Sailor Manyo Inks

Posted on by Laura

Sailor Manyo Ink

Yo, Manyo. Looks like Sailor is giving us even more new inks. This Manyo collection is coming later in the fall, to pen and ink dealers outside Japan (per my own ink dealer, Dan Smith, the Nibsmith).

The Manyo inks come in Sailor’s new square bottle, the 50 ml size, at the MSRP of $24. Now the Nibsmith is listing them for sale at $19, which in the new world of premium ink prices, isn’t bad. It’s 50 ml. The price is better than my new Penlux inks ($26 for 50 ml, albeit limited) and much better than Sailor Ink Studio inks and Bungubox inks in 20 ml bottles.

And, I hate to say this, but, I kind of … like them all?

Well, of course I would. But they are a nice range, like the Pilot 100th Anniversary inks. They look nice individually and together.

Now, I’m not clinically insane. I’m not going to buy the Yamabuki (Saffron), because I just don’t use yellow-gold inks to write. But it does look nice; I could see artists wanting it. Personally, I can resist the three inks in lavender, magenta and interesting purple/burgundy shades, because as lovely as they look, these aren’t colors I use. But they look good. In fact, the lavender one (Nekoyanagi) is so captivating I almost want it. And the burgundy one (Kuzu) could prove to be a lower-priced alternative to Bungbox Sweet Potato Purple.

But my sweet spot is blue and blue-ish inks, so I’ve preordered the four on the left. I predict the one I like the best will be Haha (Glacier Blue), be still my heart; and the one that will be most popular will be Yomogi (Cerulean Blue), because it’s in the teal range that everyone loves.  Sumire is like Sailor Sky High and Sailor Souten, so it’s bound to be pleasing. Lastly, Kikyou (Mariner Blue) looks perfect to me as a work ink that I’ll use often. I love a blue-black with a greenish tint.

Here is  a closeup of the swatches, just flagrantly stolen from the Nibsmith site.

Sailor Manyo Inks

Sigh. Sailor is just unstoppable. I want them to stop, intellectually. But maybe not deep inside.

16 thoughts on “Sailor Manyo Inks”

  1. Thanks for a nice review. I share your sentiments about ink collecting!

    I don’t really need more ink, as I now have over 100 bottles. Assuming a rate of consumption of 1 bottle every 3-4 months, that is a supply sufficient for the next three decades. So why did I buy yet another bottle? This time because the Manyo Kuzu purple ink was irresistible. Now that I have it inked up, it is just as nice as I hoped it would be- very close to the Pelikan Edelstein Amethyst and the Mont Blanc Lavender Purple, two of my favourite inks.
    And I am now contemplating the Yomogi teal ink as well… This is getting ridiculous, but it is fun.

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    1. Somewhere here in my home I have samples of ALL these inks. However, in the jumble of ink samples and pen stuff, I can’t put my hands on it right now. I’ll make a concerted effort and look for my samples later. The first one I’m going to try is Haha. Gotta love that name! I love blues and teals, too. And Haha is a really unusual shade of icy blue.

      I have the same problem – too many inks. But when I find a new one I really like, I only notice its differences instead of its similarities to other inks I own. 🙂 And I end up using it in several pens for a while if I really like it. Plus – mixing. As if I didn’t have enough colors, I like to mix inks! I bet Haha would be great for lightening up some other blues and teals.

      Gotta find my Manyo samples. Soon.

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      1. Rarely wrong are you, including this. After looking at a LOT of inks in SF recently, I am finding it increasingly hard to find new colors that aren’t either duplications or very, very close relatives of inks I already have. I couldn’t have said that, so much, 5 years ago.

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        1. Agree. I’ve even stopped swatching ink or doing chromas because it’s all too much for too little gain. (It’s easy to look at an ink and see what’s in it once you’ve seen hundreds, and know the tendencies of the ink mixers.) But, I’m still always diverted by new ones. Why? If I can figure that out, the Nobel Prize for Economics might be coming my way.

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          1. I’m working on a paper for submission to (somewhere) on ” ‘Ooooh, shiny!’ in the Pen-related Realm” so we are still in sync. All of my above protestations fly in the face of returning home SF with 5 bottles of ink (HEY! ONE WAS A GIFT!)

            The truly absurd part is to look and think and look again and be certain it is somehow just a bit unique and then you get it home and in a pen and it looks PRECISELY LIKE THAT OTHER INK!!

            I never learn…

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