Butsu Zone: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes (Patreon)

Manga Details

• The title is a pun on the word “butsuzou”, meaning “statue of Buddha.” Just add a n sound to the end, and it becomes “Butsu Zone”
• Author: Takei, Hiroyuki (Tah-kay, Hee-roe-yɯ-kee)
  • Notable people they were an assistant for:
    • Takamichi Sakura (on Shape of Happiness)
      • This was serialised in video game magazine Famitsu, and featured Takei within the story as ‘Turtle-san’, a turtle.
    • Nobuhiro Watsuki (convicted pedophile, on Rurouni Kenshin)
      • Takei was a prominent member of the famous assistant group the Watsuki-gumi, consisting of Takei, ‘big bro’ Gin Shinga, Eiichiro Oda, and Mikio Ito. There have been many other assistants in that time period, but this specific gang is special.
      • Takei was a particularly trusted assistant with regard to character designs, helping develop Fuji in Rurouni Kenshin, and Victor in Buso Renkin, long after he’d stopped being an assistant.
    • Koji Kiriyama (on Ninku)
      • Ninku is secretly one of the most influential Jump series of all time. Don’t get me started.
    • Notable people that are their brother:
      • Hirofumi Takei (Chopperman, a One Piece spin-off)
  • Notable people they had as assistants:
    • Mikio Ito (Normandy Secret Club)
    • Matsui Katsunori/KIYU (Hanakaku ~Last Girl Standing~, Number 10, Sommelier)
    • Yuusuke Takeyama (Hayame Blast Gear)
    • Kei Kawano (GRAND SLAM)
    • Yoichiro Tanabe (Oshiete! Furedou Wanda-sank)
    • DAIGO
  • BONUS TRIVIA:
    • Huge fan of Gundam, to the point of both participating in the DRILL GUNDAM doujinshi alongside Eiichiro Oda and other notable names and the official SD Gundam Special Anthology.
    • Big fan of Mini 4WD from childhood, having a design contest entry that got used by an official manga.
    • Names JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure creator Hirohiko Araki, Osamu Tezuka, and Gegege no Kitaro creator Shigeru Mizuki among his influences
    • To watch a bit about the man and his current workplace and stuff, highly recommend this documentary by Archipel: https://youtu.be/zp6_kvcEI_4
• Author’s other works:
  • Prior works:
    • This is Hiroyuki Takei’s first serialisation, but he did create some one-shots between 1994 and his debut here in 1997.
  • Later works:
    • The Shaman King Franchise
    • Juuki Ningen Jumbor (2007, 10 chapters, 1 vol, Weekly Shonen Jump) FLOP ELIGIBLE
    • Jumbor (2010-2014/HIATUS, 8 vols, Ultra Jump) w/ Hiromasa Mikami
    • Karakuri Douji Ultimo (2009-2015, 12 vols, Jump SQ.) w/ STAN MOTHERFUCKING LEE
    • Nekogahara (2015-2018, 5 volumes, Shonen Magazine Edge)
• Run dates: Feb 18, 1997 to Jul 1, 1997
  • Series it replaced:
    • Rokudenashi BLUES by Masanori Morita (MASSIVE hit, 42 volumes)
  • Series that replaced it:
    • JOKER by Kazutoshi Yamane (flop, 2 volumes)
  • Series from the same serialisation round:
    • Watashi no Kaeru-sama by Yuki Nakajima (flop, 2 volumes)
    • Hanasaka Tenshi Tenten-kun (hit, 17 volumes)
• Chapters/Volumes: 22/3

About the Manga

• Plot
  • Satchi is a young girl living at a Buddhist monk temple and is under attack from some mafia bad guys when suddenly the Buddha statue comes to life and protects her! Out of the statue bursts a young boy which freaks the bad guys out so much that they run away. When Satchi wakes up she’s with her grandpa and the young boy, who claims to be a Buddha named Sennju, has come to earth to protect the Buddha Mirokou who will save all of mankind. The grandpa then explains that Satchi was left at the temple as a baby, orphaned by her parents, so he decided to take her in. The bad guys soon come back and demolish the temple lead by their leader Mike. Sennju then activates his Buddha armor which turns into like a ton of arms to catch all the bullets and beat all the bad guys. Sennju then tells Satchi that she is actually Mirokou and he’s come to protect her. Soon another Buddha statue came to life to fight them at the behest of Mara who’s like the evil Buddha or something, and Sennju easily wrecks his shit because he’s made of soil and weak. He then tells Satchi that they gotta go to India and will be shepherded by the 7 gods of happiness. On the way they’re attacked by 2 more evil Mara guys but are saved by the Bodhisatva Jizo, a Buddha who helps travelers and came to earth because he likes rice balls. Then in the Buddha country, the Buddha king tells a story about how Sennju is the nicest Bodhisatva cuz he saved a bunch of puppies. Suddenly a puppy statue named Koma comes to life and hugs Sennju. Yay! A boat comes to pick them up and there’s 7 people on the ship. They’re the gods of happiness. Sennju Satchi and Koma get on the boat, saying goodby to Jizo. But when they all fall asleep the gods of happiness are killed and replaced with 7 EVIL gods of happiness lead by Ashura, a disciple of Mara.
  • 
    
  • Thankfully Jizo followed them on a fishing boat and helps box all the guys together so Sennju can punch them a bunch with all his fists. Ashura then tosses Jizo, who’s made of stone, into the ocean, and then viciously attacks Sennju. Satchi jumps in after him as Sennju and Ashura fight. Sennju reveals that they used to be friends and asks Ashura why he’s doing this. Ashura flashes back to when he was a little kid and fell in love with a girl named Sashi who was kidnapped by an evil ruler, and after he failed to save her a bunch of times he got really mad. Sennju opens all his chakras and tries to attack Ashura but faints from exhaustion. Ashura leaves because it’s a manga and he wants to fight him at his full power. Sennju wakes up, grabs a rope and the stone puppy so he could sink, and hops into the water to save Jizo and his dumbass savior. They’re found on the beach by a passing car and when they wake up they’re at grandpa’s new temple where Mike and his bad guys are now monks. While training with Jizo, Sennju’s armor breaks so they decide to go to the mountain of fear to meet an Itako, an old lady who can channel the dead because she could summon the guy who made the armor in the first place. The three continue their journey when a guy with a guitar case shows up to the temple. Of COURSE he has an axe in his guitar case, except it’s an actual axe, and he slices all the monks. Then he finds Sennju and reveals he’s Sennju’s big brother Bato. He didn’t actually kill those monks he just killed their anger. Ah. I get it. Yeah. Bato showed up to take over Sennju’s role cuz Sennju is a weak little bitch who can’t protect shit. Sennju accepts and starts leaving but he gets really sad about it so he comes back to challenge Bato to a duel after he gets his armor fixed. Bato agrees and steals a motorcycle. Sennju, Jizo, and Satchi then get on a train where they encounter some local ruffians but are saved by Anna from Shaman King. That’s not a joke she is literally Anna from Shaman King.
  • 
    
  • They go to Anna’s house and she channels Junkei, the guy who made the statue that turned into Sennju. He was a sculptor who just couldn’t put his heart into his work. Then one day his little sister, who looked identical to Sennju, lightly bumped into a samurai who immediately cut her in half. Junkei then turned into the Punisher for Samurai, somehow taking on groups of them with just his chisels it’s pretty metal. He kills a ton of people but is still mad, so he prays to Buddha and realizes he has to turn his hate into love or something. And as he’s sitting on death row he carves a pillar into the best Buddha statue ever which is what Sennju emerged from. Junkei then makes even better armor from him and it’s so cool he’s got eyes on his hands now. He then fights Bato and shows that he can redirect all of Bato’s energy into a giant ki blast so Bato is like “it was just a prank bro” and agrees to go with them. But just then Ashura shows up with all the bad guys and they attack. They kill Bato in order to try and make Sennju hate them. Then Jizo attacks them with goofy looking armor and he dies too, but rather than hate them, Sennju just feels bad for him which shocks Ashura. Sennju goes inside of Ashura’s brain to see why he’s so mad and it’s a big cold tundra. He walks for days until he’s saved by Mirokou who looks like Ariana Grande. She purifies Ashura’s mind and when Sennju wakes up in the real world Anna tells him that his body was protected by Ashura, who evidently became a good guy. A bunch of characters who died are speaking with each other in the Buddha’s land because I mean where else were they gonna go, Detroit? Mirokou is supposed to awaken when Satchi turns 36 but whatever the manga is over now bye.
• Characters
  • Sennju
    • Very strong
    • Monk
    • Comes from buddha land
    • Can do stand rushes
    • Has an absurd power limitat
    • Doesn't like violence 😢
  • Sachi
    • Knowledgeable about buddha
    • r/atheist
    • Useless
    • Going to become buddha Mirokou
  • Jizo
    • Lol jiz butt
    • Looks like krillen
    • Kinda badass
  • Bato
    • Super strong
    • Looks like JoJo character
    • Sennju brother
    • Looks like Silva from Shaman King
  • Anna
    • Literally from shaman king

Why it failed

• This panneling is lazy, there’s no energy to it
• This plot needs a lot of set up and I still don’t know how it’s interesting, we’re on page 20 with nothing having happened
• So much exposition
• This art has continuity issues like scars missing or switching sides
• Very lazy badguy writing
• Protags that want to not be heroes so much is kinda annoying
• A lot of this dialogue is just finger wagging
• The plot is so insanely bland they just wander and fight people
• It's just lame, like nothing is earned like his armor being upgraded

What it did well

• Art is…ok?
• It’s interesting learning about Buddhism kinda
• The art has a strong sense of energy to it I just wish the panneling wasn't so boring
• Starts getting more interesting towards the end at least compared to the beginning

Where it could have gone

• Honestly shaman king is this format fixed as it explains the weak plot
• Been cool if the different elements people were made of was like a type system with strengths and weaknesses
• Maybe the mc starts op and loses his power and has to learn to accept the loss of his powers while guiding the other mc as she gains hers
• I would’ve liked to have seen Sachi start to develop her own powers early on.

Misc Thoughts

• Is this propaganda?
• Is the lack of moral ambiguity a good or bad thing?
• Why do the 7 gods of happiness correspond to the Christian 7 deadly sins? I can buy that the usage of hell might’ve been some kind of translation thing but no that is not a mistake.
• Why do Ashura’s extra heads look like Warsman?
• Shamain't king
• Maxy Bee thoughts:
  • One fan-translation out there is pure classic online manga. Translated from French, wonkily handled, and distributed via IRC. I feel nostalgic.
  • The gangsters he’s with are the Mignola clan, named after the Hellboy creator, and their leader, Mike Mignola.
    • Oh my fucking god
  • This series really shows you everything that Takei’s career is about (except the Mini 4WD thing). Spirituality, karma, reincarnation, handguns, industrial machine, itakos called Anna, even the puppetry of the various armours could relate to the artificiality of the Karakuri Douji in Ultimo.
  • Warsman, of Kinnikuman fame, is on the back of Ashura, as his two other faces. Ironic, as Ashuraman is a whole different character in Kinnikuman.
  • Senju on the roof in chapter 8 resembles a recurring leitmotif in Takei’s Shaman King work, of characters sitting in a graveyard looking at the stars.
  • Why yes, Bato is a thinly-disguised Antonio Banderas in Desperado.
  • In chapter 12 there’s a delinquent in a jacket with a massive collar, a skull belt buckle and massive chains, and a suspicious pattern shaved into his hair. It’s fucking Spawn. Todd MacFarlane’s Spawn.
  • Anna in this series is kind of a predecessor to Anna in Shaman King, both as a character and also kind of literally when she’s reintroduced in Shaman King THE SUPER STAR.
  • The sword she has, Harusame, is later the sword of Amidamaru in Shaman King.
  • The grandmother is Yoh’s Grandmother in Shaman King.
  • Sachi, our little girl protagonist, lives on as Sati, leader of one of the three great factions in Shaman King.

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary
  • Community
    • Tucker: Sacred shell with mundane dirt interior
    • Maxybee: Bodhisattva? Why, I hardly knew her!
    • Portal man: being Buddhist, gives me mech suit! | Do all Gods have power armor?
    • The Laughing Fool: Buddha is not Dead, just robotic
    • Lord Anubis: Takei didn't die, he just reincarnated | Shaman King's still SJ to me
    • duderocks the earthchild stan: I’m Glad Anna will get reincarnated
    • GenericMan: The secret prequel with more mecha
    • Meru (Charly): Uh? Shaman king had a spin-off? | Glad Takei isn't grinding jump anymore
    • 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕸𝕱 𝖄𝖊𝖙𝖎: Bionic battling buddhas baffle and bore
    • Sandmandf: "Chainsaw man is an overrated manga"
  • David: become one with a nothing plot
  • Jordan: hey it’s Anna from Shaman King!
• Flop or not
  • Ye this a flop
• Is this the best/worst series we’ve talked about