Shounen Shoujo: Research Notes (Patreon)

Tucker

Title:

• Shounen Shoujo 症年症女
  • Show-nen show-jo
  • The title is a play on words. Instead of using the regular kanji 少 (meaning “few,” referring to a person having lived few years) to write shounen and shoujo, it instead uses the kanji 症, meaning “illness”

Author:

• Nishio, Ishin 西尾 維新（にしお いしん)
  • Knee-shee-o, ee-sheen

Artist:

• Akatsuki, Akira 暁月 あきら（あかつき あきら)
  • Ah-kahts’-kah, Ah-kee-rah
    • The tsu in Akatsuki is a whispered vowel when spoken out loud, so it kinda sounds like the second syllable is “caught”/”cought”
    • Makes the name sound a little like Russian

Characters:

• Yamai, Shou
  • Yah-mah-ee, Show

MaxyBee

Author - Nisio Isin

• Other notable works (novels):
  • Okay right, listen. Nisio Isin has an insanely prolific career as a light novel and manga writer, and listing all his prior works isn’t worth your time or mine, so I’m gonna just pick the ‘things you might know’ and we can all go home happy, yes? No timeline as these begin around 2002 and have so many volumes that some only wrapped very recently. Just know that this is Isin’s bread and butter. Here’s the novels:
    • Zaregoto series (three different series comprising 21 novels, has an anime adaptation).
    • Katanagatari (13 novels, has an anime adaptation).
    • Monogatari series (28 novels, with several anime series, a video game, and a manga adaptation by Oh! Great of Air Gear and Tenjho Tenge fame).
    • Juni Taisen: Zodiac War (2 novels, with manga and anime adaptations. Every version is slightly different!)
    • Pretty Boy Detective Club (12 novels, with manga and anime adaptations)
    • Death Note Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases (1 novel, prequel story to Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba’s Death Note)
    • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Over Heaven (1 novel. Absolute batshit transcript of Dio Brando’s diary from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)
• Other notable works (manga):
  • Manga is slightly less impenetrable, but I’m still sticking to highlights, so let’s go.
    • Medaka Box (with Akira Akatsuki) (2009-2013, 22 volumes, 5 novels, 2 anime, Weekly Shonen Jump). The main source of this pairing. A Shonen Jump series about a quirky student council leader’s suggestion box, that goes on to be a detailed critique of shonen manga, changing genre every arc in a desperate attempt to say it all. And to not be cancelled.
    • Ogiri (with Akira Akatsuki, Takeshi Obata, Akihisa Ikeda, Teppei Fukushima, Aiji Yamakawa, Atsushi Nakayama, Hikaru Nakamura, Mizuki Kawashita, and Renjuru Kindaichi) (2014-2015, series of one-shots, Weekly Shonen Jump). A collection of one-shots based around certain themes, with an all-star line-up of artists. A couple came out in English, but not the whole bunch.
  • Other one-shots you probably care about:
    • Uroboe Uroboros (with Takeshi Obata) (2008, Weekly Shonen Jump)
    • Cool Shock OLD BT (with Posuka Demizu) (2021, Ultra Jump)
• Nisio Isin trivia:
  • His name is a palindrome.
  • A big fan of wordplay, puns, trickery, and generally smug language use. The title Shonen Shojo is an example of this, but by and large double meanings are rife in his work, which is a huge pain in the arse to translate, and his character names are tongue twisters and oddities, which are a pain in the arse to say!
  • For a period of 8 years (2009-2016), Isin was in the top 10 best-selling authors in Japan. A huge success.
  • Isin features women more in his works than men because it’s easier in his eye to express who they are through clothing and accoutrements.
  • Currently does Cipher Academy in Weekly Shonen Jump with occasional collaborator Yuji Iwasaki.

Artist - Akira Akatsuki

• Prior works:
  • A buncha hentai fancomics under the pen-name Kuuya for the doujin circle RIROLAND (2000-2004).
    • They’re not great, and at least a couple have the sort of age-related tags you want to avoid.
  • Contractor M&Y (2006, 2 volumes, Weekly Shonen Jump).
    • A plain student gets wrapped up with two god-powered ‘contractors’ as they face down dangerous beasts. At some ten chapters, this is one of the biggest flops in Jump history.
  • Medaka Box (with Nisio Isin) (details in Isin’s section)
    • I won’t explain this again, but it is the very definition of a cult hit in Jump terms.
  • Luger Code 1951 (with Haruto Haneki) (2016, 3 chapters, Shonen Jump Plus)
    • A genius at languages tries to capture a werewolf to help him decipher a mysterious coded language he cannot comprehend.
• Post Works:
  • Juni Taisen: Zodiac War (with Nisio Isin) (2017-2018, 4 volumes, Jump SQ)
    • A generational battle between representatives of the zodiac facing off in mortal combat, with the prize of a wish on the line. Based on Isin’s novels and the character designs of Hikaru Nakamura, Isin’s version of the designs is what the anime went with.
  • Boxer’s Blast (with Atsuro Sakai) (2018, 3 volumes, Jump SQ)
    • A boxing series. But not a good one. Flop.
• Who they were an assistant for:
  • Katsura Hoshino (D.Gray-Man)
• Notable assistants:
  • Yuuya Ogura (Navirinth, “A life shared with you, to dream for one last time”)
• Anything else interesting:
  • Manga has a long history of people coming from porn (phrasing), so Akatsuki isn’t anything special in that regard, but I’ll try to note this with authors going forward, as I think it informs their fanservice.

Publishing

• Series it replaced:
  • Gakumon! Wolf Girl Won’t Give Up! by Robinson Haruhara (writer of ‘Tis Time For Torture, Princess)
• Series that replaced it:
  • Super HxEros by Ryoma Kitada (available from Seven Seas, has anime)
• Bonus info:
  • A feature ran in Jump SQ about ‘secrets of manga’. One issue asked Akatsuki about his process with Isin on Shonen Shojo, and he basically receives panel sizes and text and no art at all. A challenging way to collaborate!

Manga Itself

• Ironic to have a super chunibyo disease that kills you before you actually hit eighth grade.
• The Doc (‘doku’) gives the boy poison (‘doku’).
• The vomit is the same material that obscures identifiers for each character. That also explains the boy’s affinity for markers throughout the story, and the girl’s design.
• Nisio Isin has a habit of inserting… slippery politics into his work, often by posing it as leading questions, or having characters come to certain conclusions. My general impression is libertarianism, but it’s hard to say.
• Of course, with chapter 12 it’s clear this is about stories with individuality. Man who writes weird stories has a chip on his shoulder about generic isekai, news at 11.
• Telling that ‘reader comments’ sneak in right before it ends.
• The translator notes already make it clear but they’re both called Yamai Shou, which is a homophone for the disease they had (‘Disease illness’, basically, or Yamai-shou). Also adds a THIRD meaning to the title, SHOUnen SHOUjo, innit.
• The epilogue explains everything, but don’t think I didn’t also twig Isin saying that welcoming foreign bodies erases individuality. Very “we should all have our own country” stuff.

Six Word Summary:

• The Rolling Stone, “Paint It Black”