Dear Anemone: Research Notes

Tucker

Title: 

•  Dear Anemone

  • You can pronounce this like we do in English, but in Japanese they pronounce it the same as in Latin: Ah-nay-mo-nay

  • Borrowed into English from Latin, which in turn borrowed it from Greek anemonē, meaning “wind flower/daughter”

  • The beginning of the Japanese pronunciation sounds like “ane,” meaning “older sister” or “young woman”

Author

• Matsu’i, Rin 松井琳

  • Mah-tsɯ-ee, Reen
    

Characters

• Hachi’u’e, Gaku 針植萼

  • Hah-chee-ɯ-eh, Gah-kɯ

  • Family name written as “needle plant”

  • Personal name “Gaku” written with the character that means “sepal,” the green part of a flower that supports the petals and helps protect them when the flower is in bud. Pretty on-the-nose, huh?

• Yashiki, Ryuichi 

  • Yahsh-kee, Ryɯ-ee-chee

  • “Shi” gets reduced to just “sh” due to whispered vowel effect

• Kurokawa, Asumi

  • Kɯ-ro-kah-wah, Ahss-mee

  • Su gets reduced to just “s” due to whispered vowel effect

• Minazuki, Hairo

  • Mee-nahz-kee, High-roe

  • Zu gets reduced to just “z” due to whispered vowel effect

• Yoshio

  • Yo-shee-oh

• Lobelia

  • Low-bell-ee-ah

  • I really don’t know where the “malevolence” thing comes from in chapter 6. “Lobelia” just comes from the Flemish scientist Matthias de Lobel, and “campanulaceae” just means “bellflowers” in Latin.

  • Ah, wait, they’re talking about the whole “language of flowers” thing, not actual etymology. Seems like lobelia got the “malevolence” meaning in the Victorian era because it was traditionally used to induce vomiting.

• Utakata, Kurage

  • Ɯ-tah-kah-tah, Kɯ-rah-gay

MaxyBee

Manga Details

• Rin Matsui

  • Notable people they were an assistant for

    • Kohei Horikoshi (My Hero Academia)

      • on My Hero Academia (both before and after Dear Anemone)

      • Kohei Horikoshi has previously been featured on Shonen Flop episodes 16 (Barrage) and 20 (Oumagadoki Zoo).

  • Notable people they had as assistants

    • None known

  • Other works

    • This is Rin Matsui’s debut serialisation, but they have had several one-shots prior to this:

      • Anemone (2019, Jump New World Manga Award winner)

        • A girl who manifests a flowering stand as her special ability becomes alienated, and a cop. Read (in Japanese) here. Read (in English, unofficially, here.

      • Even If My Mouth Splits Open (2020, Shonen Jump Plus)

        • A creepy gag manga about a 4th wall-breaking student who is secretly a slit-mouthed woman. Actually really good. Read (in Japanese) here.

      • Rembrandt (2020, Shonen Jump Plus)

        • Weird school horror-adjacent thing where a girl who feels like an outside is surrounded by grotesque oddities. Read (in Japanese) here.

      • Koborezakura no Sabigatana (2020, Jump GIGA)

        • Basically just Demon Slayer. Not much else to say.

      • BLACK MILK (2021, Weekly Shonen Jump)

        • A psychic mafia battle manga. A gang of friendly superpowered gangsters help save the day and get drugs off of the streets. Read (in English, unofficially) here.

      • ANIMA (2022, Jump GIGA)

        • Supernatural horror stuff of some description.

• Publishing

  • Run Dates: 

    • 18th February, 2024 to 16th June, 2024

  • Series it replaced

• Martial Master Asumi (4 vols, flop, Shonen Flop episode 101)

• Series that replaced it

  • Hima-Ten! by Genki Ono (of Full Drive fame) (1+ vol, ongoing)

• Series that started at the same time as it

  • Super Psychic Policeman Chojo by Shun Numa (3+ vols, doing okay)

• Chapters/Volumes: 

  • 17 chapters/2 volumes

Manga Itself / Misc thoughts

• Rin Matsui is a very eager assistant on My Hero Academia. Like that they returned after Dear Anemone for what would have been a small handful of weeks helping finish the manga is one thing, but Matsui has drawn a HUGE amount of MHA fanart posted to their various socials over the years.

• Anemone, fittingly, is based of the design of the titular plant-person power the protagonist of Matsui’s first one-shot, Anemone.

• Heavily rendered art styles like this take their toll on a weekly series, hence that one 13 page chapter in the middle of the series.