Muddy: Research Notes

Tucker

Title: 

•  MUDDY

  • It’s just the English word. 

Author

• Aimoto, Shou 藍本 松（あいもと しょう)

  • Eye-moe-toe, Show

Characters

• Muddy マディ

  • It’s also the Japanese pronunciation of the name “Maddie,” which makes it sound a bit more like a realistic name in Japanese

• Clay クレイ

• Kugane クガネ

  • Kɯ-gah-neh

  • A play on the word for money/gold/metal, “kane.” The ka—>ga sound change is very common when used in a compound word (compare to “shirogane.” meaning platinum/white gold)

• Kogane コガネ

  • Koh-gah-neh

  • Another play on words; “ko” means child and is used as a prefix when talking about the baby form of animals (puppy: “ko-inu;” kitten: “ko-neko”). So his name basically means “money pup” or “money kid.”

• Suzu スズ

  • Sɯ-zɯ

• Maju

  • Mah-jɯ

• Adamas アダマス

  • Ah-dah-moss

Seems to be a reference to Greek mythology (a character in the Iliad whose name means “unconquerable”)

MaxyBee

Manga Details

• Sho Aimoto

  • Notable people they were an assistant for

    • Akira Amano (eidLive, Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective)

      • on Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (noted in vol.1 of Muddy)

    • Tite Kubo (ZOMBIEPOWDER.)

      • on Bleach (noted in final chapter of Bleach)

  • Notable people they had as assistants

    • Keisuke Gotou (One Operation Joker)

      • on Kemono Jihen

    • Yoru Asahi (Gal and Bocchi)

      • on Kemono Jihen

    • Mafuyu Konishi (I Was Born The Wrong Sex!)

      • on Kemono Jihen

  • Other works

    • Hokenshitsu no Shinigami (2009-2011, 10 vols, Weekly Shonen Jump)

      • A semi-successful sophomore effort a year and a half after Muddy’s failure, following Hades Itsuhito, a creepy-looking school nurse who aids his students by devouring the ‘disease demons’ that afflict them. Like Hell Teacher Nube for a new age.

    • Kemono Jihen (2016-present, 21+ vols, Jump Square)

      • Aimoto’s big hit. A young half-ghoul boy is taken in by a tanuki detective, and quickly becomes entrenched in a growing conflict between those who wish to keep their supernatural identities hidden and those who instead wish to rule over humans and monster alike. 

        • Anime available now on Crunchyroll. 

        • Manga available now from Seven Seas. 

    • Fujiko's Bizarre Worldly Wisdom -Whitesnake's Miscalculation- (2021, one-shot, Ultra Jump)

      • In 2021 Aimoto got the rare opportunity to draw an official JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure story and fucking RAN WITH IT, telling a story set in Part 6, where Jolyne has a sexy and, yes, bizarre encounter with an erotic artist. It is one of only two JoJo stories not drawn by Araki, along with Shining Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak.

        • [Just want to note that Aimoto received death threats and nasty messages from various users of Twitter over the erotic content of the one-shot. Dogshit website for twats - Maxy]

• Publishing

  • Magazine (schedule):

    • Weekly Shonen Jump (weekly)

  • Run Dates: 

    • December 17, 2007 to March 17, 2008

  • Series it replaced

• Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi (hiatus) (37 vols, MEGA HIT)

• Series that replaced it

  •  Double Arts by Naoshi Komi (3 vols, flop, Shonen Flop episode 23)

• Series that started at the same time as it

  • Psyren by Toshiaki Iwashiro (16 vols, cult success)

  • K.O. Sen by Katsutoshi Murase (2 vols, flop)

  • Shiritsu Poseidon Gakuen Kotobu by Shinichiro Oe (2 vols, flop)

• Chapters/Volumes: 

  • 12 chapters/2 volumes

Manga Itself / Misc thoughts

• Muddy had two one-shots, both included in the volume release. The first was from Jump the REVOLUTION in 2006, a spin-off magazine for newcomers. The second was (drum roll) A GOLDEN FUTURE CUP ENTRY! It didn’t win, losing against the one-shot for Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, but as is often the case, beat the winner to serialisation by a couple of months. 

• Bullet Train Anderson is reminiscent of classic children’s entertainment like Thomas the Tank Engine, Budgie the Helicopter, and Mater the Tow-Truck. It’s likeliest to be based off of Thomas, who has a large presence there and specific attractions like Thomas Town in Shinmisato.

  • Also like… Thomas. Anderson. Get it? Mr. Anderson? The Matrix is real.

• Muddy as a name might seem a bit laboured compared to ‘Clay’, but keep in mind that in Japanese it’s written as ‘マディ’, which is more like Maddie, from Madeline. It’s a soundalike, somewhat lost when the character’s name (and the series) is romanised as MUDDY. It’s like a lost pun.

• I PROMISE you that the art looks way better in the volumes. Scanlators really used to burn the crap out of low quality raws to make the blacks blacker and it really ruins everything about the art.

  • And I promise the Japanese version doesn’t say the R word all the time either…

• Volume extras include:

  • Little interstitial comics

  • A doodle of Muddy

  • A drawing of Muddy and Clay wearing “Shinkansen Anderson” tees designed by a reader.

  • Both one-shots of Muddy preceding the serialisation (curiously the later one is in vol.1, the earlier one in vol.2)

  • Assistant credits!