Cyborg Grampa-G 2

Tokijirou Kaizou has transformed himself into the ultimate in agricultural technology: a 2000-horsepower farming cyborg! Now he has uprooted his family and moved them all to Tokyo to show his abilities to the world...but how will they survive in this strange new environment?

Chapter 2: Making Part-Time Money!

42.
Voice: Oh…it’s already morning? Morning in Tokyo is no different from the country in it’s earliness. It’s outrageous that this is all thanks to grandpa……
Eiichi: Really, grandpa’s been a problem too! He’s moved our entire family to Tokyo randomly.
Kei: Hey!? Grandpa’s not moving!?
Eiichi: He…he’s sleeping……his sleeping posture has changed.
Eiichi: ?
Kaizous: GYAAAAAA

43.
G: Well, I release energy when my blood pressure is raised, making me refreshed every morning.
Eiichi: We…well, you won’t be colle…collecting it every morning.
G: Well then, with where we are now, we don’t have a living place. Our first objective is to build a house!
Eiichi: A house!?
Eiichi: Gr…grandpa, how could you say that so easily? It’s hard to own a house here in Tokyo even if you have a great job! How could you come to this place without considering that……
G: STRONGER G!!
Eiichi: My…my bad…G-chan…
G: Well then it’s best if we had money. I’ll get a part-time job today with my dying will!!

44.
Top Sign: Celebrated Good Work: Transforming Student Tatsuya
(TN: The scan is a bit small to decipher the side sign)
Kid: !?
Man: Can you please warm my bento…
G: If you need it warmed, that’ll be fine.
G: Muu~~I’m not that skilled at this!
G: (offscreen) WHAT IS THIS--!! ARE WE USING REAL POTATOES FOR OUR FRENCH FRIES? AND WHAT ABOUT OUR MEAT!!
Sign: MOSDONALDS
G: This is a potato grown with spirit in my field. I’d forgive you if we make French fries with these!!

45.
G: And the bread should have high-quality wheat with no chemicals as grown in my field—make them with wheat flour with the G-chan Seal!
Package: G WHEAT FLOUR
G: And there’s the most important meat. I use cows that are raised like my grandchildren! Then we’ll use lean meat with little fat that has been killed and matured for two weeks!!
Cows: Moo~~moo~~
G: And we should change the shop’s name to Golden Burger G and reopen after remodeling it!
Owner: We’ll give you money, now please leave.
G: Hyo.
Voice: So then, hurry since we don’t have time!
G: Muu!
Sign: Ibaraki Sushi
G: CYBORG G-CHAN’S SUPER BIKER CATERING METHOD GO!!

46.
Ibaraki: YOU--! FIX IT AND GO AWAY!!
Sign: Makoto Niwa (full: Makoto Niwano)
(TN: Makoto Niwano is a Weekly Shonen Jump mangaka whom Obata assisted during his most notable series, “THE MOMOTAROH”, in the late 80s. His most notable series in the United States is the shorter WSJ series “Bomber Girl”)
Sign: So? Who’s our helper……
“M”: Ah, Ibaraki.
G: Currently, I’m sharpening the screen tone.
Keiichi: What, grandpa, you’ve been fired from all of them!?
G: Maybe it’s impossible for a farming cyborg to do other jobs.
Old Man: YA~~KI IM~~O FOR SALE~~
Old Man: Po—cough co—ugh cough
G: Hyo!?
G: What’s wrong with you, old man?
Old Man: COUGH
G: Hyo!? You’re really hot!
Kei: That’s too much power!!

47.
Old Man: It’s already been ten years.
Old Man: I’ve only got my one stupid son. And I’ve kicked him out of my house for not caring for me. And for the ten years since, I’ve been living alone and the years have caught up…
Old Man: It’s was really difficult and I’ve come to Tokyo 3 years ago wanting to see my son. I’ve been selling yakiimo for these three years while searching for news on my son………
(TN: “Yakiimo” are roasted sweet potatoes)
Old Man: Yet I can’t help that I’ve been abandoned by that thing called “luck”…I pooed during class when I was in grade school and my wife has left me……And I’ve been living off the unsold potatoes over these three years.
Old Man: Whatever happens in the future is fine with me………
G: OLD MAN! DON’T WORRY ABOUT SELLING YOUR YAKIIMO!! I’LL HELP YOU WITH THIS!
Old Man: HYAA~~

48.
G: I’m using potatoes grown in my own field! I’ll easily sell five million of these.
Kei: Is this alright……
G: Well this cart has special functions that I’ve modified properly!
G: We’ll split what’s sold evenly! This is going to be fun!!
Keiichi: You can’t…they’re get poisoned--!!
G: YAKIIMO~~~FOR SALE~~~~
G: TATERS!!

49.
G: Don’t you want to buy a tater I’ve taken time to make---!!
Office Woman 1: What shall we have for lunch?
Office Woman 2: I’m tired of the specials here…
G: YAKIIMO FOR~~~~
Office Woman 1: Ah
Office Woman 2: Potatoes
G: SALE!!

50.
Old Woman: Fu—
G: Old woman! How about a nice nutritious Yakiimo for your fatigue!!
Old Woman: Hmm, I don’t want it!
G: Shut up and eat!
Old Woman: !?
G: They’re muscle-strengthening Stronger Potatoes I’ve made by selective breeding!!
G: Wa…wait, you didn’t pay!

51.
Man: Hey look. A weird old man is selling potatoes in the Shinjuku developments.
(TN: I had a hard time with this word, but “Fukutoshin” is Japanese for a secondary development alongside a major urban area that sprouts up due to the development of the main area. Though usually seen with suburban developments, this part of the chapter mentioned one in the Tokyo neighborhood of Shinjuku)
Man: Heh, ble~~h, it’s better to bite your tongue and die than selling one of those!
G: ONE FOR TEN-THOUSAND YEN!!
Caption: Tongue
G: Muu~~my high-power radar will search for people who would want to eat yakiimo……
Police: WILL THE CAR IN FRONT OF US PLEASE STOP!!
Voice: Wh…what will you do with them chasing us!?

52.
Wife: Hey, we’re not slowing down now. Let’s surrender……
Husband: Right…we shouldn’t have robbed that bank after all……
Wife: Your father wouldn’t be pleased with this way of making money!
Husband: In the 10 years I’ve kicked him out, I’ve wanted to be happy with pops working together prudently, but I’ve only been fired since…have I been abandoned of the thing called “luck”…
Husband: Condemn me…before I go to prison and get sentenced to death…I wanted to eat pops yakiimo once more.
SFX: PIPIPI—
G: MUU!! My radar has caught a response!
G: Hold on! I will reach you with my yakiimo within 30 minutes!

53.
Old Woman: Hmph!
G: Hyo!? What’s this! My important customer are being chased by a suspicious black and white car!?
G: My customers are mine! No one will get in my way!! Super Change ON!!
G: Change Racing Slick Tires!!
G: I’LL WIN THIS!!

54.
Police: !?
Officer: Something’s slipped by us now!!
Wife: Dear~~surrender~~~
G: I’m the Farming Cyborg Grandpa~!! Pardon me, but is the strange car behind us after my yakiimo!!

55.
Husband & Wife: Eh
G: Chowa
Officer: Uwa!?
G: I can see this is the car with the villain!!
G: JUDGEMENT!!

56.
Officers: Wa!! What is this!?
Caption: The source of G-chan’s energy is methane gas, which comes from the feces of cows, horses and chickens.
Police: Uwa~~open the window~~!!
Caption: This is the agrichemicals of released methane gas, which is reused. It has to be released periodically in the morning and night!
Caption: And after, the fertilizer is recompensed—
Officers: Buo
G: Do you see, villains!! This is the power of the Farming Cyborg G-chan!!
Officers: Vi…villains!?

57.
G: I’ve won…evil will fall before me!
G: Cyborg Grandpa G
G: So—your promised yakiimo!!
Husband: Eh…potato?
Husband: !?
Wife: Dear, please, what is it…

58.
Husband: THIS FLAVOR…POPS YAKIIMO…
Husband: Grandpa…Where is the man who made this potato now!?
G: He’s called Cyborg G-chan.
G: --And that’s how…
G: We got this gratitude for protecting them from the villains!!
Husband & Wife: ……
G: Mu, it’s a hundred million.
Kei: Gee~~really~~
Husband: POPS…
Husband: Pops…

59.
Old Man: How about selling with me……
Husband: It’s so sudden, I don’t know…I haven’t seen you in 50 years……I didn’t see that I would think I was ruined until now……
Old Man: Where have you been wasting it…stupid son!!
Husband!
Yuu: Eh?
Kei: So then…

60.
Old Man: You’re still stupid after all this time!!
Husband: How…how could I eat my s**ty pops potatoes until I die.
Ai: What? He wanted to see him but…why are they fighting?
Eiichi: He just doesn’t want to obey him. Men of this age are so awkward.
Kei: How could dad be awkward?
G: Don’t worry. Those two will be alright!!
Narrator: And so, the Cyborg family was forced to buy a house with the stolen money!
Voice: Amazin—we’re living in this castle-like house!?

61.
Narrator: AND SO SEVERAL DAYS PASSED—
Yuu: Great, your father’s found a job.
Ai: You also were taken down by the bratty general at our school.
Eiichi: Well, they are audacious being brats.
Kei: Well I’m gonna get him back!
Birds: Cheep cheep
Kaizous: !? It…can’t be
Narrator: The farming cyborg was doing well, as always!!

62.
EVERYONE SING!
CYBORG G-CHAN DRAWING SONG

1. There is a chipped rice bowl--.
2. Since you are hungry, give yourself rice.
3. Eat it together with Rakkyo. (TN: Rakkyo is a type of edible plant also known as Allium Chinense)
4. Eat it on top of a table.
5. There is an overflow from the chipped rice bowl.
6. Hey hey, clean it up with a dustcloth.
7. Ears and a beard grow out of it.
8. Attach the chopsticks, and eat it right—up. Just like that it’s G-chan—
9. Just like that he’s been eaten up~~Mushamushamusha
G: HYO!?

TN: It's somewhat strange but somehow if this series wasn't a strange gag manga intended for comedy, some of what happened here really wouldn't fly. Consider this: G just helped a desperate family get away from cops, reunite with the husband's father and took a bundle of stolen cash to build a new home for everyone...and all while selling Yakiimo! Now taking money that may not belong to them is one thing but seeing G just happily defeat the cops...yeah it was funny but in some ways it just felt wrong. Maybe it's just my morality trying to work things out in something being funny but somehow I guess we're just supposed to laugh at it. Outside the main plot (which actually was a bit touching with G's continued assistance regarding the elderly like himself), the series felt like it was going between the pendulum between some really brilliant bits (G at the burger shop, the Makoto Niwano cameo) to...eww. (let's say we see a lot more of old women than we want to in this series...and this is before "she" reappears) But with the Kaizous finally settled down in Tokyo, maybe things will be more normal...yeah right, this is G-chan we're talking about! (and his story will take a more interesting turn next time)