Tactics (manga)

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tactics
Genre	Shounen, Action, Fantasy
Manga
Authored by	Sakura Kinoshita and Kazuko Higashiyama
Publisher
Serialized in	Comic Blade Masamune
Original run	–
No. of volumes	1-8 (ongoing)
TV anime
Directed by	Hiroshi Watanabe
Studio	Studio Deen
Network	Qtv 11
Original run	October 5, 2004 – March 29, 2005
No. of episodes	25

tactics is a manga series collaborated between Sakura Kinoshita and Kazuko Higashiyama. It is serialized and currently running in Comic Blade Masamune. Sakura Kinoshita supplied the character "Kantarou," and Kazuko Higashiyama supplied the character "Haruka." The manga was released in North America by ADV Manga in 2004. ADV manga will not be releasing any more Tactics manga. In April 2007, Tokyopop will release volume 1 of Tactics and will probably continue to release the series on a regular basis.

Contents 1 Story 2 Characters 3 Anime 3.1 Plot Summary 3.2 Music 3.3 Japanese Staff 3.4 Japanese Cast 4 Original Doujinshi by Mad Cookie Monster 5 External links

[edit] Story

Kantarou Ichinomiya is a young man with the ability to see goblins and other mythical beasts. He's made a full-time hobby out of it, writing books and articles on Japanese folklore while doing some freelance goblin hunting on the side. Rather than hunting them out of malice, though, Kantarou tracks down goblins because he wants to befriend them. When an assignment leads him to a rural shrine up in a mountain, Kantarou's life takes a momentous turn. The legendary demon-eating goblin is sealed in that shrine, and when Kantaro breaks the seal, he finds himself partnered up with the mighty creature he's been seeking since childhood. With his new, impeccably dressed goblin friend Haruka, Kantarou is surely prepared to take on all sorts of mystical tasks.

As Haruka's past slowly comes back to him, his relationship with his master starts to crack. Haruka struggles with his past and yearns to learn of everything he had forgotten, especially the identity of the person who had sealed him within the huge rock boulders. This is the point where Minamoto Raiko and his group of soldiers come in. Together with another formidable demon, Raiko and his attendants plot many plans to try and force Kantarou to cancel the name contract or make Haruka awaken his real powers, such that they would be able to capture Haruka and present him to "that person" whose identity is unknown. If the name contract is not cancelled or if the master dies, Haruka's power would forever be restrained and he would not be able to be used by the antagonists.

[edit] Characters

Ichinomiya Kantarou

Kantarou has gray hair and red eyes. He is the main character, an exorcist and a writer who is trying to find the legendary demon eating tengu. He's trying to find the tengu because of the fact that the tengu is so strong and he thought finding the tengu would make him stronger. His peers made fun of him when he was a child. They thought he had made up stories of youkai and they made fun of him and the youkai, saying there is no such thing as a youkai.

Haruka

Haruka has black hair with green highlights and hazel eyes, with black wings. He is the demon eating tengu that Kantarou has been trying to find. Kantarou unsealed him and named him Haruka. In the story, the person who names a youkai becomes its master. He goes with Kantarou on a journey, while because of Kantarou his true powers have been sealed and his memories are lost. He does not know who had sealed him or what had happened. His relationship with his master shattered when his memories starts to return.

Youko

Youko is a fox youkai that Kantarou had named and is living with Kantarou to do house chores. There's no further information about her but she plays a lot of the time with Suzu and Rosary. She often goes along with Kantarou's many schemes to make more money and is constantly pestering him to finish his manuscripts.

Sugino

Sugino is the god of the mountains and is often called Sugino-sama, since he is a god. He has long black hair and brown eyes. Unlike Haruka, he is a white-winged tengu and looks more like an angel. He's married to Muu which has turned into a joke, since Muu is this green thing and he's jealous since Muu always goes to visit Kantarou all the time.

Muu-chan

A green thing who is married to Sugino. She always says Muu and nothing else. She is able to vaccuum up youkai (as seen in episode 12 of the anime).

Ayame

A girl studying under Hasumi. She used to be able to see youkai but as she got older she lost the ability. She only appeared in one episode in the anime.

Hasumi Ryoukan

A scholar like Kantarou who usually fights with Kantarou since he believes that youkai are not real.

Raiko Minamoto

He is the man who tried to make Kantarou cancel the name contract with Haruka in order to make Haruka get his memories back and become the "real" demon eating tengu.

Watanabe

An ally of Raikou.

[edit] Anime

The animation studio Studio Deen adapted the manga of Tactics into a 25-episode anime series, which ran on Japanese television from October 5, 2004 to March 29, 2005.

[edit] Plot Summary

Ever since he was little, Kantarou (or Kan-chan as Youko calls him) has always been able to see and talk with youkai, and he swore that he would find the famous oni-eating tengu and become friends with it.

His search takes years as he endures the persistency of his editor to finish the latest manuscript and the nagging of Youko (a fox youkai), but finally he manages to meet with the oni-eating tengu and names him Haruka, thus binding him to his service. (In Tactics, a tengu cannot go against the will of the person who gave it its name.)

Now, as a famous ethnologist and 'youkai buster' on the side, along with Youko and Haruka, Kan-chan works to exorcise various youkai and oni that cause people trouble. However, as Haruka's sealed past catches up with them all, it will take more than a few exorcised demons to get them through these troubled times.

[edit] Music

A CD for season 1 will be released on 27 June 2006

Opening Theme

"Secret World" by MIKI

Ending Theme

"Mienai Chikara" by Akiyama Miki

[edit] Japanese Staff

Director: Hiroshi Watanabe

Series Composition: Kenichi Kanemaki

Dubbing Director: Kazuhiko Inoue

Script: Kanemaki Kenichi

Screenplay:

Hiroyuki Kawasaki

Katsuhiko Takayama

Masashi Kubota

Masashi Suzuki

Storyboard:

Chiaki Ima

Hiroshi Watanabe

Masashi Kojima

Mitsuko Oyake

Shinpei Miyashita

Episode Director:

Chiaki Ima

Hiroshi Watanabe

Shigeru Ueda

Music: Kei Haneoka

Character Design: Mariko Oka

Art Director: Michiyo Akutsu

Chief Animation Director: Mariko Oka

Animation Director:

Minefumi Harada

Miyako Tsuji

Youichi Ishikawa

Yukiko Ban

Director of Photography: Akio Abe

[edit] Japanese Cast

Kouki Miyata as Ichinomiya Kantarou

Takahiro Sakurai as Haruka

Tomoko Kawakami as Youko

Nana Mizuki as Suzu

Soichiro Hoshi as Sugino-sama

Omi Minami as Muu-chan

Matsukaze Masaya as Minamoto Raiko

Tobita Nabuo as Hatsumi

[edit] Original Doujinshi by Mad Cookie Monster

Sakura Kinoshita and Kazuko Higashiyama form a doujinshi circle called Mad Cookie Monster. They individually go by the pseudonyms Wasabi Katsuo and Wasabi Maguro, respectively. This circle has released many doujinshi for their own series, including Tactics, some of them containing explicit yaoi pornography. One of the rarest and best known of these titles is "Love Sick," a 72-page doujinshi containing an illustrated short novel and an explicit yaoi comic, featuring the pairing Haruka x Kantarou.

Mad Cookie Monster has also produced fan comics for other series, including Harukanaru Toki no Naka De.

[edit] External links

• Studio Deen's Official Tactics Website (Japanese)
• Official Tactics Manga Website (Japanese)
• Tactics @ FrontierWorks (Japanese)
• TV-Tokyo's Official Tactics Anime Website (Japanese)