Butsu Zone: Research Notes

Tucker

Title:

• Butsu Zone 仏ゾーン
  • “Bɯ-tsɯ Zone”
  • “Butsu” is the reading the kanji 仏 (Buddha/Buddhism) gets when it is used in compound words (This is more technically known as an on’yomi reading, which means it comes from heavily-modified Chinese rather than native Japanese)
  • In case you’re wondering, the standalone word for the Buddha (aka Siddhartha Gautama aka Siddhartha Buddha) in Japanese is “Hotoke”
  • The title is a pun on the word “butsuzou”, meaning “statue of Buddha.” Just add a n sound to the end, and it becomes “Butsu Zone”
  • 
    

Author

• Takei, Hiroyuki 武井 宏之
  • Tah-kay, Hee-roe-yɯ-kee

Characters

• Bodhisattva Kannon
  • Bodhisattva is a Sanskrit word and features a voiced aspirated consonant, a type of sound that does not exist in English! See notes on Sanskrit below for more info!
  • “Bo-dʱee-saht-vah” + “Kahn-noan”
  • A Bodhisattva is someone who is on the path to enlightenment and is destined to eventually achieve the status of Buddha in a future reincarnation
• Senju センジュ
  • Sen-jɯ
• Saigan, Sachi 西岸サチ
  • “Sigh-gone, Sah-chee”
• Nyorai
  • Nyo (as in “jalapeño”) + rye (as in the type of grain)
• Mirokou
  • Mee-ro-koh
• Mike Mino’ura マイク箕浦
  • Mike (just the English name), Mee-no-ɯ-rah
  • The “u” is the start of a new syllable, btw
• Batoukannon
  • Bah-toe-kahn-noan
• Mara
  • Mah-rah
  • Weird how he doesn’t look like a penis on a chariot
• Niou 仁王
  • Sounds just like how we say “neo,” but with the “oh” sound being two beats of rhythm
  • This is the namesake of the Team Ninja game (spelled in English as “Nioh”)
  • Fun fact: the appearances of these statues is a cultural adaptation of Hellenistic statues of Hercules that made their way east. Many of the very earliest Buddhists were Bactrian Greeks (Greeks living in one of Alexander the Great’s successor states in Asia), and many depictions of the Buddha contain this Classical Greek influence.
• Ungyou 吽形
  • Ɯn-gyoh
  • Literally just means “‘un’-form”
• Agyou 阿形
  • Ah-gyoh
  • Means “‘ah’-form”
• Koma
  • Koh-mah
• Ashura
  • Ah-shɯ-rah

Other

• Jizou
  • Jee-zoh
  • Little statues of the Buddha you see everywhere in Japan. They are said to be the protectors of small children and travelers.
  • One of these statues features prominently in Jojo Part 8
• Shakyamuni
  • Shah-kyah-mɯ-knee
  • This is another Japanese name for the Buddha (Siddharta Gautama)

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Reference Notes for Sanskrit in General:

WORK IN PROGRESS

• What is/was Sanskrit?
  • Sanskrit is a “dead” (no little kids learning organically it from their parents) language that is part of the Indo-European language family, which means that it is a very distant cousin of English and many other languages spoken by a majority of people on earth (Spanish, French, German, Farsi, Hindi, Urdu, Yiddish, Nepalese, etc. etc.).
  • Sanskrit is the liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Though nobody speaks it today as a native language, Sanskrit is still studied intensely, and the total number of existing Sanskrit documents vastly dwarves the number of documents in Ancient Greek and Ancient Latin combined. Sanskrit writing and inscriptions have been found as far west as Kazakhstan, as far east as Japan, and as far south as Indonesia.
  • Besides being inextricably linked with Eastern religion and philosophy, Sanskrit is also very important to language nerds and the history of Western Culture in general.

The British colonization of India was bullshit and fucked up in so many ways, of course, but it also led to probably the single most important discovery in the formation of the modern field of linguistics (and by extension, psychology, anthropology, computer logic and programming, etc.). A British magistrate in India at the end of the 1700s who had previously studied classical European languages became obsessed with Sanskrit, and noticed weird similarities between it, Greek, and Latin. He eventually concluded that all three once were the same language, and that this language slowly changed and split apart in stages over a long period of time in ways that can be systematically described.
This shattered previous European philosophical and scientific consensus that everyone in the world once spoke Hebrew, then the Tower of Babel happened, and Hebrew instantly became all the other languages spoken in the world…because that’s what the Bible said. So we have Sanskrit to thank for helping free Western philosophy and science from the confines of Judeo-Christian fundamentalism. Thanks, Sanskrit!

• What is Aspiration?
  • Aspiration is like a little additional puff of air that comes out of your mouth between a consonant and a vowel. It’s a bonus /h/, if you will
  • Does this seem like a hard sound to pull off? Well, if you’re a native English speaker, you’re kind of already an expert. In most dialects of English, many of our plosive consonants are automatically aspirated. In fact, learning how we English-speakers subconsciously add aspiration to our consonants is crucial in learning how to stop ourselves from automatically aspirating them.
  • English is, as far as I know, the only(?) major(?) language that has this system of subconsciously adding aspiration to all unvoiced (vocal cords not vibrating) plosive consonants (consonants that involve a momentary full stoppage of airflow from the mouth) in the world. If you keep doing this when you’re trying to speak a different language, you’ll always come off as having a strong English-speaking accent, and sometimes you’ll even be saying the wrong word!
  • While English features aspiration as a subconscious addition to certain classes of sounds in order to serve as a further auditory distinction between voiced and unvoiced plosives, many other languages feature aspiration at a conscious level and consider an aspirated consonant and its unaspirated counterpart to be completely different sounds that can serve as the only difference between one word and another. Sanskrit is one of those languages!
• Voiced Aspirated Plosives
  • In English, we only apply aspiration to unvoiced consonants that appear at the beginning of a word or a stressed syllable. We do not do this consciously, but many layers of subconscious processing are performed in our brains before we say anything, and this automatic addition of aspiration to sounds that satisfy certain criteria is just one of these processes. We are never directly taught to do this, but this rule, which works systematically like a line of programming code in our noggins, is acquired naturally when we are learning to speak as small children.
  • Many languages have no aspiration at all (such as Japanese, Spanish, French, German…), while other languages can distinguish between aspirated and unaspirated versions of  voiceless or voiced consonants…Sanskrit is the latter!

MaxyBee

Author - Hiroyuki Takei

• Prior works:
  • This is Hiroyuki Takei’s first serialisation, but he did create some one-shots between 1994 and his debut here in 1997. These three are collected within the original three volume release of Butsu Zone:
    • Butsu Zone (in vol.1)
    • Death Zero (in vol.2)
    • Anna the Itako (in vol.3)
      • Takei wastes no work. All of these one shots, and Butsu Zone itself, find themselves living on in the continuing Shaman King franchise.
• Later works:
  • The Shaman King Franchise, presently consisting of:
    • Shaman King (1998-2004, [depends who you ask] vols, Weekly Shonen Jump)
      • The big kahuna, the ultimate multi-spiritual ultra-pacifist guide to life. Cancelled under some controversy as an unfinished work at 32 vols, rereleased with a ‘true ending’ years later in the Kang Zeng Bang editions at 27 extra-large vols, rereleased as 16 JUMP REMIX vols, then reclaimed by Takei and current publisher Kodansha, and then rereleased AGAIN at a standard size at 35 vols (or in print in the west as omnibus vols for a less intimidating 12 vols). That reclamation is why you won’t really see Shueisha/Jump celebrating this during anniversaries or the like, despite how big it was. A sore point for the publisher. Has two anime adaptations a la Fullmetal Alchemist.
    • Shaman King 0 (2011-2014, 2 vols, Jump X (read as Jump Kai))
      • A series of one-shots serving as prequel material to Shaman King, except for the ones that serve as a prequel to….
    • Shaman King Flowers (2012-2014, 6 vols, Jump X)
      • The first proper sequel to Shaman King, following the protagonist’s kid as he’s inserted into a strangely-named competition between all the gods that came before. Rudely cancelled when Jump X, the whole magazine, got shuttered. Look for the anime in 2024!
    • Shaman King THE SUPER STAR (2018-present, 6+ vols, Shonen Magazine Edge)
      • It’s more Shaman King Flowers, with a new name, having been successfully reclaimed from Shueisha after some time and difficulty. Published somewhat irregularly due to Takei’s health.
    • Shaman King: Red Crimson (2018-2020, 4 vols, Shonen Magazine Edge) w/ Jet Kusamura
      • A side story following popular characters Tao Jun, Horohoro, and Lee Pyron, setting up important stuff for later and bringing versions of Takei’s characters from Karakuri Douji Ultimo into the Shaman King universe.
    • Shaman King: Marcos (2020-2022, 5 vols, Shonen Magazine Edge) w/ Jet Kusamura
      • A side story featuring former disciples of popular factions the X-Laws and Hao’s disciples, as they investigate what happened to popular character Marco Lasso.
    • And that’s just the stuff he worked on personally. All of these are available in some form or fashion from Kodansha in English. Learn more here: https://kodansha.us/?s=Shaman+king&orderby=relevance&filter_category%5B%5D=manga&filter_category%5B%5D=books&filter_category%5B%5D=news&page=1
  • Smash Bomber (2006, 3 chapters, V Jump) w/ Katou Daigo FLOP ELIGIBLE
    • Remember pogs? Now they’re back, in Smash Bomber form. Was announced as about 197 pages of comics, supervised by Takei, but ended unceremoniously and without any substantial comment after just 3 chapters. You don’t get more flop than this. Great if you ever have a guest who is time poor.
  • Juuki Ningen Jumbor (2007, 10 chapters, 1 vol, Weekly Shonen Jump) FLOP ELIGIBLE
    • Leader of a construction team is killed and resurrected as a shovel-handed child. Chaos ensues. One of Weekly Shonen Jump’s shortest titles, nonetheless resurrected years later as…
  • Jumbor (2010-2014/HIATUS, 8 vols, Ultra Jump) w/ Hiromasa Mikami
    • A reboot, telling us once more about Baru Craw’s age regression construction machine battle life, at least until the situation with Takei and his publishing rights put it on indefinite hiatus. Maybe one day.
  • Karakuri Douji Ultimo (2009-2015, 12 vols, Jump SQ.) w/ STAN MOTHERFUCKING LEE
    • Created by Stan Lee! Can you believe that? DO YOU ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT?!?! While his involvement throughout is dubious, this international manga collaboration depicting a battle between pure good and pure evil did numbers, and is now… completely unavailable because of Takei’s thing with his rights. One day, maybe. Viz Media did it all back in the day.
  • Nekogahara (2015-2018, 5 volumes, Shonen Magazine Edge)
    • The stray cat samurai. Like it’s literally samurai times with cats, as we follow a mad bollocks one-eyed ronin. Licensed by Kodansha USA: https://kodansha.us/series/nekogahara-stray-cat-samurai
  • This is the general gist. There’s other stuff like Hyper Dash! Yonkuro and Mini 4 King that are about powered (but not controlled) car kits, but I don’t know much about those, else risk getting into the hobby.
• Notable people they were an assistant for:
  • Takamichi Sakura (on Shape of Happiness)
    • This was serialised in video game magazine Famitsu, and featured Takei within the story as ‘Turtle-san’, a turtle.
  • Nobuhiro Watsuki (convicted pedophile, on Rurouni Kenshin)
    • Takei was a prominent member of the famous assistant group the Watsuki-gumi, consisting of Takei, ‘big bro’ Gin Shinga, Eiichiro Oda, and Mikio Ito. There have been many other assistants in that time period, but this specific gang is special.
    • Takei was a particularly trusted assistant with regard to character designs, helping develop Fuji in Rurouni Kenshin, and Victor in Buso Renkin, long after he’d stopped being an assistant.
  • Koji Kiriyama (on Ninku)
    • Ninku is secretly one of the most influential Jump series of all time. Don’t get me started.
• Notable people they had as assistants:
  • Mikio Ito (Normandy Secret Club)
  • Matsui Katsunori/KIYU (Hanakaku ~Last Girl Standing~, Number 10, Sommelier)
  • Yuusuke Takeyama (Hayame Blast Gear)
  • Kei Kawano (GRAND SLAM)
  • Yoichiro Tanabe (Oshiete! Furedou Wanda-sank)
  • DAIGO
• Notable people that are their brother:
  • Hirofumi Takei (Chopperman, a One Piece spin-off)
• BONUS TRIVIA:
  • Huge fan of Gundam, to the point of both participating in the DRILL GUNDAM doujinshi alongside Eiichiro Oda and other notable names and the official SD Gundam Special Anthology.
  • Big fan of Mini 4WD from childhood, having a design contest entry that got used by an official manga.
  • Names JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure creator Hirohiko Araki, Osamu Tezuka, and Gegege no Kitaro creator Shigeru Mizuki among his influences
  • To watch a bit about the man and his current workplace and stuff, highly recommend this documentary by Archipel: https://youtu.be/zp6_kvcEI_4

Publishing

• Series it replaced:
  • Rokudenashi BLUES by Masanori Morita (MASSIVE hit, 42 volumes)
• Series that replaced it:
  • JOKER by Kazutoshi Yamane (flop, 2 volumes)
• Series from the same serialisation round:
  • Watashi no Kaeru-sama by Yuki Nakajima (flop, 2 volumes)
  • Hanasaka Tenshi Tenten-kun (hit, 17 volumes)

Manga Itself

• One fan-translation out there is pure classic online manga. Translated from French, wonkily handled, and distributed via IRC. I feel nostalgic.
• Why yes, that is a thinly-disguised Steve Buscemi in Reservoir Dogs.
• The gangsters he’s with are the Mignola clan, named after the Hellboy creator, and their leader, Mike Mignola.
• This series really shows you everything that Takei’s career is about (except the Mini 4WD thing). Spirituality, karma, reincarnation, handguns, industrial machine, itakos called Anna, even the puppetry of the various armours could relate to the artificiality of the Karakuri Douji in Ultimo.
• Warsman, of Kinnikuman fame, is on the back of Ashura, as his two other faces. Ironic, as Ashuraman is a whole different character in Kinnikuman.
• Senju on the roof in chapter 8 resembles a recurring leitmotif in Takei’s Shaman King work, of characters sitting in a graveyard looking at the stars.
• Why yes, Bato is a thinly-disguised Antonio Banderas in Desperado.
• Bato’s truck has Death Zero on the side, one of the oldest one-shots of Takei’s.
• Mikio Ito, Takei’s assistant and former colleague on Rurouni Kenshin, is on posters throughout the manga. He has similar cameos in One Piece and Rurouni Kenshin.
• In chapter 12 there’s a delinquent in a jacket with a massive collar, a skull belt buckle and massive chains, and a suspicious pattern shaved into his hair. It’s fucking Spawn. Todd MacFarlane’s Spawn.
• Anna in this series is kind of a predecessor to Anna in Shaman King, both as a character and also kind of literally when she’s reintroduced in Shaman King THE SUPER STAR.
• The sword she has, Harusame, is later the sword of Amidamaru in Shaman King.
• The grandmother is Yoh’s Grandmother in Shaman King.
• Sachi, our little girl protagonist, lives on as Sati, leader of one of the three great factions in Shaman King.