Ayashimon: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes

Manga Details

• Pre tucker, manga title is a play on yokai and kaiju to mean something like suspicious / weird. Not sure about the mon part but my guess is monster like pokemon?
• Author: Kaku, Yuuji (Kah-koo You-gee)
• Author’s other works:
  • Fantasma in Jump SQ
  • Hell’s Paradise has an anime in Jump+
  • Worked as an editor being getting serialized
  • Worked under Fujimoto and didn’t get success until then. Coincidence? Yes, probably.
• Run dates: Nov 15, 2021 to May 30, 2022
  • Second most recent axing
  • Replaced Red Hood and Neru, was replaced by Aliens Area and Ruri Dragon
• Chapters/Volumes: 25/3

About the Manga

• Plot
  • Maruo Kaido is a kid who is simply too strong to exist in society. His obsession with manga led him to practicing punching until he was as strong as a manga character, and now the only job that would work for him is manga protagonist because he accidentally breaks everything around him. Luckily, he happens to run into the daughter of the late head of the Enma Crime Syndicate, which is actually a demon yakuza made up of yokai called Ayashimon: Demons made out of cash who gain power from fear or something? They also can’t die like in Chainsaw man. Anyway her name is Urara and she’s being chased by some enemy Ayashimon yakuza so Maruo easily kicks their asses despite being human.
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  • Impressed by his power, Urara has Maruo join her fledgling Yakuza family consisting of only her and her friend Hashihime. She tells him that all issues in the Ayashimon world are solved by ritual fights, which gets Maruo fucking pumped because it’s an extremely generic manga mechanic and he likes that. Urara’s ultimate goal is to get revenge on the people who killed her father but she doesn’t know what really happened. In trying to gain territory, Maruo and Urara recruit Ten, a lame yokai who can teleport through ceilings and give himself blackface. He’s weak and joins up. The magic FBI shows up at some point but don’t worry they don’t matter.
  • ---
  • Maruo beats up some weak Ayashimon and Urara uses magic tattoo powers to mark him with some cool ink that lets them talk telepathically. The new Enma syndicate is run by Akari Doppo, who’s obviously the big bad, who turns ayashimon into art as a form of torture. He torments Urara’s underling Hashihime into clueing him in that she’s her boss, and then when he finds Urara and shows her Hashihime, her poker face is such trash that it gives everything away. When Doppo finds out she’s the daughter of his former boss he decides to kill her right then, and defeats Maruo who can’t beat him because he has the power of icy hot. Urara unleashes her powers and escapes but of course it makes her really tired and she can only do it for a minute blah blah blah.
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  • Urara, Maruo, and Ten then approach the Todoroki Alliance which are a bunch of cool bikers. Maruo defeats their boss who can turn into a super fast cloth demon and the bikers join their team. The Enma syndicate has grown, however, so Urara, Maruo, and the head of the bikers go to negotiate with a criminal Tanuki Hotel chain, but are instead trapped in a blank room and have to patiently wait for 6 hours until they’re exorcized. Don’t worry because Maruo and Urara have telepathy so the gang is on their way immediately.
  • ---
  • It turns out that the entire building is actually inside the boss Tanuki’s ball sack. No really, he can’t fight because he has to maintain the integrity of his ball illusion. So they fight the second-in-command, Tamagawa, who turns into Doppo because the author realized he didn’t have enough time to actually have Maruo fight him. Thankfully the Tanuki transformation works exactly like Animorphs except way shorter, so Tamagawa has fully transformed into Doppo and can’t come back. Maruo gets knocked unconscious and there’s a fourth wall breaking scene where he is himself the author of his own manga and decides not to kill himself off, so he wakes up and his friends join in to help him win. The Urara gang vows to defeat the real Doppo, and there’s a time skip with a teaser scene where he challenges Maruo to a ritual battle. I lied, by the way, Tamagawa reverts back to himself after his defeat, he’s fine.
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• Characters
  • Maruo Kaido (Mar-u-oh Kaido)
    • Strongest kid in town
    • Loves manga
    • Just wants good fights
    • Marebito a legendary warrior
  • Urara (Oh-ra-ra)
    • Yokai
    • Dem eyebrows
    • Yakuza heiress
  • Ten
    • Maruos underling
    • Simple boy
    • Most wholesome person in the series
    • Coward
  • Doppo
    • Enma Syndicate boss
    • Fucked up torture artist
    • Frozen flames
  • Kotton
    • Biker
    • Todoroki alliance leader
    • Urara’s dad was like  a father to him
    • 
      
  • 
    

Why it failed

• Yokai shit again
• Vs dandadan the paneling is a bit disappointing
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  • This should have been on the left side
  • I feel there’s a certain level of cultural understanding required
• This has so much exposition because the author wanted to get it out of the way as easily as possible
• It just feels too similar to csm, this just feels like medicore fujimoto
• It feels formalaic we get some exposition a tough guy the mc bears him up rinse and repeat
• I really wanted some more organization building before the plot kicked into gear I feel base building is fun
• The money = life thing is cute but it feels like babies first metaphor especially with the healthcare metaphors

What it did well

• Love the art style
• I really like the intro where the MC is too strong for normal gym
• Really interesting yokai design
• You can tell this series is a love letter to battle shonen
• It’s minor but like the lack of narration or fourth wall breaking to provide information
• Yokai yakuza is a cool idea
• This is a dumb popcorn manga, it almost feels pulpy in a way
• I really like this setting and idea of building something up
• I appreciate any manga the mc gets his ass visibly beat
• Great gray tones and shadows
• Has a cinematic approach to panels even if the layout is meh
• I always love when the mc comes up with a dumber solution vs the clear option that still works like csm riding power
• I appreciate when it does fuck around with conventions like when the background audience standin gets attacked by the biker
  • Overall this is a series strength like the clothing guy fight
• This series really doesn't fuck around in terms of pacing
• I like that Urara isn’t a perfect tactician like Maruo isn’t a perfect fighter and it parallels both their growth
• The physical comedy is great, wanted more of that

Where it could have gone

• Learn more about yakuza culture, which maybe it is showing? But I feel like an outsider
• Really be a love letter to manga that part kinda tapers off
• Actually build your world first then have your fights, be the op of cool yokai yakuza
• Imagine it went international and dealt with monster mafias
• The special investigators seemed cool af maybe make it from that perspective
• Imagine this was about a manga creator and how he gets inspiration for his manga is by going on actual fantasy adventures
• Play on the idea that all faith has been absorbed into money, I thought it was an interesting part of Ten’s backstory with his grandma
• The panel composition is very stock. Just characters standing at profile view across from each other while talking. Same level of depth, no implied space, boring angles. These are things that Fujimoto usually avoids like the plague.
• The series completely fucks up the whole point of having a comically overpowered character.

Misc Thoughts

• It's weird how this series probably talks the most directly about serious topics like prostitution and Yakuza
• I really wish I had more experience with japanese films as I'm sure it's got a ton of references
• Manga references per Maxy Bee
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  • It's weird how the biker guy mentioned there's nothing on kaidos back right after he got his tattoo
  • Kinnikuman, Ultraman, Dragon Ball, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Fist of the North Star, Hareluya (referenced before it debuted, WHAT A GOOF), Gegege no Kitaro, Bakuhatsu! Uchū Kuma-san Tāta Bear & Kikuchiyo-kun, BURNING! Onii-san, Mon-Mon-Mon, Gutsy Frog, aaaaaand Ashita no Joe
  • The first fully-visible Jump issue we see is in chapter 3, and places that part of the story in early May, 1992. It’s issue 22-23, 1992 and has Cell and Goku on the cover
  • In chapter 19 Maruo is reading the issue of Jump Chainsaw Man debuted in, just to fuck with me, personally. A sweet easter egg.
  • Maxybee goes into more detail on their twitter maxythebee!
• I’m not sure how I feel about the psychic link advice in fights

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary
  • Community
    • Tucker:  One Punch Otaku Joins the Crips
    • MaxyBee: “Look at all these old Jumps!”
    • Agpuh: The power of money and manga
    • ChemyChems: Made by Ani-twitter and Grind-twitter collab
    • The Laughing Fool: Why is everyone a Saitama lately? | Dororon is still going strong, 😏
    • Daniel - A Smashing Theory: They took Kappa lady from me
    • Scott: If only mobsters could punch fire
    • MillionaireDetective: Saitama otaku joins the demon yakuza
    • Twolfwood: For an action manga, it's boring
    • Andy's Islands: "Always cite your Shonen Jump sources!"
    • Shrimp Lord: Not popular because not gag character
    • Duderocks: Needed to have demon yakuza karaoke | Great start good end bad middle
    • The Duke Of Dumbass: “At Least The Art Is Decent”
  • David:
    • Everyone fucks around and finds out
    • The most manga of all time
    • It puts the man in manga
  • Jordan:
    • Better Tokyo Shinobi Squad Minus Racism
    • Sometimes going meta is a crutch
  • Guest:
• Flop or not
  • If flop, what they could read instead
  • If not, how it compares to Chainsaw Man
    • Flop, this series really just didn't care about it's cool premise, read Dandadan
    • Flop. Cabin in the Woods.
    • Rec for Merphy: If you want a taste of Fujimoto but maybe the ultra violence isn’t for you Lookback is perhaps the best written thing ever made; if you’d like an ongoing series check out Delicious in the Dungeon aka Dungeon Meshi or Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (rip the anime adaption)
• Is this the best/worst series we’ve talked about
  • Na it’s p mid, prob gana end up C-tier