GALS! Artist: Fujii Mihona Publication: Ribon Magazine (05/2002) Details: Ribon Character Card Collection #0006 Source: Scanned from personal collection

Series: GALS! Artist: Fujii Mihona Publication: Ribon Magazine (11/2000) Details: Ran-chan Accessory Stand Source: Scanned from personal collection

Series: GALS! Artist: Fujii Mihona Publication: Ribon Magazine (02/2001) Details: Ran-chan Star Mini Bag Source: Scanned from personal collection

Series: GALS! Artist: Fujii Mihona Publication: Ribon Magazine (12/2000) Details: Jewelry Tree Box Source: Scanned from personal collection

You can now purchase the 3rd GALS!! anthology (in Japanese) and the third Ryuu-ou Mahoujin -Chi no Maki- chapter (which wraps the prologue) from Fujii Mihona's BOOTH.

Please support the creator if you can afford to and enjoy her work, the downloads are decently priced and a great little dose of fun for fans.

Series: GALS! Artist: Fujii Mihona Publication: Ribon Magazine (04/2001) Details: Ran-chan Fashion Box Source: Scanned from personal collection

Series: GALS! Artist: Fujii Mihona Publication: Ribon Magazine (06/2001) Details: Ran-chan Keitai Denwa Card Source: Scanned from personal collection

Series: Chou GALS! Kotobuki Ran Artist: No Artist Credited Publication: Animedia Magazine (06/2001) Source: Scanned from personal collection

Scan of a Ribon furoku postcard featuring the leads from GALS! as illustrated by series mangaka, Fujii Mihona. This item was scanned from my personal collection

Colour page spread from the 16th chapter of GALS! as illustrated by series mangaka, Fujii Mihona. Page scanned from my personal collection of Ribon clippings.