Akira Megumu (Amecoco). Golden Hour. September 10, 2006. 28 pages; 26 cm.
This volume by one of my favorite FF7 doujinka includes 4-koma from their Oyabaka series (see below), along with a guest 4-koma from another artist and two short stories about adult Rufus. One of the stories shows Tseng bringing Dark Nation to visit him in the hospital while he's recovering from an injury, and is adorable. (I love hurt/comfort involving my gorgeous blond prince. <3) The back cover features an amusing image of a disgruntled-looking child Rufus with his hair in pigtails. (LOL)
Akira Megumu (Amecoco). Iiwake (Apology). May 3, 2006. 18 pages; 26 cm.
I purchased this short Tseng/Rufus doujin because I'm a fan of the artist, but I didn't care for the plot of this one. Tseng visits Rufus to apologize for something, and, judging by a panel of a (clothed) Tseng on top of a (clothed) Rufus on a bed, it seems to be kissing and/or dry-humping (presumably nonconsensual, or else Tseng wouldn't need to apologize). I love Tseng/Rufus and I've read enough slash to know that "non-con" is a common trope in the genre, but IMO making Tseng rapey ruins it and is out of character for someone who is usually so obedient.
Like Oyabaka Icchokusen from the same artist, this one is a copybon, stapled on the side and printed on folded printer paper, though mostly encased inside some sturdy harvest-gold construction paper this time. The image quality is a little dodgy and grainy in that 2000s home-printer way, more so than the other home-printed Amecoco volume I own.
Akira Megumu (Amecoco). Kobanashi Sairoku (Short Story Compilation). August 12, 2011. 178 pages; 21 cm.
This is an anthology of Amecoco's Tseng/Rufus short story comics (as opposed to their 4koma) from fanbooks published between 2006 and 2009, including Ookoku no Housoku (with the stories rearranged—see below), Iiwake, and the Dark Nation story from Golden Hour, among others. Very cute! I also love the cover, with the contrast between Tseng with his businesslike mug and fancy-boy Rufus with his dainty little teacup.
Akira Megumu (Amecoco). Oukoku no Housoku (Law of the Land). December 29, 2006. 32 pages; 26 cm.
I really like this Amecoco doujin. This one contains three Tseng/Rufus short stories, all of them adorable. My favorite is the first, where teenage Rufus is pissy about the female Turks putting girly flower bobby pins in his hair and makes Tseng play hairdresser; Tseng slicks his young master's hair back, but leaves the pins in! (LMAO at Tseng being a troll.) I feel like the two years I spent blogging about the old Canadian soap opera Strange Paradise have permanently altered my brain, because there's this page in the final story where Tseng has Rufus look inside his bento box, which strongly resembles the sandbox in SP, and I found myself wondering why the symbol of the Great Serpent hadn't appeared in it. (Comparison here, which may or may not prove that I'm a dork.) As Amecoco indicates in their later anthology (see the previous entry), these stories are not in chronological order, with the third taking place before the second (printing error?).
Akira Megumu (Amecoco). Oyabaka Icchokusen (Idiot Dad Beeline). March 19, 2006. 12 pages; 21 cm.
This is part of the artist's Oyabaka (idiot/doting parent) series of 4-koma about President Shinra, which originated as a webcomic on the artist's now-defunct and now-mostly-lost website (http://akmegu.pinoko.jp/ffindex.html). In contrast to most other fan portrayals of President Shinra as an emotionally neglectful father at best and an abusive monster at worst, this version dotes on his young son to the point of smothering him (figuratively, not literally, although I can imagine this version of him almost smothering "Ruhaucha" in kisses). His son barely tolerates it. Tseng, Veld, and a young, beardless Reeve share the role of straight man to their wacky boss. Hilarious and adorable!
This volume is small and skinny, and (according to the seller) quite rare as well. This is a copybon, meaning that the artist self-published it, printing the pages on printer paper, folding them, and then stapling the book up the side. Even so, the quality is mostly good, save for the text sometimes looking a little bleedy (for lack of a better word), typical of 2000s-era home printers.
Akira Megumu (Amecoco). Oyabaka Moutosshin (Idiot Dad Bumrush). May 3, 2006. 24 pages; 21 cm.
More 4-koma about the Shinra family, this time following Rufus's relationship with his obsessive father from childhood to the Before Crisis era, plus a short story. There are several 4-koma about President Shinra making a highly embarrassing website about "Ruhaucha" with a photo of him looking both adorable and very unenthusiastic, having been "traumatized from being called cute too many times" (according to his character bio at the beginning), something that was previously referenced in the earlier Idiot Dad doujin. This one also features a DILF-tastic portrait of Veld in a sport coat and turtleneck. (Yes, I think Veld is a DILF.)
Galvamic Breaker. Burst Attachment. December 29, 2005. 18 pages; 26 cm.
This one...didn't exactly age well. I'm not talking about the paper this time, but rather the rape jokes about fictional characters that were commonplace in the anime and JRPG fandoms in the 2000s, but are cringey at best by today's standards. For example, one of the Turks ("Rod" from Before Crisis, here named Kyle) has to choose which of his four cards to play against Rufus; first, he has to choose between playing the "rape" card or one of three "stalker" cards, then again between "push down" and "violate." (I'm not offended or triggered, but I do find the gag cringe.) Thankfully, the noble and heroic Tseng saves him from his wayward co-worker. The last comic, however, did make me laugh out loud. President Shinra, ever Father of the Year material, redecorates Rufus's room in (shall we say) a very...interesting way. (LMAO) The art style is sketchy, but in a way that works well with the gags.
Ice Breaker. Hachibanme no Tsumi (Eighth Deadly Sin). August 14, 1998. 74 pages; 21 cm.
This gorgeous Tseng/Rufus love story is so far my favorite out of all the FF7 doujins in my collection. It tells the story of Tseng and Rufus's romance through a series of flashbacks starting with Tseng meeting a teenage Rufus for the first time and ending with Rufus and Reeve discussing Tseng's death (which was canon back when this was published). I loved this one so much that it inspired one of my fics-in-progress, The Mourning Sky; I originally intended my fic as an adaptation of the manga, but it quickly became its own thing instead, with background information from Compilation works that postdate this doujin plus my own headcanons. (The fic isn't available yet on this site. Sorry.) Many other Shinra characters appear, too, including Reeve, Scarlet, Reno, Heidegger(!), and Dark Nation (who here is a yittle bit of the B-A-D word with Reno ;)—see its review (as "Crime of the Eighth Month") on Darkness Rising).
The artist for this one wasn't as skilled as (say) Kuroshiro Goubunko, but what they lacked in technical skill, they made up for in 1990s-shojo-manga-style gorgeousness. And gods, Rufus in this one is such a fashion plate! He has a different outfit in almost every flashback scene, and, while not all of them fit what I think of as his style, most of them look great. (My personal favorite is an outfit with a posh-looking houndstooth blazer, followed closely by a light double-breasted jacket worn with a checkered shirt that looks like one of mine.) I wish that more artists (including those who work for Square Enix) would change up his outfits like Ice Breaker did, because, as the son of one of the richest men in the FF7 world, he would most likely have tons of clothes.
Ice Breaker. Tmorrow [sic] Made New. March 29, 1998. 34 pages; 21 cm.
Another Tseng/Rufus BL doujin, albeit much shorter and with fewer costume changes. Rufus and Tseng flirt, get all lovey-dovey with each other, and bicker in front of Reno and Elena. A young Cloud (in his Shinra mook uniform) walks in at the end, much to everyone's embarrassment!
This one has promos at the end for Hachibanme no Tsumi (see above) and an Avalanche-centered doujin by the same circle titled FACES PLACES. I hope I eventually find that one for sale, too.
Kuchibirukara Sandanju and Kira.Ukon. A. C. Green. 2006. 18 pages; 26 cm.
This short and sweet Rufus-centric gag doujin seems to be fairly popular; the owner of the Darkness Rising website liked it, as did the seller, who included an English translation packet with the purchase. I love the idea of using images of Rufie's beauty to save Shinra; part of me wonders if the cutscene from Rebirth showing people posing with the cardboard cutout of him might have been inspired by this comic. (I often wonder if Square Enix's staff secretly read doujins.) Amusingly, when I read this one for the first time, I mistook the drawing of Elena getting dressed at the end for an image of Rufus in an inflatable bra à la James in that infamous banned Pokémon episode. (It's my own fault for letting Rufus live rent-free in my head.) The art in this one is gorgeous, especially the images of him and his handsomeness.
Kuroshiro Goubunko (Saho & Manaka). Usotsuki (False Moon). January 1, 1998. 66 pages; 26 cm.
This one is my second favorite. It's so sad and melancholic, but in a beautiful way. (It helps that its subjects, Rufus and Reno, are beautiful.) Usotsuki is a sequel to Hoshigari, a doujin that, from what I can gather, was about a young Rufus meeting Reno for the first time; I desperately want to read it, but haven't found it for sale anywhere (yet—hope springs eternal). This one centers around Rufus's anxiety about the "false moon" Meteor and the fate of his company, both hating his father and feeling like he can't measure up to the standard his father set for the leader of Shinra. It's heavily implied that his hatred of President Shinra stems from incest, leading Rufus to think of his father as unclean and wanting to purge the world of unclean things. There's some yummy Reno/(adult) Rufus near the end, but this one is more a character study than BL.
The cover is very pretty, and both front and back have a metallic sheen that the scans don't capture. The art inside is gorgeous and moody, but, in contrast to the high-quality cover, the paper it was printed on is less than ideal. Twenty-six years after this manga's publication, the paper is starting to yellow and has a hint of that gluey smell that suggests high acid content. It's unfortunate, because this is one of my favorites and the paper is aging poorly.
ppp'. Dear Wonderful World. December 29, 2006. 40 pages; 26 cm.
I'm going to have to re-scan the cover for this one, because I didn't realize I had Auto-Enhance turned on when I scanned it and wondered why Rufus looked so faded when he's supposed to be a highlighter yellow. So, yeah. That's on my to-do list for this site.
Anyway, I love the way this artist draws my boy. He looks so adorably evil here, with his droopy eyelids and angry eyebrows. (I mean that as a compliment to the artist, because Before Crisis-era Rufus was an evil little shit.) Once again, we have drawings of him wearing girly flower bobby pins in his hair, which seems to have been a common theme in Before Crisis doujins, along with Rufus being portrayed as kind of feminine in general. The first half of this one is a manga about a young Rufus taking over his father's office (with Dark Nation by his side!) and, in a fit of anger, pointing a gun at Tseng. Tseng doesn't respond in the way he expects! The second half is a "novel" (fanfic), which I will come back to when I've improved my Japanese, but it has something to do with Rufus and flowers.
ppp'. [title in romaji] (Lament for Lost Country). September 10, 2006. 50 pages; 26 cm.
The thumbnail for this one is actually the back cover, because IMO the front cover for this volume is rather boring. Both sides of the cover have a metallic sheen to them that looks really cool in person but doesn't scan well; this was the better of two scanning attempts.
This fanbook is half manga, half fic; I can't say anything about the fic, because I don't feel my Japanese is good enough yet to tackle it, but I love the plot of the manga. Rufus and Tseng are on a mission together, and poor handsome, adorable Rufie gets scared. Thankfully, he has Tseng to comfort and protect him. This one has some great art, including a portrait of a young Elena getting ready to kick ass in her sailor fuku.
R-21grams! (Kishiro Yutaka). Fall. December 29, 2007. 38 pages; 26 cm.
This is an eerie little doujin that takes place during the Advent Children era. He has a geostigma nightmare where Kadaj first appears to him in the form of his younger self, before revealing himself and trying to seduce the fallen president and telling him not to forget him. Later, the two meet Kadaj hugs him and tries to seduce him in person, and then...they have sex? (At least I assume that's what the blown-out candle at the end means.) In between, there's this little comic where Cloud tries to guess what could be under the mystery man's sheet, and his guesses are hilarious.
Ramirez. Syndrome. February 11, 2006. 28 pages; 26 cm.
Another gorgeous, dramatic Reno/Rufus manga. Between the fall of Shinra and the events of Advent Children, Reno comforts his boss and reaffirms his loyalty to him.
Sumomo. JuunenLOVE (10-Year Love). Book no. 32. December 26, 2008. 26 pages; 21 cm.
God, the way this artist draws Rufus...if he's not so handsome that he's threatening to give me a nosebleed, then he's drawn as one of the most adorable chibis that I've ever seen! This was Sumomo's thirty-second(!) doujin, whose title I assume refers to the ten-year anniversary of their first Tseng/Rufus release. This one is a little rapey, with a flashback to a drunk Tseng kissing Rufus in bed, but IMO the art is cute enough to make up for it.
ShanghaiLogic and Akaza Samamiya. Jacques Cartier. December 28, 2009. 16 pages; 26 cm.
I bought this one partly because of the name. ;) No, really, I love doujins with random names that have nothing to do with the contents (unless Jacques Cartier connects somehow to the plot of Black Butler, which this is also a doujin of; I wouldn't know, because I haven't read Black Butler yet, although it's right up my alley).
So this one is an artbook (or "illust book") containing color images from several FF7 and Black Butler doujins by the artist. The quality is nice and the art's pretty. I'm just not sure what the eponymous sixteenth-century French explorer has to do with it. ;)
Sumomo and element115. Tousou Buruu / Yuukai Baioletto (Escape Blue / Kidnapping Violet). December 29, 2001. 66 pages; 21 cm.
I bought this one partly for the Tseng/Rufus suspense and drama and partly because he looks so freaking gorgeous on that cover! *nosebleed all over my laptop screen*
This one tells a few short stories, one of which involves Rufus being held as a hostage by a beautiful female assassin and Tseng having to save his handsome boss/lover from the threat of assassination. The other story opens with a cute scene showing Rufus using glasses as a paper-thin disguise, and he looks so much like his equally handsome half-brother. (Speaking of, why can't I seem to find any Lazard doujinshi anywhere? He needs more love!)
Sumomo. Tsonruu Sairokubon (Tseng/Rufus Compilation). Book no. 23. January 8, 2006. 194 pages; 21 cm.
This anthology and its sequel were major splurges at over $100 each, but were worth it IMO because of all the cuteness. This volume contains reprints of nine previous doujins that were originally published between 2000 and 2004 and centered around the relationship between Tseng and Rufus. Sumomo has a sort of soap opera love triangle going on where Reno (portrayed as quite devious here) is obsessed with Rufus and tries to ruin his and Tseng's relationship, but he fails repeatedly. Zack appears in some of these stories as Rufus's friend, and a very cute Dark Nation appears in one as well. I love the contrast between Rufus's canon public image as a hardass who neither bleeds nor cries and his fanon private life as an adorable lovesick twink.
Sumomo. Tsonruu Sairokubon 2 (Tseng/Rufus Compilation 2). Book no. 27. December 29, 2006. 194 pages; 21 cm.
This book contains reprints of eleven Sumomo doujins from between 2000 and 2006 (not in chronological order of publication). [more]
Zoya. Torutora (Tortura). October 27, 2024. 24 pages; 21 cm.
I was surprised that this one ended up being hardcore yaoi given that the seller didn't list it as such, but I suppose ordering doujins that the seller hasn't rated is a bit of a gamble. I honestly expected it to be regular angsty, non-explicit BL with bloody violence but (shall we say) a jalapeño level of spice, not noticing the clearly covered-up R-18 rating on the listing. This one is less jalapeño than Carolina Reaper. In this twisted little doujin, Tseng
tortures and kills Mütten Kylegate (the guy who held Rufus
hostage in his sex dungeon in On the Way to a Smile) and then
he and Rufus do it in front of his corpse. I'm not making that up. This page of the two making out is probably the tamest scene from the romance portion of the book. While the plot is dark and likely to disturb some, the art is gorgeous, with both leads depicted in a semi-realistic style with mesmerizingly long eyelashes. So, yeah. This one is not for children or anyone with a weak stomach.
