I’m From Japan

A comedy manga about high schooler Japan Hinomoto, who is a master of the Todofu-ken: the Metro-territorial Pre-fist-ure Style.

I really am baffled why this manga debuted under the VIZ Jump Start initiative. My guess is that it was pushed by Shueisha since it had an anime adaptation they were promoting at the time. But by all accounts, I’m From Japan is probably one of the least suitable choices for an English adaptation. The jokes are so tightly tied specifically to the 47 different prefectures in Japan, translating them to make any sense must have been a herculean task. My heart goes out to the translator.

Personally, a lot of the cultural jokes flew over my head so I didn’t care much for this. It lasted almost a year in Weekly Shonen Jump but again, I think that’s due to the anime tie-in they had. This is an extremely Japanese-centric comedy by Seiji Hayashi so I don’t really recommend it for foreign readers.

~dakazu