The Legendary Musings of Professor Munakata

A bit of a footnote for the ending of Chapter 15 in case you're confused. The name Susanoo can also be spelled Susa-no-ou, or King of Susa. Since according this story the Hata clan was connected to Susa, the name Susanoo that forms the god's formal name and was probably used as a title by the royal family (much like Caesar in Rome) is therefore a pun used by the Hata kings to indicate their ancestry as the original kings of the Susa region.

I swear to Swagamoto, that moustache gets manlier with each passing volume. Thanks, HnG!

P.S. "Golf? That's no more than a haunt for adult delinquents."

YOU TELL 'EM PROF!

Wouldn't the fact that she was not wearing snow gear kind of be a dead giveaway?

I like the subtler touch used in this chapter. It veers headlong into fantasy, but one could easily explain it as an injury-induced hallucination... except of course, for that comb.

I like the subtler touch used in this chapter. It veers headlong into fantasy, but one could easily explain it as an injury-induced hallucination... except of course, for that comb.

lol I realize this must be a pain to scanlate. All that text to translate? That's some determination. Kudos to the scanlators. 

Hokuto No Gun almost always delivers. Even when I don't like the manga they're translating, there's no denying they do a damn better job of it than most, kind of like the old Ignition-One era Hajime No Ippo.

the last chapter kind remind me of with the rats infestation in Australia.

lol I realize this must be a pain to scanlate. All that text to translate? That's some determination. Kudos to the scanlators. 

I don't get the last chapter.

Holy crud! Pulgasari attacked US nuke sub!

Author is slipping more and more. Dire wolves lived in NA and were about the size of a gray wolf (with a bigger build), lived until premodern time (~10000 BC), the drawings are Andrewsarchus-like. Andrewsarchus was more closely related to our modern whales and hippos, and had very little relation to dog lineages (cats and dogs are much closer than dogs and andrewsarchus).

As already mentioned elsewhere in the comments Munakata was originally part of Yukinobu Hoshino's speculative history series, which included such things as dinosaur mummies in Egypt (they were used to build the great pyramids). I already said it before, but the Titans chapter belongs here:

http://vatoto.com/comic/_/comics/the-temple-of-el-alamein-r7775

... or here?

http://vatoto.com/comic/_/comics/the-sea-of-fallen-beasts-r7017

What you described sounds like another example for Hoshino's fondness for extinct beasts.

Author is slipping more and more. Dire wolves lived in NA and were about the size of a gray wolf (with a bigger build), lived until premodern time (~10000 BC), the drawings are Andrewsarchus-like. Andrewsarchus was more closely related to our modern whales and hippos, and had very little relation to dog lineages (cats and dogs are much closer than dogs and andrewsarchus).

I didn't come for the pseudoarchaeology - I came for the manly moustache, and I'm staying for the manly moustache.
 

Sounds about right.

I quite enjoy the pseudo-archaeology and questionable anthropology. The pseudo-ecology in chapter 7 may have bothered me a bit, I admit, but whether things are masterfully done or complete camp, Munakata is still going to command my attention. I don't know if a fictional character can be said to have stage presence, but if they can, Munakata has it in spades.

I'll concede that for now. However,

Spoiler

as the series goes on, that "theme of the series" you speak of gets sparser and sparser and the stories involved vary more and more. A story where Munakata does nothing but have a conversation with an old monk may be followed by a story where Munakata tries to stop a terrorist cult. Some are literally murder mysteries, some are predominately social commentary. There's always a connection to ancient folklore, but that's about the only common point that they have. And personally, I greatly appreciate that variety. I think it demonstrates Hoshino's flexibility and skill as a storywriter. So yes, the Daidara story may have seemed a little out of place based on the four preceding stories. But looking at the series as a whole, it's inclusive enough to accommodate just about any type of story.

With the benefit of hindsight, and knowing what the series as a whole looks like? Sure. But for a regular joe who didn't wiki the series or the author, the overall effect is kind of disconcerting.

Imagine sitting down for the first 5 episodes of CSI Las Vegas, and then in episode 6, Grissom can cast magic, Catherine is a witch, Warrick is a mutant liberator from an alternate universe, and Langston suddenly appears and tells everyone that the machines are coming. You've watched a few episodes, feel like you know what the series is all about and you like what they're selling, and all of a sudden they drop THAT on you.

Don't get me wrong, this manga is still on my follow list. I still think each story, by itself, is well written and I'm sure as shiznits ain't going to stop reading. I didn't come for the pseudoarchaeology - I came for the manly moustache, and I'm staying for the manly moustache.

 

This is very interesting, thank you for translating it. Excited to read more of this, chapter 6 was so strange compared to the others but its my favorite so far.

Not only is Munakata-sensei manly as fuck, he also now doubles as a wingman. o/

Pretty good manga. Thank you Hokuto no Gun. 

That's not really the problem. Lezard puts it more succinctly than the rest of us. To be fair, anyone familiar with folklore will identify most of Munakata's musings as pure BS, but the story is interesting in the same way detective stories are, in that the Professor unravels a mystery encrypted in a folklore, even if the final conclusion is largely unscientific. This is not a problem at all. The problem is that the Daidara chapter actually belongs in a different Hoshino anthology, not this one, so its inclusion creates a jarring contrast to the theme of the series so far, even if (or rather, especially because) it's the prototype for the series. It's like Kunisaki Izumo no Jijou, where the pilot chapter is a supernatural story but the serialized manga is a gender-bender sitcom. Reading the prototype first in chapter order makes it easy to accept the change.

Japanese Wikipedia.

 

And all said, I agree with gundamgundam, but I'll go one further. Ultimately this is a work of fiction. There is grounding in historical fact, locations, and mythology, but the explanations provided in the manga are Hoshino's speculations, at best. However "legit science" that the other stories may seem, this is not a dissertation on folkloristics. This is Hoshino trying to write an intriguing, intelligent story. That goes for all the preceding chapters, as well as all the following chapters. If you want to read actual Japanese folkloristic study, look up Kunio Yanagita. If it's an intriguing story with creative hypotheses you want, stick around.

That's not really the problem. Lezard puts it more succinctly than the rest of us. To be fair, anyone familiar with folklore will identify most of Munakata's musings as pure BS, but the story is interesting in the same way detective stories are, in that the Professor unravels a mystery encrypted in a folklore, even if the final conclusion is largely unscientific. This is not a problem at all. The problem is that the Daidara chapter actually belongs in a different Hoshino anthology, not this one, so its inclusion creates a jarring contrast to the theme of the series so far, even if (or rather, especially because) it's the prototype for the series. It's like Kunisaki Izumo no Jijou, where the pilot chapter is a supernatural story but the serialized manga is a gender-bender sitcom. Reading the prototype first in chapter order makes it easy to accept the change.

The afterword wouldn't shine any conclusive light on the issues that you guys are fixated on. Don't worry about it.

I don't know about the afterword, but if this manga was circa 2004, how come no one's every translated it until now?

There seems to be a somewhat lengthy afterword. Perhaps someone should translate that before we all rant about the sixth chapter? There may well be an explanation from the author about the disparity. Or it may be elsewhere in print--research-oriented historical fiction authors in English works, I know, often provide some context in afterwords explaining what's known and what's speculative or deviating. While this isn't exactly historical fiction in the usual sense, it seems like the same could easily enough apply here.

Myself, I can't read Kanji. Can someone who can skim through and give us the gist, maybe? :'p I'm just as likely completely off-tack.

Really? How did you find this out?

 

Even if that is the case, his editor is still at fault for letting out this chapter all this way in the series. Maybe if we opened with this it wouldn't have been a problem, but this chapter is the manga equivalent of the trololol guy laughing at all the (relatively) legit science they've been discussing in the previous chapters.

Japanese Wikipedia.

And all said, I agree with gundamgundam, but I'll go one further. Ultimately this is a work of fiction. There is grounding in historical fact, locations, and mythology, but the explanations provided in the manga are Hoshino's speculations, at best. However "legit science" that the other stories may seem, this is not a dissertation on folkloristics. This is Hoshino trying to write an intriguing, intelligent story. That goes for all the preceding chapters, as well as all the following chapters. If you want to read actual Japanese folkloristic study, look up Kunio Yanagita. If it's an intriguing story with creative hypotheses you want, stick around.

I understand the negative feedback the last chapter generated, but I personally found Chapter six to be very interesting. Especially the revelation that the professor's mindset doesn't share the belief that every phenomena in the world must be explainable by science to be true. I found his philosophy to be similar to that of Holmes: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth". So when a phenomenon can't be explained by science, the professor doesn't hesitate in looking into anything that can provide a conclusive answer, no matter how improbable and fantastical it may seem to the academic world.

This remided me of the Japanese Ringu franchise that mixes science and the supernatural, like how a simple horror story about a seemengly cursed tape ended up being a story about a simulated reality created to simulate the emergence and evolution of life. In contrast to the Western mentality, the Japanese seem to have very few qualms about mixing science with the supernomal in popular culture, so it's understandable that so many Western readers are shocked at the manga's latest developments since a Western author would never, ever do that.

I may be alone on this, but instead of deprecating the manga for expressing a different frame of mind than the Western world like so many readers did, I find myself fascinated at how different the ways of thinking between contemporary cultures can be, and the reason why I like foreign media like manga so much.

You have my deepest thanks again Hokuto no Gun, for bringing yet again another literary gem to the English speaking world.

From what I've gathered, the Daidara chapter was the first Munakata story that Hoshino wrote, and he wrote it five years before the rest of the series. So that may explain why it has more of a sci-fi vibe than the other stories.

Really? How did you find this out?

Even if that is the case, his editor is still at fault for letting out this chapter all this way in the series. Maybe if we opened with this it wouldn't have been a problem, but this chapter is the manga equivalent of the trololol guy laughing at all the (relatively) legit science they've been discussing in the previous chapters.