Aoi House

Aoi House

Left-to-right are (top row) Elle, Nina, Sandy, Jessica, (bottom row) Maria, Morgan, and Alex, (very front) Echiboo.
Author(s) Adam Arnold and Shiei
Website http://gomanga.com/webmanga/index.php?series=aoi
Current status / schedule Completed
Launch date 24 January 2005
End date 31 January 2009
Publisher(s) Seven Seas Entertainment
Genre(s) harem comedy, fandom, otaku
Rating(s) Older Teen
Followed by Vampire Cheerleaders

Aoi House is a harem original English-language (OEL) manga series written by Adam Arnold, with art by Shiei, and published by Seven Seas Entertainment. The story follows the misadventures of two down-on-their-luck college guys named Alexis "Alex" Roberts and Sandy Grayson who are thrown out of their college dorm and join an anime club dominated by crazed yaoi fangirls.

It first appeared as a 36-episode webcomic written by Adam Arnold and illustrated by Jim Jimenez. It initially ran from 24 January 2005 through 15 April 2005. Aoi House quickly established itself as a "fandom harem comedy."

Proving popular enough, Aoi House was re-launched by Seven Seas Entertainment as part of its standard publishing line. For the re-launch, Shiei (artist of Amazing Agent Luna) took over as the illustrator leading to changes in the art style, as well as additional changes to characters and alteration and expansion of the story. The re-launch began serialization on the Seven Seas Entertainment website in late May, around which time (27 May 2005) a Aoi House theme song, performed by the J Brothers entitled "Itsumo Futaride", was also released.

In January 2006, Aoi House 4-panel color koma began appearing in Newtype USA.

Aoi House made its print debut on 15 May 2006 with the release of the first volume.

New updates of Aoi House appeared every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at Gomanga.com and were accompanied by blog-style entries called "Aoi Notes" by Adam Arnold.

Plot

Alexis "Alex" Roberts and Sandy Grayson are two college students who get evicted from their dorm lodging due to several infractions of the rules, including the showing of hentai anime. Echiboo, Sandy's pet hamster, does not help matters when he scares the Dean and exposes the fact the Dean is wearing a toupee. Told they need to find new lodgings by sundown, they start to search campus for a place to live. In their search, Sandy is shown to be an obsessive otaku, while Alex is more focused on the reality of their situation. Seeing a flyer for "Aoi House," which promises anime and manga viewing, Sandy becomes very excited with the very idea of an anime club; Alex however is mostly happy to have found possible lodging. As they head over to housing, Maria is seen looking at the same flyer Sandy and Alex were just thoughtfully reading.

Excited about finding the lodging they need before sundown, Sandy and Alex hurry over to "AOI (Alpha-Omicron-Iota) House." Upon arrival Sandy knocks a few times on the door but gets no answer, so Alex takes the more direct approach and throws the door open. Once inside Alex and Sandy are startled to find a room full of beautiful girls watching anime. At this point Maria makes her own entrance and, not knowing anyone is in the doorway, bumps into Sandy, who stumbles into the room, landing against Elle's lap. Then with a hit from Elle he falls into Jessica's chest. After Maria enters and mentions her desire to join the lodge, Sandy and Alex express a similar desire to the shock of all the girls. The girls at first mistake Sandy and Alex as a gay otaku couple since they themselves are "yaoi-crazed females."

Once the truth is revealed that Sandy and Alex are not truly gay anime fans but two straight males, the girls have some fun with Sandy and Alex in an attempt to turn them into yaoi-lovers, or at least make them the lodge's token gay couple. Sandy and Alex learn that Morgan, who made the flyer, left a few important details off the flyer – the most important being that "AOI House" was really "YAOI House," a college yaoi-otaku club turned sorority using Greek letters to covertly express their hobby – the "Y" had fallen off the sign – and straight ("perverted") male roommates were not what the girls were looking for (at least at first). On top of all of this, Echiboo almost gets them into deep trouble (again) by escaping from his cage and crawling amongst a pile of Elle's panties. Elle was already dead-set against allowing two straight males to join "Aoi House." Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) for Sandy and Alex, Nina allows them to stay, while Jessica points out to an irate Elle that "Aoi House" needs members in order to keep their house as much as Sandy and Alex need lodging.

Characters

Major characters

Minor characters

Mason Blue – The de facto leader of the club. While he does not actually have a definite ending in the epilogue, a man with his earrings greets Jessica at Seattle Grace Hospital with a stethoscope around his neck.

A hooded boy named Kevin Cardenas – In charge of their AMVs and has a thing for Morgan (calling her "McCutie") as well as any girl he sees. Moves to Tokyo in the epilogue just for the girls

A boy with glasses named Dale Stevens – The club's artist. He gets roped into moving to Tokyo along with Kevin in the epilogue.

A girl named Kimberly Ann and her pet pig named Luna-P (A reference of Chibiusa's Luna-P Ball). She goes on to win American Idol numerous time in the epilogue.

The open lesbian Sanae – Has a crush on Nina, as well as calling out that Maria's breasts were bigger than Kimberly Ann's. She kissed Nina at one point during the Con Caper, and somehow got both her and Elle into bed (much to their horror when they wake up the next morning) after the epilogue.

Chapters

No.TitleEnglish release dateEnglish ISBN
01Aoi House Vol. 131 May 2006[3]ISBN 978-1-933164-12-0
  • Episode 1 – "Arrival"
  • Episode 2 – "Fangirl's Delight"
  • Episode 3 – "Echiboo's Big Adventure: Phase 1"
  • Episode 4 – "Echiboo's Big Adventure: Phase 2"
  • Episode 5 – "Mallpisode"
  • Episode 6 – "Food Courtin'"
  • Episode 7 – "Arcade Showdown"
02Aoi House Vol. 2 – Fun & Games15 December 2006[3]ISBN 978-1-933164-30-4
  • Episode 8 – "Playful Secrets"
  • Episode 9 – "A Date to Remember"
  • Episode 10 – "Charmed"
  • Episode 11 – "Movie Magic"
  • Side Story – "Fruit Cake Fantasy"
  • Episode 12 – "The Nightmare Before Christmas"
  • Episode 13 – "Evergreen Party Night"
  • The Lost Scene
03Aoi House in Love! Vol. 1 – "The Great Con Caper"24 July 2007[3]ISBN 978-1-933164-51-9
  • Episode 1 – "Aoi House Hits the Road"
  • Episode 2 – "Check-In Time"
  • Episode 3 – "Rival Schools"
  • Episode 4 – "D for Drama"
  • Episode 5 – "Mr. Wonderful"
  • Episode 6 – "Midnight Rebirth"
  • Episode 7 – "Yaoi 801"
  • Episode 8 – "Cosplay Complex"
  • Episode 9 – "Twilight"
04Aoi House in Love! Vol. 2 – "Happy Endings"10 June 2008[3]ISBN 978-1-933164-96-0
  • Episode 10 – "Many Happy Returns"
  • Episode 11 – "Lost and Lonely Souls"
  • Episode 12 – "This is Not Happening"
  • Episode 13 – "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"
  • Episode 14 – "Series Finale"
  • Side Story – "Bond, Echibond"
  • Epilogue – "Where Are They Now?"

Volume list

Aoi House Vol. 1 collecting Episodes 1 through 7 was released on 31 May 2006. In the Aoi Notes on 04/21/06,[10] Adam Arnold said the book has been given "special edition" treatment that includes, "minor dialogue and art changes to fix continuity errors," is displayed with screentone whereas the web version presents only Shiei's black and white line art, and a new opening page for Episode 4 and an added scene, "with the guys singing Karaoke at the end of Episode 2." Other extras included are "Aoi Notes: Print Edition," "Student Records," "Fun Zone," and "Original Webmanga Designs."

Aoi House Vol. 2 collecting toned versions of Episodes 8 through 13, plus "Fruit Cake Fantasy" was released in December 2006. The volume carries the subtitle "Fun & Games" on the inside title page. Extras include "Aoi Notes: Print Edition 2," an eight-page super deformed character gallery called "Chibified!," a "Fan Art" gallery, and a two-page story called "Aoi House: The Lost Scene."

Aoi House In Love! Vol. 1 collecting the Episodes 1 through 9 of the 2nd Season of Aoi House was released July 2007. The volume is subtitled "The Great Con Caper!" on the inside title page. The volume also includes 8 color pages that collect the first twelve Aoi House 4-Koma that appeared in Newtype USA from January through December 2006. Other extras include a "Last Season on Aoi House" recap page, "Aoi Notes: Print Edition 3," and a new "Fan Art" gallery. This volume was designed to be a jumping-on point for new readers, and features a completely self-contained adventure following the Aoi House crew at the fictional anime convention Hatsu-Con.[11]

Aoi House in Love! Vol. 2 collecting the Episodes 10 through the end of the series will be released in June 2008. The volume carries a subtitle of "Happy Endings." The final twelve Aoi House 4-Koma from Newtype USA that run from January to December 2007[12] will also be included with the volume.

On 23 November, an omnibus edition was announced[13] and will include reprints of Aoi House Vol. 1 and Aoi House Vol. 2.

In 2009, Aoi House began publishing in Finland by Egmont. Two volumes are released up to date.

Tributes to other media

There are many references to various other real-life celebrities as well as anime and video games mostly in the form of the characters from Aoi House dressing up in various character's costumes from the referenced work. In Aoi House in love! Volume two, they also reference several American series as well. Below is a list of shows that are either referenced or parodied as well as the real-life celebrities that are mentioned:

In addition Adam Arnold has also admitted he is a huge DC Comics fan. Two of the characters surnames are actually either taken directly from the DC character's surname or is parodied on a nickname. The two characters in question are:

Reception

IGN's A. E. Sparrow ranked the first and second volumes of Aoi House as third in the list of the top ten manga of 2006.[22]

4-Koma

Starting in the January 2006 issue of Newtype USA, Aoi House began appearing as a series of full-color, 4-panel gag strips. The 4-koma are drawn vertically and read right-to-left. The actual stories are all stand-alone and tend to be themed for the holiday's or events in a given month, such as Valentine's Day or college exams. Recent 4-koma from 2007 have involved spoofs of various anime series and video games.

Music Video

On 4 December 2006, Seven Seas' first-ever flash anime music video was released dedicated to[23] Aoi House. Aoi House: The Music Video was animated by Jonathan Talas and set to the Aoi House Theme Song – "Itsumo Futaride" by The J Brothers. Within its first week of release, the music video received over 150,000 views on Newgrounds.com, was awarded with Newground's Daily Second Place award for 12/05/06, and earned a spot on YouTube.com's "Top Favorites (This Week) in Arts & Animation" list.

Spin-off

On 17 March 2010, Seven Seas announced the creation of the comedy manga Paranormal Mystery Squad, an Aoi House spin-off featuring Stephanie and Katie Kane, which will be written by Arnold Arnold and illustrated by Comipa, and will appear as a double-feature with the comedy Vampire Cheerleaders (written by Arnold and illustrated by Aoi House artist Shiei) as Vampire Cheerleaders: Vol. 1.[24]

References

  1. "webmanga » Aoi House". gomanga.com. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  2. "webmanga » Aoi House". gomanga.com. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Aoi House". SevenSeas Entertainment. Retrieved April 2010.
  4. "Seven Seas's product details on Book 1". Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  5. "Seven Seas's product details on Book 2". Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  6. "Seven Seas's product details on the omnibus". Archived from the original on 24 November 2007. Retrieved 25 November 2007.
  7. "Seven Seas's product details on Book 3". Archived from the original on 9 June 2007. Retrieved 8 June 2007.
  8. "Seven Seas's product details on Book 4". Archived from the original on 24 November 2007. Retrieved 25 November 2007.
  9. "Seven Seas's product details on the omnibus". Archived from the original on 3 January 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
  10. "Aoi Notes from 04/21/06". Archived from the original on 15 May 2006. Retrieved 30 April 2006.
  11. "Aoi House in Love – Seven Seas' Hit Harem Comedy Returns". Archived from the original on 16 August 2007. Retrieved 21 September 2007.
  12. 1 2 "webmanga » Aoi House". gomanga.com. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  13. "Aoi Notes 11-23-07". Archived from the original on 25 November 2007. Retrieved 25 November 2007.
  14. 1 2 3 "webmanga » Aoi House". gomanga.com. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  15. "webmanga » Aoi House". gomanga.com. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  16. "webmanga » Aoi House". gomanga.com. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  17. "webmanga » Aoi House". gomanga.com. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  18. "webmanga » Aoi House". gomanga.com. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  19. "webmanga » Aoi House". gomanga.com. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  20. "webmanga » Aoi House". gomanga.com. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  21. Arnold, Adam (6 April 2007). "Aoi House". Seven Seas Entertainment. Retrieved 18 April 2010.
  22. Sparrow, A.E. "Top 10 Manga of 2006". Archived from the original on 21 January 2007. Retrieved 24 January 2007.
  23. http://www.gomanga.com/flashanime/aoi_index.php. Retrieved 13 December 2006. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  24. "Seven Seas Brings on the Fang Service with "Vampire Cheerleaders"". Seven Seas Entertainment. Archived from the original on 14 July 2010. Retrieved 23 June 2010.

Further reading

External links

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