Tonari no 801-chan
Encyclopedia
is a Japan
ese four-panel
Internet
manga
written and illustrated by Ajiko Kojima. The story centers on the relationship between a male otaku
named Tibet and his yaoi
-obsessed fujoshi
girlfriend Yaoi whose obsession manifests itself as a small, green furry monster. Kojima originally started the manga on April 18, 2006 on his blog
, and Ohzora Publishing released the first bound volume
in December 2006; as of July 2008, three volumes have been published. By June 2007, the first volume had sold 150,000 copies. The manga began serialization from the first chapter in Ohzora's Romance Tiara magazine in April 2009.
A shōjo manga re-imagining of the series entitled Tonari no 801-chan: Fujoshiteki Kōkō Seikatsu written and illustrated by Jin started serialization in Kodansha
's Bessatsu Friend
on November 28, 2007. A spin-off manga series written and illustrated by Jun Minamikata called 801-shiki Chūgakusei Nikki: Tonari no Hina-chan started serialization in Romance Tiara in April 2009. A live action
DVD
-only film was produced in September 2007, and a drama CD
was released in April 2008, and another followed in October 2008. An anime
adaptation by Kyoto Animation
was announced to air in Japan in 2009, but was unexpectedly canceled.
of the Misono Bridge 801 shopping center in northern Kyoto
, Japan
. The mascot, resembling Kyoto's well-known Kamo
eggplant, was designed in late 2005 by a student at Kyoto Seika University. The shopping center itself was named for its 800-meter length, adding one to represent future expansion. Since the numbers 8-0-1 can be read in Japanese
as ya-o-i (yaoi
), the mascot soon became an Internet phenomenon. This brought the mascot to the attention of Ajiko Kojima, a Japanese blog
ger who took the mascot and slightly altered its appearance, using it as a basis for use his new webcomic
Tonari no 801-chan in April 2006.
by , otherwise known as , a twenty-eight-year-old company employee and boyfriend to Yaoi, otherwise known as . Yaoi, who also works in a company, is a twenty-two-year-old fujoshi
, a female otaku
who is a fan of anime
and manga
series featuring yaoi
, or romantic relationships between men. Tibet, who is an otaku himself, initially met Yaoi over the Internet. When she obsesses over yaoi, a small green furry monster comes out of a zipper from her back as the manifestation of her obsession.
In Tonari no 801-chan: Fujoshiteki Kōkō Seikatsu, the story begins with the junior-high school student , a fujoshi who does not especially have an interest in the 3D
aspect of life. One rainy day, however, she takes an interest in a high school student named and wants to get into the same high school as him. To that end, she enlists the help of her childhood friend who helps her study for the entrance examination, and diet
so as to become a cuter girl. All goes according to plan, until a scheming girl going to the same school named makes it harder for Rei to get closer to Kei.
Internet
manga
series written and illustrated by Ajiko Kojima which he started on his blog
on April 18, 2006. Ohzora Publishing released the first bound volume
of the manga on December 14, 2006 under their Next comics imprint
, and as of July 17, 2008, three volumes have been published. Included in the volumes are additional manga strips not featured on his blog. The first two volumes have sold over 320,000 copies in Japan. The manga began serialization from the first chapter in Ohzora's josei manga magazine Romance Tiara on April 11, 2009.
A shōjo
manga re-imagining of the series entitled written and illustrated by Jin started serialization in Kodansha
's shōjo manga magazine Bessatsu Friend
on November 28, 2007. The first volume was released on March 13, 2008, and the second followed on July 11, 2008; the volumes are published under Kodansha's KC Deluxe imprint.
A spin-off
manga series entitled written and illustrated by Jun Minamikata started serialization in Romance Tiara on April 11, 2009.
straight-to-DVD
sixty-minute film directed by Kōtarō Terauchi was produced on September 5, 2007. The film stars Sō Hirosawa as Yaoi, and Koji Seto
as Tibet, and also features Kotaro Yanagi playing a role. Ajiko Kojima, the original manga author, has a small cameo appearance
in the film.
based on the original manga was released by Marine Entertainment in Japan on April 23, 2008, and the first-print version of the CD came bundled with a mini hand towel
. Another drama CD was released by Marine Entertainment on October 22, 2008, and the first-print version came bundled with a mousepad
sticker, and an extra track featuring a group talk of the drama cast.
adaptation of the original manga was planned to be produced by Kyoto Animation
and broadcast on TBS
to begin airing in Japan in 2009, but was unexpectedly canceled. However, a 90-second "opening anime" called was produced by A-1 Pictures
and directed by Yutaka Yamamoto
; it was bundled with the fourth volume of the original web manga released on September 10, 2009.
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...
ese four-panel
Yonkoma
thumb|right|150px|Traditional Yonkoma layout, a comic-strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom...
Internet
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
manga
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...
written and illustrated by Ajiko Kojima. The story centers on the relationship between a male otaku
Otaku
is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga or video games.- Etymology :Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another's house or family , which is also used as an honorific second-person pronoun...
named Tibet and his yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...
-obsessed fujoshi
Fujoshi
Yaoi fandom refers to readers of yaoi , a genre of male-male romance narratives aimed at a female audience, and more specifically those who participate in communal activities organized around yaoi, such as attending conventions, maintaining or posting to fansites, creating fanfiction or fanart,...
girlfriend Yaoi whose obsession manifests itself as a small, green furry monster. Kojima originally started the manga on April 18, 2006 on his blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, and Ohzora Publishing released the first bound volume
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
in December 2006; as of July 2008, three volumes have been published. By June 2007, the first volume had sold 150,000 copies. The manga began serialization from the first chapter in Ohzora's Romance Tiara magazine in April 2009.
A shōjo manga re-imagining of the series entitled Tonari no 801-chan: Fujoshiteki Kōkō Seikatsu written and illustrated by Jin started serialization in Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
's Bessatsu Friend
Bessatsu Friend
is a Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Kodansha, aimed at teenage girls. It was originally conceived as a bessatsu, or companion magazine, to Shōjo Friend, which is no longer published...
on November 28, 2007. A spin-off manga series written and illustrated by Jun Minamikata called 801-shiki Chūgakusei Nikki: Tonari no Hina-chan started serialization in Romance Tiara in April 2009. A live action
Live action
In filmmaking, video production, and other media, the term live action refers to cinematography, videography not produced using animation...
DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
-only film was produced in September 2007, and a drama CD
Radio drama in Japan
Radio drama in Japan has a history as long as that of radio broadcasting in that country, which began in 1925. Some consider the first Japanese radio drama to have been "" which was a radio broadcast of a stage play. Others consider the Japanese translation of Richard Hughes's "Danger" or to be...
was released in April 2008, and another followed in October 2008. An anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
adaptation by Kyoto Animation
Kyoto Animation
, abbreviated , is a Japanese animation studio located in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It was established in 1981, became a limited company in 1985 and then became a corporation in 1999. Presided by Hideaki Hatta, the company is affiliated with noted studio Sunrise and is also parent to the studio...
was announced to air in Japan in 2009, but was unexpectedly canceled.
Origin
The green monster featured in Tonari no 801-chan has its origins in , the real-life mascotMascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
of the Misono Bridge 801 shopping center in northern Kyoto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
, 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...
. The mascot, resembling Kyoto's well-known Kamo
Kamo, Kyoto
was a town located in Sōraku District, Kyoto, Japan.As of February 1, 2007, the town had an estimated population of 15,907 and a density of 430.27 persons per km²...
eggplant, was designed in late 2005 by a student at Kyoto Seika University. The shopping center itself was named for its 800-meter length, adding one to represent future expansion. Since the numbers 8-0-1 can be read in Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
as ya-o-i (yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...
), the mascot soon became an Internet phenomenon. This brought the mascot to the attention of Ajiko Kojima, a Japanese blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger who took the mascot and slightly altered its appearance, using it as a basis for use his new webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
Tonari no 801-chan in April 2006.
Plot and characters
Tonari no 801-chan is narratedNarrator
A narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...
by , otherwise known as , a twenty-eight-year-old company employee and boyfriend to Yaoi, otherwise known as . Yaoi, who also works in a company, is a twenty-two-year-old fujoshi
Fujoshi
Yaoi fandom refers to readers of yaoi , a genre of male-male romance narratives aimed at a female audience, and more specifically those who participate in communal activities organized around yaoi, such as attending conventions, maintaining or posting to fansites, creating fanfiction or fanart,...
, a female otaku
Otaku
is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga or video games.- Etymology :Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another's house or family , which is also used as an honorific second-person pronoun...
who is a fan of anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
and manga
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...
series featuring yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...
, or romantic relationships between men. Tibet, who is an otaku himself, initially met Yaoi over the Internet. When she obsesses over yaoi, a small green furry monster comes out of a zipper from her back as the manifestation of her obsession.
In Tonari no 801-chan: Fujoshiteki Kōkō Seikatsu, the story begins with the junior-high school student , a fujoshi who does not especially have an interest in the 3D
Three-dimensional space
Three-dimensional space is a geometric 3-parameters model of the physical universe in which we live. These three dimensions are commonly called length, width, and depth , although any three directions can be chosen, provided that they do not lie in the same plane.In physics and mathematics, a...
aspect of life. One rainy day, however, she takes an interest in a high school student named and wants to get into the same high school as him. To that end, she enlists the help of her childhood friend who helps her study for the entrance examination, and diet
Dieting
Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated fashion to achieve or maintain a controlled weight. In most cases dieting is used in combination with physical exercise to lose weight in those who are overweight or obese. Some athletes, however, follow a diet to gain weight...
so as to become a cuter girl. All goes according to plan, until a scheming girl going to the same school named makes it harder for Rei to get closer to Kei.
Manga
Tonari no 801-chan began as a four-panelYonkoma
thumb|right|150px|Traditional Yonkoma layout, a comic-strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom...
Internet
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
manga
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...
series written and illustrated by Ajiko Kojima which he started on his blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
on April 18, 2006. Ohzora Publishing released the first bound volume
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
of the manga on December 14, 2006 under their Next comics imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
, and as of July 17, 2008, three volumes have been published. Included in the volumes are additional manga strips not featured on his blog. The first two volumes have sold over 320,000 copies in Japan. The manga began serialization from the first chapter in Ohzora's josei manga magazine Romance Tiara on April 11, 2009.
A 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...
manga re-imagining of the series entitled written and illustrated by Jin started serialization in Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
's shōjo manga magazine Bessatsu Friend
Bessatsu Friend
is a Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Kodansha, aimed at teenage girls. It was originally conceived as a bessatsu, or companion magazine, to Shōjo Friend, which is no longer published...
on November 28, 2007. The first volume was released on March 13, 2008, and the second followed on July 11, 2008; the volumes are published under Kodansha's KC Deluxe imprint.
A spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
manga series entitled written and illustrated by Jun Minamikata started serialization in Romance Tiara on April 11, 2009.
Film
A live actionLive action
In filmmaking, video production, and other media, the term live action refers to cinematography, videography not produced using animation...
straight-to-DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
sixty-minute film directed by Kōtarō Terauchi was produced on September 5, 2007. The film stars Sō Hirosawa as Yaoi, and Koji Seto
Koji Seto
is a Japanese actor and singer. His major works include lead roles as Wataru Kurenai in Kamen Rider Kiva and Hiro in Koizora; and supporting roles as Satoru Okura in Atashinchi no Danshi, Ariake Yamato in Otomen, and Eiji Kikumaru in Tenimyu...
as Tibet, and also features Kotaro Yanagi playing a role. Ajiko Kojima, the original manga author, has a small cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
in the film.
Drama CDs
A drama CDRadio drama in Japan
Radio drama in Japan has a history as long as that of radio broadcasting in that country, which began in 1925. Some consider the first Japanese radio drama to have been "" which was a radio broadcast of a stage play. Others consider the Japanese translation of Richard Hughes's "Danger" or to be...
based on the original manga was released by Marine Entertainment in Japan on April 23, 2008, and the first-print version of the CD came bundled with a mini hand towel
Towel
A towel is a piece of absorbent fabric or paper used for drying or wiping. It draws moisture through direct contact, often using a blotting or a rubbing motion. Common household textile towels are made from cotton, rayon, bamboo, nonwoven fibers or a few other materials.-Types of towels:* A bath...
. Another drama CD was released by Marine Entertainment on October 22, 2008, and the first-print version came bundled with a mousepad
Mousepad
A mousepad or mouse mat is a surface for enhancing the usability of a computer mouse.-History:During a 1968 presentation by Douglas Engelbart marking the public debut of a mouse,...
sticker, and an extra track featuring a group talk of the drama cast.
Anime
An animeAnime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
adaptation of the original manga was planned to be produced by Kyoto Animation
Kyoto Animation
, abbreviated , is a Japanese animation studio located in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It was established in 1981, became a limited company in 1985 and then became a corporation in 1999. Presided by Hideaki Hatta, the company is affiliated with noted studio Sunrise and is also parent to the studio...
and broadcast on TBS
Tokyo Broadcasting System
, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
to begin airing in Japan in 2009, but was unexpectedly canceled. However, a 90-second "opening anime" called was produced by A-1 Pictures
A-1 Pictures
is a Japanese animation studio, a subsidiary of Sony's anime production firm Aniplex.-History:The studio was established by Sony's animation production division, Aniplex, on May 9, 2005, to animate its anime series and productions. In 2006, it co-produced the original production Zenmai Zamurai,...
and directed by Yutaka Yamamoto
Yutaka Yamamoto
is a Japanese anime director from Osaka. He is the founder of the Ordet animation studio, and is formerly of Kyoto Animation.-Personal history:Originally a member of Kyoto Animation, Yamamoto rose to prominence within the company after serving as assistant director on Munto 2: Beyond the Walls of...
; it was bundled with the fourth volume of the original web manga released on September 10, 2009.
External links
- Ajiko Kojima's blog
- Tonari no 801-chan at Ohzora Publishing