Muddy: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes

Manga Details

• Sho Aimoto

  • Notable people they were an assistant for

    • Akira Amano (eidLive, Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective)

    • Tite Kubo (ZOMBIEPOWDER.)

  • Notable people they had as assistants

    • Keisuke Gotou (One Operation Joker)

    • Yoru Asahi (Gal and Bocchi)

    • Mafuyu Konishi (I Was Born The Wrong Sex!)

  • Other works

    • Hokenshitsu no Shinigami (2009-2011, 10 vols, Weekly Shonen Jump)

      • A semi-successful sophomore effort a year and a half after Muddy’s failure, following Hades Itsuhito, a creepy-looking school nurse who aids his students by devouring the ‘disease demons’ that afflict them. Like Hell Teacher Nube for a new age.

    • Kemono Jihen (2016-present, 21+ vols, Jump Square)

      • Aimoto’s big hit. A young half-ghoul boy is taken in by a tanuki detective, and quickly becomes entrenched in a growing conflict between those who wish to keep their supernatural identities hidden and those who instead wish to rule over humans and monster alike. 

    • Fujiko's Bizarre Worldly Wisdom -Whitesnake's Miscalculation- (2021, one-shot, Ultra Jump)

      • In 2021 Aimoto got the rare opportunity to draw an official JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure story and fucking RAN WITH IT, telling a story set in Part 6, where Jolyne has a sexy and, yes, bizarre encounter with an erotic artist. It is one of only two JoJo stories not drawn by Araki, along with Shining Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak.

      • [Just want to note that Aimoto received death threats and nasty messages from various users of Twitter over the erotic content of the one-shot. Dogshit website for idiots- Maxy]

• Publishing

  • Magazine (schedule):

    • Weekly Shonen Jump (weekly)

  • Run Dates: 

    • December 17, 2007 to March 17, 2008

  • Series it replaced

• Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi (hiatus x hiatus) (37 vols, MEGA HIT)

• Series that replaced it

  •  Double Arts by Naoshi Komi (3 vols, flop, Shonen Flop episode 23)

• Series that started at the same time as it

  • Psyren by Toshiaki Iwashiro (16 vols, cult success - do a longform on it one day)

  • K.O. Sen by Katsutoshi Murase (2 vols, flop)

  • Shiritsu Poseidon Gakuen Kotobu by Shinichiro Oe (2 vols, flop)

• Chapters/Volumes: 

  • 12 chapters/2 volumes

About the Manga

• Plot

  • Clay is a former child prodigy who quickly became a scientist at a young age in order to make chimeras: artificial life forms. However, like most former gifted kids, he has not lived up to the hype, has been unable to make a single one, and is suddenly fired. While wandering in despair Clay ends up finding an abandoned laboratory where, in a frenzy, he accidentally creates the greatest discovery in the field: a human chimera named Muddy, but just like Tenacious D cannot remember how. Muddy eats dirt, and when a rich kid sees him doing that, he gets his dad to try and buy him from Clay but Clay is like “no that’s my son” so the dad tries to steal him. Clay however eats so much dirt that he becomes giant and scares them away. 

  • After the destruction of his laboratory, Clay is discovered by Suzu, a chimera scientist who invites him to see Maju, her cactus dog. Clay decides to leave and take Muddy where he wants to go, but the train they’re on is interrupted for a “woman hunt” ordered by the town’s rich guy Jasper. The women are taken, have their blood drawn, and tossed back with $1 million. Clay weirdly decides to have Muddy turn into a hot girl so he can sneak in along with their new accomplice Hari. Clay is stopped at the gate by Jasper’s guards since he’s a man but is saved by Sandro, his brother, who is working security as a part time job while he studies to become a scientist. Muddy and Hari end up meeting Jasper and his mad scientist Professor Corundum who want to create Jasper’s bride using the blood of Hari’s sister Ruri and his cat to make a cat girl waifu for him. Unfortunately the result is a weird cat abomination with legs and Corundum leaves after giving Muddy a piece of candy. 

  • When Clay discovers the candy he eats it and is attacked on the toilet by Ruby, Corundum’s sister. The candy had a tracker in it and she was sent to kidnap Muddy. When Corundum tells her to violently dismember Muddy she switches sides because she doesn’t want to hurt a mud toddler. Corundum, backed by his hot gf Professor Sapphire, responds by siccing his failed rabid artificial human, Adamas, on them.  Clay tricks Adamas into getting burned by a geyser and they win. A few years later Sandro is interning with Suzu and Muddy is now a teenager.

• Characters

  • Clay

    • Cool magical scientist (again)

    •  Prodigy but didn’t live up to the hype

    • Loves his idiot son

  • Muddy

    • Chimera kid

    • Idiot son

    • Eats dirt gets big

    • Tucker: It’s also the Japanese pronunciation of the name “Maddie,” which makes it sound a bit more like a realistic name in Japanese

  • Corundum 

    • Huge asshole 

    • Kinda bad at making chimeras 

    • Sister is nice 

  • Tucker name trivia

    • Kugane: A play on the word for money/gold/metal, “kane

    • Kogane: Another play on words; “ko” means child and is used as a prefix when talking about the baby form of animals (puppy: “ko-inu;” kitten: “ko-neko”). So his name basically means “money pup” or “money kid.”

    • Adamas: Seems to be a reference to Greek mythology (a character in the Iliad whose name means “unconquerable”)

Why it Failed - Carly

• Art is ok, very bleach inspired which is no surprise

• The entire plot of this series is just weird

• I really don't know what it's trying to do

• Chapter pacing is inefficient like it takes forever

• The characters are so boring, well suzu is ok

• Turning muddy into an adult woman is so fucking weird 

• This kidnapping plot is lame also why do something so big for the first arc

• Everything is so disjointed I have a lot of trouble following the plot. Wait, why wasn't suzu used? 

• Ir really hinted at an interesting world and then just does generic evil science shit I wanted fantasy Flintstones 

• Ruby plot twist is so dumb 

• It just abandons characters so fast

• Why does the main villain seem surprised that an animal like a chimera has preservation instincts?

What it Did Well - Carly

• I like the idea of the world being chimera 

• Muddy as a focused point for exposition is at least organic

• Muddy pushing his boobs joke was funny though so weird 

• The fact one of the bad guys is using evil science to make a catgirl wife is hilarious 

Where it Could Have Gone - Jordan

• Have suzu say what's up fuckers

• Have an actual thesis of the series like maybe muddy wants to be a real boy or something it's basic but whatever. Or maybe clay dies and we see muddy having to survive without him

• Play into the wasted potential theme of the mc

• I think just ripping off dr slump to start would have been fine a scientist and hos funny creation hijinks with some touching moments of being a single father 

Misc Thoughts

•  This reminds me of spy x family 

• Suzu is embodiment of the rev up those fryers

• “Welcome back” “muddy never says welcome home” like ok he didn't lmao

• Muddy and luffy would be friends 

• Maxy Bee thoughts:

  • Muddy had two one-shots, both included in the volume release. The first was from Jump the REVOLUTION in 2006, a spin-off magazine for newcomers. The second was (drum roll) A GOLDEN FUTURE CUP ENTRY! It didn’t win, losing against the one-shot for Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, but as is often the case, beat the winner to serialization by a couple of months. 

  • Bullet Train Anderson is reminiscent of classic children’s entertainment like Thomas the Tank Engine, Budgie the Helicopter, and Mater the Tow-Truck. It’s likeliest to be based off of Thomas, who has a large presence there and specific attractions like Thomas Town in Shinmisato.

    • Also like… Thomas. Anderson. Get it? Mr. Anderson? The Matrix is real.

  • I PROMISE you that the art looks way better in the volumes. Scanlators really used to burn the crap out of low quality raws to make the blacks blacker and it really ruins everything about the art.

    • And I promise the Japanese version doesn’t say the R word all the time either…

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary

  • Community

    • Tucker: Cut off; left behind gooey residue | BONUS (from RedBlade): As messy as the name implied

    • Maxybee:  Dr Slumps continue until morale improves

    • Andy's Islands: Jumbor take 2 still a flop.

    • AuraPaladin: Anime catgirl? No, anime cat girl!

    • blahmoomoo: Villain motivations as clear as mud

    • Diego The Phantom Seer: Even the artwork has muddy consistency

    • duderocks the earthchild stan: Unemployed father raises dumb dirt daughter

    • Glornak Ironspawn: A dirt poor family of idiots.

    • Kpt.Kluless: Muddy Manga Makes Many Mediocre Motivations

    • LassOfTheRedRose: Fun time obscured by muddy scans

    • LordAnubis, #1RedHoodFan/Mourner: FMA fans only know one joke Not Dirt by Alice in Chains

    • Portal man: Swamp thing called, wants daughter back

    • Quack.: Artist eats more dirt than Muddy.

    • Redblade: Nutjobs Scramble to Adopt Terrafirma Toddler

    • Riel: Mud, Clay, Dirt, Ground, Soil, Earth

    • Riley: Catgirl chimera still better than Nina

    • Sbubby: Has Golem’s Heart, but clay feet

    • Spiffy: Chimera? More like young clay face.

    • Spike: Just read Mud and Sludge instead | Mightier mangaka may've made Muddy magnificent?

    • The Wolf The Wood The Trafalgar: Colour page them BAM! Scanlation artwork

  • David:  clay can't face this wayning plot

  • Jordan: leave my stupid dirt baby alone!