Yonekura Kengo

Another mangaka of whom I have been a fan for many years now is 米倉けんご/Yonekura Kengo, whose magnum opus is indisputably Pink Sniper. Coupling great art with a story to match is a difficult feat, but in Pink Sniper I think this is accomplished admirably.

ピンクスナイパー/Pink Sniper in particular stands out as a good example of a full blown love/sex comedy erotic manga. Story, characters and humour are all well developed, and run the full length of the original Pink Sniper, and are continued into some of her later works.

Since it seems relatively difficult for authors of more sexually oriented manga to combine all the areas needed to make up a rounded manga (especially a continuous and coherent story), success in this area adds to my estimation of her works a great deal.

Themes covered are diverse, although cross dressing, futanari and occasional homosexual trysts make repeated appearances, so anyone with a taste for (or even merely a tolerance of) these kind of gender bending hijinks will be well catered for.

Nobody could call the art unskilful, though whether it is truly first rate is hard to say.

Yonekura Kengo is another female ero-mangaka, which perhaps answers some questions about the content in these titles, whilst posing others…

Yonekura Kengo is fairly prominent, though perhaps not so much recently, so it should not be too hard to come across her works however you may choose to enjoy them. There is even an officially licensed English version of Pink Sniper available.

Reducing Yonekura Kengo’s works to the Pink Sniper titles is probably a little unfair, but I don’t think there are really many who’d consider her previous titles (Yellow Hearts, etc.) on the same level. Whether her later non-Pink Sniper titles are up to scratch is probably more a matter of individual taste – personally they do not appeal, but it is hard to deny they are still accomplished works.

Moderately twisted sex comedy which reaches a high level in all areas without being a paragon of any particular area is the awkward description I’d be inclined to give as recommendation of Pink Sniper – as to the rest, your mileage may vary, but Yonekura Kengo is undeniably a mangaka of elevated skill.