PERSONA DOUJINSHI ANTHOLOGIES
"Swag! Wonderful swag!"

You may have seen some of these on Ebay or JP Amazon and wondered what they are. No, these are not manga; they're official collections of doujinshi - that is, fan-drawn comics for the game. That means that in each book, you'll get about a dozen short comics drawn by as many artists. The art styles vary, and you may like some artists better than others, but they're always technically competent - to be published by an official company, you have to be fairly good, right?

All of these anthologies also have a set of color illustrations in the front, some by the artists featured in the book, and some by other artists. Famous mangaka (manga artists) have often done doujinshi for their favorite shows/series/games; often mangaka started off as doujinshika. (Technically, a doujinshi refers to a book with the work of more than one artist, and a koujinshi is the term for a book done by a single artist, but hey, you'll know what I mean if I just say doujinshi, right?) Some famous mangaka that have done Persona doujinshi or art for a Persona anthology:

Tsuchiya Kyoko (Weiss Kreuz)
Minekura Kazuya (Saiyuki)
Yasuhiro Nightow (Trigun)

There are other ones that I'm forgetting, I'm sure of it, but those are recognizable series, eh? ^_~ The official mangaka for Megami Ibunroku Persona, Ueda Shinshuu, has done Persona 2 doujinshi as well.

Here you'll find the cover scans from several anthologies (I have more; I just can't find them in my apartment.)

No inside scans? Well, no, because if you could get inside content here, why would you buy the doujinshi? :D Please understand this policy; after going to a doujinshi con in Japan and coming face-to-face with the artists, I realized that they're almost always just high school/college students who are self-publishing these as a hobby out of love of the game. Stealing their online or published work is just...mean.

Anyways, here are some of my favorite artists. Some of them can be found in the anthologies, but their individual works are worth getting - if you can get them. You might find some on ebay or in online doujinshi stores, but remember that most of these cost 100Y-800Y originally, so paying $40 for a single doujinshi is definitely not worth it! Clicking on "information" on most pages will get you a list of their doujinshi, so you can see the covers.

What I like about Persona doujinshi is that just because an artist obviously likes a particular pairing, it doesn't mean that there's rampant bashing of other characters who'd interfere with the pairing-of-choice. TatsuJun doujinshi don't bash Lisa or Maya, and TatsuMaya or TatsuLisa or TatsuKatsu doujinshi don't bash Jun. For example. It's just novel, when you take such things as Rinoa-bashing or Relena-bashing into account (not that I particularly like those characters, but...)

Ueda Shinshuu: She's the mangaka for MIP, but she's done some amusing Persona 2 doujinshi. I have two; one in an anthology, and one paired with Superunknown Corp. At first, she hasn't really settled in to how she wants to draw the Persona 2 characters, but when she finds her style, her stories are pretty funny. >D

Kari Erika: I like her a lot, and she's *everywhere*. She has an extremely distinctive art style, with huge sparkling eyes and shiny hair. Her chibis are so cute, and her stories are usually dementedly funny. She seems to be extremely fond of Philemon, and likes making fun of him/ tormenting him. She's got a couple of professional manga series now, I believe, but her doujinshi are well worth checking out, especially because they're so messed up. When she does pairings, she does TatsuJun, but she's done a lot of gen stories centered on side characters, such as Miyabi. But her main love is Philemon (and Nyarlathotep, I guess).

Kumoya Yukio: She goes under the moniker "Spangle" in her doujinshi. Her art style is very simple and linear, but...I really like it. She has some dark stories, too. (Just not in the anthologies! Those are funny gag stories.) When she does a coupling, it appears to be TatsuKatsu, but, for example, there's a long doujinshi about Maya meeting with the Time Count after Batsu, so most of her work is actually gen.

RINNO: Her pen name is "Idol 21." She's my favorite Persona doujinshika; I have every single one of her Persona doujinshi. *laugh* Her doujinshi can be dark, but they're interesting, full of psychology and fubar things. She obviously loves psycho-Jun, and I think she has Tatsuya suffer so much in her stories because she loves him. *laugh*

SUPERUNKNOWN CORP: Unfortunately, Shotaro-san doesn't have a webpage, but trust me, this is a great circle if you want cute, gently angsty TatsuJun.

GEM OF DOOM: Another circle without a HP that I know of. This is an adorable Eikichi x Lisa circle; I love their artwork. They also seem to like TatsuMaya and NanEri. Their Tatsuya's so cute, he's just wandering about happy to be with Maya-nee, who dresses him up in hideous clothing and oversized sweaters.

HETTAPIES: This is quite possibly the cutest TatsuJun circle I've ever seen. I have several of their doujinshi, and it's sweetness and light like Superunknown, not death and fubar like Rinno's. *laugh*

Kuori Chimaki: Another extremely distinctive artist with lovely art. I have two of her doujinshi (the Avante-Garden series) - she's a big TatsuMaya or TatsuLisa fan. But she's been known to draw the occasional Jun-centric story in an anthology...

Iwasaki Minako: You're more likely to find her work in Persona 1 anthologies than Tsumi or Batsu anthologies, because man, she loves Nanjou with a love that dares not speak its name. XD Her art is so gorgeous, though; she usually has a color plate or three in anthologies. Her art is on the cover of the Persona Tribute Illustrations (a book that collects all the color art from the persona anthologies).

Tsushima Shuu: I swear, I recognize his (I'm fairly sure this is one of the male DJka) art by the noses every time. You have to see it to know what I mean. :D I love his stuff; it's usually gag or serious. I can't think of a particular coupling he likes.

Iwasa Akirako: Even though I mix her art up with Moriyama Karin's for some unknown reason, I tend to like her stuff.

MILK STATUS: If you want insanely cute TatsuKatsu, here's your circle. Admittedly, Katsuya isn't reallyan apron-wearing uke, but gosh, he's so cute in these doujinshi. What a nice guy.

CHERRY MOON: More insanely cute TatsuJun.

You can get a basic idea of who I like by whose stories I keep highlighting. *laugh*

So. Here we go. >D