Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi: Ink Review

Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi is a light pastel purple fountain pen ink with some character. It shades nicely and shows off other colors in more saturated areas. Check out the entire review below!

Ink Review 

Supplies Used:

• LAMY AL-star with medium steel nib
• Rhodia No. 16 dot pad, 80g white paper
• Tomoé River 52 gsm white paper
• Leuchtturm1917 80g notebook

Smear Test (Dry Time):

• ~30 seconds – The dry time of this can vary depending on how much is put down. In the more saturated areas, it takes around 30 seconds, but it dries a bit quicker in the less saturated areas.

Drip Test (Water Resistance):

• Low – This ink is not very water resistant, as it won't hold up well if it gets wet. This is not an ink to count on if you're using it where there's a chance it will get wet.

Saturation:

• Low-Medium – This ink varies in saturation but isn't heavily saturated the majority of the time. This is a pale ink on most papers. 

Ease of Cleaning:

• Easy – There should be no problem cleaning this ink out of your pen and it won't show too much on your fingers since it's lighter in color.

Shading:

• High – This ink can shade from a very light, faded purple to a more darker light purple color that can even show some blue and magenta hues due to the chromashading properties of the ink depending on how much ink is on the paper and which paper you're using.

Flow:

• Dry – This ink doesn't write with a heavy flow. It may feel a bit dry when writing especially in smaller nib sizes, although it still writes smoothly and shouldn't give any issues.

 Packaging and Aesthetics:

• 50 ml cube-shaped glass bottle that comes in a cardboard box with the same imagery on it as the bottle.
• The opening is plenty wide enough to fill any fountain pen and shouldn't tip over due to the shape of the bottle.

If you're interested in similar colors, check out our Swab Shop where you can compare colors side by side.

Summary:

If you're looking for a soft purple ink that is far from average, then Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi may be worth a try. It has fantastic shading properties, including some choromashading that allows it to show some different colors when dry, such as blue and magenta. It may not be fit for water-resistant purposes but it isn't the kind of color that would be used in a legal or professional setting, as it's much to light and fun for that. It's a good pale ink.

This color is available in a 50ml bottle as well as our 2ml sample size.