Mamotte Shugogetten Volume 1
by Pedro Rodriguez
The manga series Mamotte Shugogetten by Minene Sakurano has had an interesting journey. It started back in 1997 and ran for three years producing eleven volumes. It was then put on hiatis for almost two years (April 2000 - March 2002), where it was then published and serialized by a different company. During its comeback in Japan, a fledgeling company called Gutsoon! Entertainment began translating and publishing the comic in their weekly manga anthology Raijin Comics in the US, and then they turned it to a monthly release... and then they closed shop - don't even get me started on the anime title(s). Fast forward to last April, it's been four years since the series was published here in the US and Tokyo Pop has just released the first two volumes of the series in a hefty little book.
It starts off with the male protagonist Tasuke Shiciri coming home to an empty house. Because he comes from a family of globe trotting archeologists, Tasuke spends most of his home life alone. On this day however, he recieves a package from his dad in China. It's a ring called a Shiterin. According to the letter, if a person of pure heart looks into the ring, then a Goddess will appear. Sure enough when he looks at it, a girl named Shaorin pops out. She explains that as a Shugogetten (guardian spirit of the moon), her sole purpose is to protect him. Like a lot of "magical dream girl" comedies, Shaorin's lack of experience in the modern world is obvious as her ability to summon an army of pint-sized gods tends to backfire. The biggest example is when she mistakens Taskue's school as a forced training camp, and she summons her Urigun to disassemble the school.
As the story progresses, and as Shaorin slowly gets a handle things, new problems begin arrive in the shape of rivals. The first is a shinto priest named Izumo Miyauchi. To the guys, he a real charmer who doesn't mind stepping on a few people to get the girl that he's aiming for. To the ladies, he is the hot fudge on a sundade. Taking a liking to Shaorin, Izumo uses his suave personality and many talents to stay one step ahead of Tasuke.
Another rival that appears shortly after is a Keikounitten (guardian spirit of the sun) named Ruuan. Just as it is Shaorin's duty to protect her master, it is Ruuan's duty to make her master happy. As it turns out, the two spirits have known met previous times, and as a result of serving different masters each time, a (one-sided) rivalry has developed. Because Ruuan is more bullheaded in winning over Tasuke, Shaorin is more of a nuisance than anything.
In the midst of all the competion, there is one character that breaks up all the monotony is Shouko Yamanobe. Having earned the reputation as the class deliquent, she first meets Shaorin while "shopping". After an brief intervention, Shouko eventually becomes the only person that roots for the couple without any hidden agenda. Despite her shady past, she is probably the most level headed character in the series. She does have a bit of a playful side and will sometimes have Shaorin unknowingly flirt with Tasuke. Her ability to level the playing field back when things get out of hand is what this reviewer liked the most out of her. Instead of just hitting a reset button, she challenges Tasuke to think about the way deals with his rivals.
There is an oddly familiar feeling in the theme of the series. In someways it does seem to follow the same formula that Kosuke Fujishima used ten years before this manga came out, paritally becuase of how Tasuke gets the Shiterin, but also because of his personality. Both mangas have an honest and humble guy, and both have Goddesses that come out unexpectedly (Belldandy came out through a mirror, Shaorin came out from a ring) and end up staying with them. The other series takes place in college where motorcycles and racing is often used. In this series Tasuke is in middle school, with the occasional reference to Chinese artifacts from his Dad.
While I find myself a fan of "Oh My Goddess!", I am well aware that there are people who have given up on the book on the count that the relationship hasn't really progressed in said series. In this case Tasuke's shyness may come as a turn off, and you might not be willing to wait 21 volumes to see whether or not they go beyond just holding hands. For everyone else who just can't have enough of Fujishima's work, you'll be happy to know that the series has enough original material to make the series it's own entity.
Tokyo Pop did an excellent job in picking up the torch and keeping the series alive. A side from the clean dialogue, it looks like the lettering department has been playing with giving the smaller comments it's own personality, much like you would see in the original release. Fans will also enjoy the fact that the you get the first two volumes for just a little more than what you would've paid for one. It also looks like they are going to do the same thing for volume 3/4. The only thing that would've made this better (yes I'm going to say it), is if the first few pages were in color like in the original release.
For fans of this genre, this is a good buy. It has a good sense of humor, that is moderately paced. There are a few repetitve ideas here and there, but there are also a handful of characters that keep things balanced out. With an excellent short game, it should be interesting to see how it does in the long run.