Manga Madness #1: The Gogyouo-Sama

Welcome to the first installment of Manga Madness! Today, we'll be starting out with the big one - the story that you've heard the most about from me already and that I spend more time and patience on than any other. It may seem strange opening the month with the big fish instead of making it the finale - but I figured I should save the stories you know nothing about for last. So without further ado, allow me to present the first manga I ever came up with, The Gogyouo-Sama.

Title: The Gogyouo-Sama
Translation: Lord of the Elements, King of the Elements

Synopsis: Sei Meshounen (alias Seikun) is tired of the daily grind of his mundane existence. He dreams of starting over with a new, exciting life that isn't so average. One night in the outskirts of Nerima, Tokyo, his dream comes true when he happens across a monster not of this world, literally! In the commotion that follows, Sei is spirited away through space and time to a world know as "Mukae". The inhabitants of this alien world seem not unlike himself, though he soon discovers that the differences between them may cost him not only his chance at a new life, but his own life as well. As the first human to ever cross the dimensional borders of these worlds, Sei must find a way to survive in a land of strange powers and even stranger characters as he does what he does best: anything and everything in the coolest way possible.

If I were a professional manga artist and were actually in a position to create the works I'm going to discuss this month, you could call "The Gogyouo-Sama" my magnum opus. Not in the quality of the work itself, but in terms of how much time I have spent developing it. And then you may find it interesting that my self-proclaimed magnum opus has such a generic sounding title like "Lord of the Elements". But, in truth, the Japanese word I am using here, "gogyou", is written with a kanji that normally does not translate out to "element" - so I consider "gogyou" an untranslated word in this title. But what is a "gogyou", then?

Origin:
Before that, let me explain how the story came to be. Around the time I started drawing Sei and anime-style characters in general was a period in which I had a very large and active imagination. I had many outlets of entertainment through television and movies that put impressions on me, and I would dream up stories based on those things all the time. I had a very quiet and reserved childhood, so I made up these stories as a way to entertain myself when I was alone. One day I decided I wanted to put Sei in a story as well. That was the day I officially started my 6-7-years-and-still-going on-again/off-again personal project to create and document my own manga series. I was heavily influenced by Dragonball Z and other shounen-style anime of the time, so that was the type of manga I designed: a fantasy battle manga.

Title/Theme:
And so to return to my original topic, a "gogyou" is a word of Chinese origin which refers to the five phases, or elements, of the world. These are earth, wood, metal, fire, and water. Each have variable weaknesses and strengths against each other, and placed together they preserve the balance. The alien world where the majority of my story takes place, Mukae, is governed by 7 (because 7 is any anime's favorite number) mystical elements called the Gogyou; they are based loosely off the Chinese gogyou elements and use the same terminology. The Gogyou"o-Sama" refers to one who is able to manipulate and control all 7 Gogyous. I say this because in the world of Mukae, the primary inhabitants (called Mukaeans, who look and act like human beings but are not the same) are able to tap into the worldly energy of the Gogyous and use their powers to defend themselves. An average Mukaean's body only has the capacity to use a single Gogyou, while stronger contenders can control two or even three. So the idea of a "Gogyouo-Sama" is a legendary concept of one person who would be able to control all 7 Gogyous at once. This is where most of the "battle" focus of this manga comes in. I wanted the story to have varied kinds of powers involving energy like you'd see in Dragonball Z, except I try to give explanations for where the energy comes from and how it is used. I think that kind of information is really interesting. Shounen-style manga tend to like to explain things that happen during battles to the reader, but I've noticed that a lot don't explain some of the basic aspects of battles, like the one I mentioned above. A huge focus of my writing in Gogyouo-Sama is spent on utilizing the fact that the story takes place in another world and scrutinizing that world to death - constantly explaining and comparing the physics and realities of Mukae with those of Earth.

Character/Plot:
Sei Meshounen, the main character of Gogyouo-Sama, is from our world, Earth. He lives in Nerima, Tokyo in modern times. Through an encounter with an otherworldly creature one night, he stumbles into a dimensional portal that takes him to Mukae, where almost every other main character in the story comes from. That's right - all those other characters I introduced to you guys over the last few months, Suunuku, Mikioi, Masashi, none of them are human; they're Mukaeans. It was a conscientious decision on my part to make the main species of Mukae human-like, but still fundamentally different. In the case of Gogyouo-Sama, the differences are mostly non-cosmetic (e.g. the ability to utilize energy sources as attacks/defenses). The main focus of the story is Sei and his adventures in Mukae, as he travels the world and meets strange allies and nasty baddies. Sei is in a very dangerous position in this other world - most of the inhabitants have never seen a human before, and even though they look the same, many consider him a threat; something unknown that they don't understand. And despite being in this position, not to mention being stuck in a world all alone without his family, Sei enjoys it! He's actually given an opportunity to return home to Earth very early in the story, but he declines because he's come to like Mukae and its harsher, more demanding lifestyle so much that he wants to stick around and explore it all, with the aid of characters like Suunuku and Masashi who become attached to Sei in their own ways and help keep him safe from those who would hunt him down. But the young adventurer is not much for being cautious and staying under cover; he's loud and assertive, and always heads out looking for trouble because he wants to live as exciting a new life as possible. I like to think this quality of Sei makes him an endearing yet conflict-causing protagonist, even though I do my best to write him to be very stubborn and annoying too. If you want to know more about Sei and other supporting characters, be sure to check out my Profiles page, where you'll find an on-going collection of character bios from The Gogyouo-Sama.

What started out as a small innocent endeavor has grown over the years into pages and pages of information, characters, worlds, and storylines running through my head at all times. The Gogyouo-Sama is more than just a manga series to me; it's a state of myself. When I'm bored and start thinking about something to ease my boredom, I think Gogyouo-Sama. When I listen to music, I see and hear Gogyouo-Sama. I use every opportunity I get to play out scenes in my head, not only because I enjoy it, but because I am constantly being inspired to make changes. In its current form, the story is in its 4th revision, and I have no doubt I'll be revising it time and time again. It was thanks to this story, and the art inspired by it, that I created this blog in the first place. I have a lot to thank Gogyouo-Sama for. I apologize, by the way, if this examination of the story seems a bit chopped up and dry - I feel ambivalent to reveal information about the story in a strict sequential manner on the slight glimmer of hope that one day I might be able to release it to the public in a proper form. Even though it is quite possible that day will never come, I will never abandon The Gogyouo-Sama. I'll keep writing it, even if it's only for myself. But perhaps I'll be able to show it to you as well, my friends.

Stay tuned next week for another Manga Madness!

This image was originally planned to be used as a mock-up cover for The Gogyouo-Sama "Volume 1", and I guess you could say it still is. I drew Sei far in advance and added Suunuku and Masashi in later about a week ago once I got the idea for Manga Madness. I was pretty happy with Sei because I usually have a big problem drawing a character completely on the page without cutting off some parts due to drawing so big. I was going to do the same for Suunu and Masa, but it wasn't working out so I settled for adding the bounding circle around them. The logo was drawn as well, separately, and I used Photoshop to add color and insert it onto the cover image.