When Fantasy Meets Modern Times (Artwork of 山本四角 Beastrings)

Hey gang!

First, “Happy New Year” to everyone! I hope you all have a good 2018. 🙂

Recently, I was introduced to to an artist whose artwork really hit me in a positive way. 山本四角 (YAMAMOTO Shikaku or Yonkaku, depending on which reading he goes by) is the artist’s name and modern fantasy is the name of his game. What I mean by this is having fantasy characters such as high elves, dark elves, oni, humanoid beasts, etc., and setting them in a modern context.

Yamamoto-sensei has several scenarios set up, but his main three are quite interesting. First, there’s the High Elf Ojousama and her humanoid fox butler. She appears to have rescued him when both were young, and he’s served her ever since. She’s a mage of some kind and apparently a detective. The Man-Fox appears to come from a heritage based on American Indians, which I found most cool.

Next up is the tomboy street musician (not sure what race she’s supposed to be) and the Man-Dragon. The Man-Dragon saved the girl from being beaten up by other beast-thugs. He hung around to hear her play and was so touched by it, he sang with her, causing her to gain quite a bit of tips as a result. Thus, the two are now inseparable.

Finally, there’s the female Dark Elf Personal Assistant and her Oni (?) Mayor boss. Also working with them is a human male (?) and a succubus. The Oni-Mayor (if someone knows what his race is, let me know — he has horns at times, but he is also identified as a barbarian in another place) is a fighter of some kind. It seems he is the mayor (市長) of this city. That said, the Dark Elf was an assassin who attempted to kill the Mayor. He easily survives, but when a Dragon-Worm attacks and the Dark Elf saves a kitten, the Oni saves the Dark Elf. After he dispatches the dragon, he offers the Dark Elf a job. 😆

The artwork really appealed to me. In addition, I liked the idea of a fantasy world set in a modern context, where there’s electricity, smart phones, game consoles, HDTV, etc.

I really, REALLY wish Yamamoto-sensei had more manga stuff out and that we could read it in English. I’d love to read about the adventures a High Elf Ojousama Detective Sorcerer and her Man-Fox Butler. I’d love to seem more of the street musician tomboy and her Man-Dragon companion. And I get the feeling that the adventures of a long suffering Dark Elf PA and her Oni boss would be quite hilarious.

So, what did you guys think of Yamamoto-sensei’s art? Let me know.

Update: For those who may have missed it, Sensei’s Pixiv page was linked in his kanji name spelling. And I just relinked it above so you don’t have to scroll up to get it. 😀

19-Mar-2021: The series is called Beastrings and is now for sale in Japan. Sadly, gaijin aren’t welcome to buy the Kindle version and shipping it to the US will cost an arm and a leg, so better make sure to have several things to buy to mitigate that.