Research Notes: Ayashimon

Tucker Report:

Author:

• Kaku, Yuuji 賀来 ゆうじ（かく ゆうじ)
  • “Kaku” is pronounced like “all according to keikaku”
  • Yuuji sounds like “you G!”

Title: Ayashimon

• My theory about the title: most likely a play on words switching out the kanji used in the words “youkai” and “kaijuu” with elements with similar meanings to create a new word.
• “Ayashii” is an adjective that means “suspicious”/”weird.” It is typically spelt like 怪しい. The kanji, 怪, also can get a different reading in other contexts: “kai.” This is the same “kai” in kaijuu and youkai (as well as “kaidan,” meaning “ghost story”). So in many contexts, it also refers to suspected paranormal phenomena.\
• The “mon” I’m as sure about, but from reading Japanese wikipedia, I’m pretty sure that it’s just a really weird suffix meaning “person”/”thing.” So these are like youkai-people

Characters:

• Kaidou, Maruo 海堂 マルオ（かいどう マルオ）
  • Personal name pronounced a lot like “Mario,” except with an “u” sound instead of the “i”
• Urara (Ulala?) ウララ
  • Sounds pretty similar to the French phrase “oo la la,” …remember that all the syllables should receive an identical level of stress!
  • If you can’t get the Japanese “r” sound right (it’s really nothing like English R at all), I would stick to an “L” sound. It’s closer to  the Japanese pronunciation of ラ (my former roommate from Japan attests to this). Name shouldn’t sound like a marine saying “oo-rah!”
• Uwan
  • The “wan” is like in Obi-Wan
• 
  

Places/Concepts:

• Enma Syndicate
  • Remember that Enma is the Buddhist/Hindu god of the underworld, also known as Yama
  • Enma most likely pronounced as “Emma” due to a sound change that occurs to sounds occurring before labial consonants like m/b/p (think about how in English we often say “imput” instead of “input”)
• Sakazuki Cup
  • The “u” vowel sound in “zuki” becomes a whispered vowel when pronounced in most cases, making this term sound more like “sakaz’ki”
• Kabukichou
  • The real red-light district of Tokyo, named for the fact that it used to be home to lots of kabuki theaters
  • The “chou” is like the “cho” in the English word “chosen”
  • Extra points for correctly pronouncing all the syllables of kabuki with equal stress and maintaining the original vowel sounds of the Japanese word instead of using the English-ified pronunciation of “Kuh-BOO-ki”
• Hashi-hime
  • The joke is that both the words for “bridge” and “chopsticks” are pronounced as “hashi”
• “Urameshiya”
  • Phrase used by Urara in chapter 2 when describing her desire for vengeance against her father’s killer
  • Comes from the root meaning “grudge,” or “bitter”/”vengeful”...seems to be spoken as a curse
• Enma clan family crest
  • This kanji, “en,” means “flames.”
  • Same “en” as “En-en no Shouboutai” (original Japanese title of Fire Force)
• Youjutsu 妖術:
  • Black magic, same “you” as “youkai”
• Marebito
  • Mah-reh-bee-toe
  • Literally written as “a visitor,” but pronounced like it should mean “a rare person”

MaxyBee Trivia:

Ayashimon/Yuji Kaku notes:

- Ayashimon is Yuji Kaku’s third series, on his third platform. Fantasma was Jump SQ (cancelled at three vols, 2013), Hell’s Paradise was Jump Plus (big hit with an anime and comedy spin-off, 2018). This was Weekly Shonen Jump, as you well know.

- Yuji Kaku was an editor before getting serialised, having worked at Weekly Shonen Champion, editing one of the various Radical Gag Family series back in the late ‘00s.

- Despite being in the industry a while, it took him a long time to get serialised, (apparently he didn’t see it as an option, hence being an editor first) and didn’t really find success until working under Tatsuki Fujimoto. Coincidence? Yes, probably.

- Was an assistant for Fujimoto on Fire Punch alongside Tatsuya Endo and Yukinobu Tatsu, and in turn has had those two work for him, though I’m not sure which series that was on.

- Ayashimon began following the cancellations of Red Hood and Neru, and ended to make room for Aliens Area and Ruri Dragon, running November 2021 to May 2022. A short, troubled run.

- Outside of the myriad Jump covers and volumes featured in the series, Ayashimon references *deep breath* 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

- I don’t know what manga the chopsticks thing is from, sorry.

- 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. Look, I’m gonna link a bunch of tweets for visual aids on this front, but it’s a LOT, so uh be ready.

- Note that Yuji Kaku would have been 8 at the time of this story, so might have even been reading Jump back then.

- Chapter 9 is the start to “let’s put in a bunch of Jump covers”, something kind of easy to do if you work for Jump as they have an archive. Maruo is reading an issue from November 1984, but this doesn’t date the flashback as he says himself that he only used to have old issues as a kid.

- Chapter 11 has Jump issues for a narrative purpose. The first issue Ten gets when they’re in hiding is early June, 1992, showing how long it’s been since they arrived in town, and we get the following two issues of Jump in the chapter as well, meaning it’s at least two weeks of recovery for Urara after their escape.

- In chapter 19 Maruo is reading the issue of Jump Chainsaw Man debuted in, just to fuck with me, personally. A sweet easter egg.

- On the nose but yes, that’s Kaku and his staff in chapter 24, talking about intent to have Maruo die in the final battle, and lamenting that he didn’t manage to do the same to Gabimaru in Hell’s Paradise (that’s right, spoilers for his previous series IN THIS SERIES). Clever little aside as an effect of a killer attack, and I wonder if it snuck in a bit about Kaku’s health (covid caused a break in publication at one point). It’s all very meta and cute.

JUMP WATCH TWEETS/THREADS:

Chapter 3: https://twitter.com/maxythebee/status/1465040975580078082?s=21&t=b-qf22Q0UZLl6ZWZa3Zuaw

Chapter 7 (Ring ni Kakero volume): https://twitter.com/maxythebee/status/1479934788651864065?s=21&t=b-qf22Q0UZLl6ZWZa3Zuaw

Chapter 9: https://twitter.com/maxythebee/status/1485325407960375305?s=21&t=b-qf22Q0UZLl6ZWZa3Zuaw

Chapter 11: https://twitter.com/maxythebee/status/1490807605375213570?s=21&t=UAvjG0GlOqUVKD1lX6Eiqg

Chapter 17 (oh jesus there’s a LOT): https://twitter.com/maxythebee/status/1508185190304260105?s=21&t=UAvjG0GlOqUVKD1lX6Eiqg