Shounen Orient by Shinobu Ohtaka

[Haya-san]

Orient
By Shinobu Ohtaka
Shounen, Historical, Fantasy
Weekly Shounen Magazine (serialization date: May 30, 2018)​

Synopsis: it's the Warring States period and Japan is ruled by "__". A 15-year-old boy named Musashi will stand up to ___ with the help of a certain special power.

Another protagonist is revealed in the header of the official twitter account.

 

[Calbalacrab]

I love Nobunaga and Edo period so I'll totally be reading this. But even if I know it's because it's her own art style, I can't look at the red guy without seeing Aladdin in my head

 

[Haya-san]

I'm hoping Oda Nobunaga will be the main antagonist of the manga. He's one of the most interesting Japanese historical figures (I remember him ranking #1 in some polls), and sounds kind of like Sinbad+Kouen. I was wondering how Ohtaka is going to portray the likes of Oda, Toyotomi, Tokugawa, Ashikaga Yoshiaki...etc in a fantasy setting while being faithful to history. Then, I remembered that they turned the Shinsengumi into vampire-like creatures in Hakuouki, so maybe she can play around with it a bit.

I hope we'll also get to see Makara Naotaka, the wielder of Taroutachi, a 221cm sword. Most of the most interesting people from the Sengoku period were dead when Miyamoto Musashi turned 15, so I hope this manga will only be loosely based on it with everyone being alive.

As for the blond guy, the Portuguese and I think the German did business with Japan at that time, so it's possible he's of European descent, or maybe we get a twist where he's half Japanese, half-European.

 

[Laminariales]

Thank you Haya-san for creating the forum, that's said it's less than a week away! please more hints sensei and production staff!! will there be backstages since it's not sunday anymore? where should we camp!

hmm Japan during its isolation seams like a fantastical place, just realised there might be other real countries. also I don't know much about the sengoku period, but Nobunaga = firearms in my head, wonder if that will play role in a fantasy setting.That aside hope the first chapter introduces a lots of characters

 

[crystalblade13]

So here we are. I hope that this series lives up to magi, and now that magi has established a decent following in the west, hopefully orient can ride the coatails of its name and become even more popular than magi was. Ohtaka has grown more with each work, so I hope the trend continues and this work doesn't have any kind of major issues in the later stages.

While Gintama has stolen my heart too much for this to be my new favorite series most likely, I have faith that it may at least reach closely to that spot. Magi was my fave for quite some time! And I still love it a lot despite its seemingly rushed ending.

Ohtaka, you've got this my girl!

 

[Laminariales]

Gintama is ending though, Whenever anyone talks of how ohtaka grown I feel like reading sumomomo(mo?) xD

Anywho orient first crossover fanart! (Orient!musashi & FGO!Musashi)

 

[airmattress]

will there be backstages since it's not sunday anymore? where should we camp!

On the Orient twitter of course! Apparently it's being run by 2 guys who go by the initials T and K (going off google translate). I think theyre working as the editors for the manga or something?

From what I can see they seem to be replying to a lot of people, so Im guessing it's not gonna be a super professional account and will have some fun with the fans? That sounds really good to me even though it adds the risk of ppl being extra rude and spouting nonsensing if some chapter isn't well received or someone dies or their ship doesnt work out or whatever. But eh... hopefully it won't cause any serious harm since this really has a lot of potential to get ppl invested in the manga.

 

[Haya-san]

As far as I know, there isn't anything similar to backstage blog on the Shounen Magazine site, so Ohtaka's personal blog is probably the only thing we have. I'm not following any of the current Kodansha series, so I'm not familiar with the volume extras.

I hope that Ohtaka learned from her experience with Magi and that the quality of Orient will be more consistent throughout its serialization. IMO Magi's quality started to drop with the serialization of the Sinbad spin-off and working on both mangas might have been exhausting for her. I hope Orient will be her main priority until it ends and then focus on spin-offs if she wants to write them. Also, she should take a page from Hiromu Arakawa and take breaks when necessary.

 

[Linali]

So... we have redhead Alibaba and blond Kouen as main heroes? Ok, I'm buying it Can't wait for the series to start

 

[crystalblade13]

Gintama is ending though, Whenever anyone talks of how ohtaka grown I feel like reading sumomomo(mo?) xD

Anywho orient first crossover fanart! (Orient!musashi & FGO!Musashi)

Gintama IS ending ( apparently lol, who knows when at this point). But I decided a while back that it's basically impossible to top for me at this point. It just got better and better and better as it went on, and it's even had an amazing ending arc- which is something you basically never see in shounen.

And I love the fanart, that pic really makes me think the MC looks like a tales character. Gives me a luke from tales of the abyss vibe.

 

[Ice]

Loving the new character. I simply can't wait for Orient to start. anything from Shinobu-sama is bound to be amazing!!! <3

 

[Haya-san]

Someone asked since the protagonist's name is Musashi, could it be that the character who resembles Kouen is Kojirou Sasaki (Miyamoto Musashi's long-time rival)? and the account replied that it's a secret and everyone will find out soon.

Another asked who's the red haired protaginist based on, and they replied they don't know who he was based on, but his name is 'Musashi'. There was also a question if they are going to include a paper with the volume release, and they answered there are no plans as of now, but they might include it in the future if there's a lot of demand.

 

[Haya-san]

Found this on twitter:


' a Sengoku era battle fantasy'

'I met you and embraced a dream. Aim for victory and be the center of the world.'

Yep, the blond guy is Kojirou. The real life Kojirou died young after a battle to the death with Musashi, so I'm interested to see how she's going to portray their relationship. They might start as enemies or rivals and Kojirou might join the dark side for a while, but I don't expect that to last. He might also not die, since this is a fantasy and maybe they are just characters who are inspired by the real ones.

Also, it was said that Miyamoto Musashi never lost a battle, but that won't work in a shounen for the sake of character growth and development.

 

[Laminariales]

Haya-san is always light speed He was kojIROU? xD and right from the start, like I expected a Kojirou to be introduced waaay late, as usual sensei is full of surprises.

--- Double Post Merged, May 25, 2018, Original Post Date: May 25, 2018 ---

Edit: just noticed the above tweet, I can't believe even the jp people are like "the guy who resembles kouen!" Guys play it cool infront of the officials what's magi I never heard of it..

 

[Arjuna]

So basically this is like Vagabond Manga with a magic setting. Really interesting.I will follow it.

 

[airmattress]

Spoilers are starting to pop up

Spoiler: for color page

 

[Linali]

Ok, I admit I'm intrigued. I expected rather more focus on historical background and less on magic, but it seems I was wrong I suppose it was easier to adapt One Thousand and One Night and ancient cultures to Magi world than historical events and characters for a purpose of fantasy story, but I'm crossing fingers and my expectations are high

 

[Cat Sidhe26]

Spoilers are starting to pop up

Spoiler: for color page

After reading this I’m interested since this does seem like something I would read.

 

[Haya-san]

Hi no moto=日の本 is another name for Japan, so the story is still taking place in an AU Japan. Bushidan=武士団 are a group of samurai warriors, but I can see Kodansha going with the Japanese terms if they decided to release the volumes in English.

Since we had very little info before the manga started, I was curious how it's going to be. I'll wait for the full chapters from now on before giving my impression.

 

[Arjuna]

Bushidins?Weren't Bushida meant committing harikiri meaning suicide.