Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Marilyn Darling Show—today I’m doing an ink review on Pilot Iroshizuku Shin Ryoku, a rich green that’s very much giving “forest vibes.” On camera it reads as a deep green with some nice shading, and while I can catch a hint of that weird goldish sheen in the right light, I don’t really see it showing up in the actual lettering—so that’s good. I also do my usual toilet paper chromatography with water and rubbing alcohol, and you can really see the components: blues in the middle, green spreading out, and even a little edge color that looks like another blue or maybe a yellow-ish hint. I also run a water resistance test, and Shin Ryoku doesn’t have a very good amount of water resistance. Personally, I wouldn’t use it on the outside of an envelope if there’s any chance it’s going to get wet. Then I go through a whole stack of papers, and the results are very “paper matters”: it’s gorgeous on Tomoe River (Hobonichi notepad and 68gsm), Midori MD, Daiso premium, and especially the Pelikan Hub notepad. On cheaper papers, it can feather like a chicken and even bleed—so choose your paper wisely. I finish with a quick green-ink comparison, where Pelikan Aventurine was the closest match in my collection, and I also share an important safety note: I don’t put Iroshizuku inks in rubber sac pens because I’ve seen them liquefy a sac unless it’s silicone.