manga log

Buttobi Straight

Togashi's debut in the Tezuka Award at Shukan Shonen Jump. It's a baseball manga set in a school baseball team (a standard genre in shonen manga) about the rivalry between Todoroki, a power pitcher, and Segawa, a technique pitcher. They hate each other's guts and get into fisticuffs every day about what they believe baseball really is -- a sophisticated team sports, or a war of life and death.

The teachers decide to throw Todoroki out of the team, as they gather he is pretty stupid and probably won't be any use in the national championships, and they propose a fixed match in the club: two teams, one pitched by Todoroki and another by Segawa, will fight for the spot as the pitcher; just, the team will sabotage Todoroki!

It should be noted that the teacher who comes up with this conspiracy resembles the ass that is Iwamoto of YYH rather closely, both in appearance and manner. I suspect Togashi holds a grudge against one or more of his teachers in school. Not that I blame him, if he had teachers like that. It's amusing to me to see that one of the very few purely evil and unsympathetic characters in Togashi manga is a school teacher ... I don't know about you, but I want to smack Iwamoto around a few times.

Tonda Birthday Present

Hachimonji Tetsu is Yusuke a delinquent who loves to fight and to play video games. His grandpa is a notorious mad scientist (none of his inventions have ever worked, and he blows up his house regularly), and for Tetsu's birthday he invents a virtual reality machine so Tetsu can play fighting games as if it were in real life. Tetsu decides to play the new action RPG Dragon Chest II, and grandpa turns the machine on -- and lo and behold, their town transforms into the universe of the game, and Tetsu into the hero! Now he must save the princess (actually Keiko his childhood girlfriend) from the evil Dragon King (actually the yakuza boss).

Although it wasn't my original intention to compare these early stories to later Togashi works, this particular manga reminds me of Level E, in which a group of school children are sucked into a real RPG taking up an entire planet. I loved that story line to death, and this short manga isn't all too unamusing, either.

Horror Angel

Kyosuke is Japan's biggest horror movie fan. He can say he is for certain, because the failry of horror movies (yes) showed up and told him so. The fairy says she will grant him three wishes that has to do with horrow movies. First wish, she thinks Kyosuke wants to experience a horror movie in real life, and has his mother feed him his father, which Kyosuke hates (obviously). What Kyosuke really want help with is to ask out his beloved Moka, which the fairy can't do, but she does encourage him to ask her out ... and surprisingly, she agrees. But ...?

Togashi writes in the author's notes that he drew this piece purely because he wanted to, which is evident in the horror-y drawings (Togashi loves horror). Oh god, the gross! The contrast to his usual cutesy art is striking, and I almost think this is the kind of thing he really wants to draw.

... Ew.

Over-all, I think the "horror fairy" theme and the love story fitted together rather badly in this story. I guess that's what you get for both wanting to draw something mainstream and something personal at the same time, and not being experienced enough to join the two properly.

Occult Tanteidan

A two-part detective/horror manga. In part one, the Occult Detectives solve a case about a ghost haunting their school because it was murdered before it could enter a singing contest. In part two, they help the living spirit of a dying boy enter a marathon contest.

I don't really have much to say about these -- they have nice ideas that are well-told, and have the heartwarning quality that YYH had in the first two volumes. The characters are amusing and cute (the male protagonist is another prototype of Yusuke), and it's a joy to read. I understand why Togashi writes in the author's notes that this was the piece that enabled him to go on drawing more manga.

Ôkami nante kowakunai!!

Takuro is a warewolf. He's pretty bad at keeping this a secret, and has already lost count of how many times he has moved and changed schools because he changed form in front of people. At his new school he falls in love with Sayaka, the cutest girl in class, and enters the baskett club to be near her. Can he get her to love him although he's a warewolf?

This is standard Jump comedy/action/romance fare with a few "naughty" shots, and quite clearly leads up to Togashi's first long series, Tende Showaru Cupid. The girl is cute and the guy ordinary, and it really isn't my kind of thing ... Sadly (for me), Togashi holds this course and goes on to become the "oiroke tantô" of Jump (the place Katsura Masakazu held for a long time, and Ichigo 100% is holding now), until he returns to the quirky fantasy/fighting manga we know and love with YYH.