New Shonen Jump Manga Has One Joke Too Inappropriate for Translation
Warning: this article deals with adults themes and contains spoilers for Protect Me, Shugomaru! chapter 8
One chapter of the relatively new manga Protect Me, Shugomaru! has made a joke that its English publisher, Viz Media, is not comfortable with. The chapter is currently age-gated on Viz’s website and is web-only. The age restriction illustrates the division between what the Japanese and American publishers of Shonen Jump feel is appropriate to show to their target demographic.
Protect Me, Shugomaru! is a manga by Daiki Ihara following the misadventures of Sanagi Ojo and her 10-year-old bodyguard Shugomaru Tekko. Shugomaru is very overzealous in his attempts to protect Sanagi from danger and he often puts her or others in harms way, leading to many of the humorous scenarios in the series. This seems like a straightforward premise for a Shonen Jump manga, at least initially. While the manga is only 12 chapters in, it has been getting more and more unpredictable with each new chapter. A chapter can be as chaotic as Shugomaru resurrecting characters from a recently ended manga or as heartfelt as a playboy helping an assassin come to terms with their gender identity. This unpredictability continues in chapter 8, which features a rather surprising and vulgar gag.
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In chapter 8, Shugomaru and Sanagi must battle against the assassin Mushroom Oikaze, who fights utilizing mushrooms. His time spent researching fungi transformed his appearance into that of a giant mushroom. Or at least, that’s one interpretation of his appearance. As the immature Shugomaru points out, his head also looks like a "big ol' ding-dong." The manga really takes this joke and runs
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