Yoakemono: Research Notes

Tucker

Title:

• Yoakemono  ヨアケモノ
  • Yo-ah-keh-mow-no
  • A portmanteau of yoake (daybreak) and kemono (beast[s] )

Author

• Shibata, Yuusaku 芝田 優作（しばた ゆうさく）
  • Shee-bah-tah, You-sah-kɯ

Characters

• Akatsuki, Jinrou 暁月 刃朗（あかつき じんろう）
  • Ah-kahts-kee, Jeen-row
  • “Akatsuki” is another word for “dawn” and Jinrou is written as “blade guy”
• Akatsuki, Gin 暁月 銀（あかつき ぎん）
  • Ah-kahts-kee, Geen
  • Personal name just means “silver”
• Kondou, Isami 近藤 勇（こんどう いさみ）
  • Cone-dough, Ee-saw-mee
  • Family name written as “near the wisteria flowers,” personal name written as “courage”
• Hijikata, Toshizou 土方 歳三（ひじかた としぞう）
  • Hee-jee-kah-tah, Toe-shee-zoh
  • Family name written as “where the dirt is,” personal name written as  “year” + “three”...not sure if that has any significance. Also, the reading of three is something I don’t remember seeing before. Maybe it’s antiquated?
• Matsunaga, Shuzen 松永 主善（まつなが しゅぜん）
  • Mah-tsɯ-nah-gah, Shɯ-zen
  • Family name written as “eternal pine forest,” personal name written as “virtuous leader”
• Okita, Souji 沖田 総司（おきた そうじ）
  • Oh-kee-tah, Sew-jee
• Yoshida, Toshimaro
  • Yo-shee-dah, Toe-shee-mah-roe
• Shimada, Kai 島田 魁（しまだ かい）
  • Shee-mah-dah, Kai
• Ichimura, Tetsunosuke 市村 鉄之助（いちむら てつのすけ）
  • Ee-chee-mɯ-rah, Tets’-no-s’kay
  • Personal name features two whispered vowels! Think “Tets? No, skay!”
  • Family name means something like “dude of iron”
• Masuya, Kiemon
  • Mah-sɯ-yah, Kee-eh-moan
• Furutaka, Shuntarou 古高 俊太郎（ふるたか しゅんたろう）
  • Fɯ-rɯ-tah-kah, Shɯn-tah-roe
• “Hitokiri” Izou 人斬り以蔵
  • Shto-kee-ree, Ee-zoe
  • The nickname “Hitokiri” means “person-cutting”
  • Okay, this is kinda a weird one, pronunciation-wise. The “hi” at the beginning is pronounced more like just an “sh” sound with barely any vowel sound. It’s….complicated, and it’s actually kinda sorta a different sound that doesn’t exist in English and is only here because of a sound change that isn’t reflected in Japanese writing, but the thing to remember is that whenever you have 人 “hito” as in person, it’s pronounced like “sh’to”
• Okada, Izou 岡田 以蔵（おかだ いぞう）
  • Oh-kah-dah, Ee-zoe
• Harada, Sanosuke 原田 左之助（はらだ さのすけ）
  • Ha-rah-dah, Saw-no-s’kay
• Toudou, Heisuke 藤堂 平助（とうどう へいすけ）
  • Toe-doe, Hay-s’kay
• Saitou, Hajime 斉藤 一（さいとう はじめ）
  • Sigh-toe, Ha-jee-meh
• Nagakura, Shinpachi 永倉 新八（ながくら しんぱち）
  • Nah-gah-kɯ-ra, Sheem-pah-chee
• Miyabe, Teizou
  • Mee-yah-beh, Tay-zoh
• Sakamoto, Ryouma
  • Sah-kah-mo-toe, Ryo-mah
  • (look at general Japanese notes for reminder on how “R” works in Japanese)\
• O’otaka, Chuube
  • Oh-tah-kah, Chew-beh
• O’otaka, Matajirou
  • Oh-tah-kah, Ma-ta-jee-roe
• Nakamura, Hanjirou
  • Nah-kah-mɯ-rah, Hahn-jee-roe
• Kawakami, Gensai
  • Kah-wah-kah-mee, Gen-sigh
• Niihori, Matsusuke
  • Knee-hoe-ree, Mats-ɯ-s’kay

Other

• Shinsengumi 新撰組
  • Sheen-sen-gɯ-mee
  • Loosely translated to “the group of the newly chosen,” but the “chosen” part is written with the character you would use when referring to a selection of something like poetry rather than people
• Choushuu Domain 長州藩
  • Choh-shɯɯ
  • Apparently it was a real historical thing. Huh.
• Kiku-Ichimonji
  • Kee-kɯ Ee-chee-moan-jee
• Gion Festival
  • Ghee-own
• Gojuu-no-tou 五重の塔
  • Means “five-floor tower”
  • Hey, I’ve been inside the real thing at Touji Temple in Kyouto! Why is there some weird replica of it underground? I mean, wtf?

MaxyBee

• Yusaku Shibata
  • Notable people they were an assistant for
    • Eiichiro Oda (One Piece)
      • on One Piece
    • Kouji Ooishi (Inumarudashi, Lycopene the Tomatoy Poodle)
      • on Inumarudashi
    • Kohei Horikoshi (My Hero Academia, Barrage)
      • on Oumagadoki Zoo
    • Kazue Kato (Blue Exorcist)
      • on Blue Exorcist
    • Yoshikazu Amami (Chin Piece, the official One Piece spin-off about a guy who can stretch his dick)
      • on Boukoku no Siegfried
    • Yuuya Kawada (Smoky BB)
      • on Kikai-banashi Hanasaka Ikkyu
    • Yuuto Tsukuda (Tenmaku Cinema, Food Wars)
      • on Shonen Shikku
    • Masahiro Hirakata (Rookie Policewoman Kiruko)
      • on Rookie Policewoman Kiruko
  • Notable people they had as assistants
    • Keisuke Gotou (One Operation Joker)
      • on Yoakemono and Zipman!!
    • Daijiro Nonoue (The Last Saiyuki)
      • on Yoakemono and Zipman!!
    • Ippei Goto (Hi-Fi Cluster)
      • on Zipman!!
    • Kentaro Hidano (Super Smartphone)
      • on Zipman!!
    • Katsuki Hirose (Ichigeki Hicchu Hit-kun)
      • on Yoakemono and Zipman!!
  • Other works
    • Sahara the Flower Samurai (2016, 1 volume, Jump GIGA)
      • In a barren world full of machine monsters, a Samurai with a flower-generating sword and a girl under his care try to bring beauty back to the world. A mini-series, as is often the way with Jump GIGA, but one that was received well enough to get a volume.
    • Zipman!! (2019-2020, 2 vols, Weekly Shonen Jump) Shonen Flop episodes one and twenty-seven
      • Man gets all up inside his brother to save the day. You’ll be familiar with this, as Shonen Flop has covered it twice, which is two times more than it deserves.
    • Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai - Avan and the Demon King of Hellfire (2020-present, 9+ volumes, V Jump) written by Riku Sanjo
      • A prequel to the 90s hit Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, exploring Avan’s past, and written by one half of the original team. Of the many revivals of Dai that happened around the time of the anime reboot, this is a popular one, and hopefully marks a turning point in Shibata’s career.
        • ALSO: Yusaku Shibata's father, Hiroki Shibata, worked on the original anime for Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. Is it nepotism or coincidence that Yusaku now works on a prequel manga to that very franchise?
• Publishing
  • Run Dates:
    • July 19, 2014 to November 10, 2014
  • Series it replaced
• Stealth Symphony by Ryogo Narita & Yoichi Amano, (3 vols, flop, Shonen Flop episode 12)
• Series that replaced it
  • School Judgement: Gakkyu Hotei by Nobuaki Enoki & Takeshi Obata (3 vols, flop, Shonen Flop episode 49)
• Series that started at the same time as it
  • My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi (39+ vols, MEGA-HIT)
  • Mitsukubi Condor by Ryo Ishiyama (3 vols, flop)
• Chapters/Volumes:
  • 16 chapters/2 vols

Manga Itself / Misc thoughts

• Hikari Shibata (the author's sister) handled the calligraphy for this series. She's an accomplished mangaka in her own right, and has worked as an assistant to Princess Jellyfish author Akiko Higashimura, but is never too big to help her brother, helping on this and Zipman!!.
• A “brief” word on the Shinsengumi:
  • Imagine, if you will, a hundred Hamiltons. But instead of being a character of significant historical renown brought into the pop culture consciousness after some time, THEY NEVER LEFT. That’s the Shinsengumi, an elite group of swordsman under the Tokugawa Shogunate whose ranks included many people from common origin, making them simultaneously hyper-cool swordsmen and aspirational figures for the common man. AND SOME OF THEM FUCKED EACH OTHER. A recipe for enduring popularity with men and women alike, and has spawned many, MANY adaptations, novels, films, and a presence in endless manga, be it in name only (Rurouni Kenshin), warped alternate versions (Gintama) or as ‘actually we never died’ surprise characters (Golden Kamuy). They’re a big fucking deal.
• A brief guide to the two notable ‘black ships’:
  • First are the Portuguese ships, literally black from their pitch coating, which came in 1543, bringing almost 100 years of trade before an insidious infection of christianity drove Japan into self-isolation (it’s more complicated than that, but still).
  • Second are the ships (not black this time, but spewed black clouds of smoke) that Americans arrived in in 1853 to forcefully break Japan out of hundreds of years of isolation. Could the impact of Commodore Matthew Perry’s fleet BE any more notable? Anyway, these are the ones that Yoakemono references.
• Yamazaki’s mask features a variation on the ever-present writing-based children’s doodle, henohenomoheji, so named because its features are made out of the hiragana characters he (へ), no (の), mo (も) and ji (じ), though this version breaks tradition by combining the final ‘he’ and the ‘ji’ to make a giant smirk.
• The final storyline, from the capture and torture of Furutaka to the Shinsengumi attacking an inn with Choshu inside, is a direct reference to the Ikedaya incident, a historical event of some debate involving a good bit of bloodshed and a possible arson attempt. An interesting read for history buffs and Guy Fawkes types.
• It’s quite a… bold move to make Sakamoto Ryoma the villain. Like yes, he is an enemy of the Shinsengumi, in that they hunted him a lot and were ultimately deemed responsible for his assassination and Kondo Isami was executed as a result, but he dreamt of democracy, of removing the caste system and ending feudalism, and is largely romanticised as an absolute hero in Japan.
  • To have him as the villain and the defenders of the Tokugawa Shogunate as the heroes is a bit… regressive. Especially as, ultimately, history is on Sakamoto’s side.
    • Shibata actually makes a note of being worried about making him a villain, so this isn’t a reflection of his values.
• Volume extras include
  • Character profiles
  • Afterwords
  • Credits pages
  • A couple of short prequel comics
  • A two-page spread of the Shinsengumi members and the animals Shibata had assigned to them