Protect Me, Shugomaru!: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes (Patreon)

Manga Details

• Author: Ihara, Daiki (I-hara)
  • One Piece in Love (2018-2021, 141 chapters/9 volumes, on hiatus, Jump Plus)
  • Probably was an assistant for Oda
• Author’s other works:
• Run dates: Nov 22, 2021 to Jun 6, 2022
• Chapters/Volumes: 26/3
• Replaced Neru or Red Hood it’s kinda vague as multiple series started
• Ruri Dragon replaced it

About the Manga

• Plot
  • Sanagi Ojo is the heiress to a big conglomerate, and just wants to get a boyfriend. After finding out that an assassin named Skull is after her, however, she is assigned a bodyguard from the famous Tekko clan. His name is Shugomaru, he’s 10, and he’s stupid. He does the thing where he tries to protect her but hurts her instead. Except the twist is that he’s right in the first chapter so they can’t use that joke again.
  • The pair meet Kofuku, a classmate who sprained her ankle. Shugomaru cuts the school in half with a dragon sword.
  • Sanagi meets a creepy pickup artist named Hebi who literally says he doesn’t understand no means no and definitely reads r/seduction. Shugomaru tries to start a sanagi club. Who cares? There’s a parody of Mashle in it I guess.
  • 
    
  • This manga is completely obsessed with Yugioh cards of all things. They meet a guy who looks like Summoned Skull but the joke is that he’s nice. You have no idea how many Yugioh jokes are in this fucking manga it’s like half the series. Then a guy shows up who looks like a penis and the manga thinks that’s so funny that it forgets to tell another joke for the whole chapter.
  • Then we meet Fuuji, an assassin who loves kids and doing magic tricks, as well as her boss Aoi. Aoi calls himself a man while dressing like a girl, and so Hebi forces him to wear makeup and be a part of his harem. I guess that’s… progressive?
  • 
    
  • And then the mangaka ran out of ideas and tried to literally create magu-chan fanfiction. What is happening? Anyway it turns out the boss of the assassins was the student council president but he wasn’t the assassin they were looking for.
  • This is stupid okay. 3 more bodyguard kids show up to help Shugomaru. Age, an art girl, Hagane, a nerd boy, and Suzuri, a crybaby with super strength. However, the three skull assassins attack. One of these chapters is a full length yugioh duel and it turns out that they’re all just Shugomaru’s siblings who showed up to kidnap him. The twist is that Shugomaru is actually skull because their dad injected an evil gene into him and then killed himself. It’s called SKAL: System: Kill and Love, and if left alone Shugomaru will destroy the world. Sanagi doesn’t care and saves him. Also Kofuku was in on it, cool.
• Characters
  • Sanagi Ojo (San-ah-gee Oh-Joe)
    • Princess or something
    • Straightman
    • Wants a normal BF
    • 
      
  • Shugomaru Tekko (Teh-koh Shoe-gue-mar-eww)
    • Like a cartoon character
    • 5th son
    • 10 years old
    • Has anxiety
    • Likes dragons
    • Loves Yu-Gi-Oh
  • Kofuku (Koe-fue-cue)
    • Hurt her leg
    • Likes them
    • I legit thought she was a one and done character given how lazy her design is
    • Secretly evil or something idk
  • Hebi
    • Loves the mc
    • Very annoying
    • At first was thought to be a skull
    • Pansexual so at least it's representation?

Why it failed

• This is baaaad art
• Why is there so much dialog in a gag manga
• Dude this is just bad Witch Watch
• This is just legit not funny, I can see how the author thinks things are funny but doesn’t apply it right as the art and comedic timing is bad
• Jokes are already old 2 chapters in
• The plot of the female mc not believing the male mc when he has crazy theories makes no sense as he literally was right
• Some of these jokes literally make no sense like he introduces a gadget for a joke and has no reason to like the punching shield
• This series
• Merphy was right a series of just pop culture references is bad

What it did well

• A MC with anxiety is fun
• When tekko is drawn crazy it's kinda got an okubo vibe I fw
• Train breaking through hideout joke was actually funny
• The ice house chapter at least ended wholesome

Where it could have gone

• The second chapter literally had the chance to make the series interesting by having the students accept their weirdness which yeah is ww plot but it's something
• Ok what if she needed to create fake assassination plots to distract him so it's like a level deeper
• Imagine if this just turned into a yugioh manga or the MC had to face some of the bullshit actual competitive yugioh players do

Misc Thoughts

• They kinda ripped off love rush with the they knew each other the whole time
• Why is there so many ice puns
• No one even cared the official translation kept spelling doughnut wrong
• They never said etiquestion
• Maxy Bee thoughts:
  • 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!

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary
  • Community
    • Tucker:  Sorry, got distracted watching paint dry
    • Maxybee: Was alright before the other kids
    • Duderocks: FLACID jokes  bad PROTECTION HARD pass
    • Chemychems: It's time to g-g-g-g-g-uard that body.
    • Twolfwood: This shows why kid protagonists suck
    • Daniel A Smashing Theory: The "Maybe Don't Attempt Representation" Award
    • Duke: It Was Definitely Mid. Just Mid
    • Kirbymon: Better series when being other series
    • Blahmoomoo: Unfunny referential joke explainer, the manga
    • Laughing fool: Who the hell approved this one
    • Agpuh:  Just talk about the Magu-chan Chapter
    • Xylon:  The assassins should have just won
    • Dragoniittii: The slapstick jokes didn't slap, eh?
    • Albie: Oh, it made me gag alright
    • Himiko_toga: 10 year old with live grenades
    • Genericman: Protect me from Shugomaru's shitty manga
    • Jude: you’ve activated my shitty gag card
  • David: cake made of manga reference icing
  • Jordan: fuck it i’ll just write yugioh
  • Guest:
• Flop or not
  • If flop, what they could read instead
  • If not, how it compares to Chainsaw Man
• Is this the best/worst series we’ve talked about
  • This is really bad
  • Read Witch Watch