Shadow Eliminators: Research Notes

Tucker

Title: Rui-rui Sen-ki  累々戦記

•  Roo-ee roo-ee sen-key

• The “senki” part means “war record/chronicle”

• “Rui” is written with the kanji for “accumulate,” but can also be used to refer to troubles/difficulties piling up. The repeater kanji 々 that makes it “rui-rui” gives it a sense of plurality or something that keeps happening

• So altogether, it means something like “Tale of the fight against that which is accumulating”...yeah, I can see why they didn’t even bother figuring out an English version of the original title

Author

• Amemiya, Kento 雨宮ケント

  • Ah-meh-mee-yah, Ken-toe

Characters

• Asakaze, Yayo’i

  • Ah-sah-kah-zeh, Yah-yo-ee

  • PLEASE don’t say “yeah yoy.” There is not “oi” sound in Japanese. It’s three syllables!

• Kuromori, A’oba

  • Kɯ-roe-moe-ree, Ah-oh-bah

  • Remember, personal name is three syllables! Ah-oh, not ow

• Fuyuno-sensei

  • Fɯ-yɯ-no
    
    
    —--post first chapter—--

• Watase, Akio

  • Wah-tah-say, Ah-kee-oh

• Hayakawa, Nana

  • Hah-yah-kah-wah, Nah-nah

  • Remember, every single vowel sound is exactly the same here (no “uh”s of course…not that that sound exists anywhere in Japanese)

• Narusawa, Natsumi 鳴沢夏実

  • Nah-rɯ-sah-wah, Nah-tsɯ-mee (or “knots-smee” due to whispered vowel)

Other

• Moribe City

  • Moe-ree-bay

• Kasane 重ね

  • Kah-sah-nay

  • Means something like “stacked up/heaped up”

• “Eliminators” (Hagashi-ya 剥し屋)

  • The Japanese term (hagashi) used has a sense of peeling something off. It’s the same word used to describe those day-by-day calendars you peel off (with or without Farside comics). Plays into the meaning of “kasane”

MaxyBee

Manga Details

• Kento Amemiya

  • Notable people they were an assistant for

    • None known

  • Notable people they had as assistants

    • None known

  • Other works

    • Kuroma -Divine Beast Keeper- (2019, 3 chapters, Jump GIGA)

      • Another one of those short GIGA minis they use to show off talent. I’ve not read it, but at least one major character in Shadow Eliminators began existence here (see trivia section)

• Publishing

  • Run Dates: 

    • December 4th, 2023 to April 22nd, 2024

  • Series it replaced

• Ice-Head Gil by Ikuo Hachiya (2 vols, flop, Shonen Flop episode 92)

• Series that replaced it

  •  Psych House by Omusuke Kobayashi (1+ vol, ongoing)

• Series that started at the same time as it

  • Green Green Greens by Kento Terasaka (of Beast Children fame) (3 vols, flop, Shonen Flop episode 112)

• Chapters/Volumes: 

  • 19 chapters/3 volumes

Manga Itself / Misc thoughts:

• Shadow Eliminators is a rarity in modern Weekly Shonen Jump, in that it was canceled and removed from the magazine before volume 1 even hit shelves!

  • In the afterword to volume 1 it's clear that Amemiya knew well in advance, and dedicates the space to being thankful for what they did achieve: they got serialised in Weekly Shonen Jump, received fan letters (saying they felt like those letters saved their life), and managed to get three whole volumes published. We look at these series as flops, but Amemiya is right, those are huge accomplishments!

  • In the time between writing this note and the episode coming out Psych House ALSO got canceled before vol.1 came out. 

• In volume 1 the author notes that this is a work of fiction and that you should always shut the school gates gently. Responsible!

• Amemiya is a fan of Tezuka’s star system, and says not to be surprised if some character designs resurface in future work.

• Kuromori’s design is based on the Kamen Rider characters Yusuke Godai and Hibiki.

• Grandma Aine Hachiyo has ‘seen the era name change 4 times in her lifetime’, meaning that at a bare minimum she is over 112 years old, as she would have to have been born in the Meiji era.

• Togami, the ventriloquist girl, first appeared in Amemiya’s short series ‘Kuroma -Divine Beast Keeper-.

  • Her profile page also refers to her as the ‘mysterious Big Baby Girl’, which made me laugh.

• Volume extras include:

  • Inter-chapter doodles

  • Character profiles

  • Afterwords (the author has quite nice handwriting)

  • Pre-serialisation character designs

  • Assorted pages for explaining story concepts and design choices.

  • A guide on how to make Togami’s paper bag puppet.

  • A small epilogue comic (3 pages).

  • The one-shots that became Shadow Eliminators:

    • Shikigami (vol.2)

    • Shadow Eliminators(vol.3)