ST&RS: Research Notes

Tucker

Title:

• (it’s just pronounced “Stars.” The ampersand in the title is purely aesthetic and is not spoken)

Author

• Take’uchi, Ryousuke 竹内 良輔（たけうち りょうすけ)Tah-keh-ɯ-chee, Ryow-s’kay
  

Characters

• Shirafune, Maho 白舟 真帆（しらふね まほ）
  Shee-rah-fɯ-neh, Mah-hoFamily name means “white ship” (obvious spaceship reference)
  Personal name means “pitch-black sail”
  
• Amachi, Wataru 宙地 渡（あまち わたる）
  Ah-mah-chee, Wah-tah-rɯFamily name written as “space-earth,” personal name means “to ferry across”
  
• Hoshihara, Meguru 星原 めぐる（ほしはら めぐる）
  Ho-shee-hah-rah, Meh-gɯ-rɯFamily name means “star-field,” and personal name means “to go/orbit around”
  
• Usubaru, Kei’ichirou 宇州原 慶一郎（うすばる けいいちろう）
  Ɯ-sɯ-bah-rɯ, Kay-ee-chee-roeFamily name is written as “space rivers and fields”
  Personal name means “celebrated first boy/man”...extremely on the nose for the first Japanese astronaut on the moon
  
• Fukami Fitzgerald Arashi 深海・Fitzgerald・嵐（ふかみ・フィッツジェラルド・あらし）Fɯ-kah-mee, Fitzgerald, Ah-rah-shee
  “Fukami” means “deep ocean,” and “arashi” means “storm”
  
• Tsuchigami, Souta  土神 颯太（つちがみ そうた）Tsɯ-chee-gah-mee, sew-tah]\
  Wow, this is probably the first Japanese name not having to do with space. Family name means “earth god,” and personal name means “swift boy/man”
  
• Mikura, Izumi 御闇 いづみ（みくら いづみ）Family name means “honorable sound,” personal name means “spring/source”
  
• PeropunyanPay-ro-pɯ-nyahn
  

Other

• GoddardGo-dar

MaxyBee

Writer - Ryosuke Takeuchi

• Notable people they were an assistant for:
  • Kei Kawano (Yuuto, Grand Slam)
    • on Yuuto
  • Akira Akatsuki (Medaka Box, Shounen Shoujo)
    • on Contractor M&Y (credited in vol.2)
  • Kimiya Kaji (Meister)
    • as chief assistant (credited in Meister volumes)
  • Yusuke Murata (Eyeshield 21, One Punch Man)
    • on Eyeshield 21 (vol.20 onwards)
  • Mizuki Kawashita (Strawberry 100%)
    • Mentioned by Takeuchi in this tweet
  • Tohru Uchimizu (The Love and Creed of Sae Maki)
    • on Asklepios (credited in volumes)
• Notable people they had as assistants:
  • Unknown
• Other works:
  • All You Need Is Kill (2014, 2 vols, Weekly Young Jump) with Takeshi Obata on art.
    • Based on the light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. You may have seen the Hollywood film adaptation Edge of Tomorrow starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Or the exact same adaptation when it was called LIVE. DIE. REPEAT. It's Groundhog Day in alien-fighting form.
  • Moriarty the Patriot (2016-present, 19+ vols, Jump Square) with Hikaru Miyoshi on art.
    • What if Moriarty from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories was the protagonist. I've not read it, but it's pretty popular. Has an anime, stage plays, and a spin-off novel/manga series subtitled The Remains.

Artist - Masaru Miyokawa

• Notable people they were an assistant for:
  • Yusuke Murata (Eyeshield 21, One Punch Man)
    • on Eyeshield 21 (vol.26 onwards)
  • Kohei Horikoshi (My Hero Academia)
    • on Oumagadoki Zoo (credited in-volume)
• Notable people they had as assistants:
  • Yukinori Kawaguchi (Hoop Men, Tokyo Revengers: A Letter from Keisuke Baji spin-off)
    • on ST&RS (volume credits)
  • Teppei Fukushima (We Are Magical Boys)
    • on ST&RS (vol.5 credits)
• Other works:
  • My Capricorn Friend (2014, 1 vol, Shonen Jump Plus) story by Otsuichi
    • Adaptation of a novel. Matsuda is a student whose veranda attracts unbelievable items. He harbours Wakatsuki, a classmate who killed his bully, partially out of guilt for never helping Wakatsuki, but also because a newspaper clipping from the future blew onto his veranda reporting Wakatsuki’s suicide following the incident.  It’s an incredibly good read, highly recommended.
  • Murders at the House of Death (2018-2021, 4 vols, Shonen Jump Plus) written by Masahiro Imamura
    • Adaptation of a novel. Has a film. A mystery-solving university student gets caught up in a locked room murder mystery, WHILE ALSO BEING TRAPPED IN A HOUSE BY ZOMBIES FROM A NEARBY FESTIVAL.
• Publishing
  • Run Dates:
    • July 4th 2011 to April 16th 2012
  • Chapters/Volumes:
    • 39 chapters/5 vols
  • Series it replaced:
• Märchen Ōji Grimm by Kizuku Watanabe (2 vols, flop)
• Series that replaced it:
  • Koisome Momiji by Tsugiro Sakamoto and Tadahiro Miura (4 vols, flop) FLOP ELIGIBLE
    • Artist is the creator of Yuuna & the Haunted Hot Springs
• Series that started at the same time as it:
  • Harisugawa in Mirror World by Yasuhiro Kano (3 vols, flop. Episode 83)

Manga Itself / Misc thoughts

• YOU JUST SAY STARS. IT’S CALLED STARS.
• ST&RS is notable in how it fell from grace in the magazine. Editorial pushed it hard for its first 11 chapters, giving it really healthy placement in the magazine and colour pages, and then they just… gave up, and it spent the remaining 28 chapters dwelling in the basement.
• Remember your ST&RS, which definitely could not have been anything better than:
  • S: space agency for
  • T: transcendent
  • &: and
  • R: revolutionary technology of
  • S: spaceman
• Volume extras include (but are not limited to) character ‘applications’ to the academy, 4-panel gag strips, design sketches, in-universe reports and articles, and CREDITS PAGES!
• Vol.4 contains the one-shot FOO FIGHTER FUJI, a 2008 one-shot by artist Masaru Miyakawa. It’s available in English on scanlation sites, highly recommended if you wish Ichigoki’s Under Control was a bit more alien. The alien in it looks A LOT like the one from the end of ST&RS
• Vol.5 contains the one-shot “Shirafune-kun and his celestial girlfriend”, a 2010 one-shot by writer Ryosuke Takeuchi (on both story and art). Another sci-fi, and one that feels a little more connected to ST&RS. One assumes these two one-shots are included to show why the pair worked together on a sci-fi.
• Translation stuff:
  • The translation is imperfect. Some stuff is missed outright, or weird word choices are made. The planetarium in chapter one isn’t described as ‘spoiled’ by Maho, but ‘broken’. Because that’s how words work.
  • Marka’s introduction! She says she’s “licking Japanese”. It’s a gag! To be fluent is to be “perapera”. The action of licking is “peropero”. Did not translate well.
  • Chapter 15! Mikura says “please hell me along the way”, messing up saying ‘help’. In Japanese this is her saying “onegaiCHImasu” instead of “onegaishimasu”. I would have translated this as “cheesed to meet you” because I’m a monster.