JoJolion - Chapter 1
Summary
A young woman squats out in a field, contemplating whether she should stay hidden from a passing young man or not. She reveals that the two had kissed once in the past, yet she has no apparent current attraction to him. Therefore, she chooses to awkwardly avoid him and wait for him to go somewhere else, despite how dizzy squatting is making her. Turning her head, she suddenly notices a mysterious young man wearing a sailor's hat, buried in the ground. Startled, she jumps up as the man calmly looks around himself.
The woman narrates internally, detailing that the location of the scene is important. She introduces the Class-A Ichi River and the Hagi Bridge which spans across it. She declares that if the bridge is to be crossed from the south to the north side, one will find themselves in Momiji Ward, Morioh.[Note 1] The town has a population of 47,228 people, and has its own town symbol. The town's speciality is beef tongue, picked in Miso. Financially, the town is supported by tourism, having much area for holiday villas that stretch out to the coast which have been around since the age of Date Masamune; as well as, more recently, the remarkable microchip component manifacturing industry.
Further detailed is the earthquake which had happened on March 11, which badly hurt Morioh among other regions. According to the map made by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, central Morioh is 3 kilometers long and located on a plateu 15 meters above sea level, meaning the tsunamis caused by the aforementioned earthquake didn't cause as many victims or as much damage as other coastal areas had experienced. Still, it was a severe ordeal that forced some changes in the area. Late at night on the day of the earthquake, mountain-like protuberances rose from the ground without warning a few hundred meters inland from the coast, later becoming known as the Wall Eyes. Typically, said structures are 1 to 3 meters tall and 5 to 8 meters wide, although the tallest "walls" extend up to 15 meters. This fault line stretched 10 kilometers from north to south, as if, the young woman speculates, protecting the town from something that might come from the sea. However, they did block roads, waterways, electricity and fuel from getting through the town, being an inconvenience.
The Wall Eyes were originally named by the town's grade school kids. A researcher had tried to explain what the cause of the Wall Eyes could be, or even what they were in the first place, but there was a lack of prior investigation, and some of what he said was unreliable. According to the young woman, no one could explain the Wall Eyes. Her narration ends with the reveal that where she stands in the present is in fact the location of the Wall Eyes.
Worried, the woman asks the buried man if he is okay and what he is doing in the ground. Still not saying anything, the man looks at her and reaches out to her with his left arm. The woman hesitates to get closer, as the man could potentially be sick with a contagious disease, or he could attempt to assault her if she got too near. However, she notices a star-shaped birthmark above the man's shoulder, with bloody bite marks surrounding it. Even more worried, she tries asking the man questions again, then attempting to call the police for help. She reveals her name to be Yasuho Hirose, and gives the details of her location to the operator, being near the Wall Eyes and Lover's Cape, before hanging up.
All the more curious about the man's wound, she looks closer, deducing that the bite marks appear to almost be human. Using her phone to take a picture of the wound, she worriedly asks the man to say something. This time, the man does respond:
Suddenly, he faceplants, beginning to sink further into the ground. Putting her previous doubts aside, Yasuho grabs the man's arm and pulls to try and get him out. Putting his arm around herself, she succeeds, and the two collapse safely onto the ground. Questioning the hole which she had just pulled the man from, she suddenly notices that the photo she had taken earlier had something unexpected: The star-shaped birthmark was missing, and instead, a transparent bubble with the same birthmark engraved into it was floating just above the wound. Confused, she double-checks the man's current wound, only to see that the birthmark is still where she had originally seen it. Noticing the man is also completely naked, she glances down, shocked by what she sees.
At that moment, Joshu Higashikata shows up, inquiring what Yasuho is doing. Upon seeing her with the stranger, however, he becomes enraged, picking up a nearby rock and stepping towards the pair, asking how the man could do such a thing to "his" Yasuho. Yasuho, who hates Joshu and believes him to an idiot, tries to explain that Joshu has read the situation wrong, yet he hits her aside, raising the rock above his head. Before he can swing down, the now-conscious man stands up, blocking Joshu's arm with his own. Yet, the man is weak, and Joshu easily knocks him down. Overcome by his emotions of envy, Joshu swings the rock down, announcing that he will first kill the man and then himself. However, before he can complete the action, a bubble protrudes from the man's birthmark, causing it to disappear and become part of said bubble. Upon popping against Joshu, Joshu suddenly finds himself blinded, unable to see, claiming that his vision had been taken from him. The man takes this oppurtunity to punch Joshu in the stomach, restoring Joshu's vision while also causing him to vomit. Both men collapse to the ground, and Yasuho is left bewildered by the situation, questioning what the mysterious man had just done to her childhood friend, Joshu.
Narrating again, Yasuho proclaims that this is a story about breaking a curse - one interpretation being an impurity that has been handed down through generations due to a sin committed by an unknown, distant ancestor, such as the hatred that continued to exist after Sakanoue no Tamuramaro subjugated the Emishi;[Note 2] Another interpretation being the friction between what is morally "black" or "white", as defined by the first humans. Regardless, a curse is something which must be broken if defeat is to be prevented. Yasuho is plagued by many questions surrounding the mysterious man, and questioned if what she had just witnessed was a hallucination. Even more disturbing is the unforgettable image of what she had seen when looking at the man's crotch: four testicles.
Appearances
Author's Comment
Author's NoteGallery
Ultra Jump June 2011
Ultra Jump June 2011 clean artwork
Cover B clean artwork
Ultra Jump page 4, colored
Page 4, colored
JJL Volume 1, Monochrome Tailpiece
JJL Volume 1, Colored Tailpiece
Rough Drafts
Idea notes for meeting with editor (Japanese)
Idea notes for meeting with editor (English)
Outline before panel layout. Dialogue only.
Panel layout, Page 25
Panel layout, Page 26
Panel layout, Page 27
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Manuscripts
Trivia
- The Tohoku earthquake used as a basis for the earthquake that hit Morioh occurred just two months prior to this chapter's publication. Araki lost his ancestral house in Sendai (the town Morioh itself is based on) during the Tohoku earthquake; the house was destroyed by the tsunami following the earthquake, which shocked Araki.[2]
References
- ↑ Ultra Jump No. 6, 2011
- ↑ Kahoku Shimpo, October 10, 2014. https://twitter.com/TadTwi2011/status/524350047404580864?s=20
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