Sailor Manyo Fountain Pen Ink (50mL) - Sumire

I put this ink in my Sailor PGS with a MF nib and it flows magnificently without any leaking. It dries so quickly that I've been using it every day for almost a month and haven't reached for my blotter! I got a tiny bit of shading (not a fan of shading) but it does it in a way that's inoffensive. My favourite thing about this ink is the colour. It runs on the cyan side, and is just dark enough that I can use it professional situations that require the use of "blue or black ink" (society, why?) without it looking like a purplish normie pen. I think this is my favourite ink of all-time and if they discontinue it I will be DEVASTATED.

Sumire needs to be in broader, wet nibs and used on quality papers. I have it in one of my wettest writers, a Pelikan M400 with a broad nib and it produces a solid deep turquoise that has a real charge to it. On my current daily papers (Midori Cotton and Egret), there is minimal shading so the ink lays down like a calligraphy ink, which is just how I like it.

At this price, you've got to be better than your competitors. Sadly, not only does Sumire not do that, it's also not as good an ink as Sailor's own "sky blue" offerings of Souten and Sky High. Compared to those two inks and Pilot's Kon-Peki, the only thing that stands out about this ink is slightly more shading properties. That does come at a cost: this ink runs much drier than your typical Sailor ink and I found it much less enjoyable to write with than the aforementioned inks. Get a sample first and see if it's your cup of tea, but if you have the others, you don't need this one.