Reading in Ayatsuri Sakon

[telophase]

Thanks to kimun (with efforts by octopedingenue), I've now got the scanlations of Ayatsuri Sakon, which I believe is the first manga that Obata Takeshi (HikaGo/Death Note, as you should all know by now) was the lead guy on. What's interesting is his style ... it's accomplished, but it's pretty manga-generic. It doesn't especially stick out, however, since Obata's unique style hadn't really been worked out at the time this manga was created.

So the basic story is that it's set in contemporary Japan, but has a lot of traditional flavor. There's mild-mannered bishounen puppeteer Sakon and his strong-willed, seemingly independent-willed puppet, Ukon, who travel around the country. They fight crime!

No, really. They fight crime. Well, more like solve crime - it's a detective story. Sakon uses his M4DZ PUPPETEERING SKILLZ to get into the mind of various people and reason out what and how they dunnit. And the story never really comes down onto a definite answer as to whether or not the puppet Ukon is just a personality aspect of the closed-off, shy Sakon or whether he's possessed by the spirit of a boy from the Meiji era. The owner of the Clockwork Voices site, where I got the manga and anime images from under the cut, who happens to also be a puppeteer, comes down on the side of "possessed," because Ukon moves in ways that are not possible for a single puppetteer - you'd need a team to do it. But it can be read either way, as you choose.

And you can see the same element of a setting in the contemporary world with a frisson of the supernatural that Obata has done in HikaGo and Death Note - he must be feeling pretty stereotyped by now. XD

It was made into an anime, also.



Here's one of the color covers, and a black-and-white chapter header from the manga:



and a page from chapter 2 of the manga, to show what the style looks like within the story:




Some of the linework and character design in the B&W, especially evident in that chapter header, is reminiscent of Petshop of Horrors, but there's a potentially interesting connection that may be complete rumor. Here's a picture from the anime:






Here's what might or might not be a connection - I don't know enough yet and not knowing any Japanese isn't helpng my research any. A couple of pictures of another redhead we all know and love:





It turns out that Nobuhiro Watsuki, the Rurouni Kenshin mangaka, might have been an assistant to Obata at some point, at least according to the Clockwork Voices site, which imples that it was on Ayatsuri Sakon. I'm trying to work out the dates, however, to see if this information is correct -- according to the info in my Viz version of Rurouni Kenshin, RK was published first as a short story in 1992, then reworked and debuted as a serial in 1994. The only date I have so far for Ayatsuri Sakon in 1995, which would make that pretty much impossible. He might have worked with Obata before RK, but I don't think it's possible to work on two serials at the same time without dying from exhaustion. (Plus, I was under the impression that AS was Obata's first manga as the lead mangaka, which would probably rule out Watsuki working under him at all, although they could have been assistants together on something. But I could be wrong about everything. I'm dependent on the few unreliable trickles of information that I can find on English websites.)



At any rate, whether there's a connection between Kenshin and Ukon or not, you can see just how different Obata's art style is between the Ayatsuri Sakon images above and the Hikaru no Go and Death Note stuff I've posted in the essays. Cool, huh?

As an aside, I can't find anything that would connect the puppet Ukon to this guy:



other than Obata more like the anime character designer just ripping off Kurama's hairstyle, but I shall leave you with this little equation:





If you're intrigued, there's a yousendit link in the comments here.

Comments

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I am deeply amused by that equation.

Sadly enough, I used to know the mad tangle of Watsuki's assistants, but can no longer recall. I'm pretty sure the connection is valid, though.

I have through 11 of the anime if you want it and don't have it.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

The Clockwork Voices person brought up the Kenshin similarity, but Ukon just looked so much like Kurama with his 80s hair-band 'do that I couldn't help myself.

I expect the assistant stuff is pretty incestuous within the publishing company - I think they both publish in Shonen Jump, and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that assistants get shuffled around as their various talents are needed or as they get into personality conflicts with the mangaka and each other, or as mangaka who start new serials poach them.

It'd be nice to have the anime eps, thanks. My ISP has blocked P2P filesharing, so I'm down to direct download, yousendit, AIM transfer, or mailed CD/DVDs. XD

[i-smile.livejournal.com]

But it's SAI. With a PUPPET. Does the puppet act at all like Hikaru

It sounds really cool, though! I take it it isn't (yet) licensed?

[obviouslyanon.livejournal.com]

It was featured as a Shonen Jump manga spotlight and sometimes Viz goes and licenses those titles. I think Bleach is an example of that, and some other one that I can't remember.

I'm not sure, but my inner-fangirl hopes that they are using Death Note to gauge interest in a dark manga with art by Obata. But then again, my inner-fangirl might just want to justify buying Death Note when I should be saving money.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Naw, he's a bit more, um ... hard-edged? He goes goofy like early Hikaru, though.