Watase's second best story (in my opinion). It's a comedy that takes place in Edo, Japan, about a young girl (well, 15 years old...) named Yusura, who was abandoned as a baby. She was found under a wild cherry tree with her "Kongomaru" (a long staff-type thingie which can detect a person's sadness). She collects people's sadness and turns it into power and kicks the butts of the people who are making the person sad (did that make any sense...^^;; ) she meets a young man, Samon, who helps her out, and a couple other crazy guys. It's hilarious, and full of cute guys. What more could one ask for? >: )= There are 10 episodes total (filling 3 volumes. Volumes 1 and 3 each finish with a short story completely unrelated to Jipangu. Volume 1 has "Houkago Gensou", and Volume 3 has a short prequel to "Alice 19th"). Each episode focuses on a character who is dealing with sadness and another character who is causing the sadness. The episodes are as follows: Yusura of Hikeshi-ya The first episode. Yusura helps Samon with his sadness. Brawl in the Bathhouse Yusura helps a bathhouse that is going broke. Eternal Friendship Yusura helps Kazanosuke and his runaway ninja friend. Lost Comrade Someone steals Kongomaru, and now it’s Yusura who’s sad. Wanna Meet a Monster? Yusura helps a cute, little monster, who is having trouble "fitting in". Wedding Bells for Yusura? A foreigner crashes a blimp into Jipangu and he decides he wants to marry Yusura. Rival Arrival A girl who performs in a circus has a Kongomaru identical to Yusura’s, only it collects anger and turns red Yusura Departs?! Just before the wedding anniversary of Yusura's adoptive parents, a strange man shows up and claims he is Yusura's real father. Yusura Falls in Love!! Just as Yusura and her party depart to find her homeland, Samon thinks he'll finally be able to get some action with Yusura... until she suddenly falls in love with a hot guy with long hair. The Final Chapter!! All the mysteries are answered in the final showdown.

Appare Jipangu! Favorite Character Poll Results First place: Samon Runner-up: Yusura Tetris no Miko's favorite: Kazanosuke : p The Characters Yusura The main character. She is very boyish in personality (is often mistaken for one, too), and swears a lot, but she does have a serious goal, to find her real parents, and she is a bit interested in Samon (though she denies it ^_-) Samon A samurai who is the illegitimate son of a noble and a prostitute. At first he thought Yusura was a boy, but now he has slight feelings for her as a girl. Minekichi A dim-witted, almost girlish boy who is sort of Yusura’s sidekick. He is often called "Mine" by Yusura, and is also often the poor sap who is used as bait for the enemy ^_^; Kazanosuke My favorite character >: )= A runaway Ninja who gave up his former profession to be Samon’s body guard (mainly so he could be near Yusura). He tries to be very serious and grand, but always ends up making a fool out of himself (probably because this is a comedy ^_^) The Skeleton Puppets ^_^ We don’t really know who these puppets belong to, but most of the time, Minekichi uses them to simulate his fantasies O_o. Their names are "Ogai" and "Kotsu-kichi" (in the translation, I named them "Boney" and "Marrow-kichi" ^-^)

Cosplay These are me cosplaying as Yusura! I did this at AX'00 on Friday evening for the Meet the Guests reception. A few people actually recognized who I was cosplaying as!! yaaayy!! In one of the pics, my friend, Éd, is dressed as the Holy One [note the "he-no-he-no-mo-he" mask ^_^] and is drawing me! hehehe.

Translations Rights have been bought. More details later… Links Since Jipangu! pages seem to be sparse I'll put up any link anyone sends me!! I got two links already! Here they are: http://yuffie.20m.com/appare.htm http://members.fortunecity.com/mahoushoujo/appare/appare.html oh, and here's my e-mail to send the links to (or any other questions/comments): i_love_tasuki@juno.com

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