Artist Spotlight: Syunnpei Nakata

Today's Artist Spotlight post features the art of Syunnpei Nakata. He is the creator of Dragon Ranger, which has been featured before on HFG.

Nakata specializes in bara and what I like about his art is that it is full-color. I also like his sense of humor (Dragon Ranger, for example, is funny and hot).

Below, you'll find a few more pieces of art.

Artist Spotlight: Mentaiko

Today's Artist Spotlight features artwork by the Japanese bara manga creator known as Mentaiko. This artist was suggested by J, who wondered if I had ever featured the artist on the site.

The artwork in today's post is from Mentaiko's official website (link contains non-worksafe content). Unlike many Japanese art sites, there are no explicit warnings in Japanese or English regarding the reuse of the images on the site. I also want to make clear that creators can contact me (lagosta2700 at aim dot com) to have their content removed from HFG.

The rest of the pics below are worksafe so you will have to go to Mentaiko's website (NSFW) to see the explicit stuff. Also, you can legally buy content from Mentaiko via DLsite.

Kinniku Otoko

Kinniku Otoko is a Japanese bara manga anthology.  Artists whose work have appeared in the magazine include Takeshi Matsu and Masanori.  Today's post is a selection of color cover artwork and illustrations from the magazine.  Since these pics come from multiple issues, I don't know all the artists who did the illustrations. 

 

 

 

 

 

Image Archive (.zip):  RS or MF

Dragon Ranger

Dragon Ranger is a manga series by Syunnpei Nakata about a sentai/Power Rangers-esque group of heroes.  However, this isn't your typical action manga.  It's bara (muscular yaoi) where a battle between a hero and a villain could easily result in some sex.  It's a ton of fun to read and the art is great.

The scans below are courtesy of Croup, who has been posting English scanlations of the unlicensed manga on his blog Soupgoblin's Stash (link not worksafe).  These pics are just the tame ones I can post here. 

 

  

  

  

 

Artist Spotlight: Takeshi Matsu

Today's Artist Spotlight post is the first to feature a gay male manga artist.  The artist is Takeshi Matsu and you'll probably notice that his art style is a bit different from what is normally featured here.  His style is what Western fans refer to as "bara."  In short, it features more muscular, masculine looking males.  Unlike most yaoi (which is usually created by women for women), bara is created by men for men.

For most Artist Spotlights, I try to use works from artbooks as opposed to actual manga scans or scanlations.  Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Takeshi Matsu has not released an artbook of any kind.  As a result, this post is made up of selected (worksafe) scans from his works.  For more, I recommend you check out the newly reopened Gabe's Yaoi Corner (link contains adult content), which includes mature content I won't be posting here.

 

  

  

  

  

 

The Guys Of Hunks Workshop

Hunks Workshop is a yaoi video game but it's not a "BL" one. This game is geared more towards gay men and features muscular guys. This type of artwork is often called by the name "bara" among anime fans (but not necessarily in Japan).



The artwork from this game is by a great artist by the name of Masanori. I've been a fan of his art for a while and I definitely encourage you to check out his site (linked in the sidebar under "Non-Worksafe Links") if you haven't already.



Also, if you want more info on the game, check out the official website of the company behind it.