Appare Jipangu!
Encyclopedia
is a manga
by Yuu Watase
. Set in Japan
during the Edo period
, it follows the life of Yusura, who as a baby, was found under a cherry tree with the "Kongoumaru" (a staff that turns blue when people are sad) by her side. Now fifteen years later, Yusura has become the "hikeshiya" (or "extinguisher of sorrow") and uses the Kongoumaru to 'absorb' people's sadness and hit it back at the people that caused it.
Compared to Watase's other works, Appare Jipangu! is considerably more light-hearted, with less sappy dialogues. Watase herself has stated that she wishes to make the manga 'even more wacko!' Watase also said that there is "no normal character in this series."
The romance between the two main characters, Yusura and Samon does not follow a typical shōjo manga pattern and resembles more of a shōnen
style, where love slowly blossoms, but is never prominent and maybe the subtle base of the story.
Kazanosuke
Yasura's Dad
Oteru
can talk to her fans about his/her daily life or things relating to the manga or promoting other works.) She said that the reason why there is such a big difference between the two manga's art is because Ayashi no Ceres is more "Dark and serious," so she gave it a more realistic art style. Appare is drawn with a more typical wide-eyed shōjo
look.
This manga had an unusual publishing schedule. In a shōjo manga magazine, there is a restricted number of pages that manga artist can only draw in (16 for weekly shōnen manga and 32-34 for typical monthly shōjo manga). Appare was licensed by Flower Comics
, but never ran in the magazine. Instead it was independent and immediately went out to the public in volumes. Watase stated that she did not want to go with the deadlines for the magazine because it was such a light-hearted story that she wanted to go at her own pace. As a result, there were huge gaps between volume publications.
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
by Yuu Watase
Yuu Watase
is a female Japanese shōjo manga artist. She received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo for Ceres, Celestial Legend in 1997. Since writing her debut short story "Pajama de Ojama" , Watase has created more than 80 compiled volumes of short stories and continuing series...
. Set in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
during the Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
, it follows the life of Yusura, who as a baby, was found under a cherry tree with the "Kongoumaru" (a staff that turns blue when people are sad) by her side. Now fifteen years later, Yusura has become the "hikeshiya" (or "extinguisher of sorrow") and uses the Kongoumaru to 'absorb' people's sadness and hit it back at the people that caused it.
Compared to Watase's other works, Appare Jipangu! is considerably more light-hearted, with less sappy dialogues. Watase herself has stated that she wishes to make the manga 'even more wacko!' Watase also said that there is "no normal character in this series."
The romance between the two main characters, Yusura and Samon does not follow a typical shōjo manga pattern and resembles more of a shōnen
Shonen
The term refers to manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 10 and up. The Kanji characters literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters generally mean "comic"...
style, where love slowly blossoms, but is never prominent and maybe the subtle base of the story.
Characters
- As a child was abandoned by her birth-parents and found under a cherry treeCherry TreeCherry Tree may refer to:* A tree that produces cherries* An ornamental cherry tree that produces cherry blossomsPlaces* Cherry Tree, Pennsylvania, a borough in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, United States* Cherry Tree, Oklahoma...
. Now the "hikeshiya", she goes around healing people's sadness with her Kongoumaru (金剛丸). Although she loves her adoptive parents, Yusura is still trying to find her birth-parents. - Hot-headed and tomboyTomboyA tomboy is a girl who exhibits characteristics or behaviors considered typical of the gender role of a boy, including the wearing of typically masculine-oriented clothes and engaging in games and activities that are often physical in nature, and which are considered in many cultures to be the...
-ish, she dresses like a boy and the inability of new characters to identify her gender serves as a running joke through the series. Later she falls in love with Samon. She is 15 years old. Kongomaru was her staff.
- A member of the royal family, he is the son of the DaimyoDaimyois a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
. However, his mother was a prostitute and the Daimyo was not too happy to learn of his existence. Yusura met him after saving him from some assassinAssassinationTo carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
s. - Samon is practically blind and has difficulty seeing without his glasses, often mistaking other objects for Yusura. Then later he falls for Yusura.
- He's Yusura's very funny foster brother who always teases her, and he helps her with all the sadness business. Then he came along on her journey to find her real parents. He also likes to play with skeleton puppets that scare people.
Kazanosuke
- A ninjaNinjaA or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...
whose special power is a bubble attack. After meeting Yusura and her gang, he is hired by Samon to become his bodyguardBodyguardA bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...
. However he is quite fond on hiding in Yusura's shadow instead. A Cola Ninja from the village of Coca. It is hinted that he loves Yusura.
Yasura's Dad
- Loves to invent random things. Much of the time they are more of a hindrance than a help but all are amusing. He is a pharmacist.
Oteru
- One of Samon's servants'.
Publication
Surprisingly, this manga was made around the time of one of her most popular works, Ayashi no Ceres. In one of her "free talk pages," (where the manga artistMangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
can talk to her fans about his/her daily life or things relating to the manga or promoting other works.) She said that the reason why there is such a big difference between the two manga's art is because Ayashi no Ceres is more "Dark and serious," so she gave it a more realistic art style. Appare is drawn with a more typical wide-eyed shōjo
Shojo
The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...
look.
This manga had an unusual publishing schedule. In a shōjo manga magazine, there is a restricted number of pages that manga artist can only draw in (16 for weekly shōnen manga and 32-34 for typical monthly shōjo manga). Appare was licensed by Flower Comics
Flower Comics
is an imprint label for bound volumes of shōjo manga and lady's comics published by Shougakukan in Japan. They are usually released around the 26th of each month...
, but never ran in the magazine. Instead it was independent and immediately went out to the public in volumes. Watase stated that she did not want to go with the deadlines for the magazine because it was such a light-hearted story that she wanted to go at her own pace. As a result, there were huge gaps between volume publications.