Back in September I tentatively claimed that I'd finish Tanikamen by the end of the year. Now, in no small part thanks to the extraordinary efforts of my editor, I'm able to present the finished series a whole month earlier than expected.
Tanikamen is something of a funny series to me in that I came to it out of order, that is to say despite it being Shibata's debut work I was already familiar with his later stuff (81diver, Youkai etc.) before I got around to reading it. Yet when I did was quite pleasantly surprised to find how similar the work actually felt to what I'd read already. Indeed most of Shibata's notable traits as an author like his quick, dynamic action, slapstick humour, and bizarrely long speech bubbles are all present and used to good effect. And, although the setting itself is by no means particularly original (delinquent series were all the rage back in the 90s, while the inexplicably strong MC is a trope which remains popular with the likes of One-Punch Man) I think Shibata manages to carve out an amusing little piece which holds up even today.
That's not of course to say it's without its faults. The last arc does feel somewhat rushed, with the supposed big bad Kiyokawa ending up more of a footnote than an actual threat. Whether this was because the series was forced to end early or not is of course impossible to say: on the one hand it's hard not to deny that it briskly paced, on the other hand the main thrust of the story, Tani and Shima's relationship, is actually resolved fairly well and it's hard to imagine how Shibata could've dragged it out any longer had the series gone on for say another four or so volumes (although I guess that's never been a problem for most long running romances...). I must also admit that a lot of the side cast, so Tajima, Konio and the like, did feel rather forgotten about by the end, though I guess if Shibata had been forced to finish the series early it'd make sense to cut back on their plotlines. I also can't really justify any of the lewder elements which he started to slip in towards the end of the series, but for better or worse that's just another element of his works (the most recent chapter of his newest series, Hits, had one of the effeminate MCs nearly getting pegged...).
At any rate Tanikamen is a fun little series which I've enjoyed working on and one which Shibata himself seems to have remained fond of: one of the early bonus chapters in Air Master outright shows Tani and Shima, a Shizunaman appears in Air Master as does Miki who also appears in 81diver (I guess she was a favourite of his), while Shibata himself has at times used a Tani-esque mask for his profile picture (see here for instance).
Now, before touching upon what I plan to do next, I should note that there does, technically, remain one final chapter. Back in 1994 Shibata actually released a special bonus chapter alongside chapter 50 which features the cast in a fantasy RPG world. For some reason this chapter has never been collected in a volume, even with the reprints. At some point it does seem there were scans floating around for it but I've not been able to find a working link to them, so the only way I'll ever get the chapter done is if I can get a copy of Young Animal 1994 #23. This is something I'll endeavour to do but obviously I can't really promise anything for such an old issue (if anyone does somehow happen to have either the raws or the issue itself I'd be happy to buy them).
Having spent much of the year toiling away at Tani it's probably fair to say most of my other series have been somewhat neglected but I'll now (hopefully) be able to get back to a other few things. As it stands:
- Eko Eko Azarak - I had the remaining volumes bought for me earlier this year but I still need them scanned. I might put up text only TLs while I wait.
- Shoujo Kessen Orgia - Maybe 2021? 2022? 2030?
- Kendo Shitouden Cestvs - The latest chapter's out so I'll probably get to this next.
- Active Raid: Kidou Kyoushuushitsu Dai Hachigakari - I've had the next chapter awaiting QC for a while. Given it's so short I should probably aim to finish it sooner rather than later.
- Blue Striker - I'd also like to get back to this soon considering it's more Shibata and it's fairly short.
- Breakdown - In a similar position to Azarak, wherein I had the volumes bought for me but am waiting for them to be scanned. Again, might put up text only TLs while I wait.
- Search and Destroy - Another short work which I'd like to get back to after, say, Active Raid, but I still need the latter volumes scanned anyway.
To close off this mammoth post I should also offer my thanks once again to my editor, Nady, for his continued work on the series and to das, for providing the raws. If you want actual physical copies of the series nowadays you are seemingly going to have to go second hand, but it is available digitally on the usual sites like eBookJapan.
