Research Notes: Protect Me, Shugomaru!

Tucker:

Title: 守れ!しゅごまる Mamore! Shugomaru

• Protect me! Shugomaru

Author:

• Ihara, Daiki 伊原 大貴（いはら だいき）
  • Think of Ihara as being pronounced like “I-hara” rather than “Uh-HAR-uh” like you might naturally want to say as an English speaker

Characters:

• Tekko, Shugomaru 鉄虎 守護丸（てっこ しゅごまる）
  • “Tekko” written as “iron tiger,” and Shugomaru is written as “safeguard-person”
  • The double “kk” in Tekko is a long consonant sound. There is a momentary pause before the “k” sound is released during which potential energy is built up in the upper roof of the mouth. Listen to the sound file for an example.
• Oujou, Sanagi 王城 さなぎ（おうじょう さなぎ）
  • Both syllables of Oujou are long “oh” sounds (means “King’s Castle”)
  • Make sure to pronounce all syllables of Sanagi equally (“sah-nah-ghee,” not “suh-NAH-Ghee”)
• 小福（こふく） Kofuku
  • Pronounced pretty much what it looks like
  • Written as “Small fortune/happiness”...not sure if it has any significance

Maxybee:

Author (Daiki Ihara)

• Prior works:
• One Piece in Love (2018-2021, 141 chapters/9 volumes, on hiatus, Jump Plus)
• Ihara 20 Days & Ihara 20 Days’ (two special projects for Jump Plus in 2016, daily collections of 4 panel strips, like ten a day, for what ended up being 40 days)
• Yukimi Daifuku (2014, 3 chapter mini, Jump Plus),
• Daily Shonen Ihara (2013, 43 daily chapters for Jump’s old mobile service Jump LIVE)
• Who they were an assistant for: Eiichiro Oda, apparently (never seen explicit confirmation of this, but a LOT of people have worked for Oda, and he was picked for a spin-off, so it’s likely.)
• Notable assistants:
  • I got nothing.

Publishing

• Series it replaced: either Neru or Red Hood. Two series ended for three to begin so it’s kind of a weird one.
• Series that replaced it: Ruri Dragon. A trade up by anyone’s standards
• Ran from: November 2021 to June 2022

Manga Itself

• The Magu-chan chapter happened because Ihara found out of Magu-chan’s cancellation from his editor, and approached Kamiki for the crossover. Ihara did the storyboards, and then they both handled the art and additional writing (i.e. dialogue), as well as drawing little sketches for one another of the characters interacting.
• Editorial at Jump Plus would not let Ihara conclude One Piece In Love when this began, opting to put it on hiatus instead. Ultimately a meaningless gesture for now, as Ihara hasn’t returned to that series yet.
• Normally it’s typical for an underperforming gag manga like this to get extra longevity because kids love them (kids not typically having money for collected volumes, but who get the pocket money needed for Jump). This did not get that. Make of that what you will.
• Caleb Cook got to do some neat touches when translating, so as to better make background gags pop and to transform jokes that don’t translate well into something readers can understand. Regardless of the manga’s quality overall, Caleb deserves mad props for any text-based jokes that actually went over.
• The Yu☆Gi☆Oh cards only needed all of that copyright text because they’re scans rather than hand-drawn versions. Neat! Copyright systems are a nightmare!

The essential guide to what a gag manga is:

• If the jokes are what propels the story, it’s a gag manga (i.e. Me & Roboco, Shugomaru, High School Family). These tend to not need to ‘make sense’, because it’s all for the gag. They ‘did it for the vine’, as young people say.
• If the plot is what moves things forward, that’s a sitcom, usually a hybrid like romantic comedy or action comedy (i.e. Witch Watch, Mashle). These tend to need consistent logic behind the world, else the plot fall apart. The jokes have to make sense within the story.
• KNOWING THE DIFFERENCE COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!