Ayakashi Triangle
Ayakashi Triangle sometimes abbreviated as AyaTri, is a Japanese fantasy romantic comedy manga series written and illustrated by Kentaro Yabuki. It was serialized in publisher Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from June 2020 to April 2022, and was transferred to the Shōnen Jump+ website where it continued until September 2023. Shueisha has collected and published its individual chapters into sixteen volumes. The manga has been licensed for English release in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment, and Shueisha also simultaneously publishes the series in English and Spanish for free on the Manga Plus app and website. An anime television series adaptation by Connect aired from January to September 2023.
Ayakashi Triangle focuses on exorcist ninja Matsuri Kazamaki, as he tries to defend his childhood friend and love interest, the beautiful Ayakashi Medium Suzu Kanade, from evil spirits called ayakashi. However, during a battle to save Suzu's life, Matsuri is turned into an attractive silver-haired girl after being cursed by Shirogane, the King of Ayakashi. With no apparent way to reverse the transformation, Matsuri is forced to live publicly as a girl in the foreseeable future as he and Suzu deal with both the friendly and the malicious ayakashi they encounter as well as their growing romantic feelings for each other, all while trying to break Matsuri's curse for him to return to his original male form.
Synopsis
Setting
The story of Ayakashi Triangle takes place in the fictional located in the countryside of Japan. Unbeknownst to its citizens, Omiko is also populated by spirits that are invisible to most people. The few individuals able to see ayakashi are those who possess a large amount of at least one of the two energies that humans are composed of: the life energy, and the spiritual energy. An example of such is the a rare type of human who over-secretes haku, the energy from which ayakashi are entirely made of; for this reason, the Ayakashi Medium is worshiped by the majority of ayakashi as a deity-like figure.Although ayakashi in general are amicable and pacific towards humans, there are malicious and wicked ayakashi that endanger their lives. To counter the threat they pose as well as to protect the public from dangerous ayakashi, clans exist that consist entirely of exorcist ninja whose strengthened kon allows them to perform jutsu and other extraordinary feats. These clans work directly under the Exorcist Ninja Association, a secret organization founded by the government of Japan hundreds of years prior to the start of the series. The Association supplies local agents across the country with knowledge about ayakashi, training to combat them, and special equipment; this last one is provided by tool shops that also double as regular stores for the wider community.
Premise
and Suzu Kanade are childhood friends with long-standing crushes on each other who share the ability to see ayakashi. While Matsuri is descendant of a line of exorcist ninja who protect people from evil ayakashi, Suzu is an Ayakashi Medium whose power draws many ayakashi to her. However, Matsuri learns Suzu's growing power will inevitably bring ayakashi to try to devour her to get more power, so he decides to protect Suzu by exorcising the evil ayakashi that approach her. Years later, on the day before the pair were to start high school, Suzu is attacked by Shirogane, the but is saved by Matsuri. Unable to beat him, Matsuri seals away most of his powers into a scroll, but before he does, Shirogane puts a curse on Matsuri that turns him into a girl, hoping the transformation will ruin any chance he and Suzu have of becoming a couple in the future. As Suzu helps Matsuri to adjust to his new life as a girl, Shirogane plots to regain his power and devour Suzu.Production
Concept and creation
In 2019, mangaka Kentaro Yabuki published the one-shot manga in the 11th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump on February 9, as part of the magazine's "J Romcom Festival!" for Valentine's Day celebrations. This one-shot would later be used by Yabuki as a source of inspiration for him to create Ayakashi Triangle, with the manga featuring a premise similar to that of Reo × Leo, although there was no ayakashi in the one-shot, a significant difference that would only be shown in the manga. Reo × Leo focused on a normal high school student named and her childhood friend a martial artist boy who is magically gender-swapped into a girl by his father; Yabuki reused the characteristics of both characters, including their personalities and designs, to conceive the main protagonists of Ayakashi Triangle, Matsuri Kazamaki and Suzu Kanade.In May 2021, Yabuki commented that when he created the primary setting of Ayakashi Triangle, Omiko City, he modeled the designs of the scenario after an unspecified area near Odawara, located in Kanagawa Prefecture.
Development
In Ayakashi Triangle, one of the most outstanding elements present in its plot is the constant display of female nudity, as in the 37th chapter of the manga, in which Suzu is initially seen taking a shower and spends the entire chapter naked, with special focus dedicated to her body. Other elements observed are the use of panty shots, revealing or sexualized clothing, groping, and other representative cases of sexual overtones that can be considered as ecchi or as qualifiers for anything related to erotic and simply content. In digitally released chapters, the intimate parts of the female characters' bodies, such as the vagina and nipples, are censored. However, the printed volumes of the manga show the latter exposed and in detail.The previously mentioned elements of Ayakashi Triangle are commonly associated with Yabuki's works, especially his earlier manga series Black Cat, To Love Ru, and the latter's continuation To Love Ru Darkness ; the first series was created solely by Yabuki, while the last two manga were only illustrated by him, with writer Saki Hasemi as co-creator of the To Love Ru franchise alongside Yabuki. Unlike To Love Ru, the sexual content seen in Ayakashi Triangle is less explicit and prominent than its own, due to the fan service not being one of the main focuses of the manga as it was in To Love Ru, although the graphic and sexual intensity of many scenes in Ayakashi Triangle is still higher when compared to other manga series. Furthermore, the occasional cameo appearances of To Love Ru characters in Ayakashi Triangle confirm that the two series are not only canonical to each other but also coexist in the same fictional universe. For instance, the character Run Elise Jewelria makes a brief appearance in the 4th chapter of Ayakashi Triangle, and Kyouko Kirisaki is indirectly alluded to in the 8th chapter of the manga.
Cultural references
Ayakashi Triangle is notable for focusing on legendary creatures that are notable in Japanese folklore and mythology, with the aforementioned ayakashi as the central point of the series. In legends, ayakashi are yōkai that appear above the surface of some body of water, whereas in the manga, ayakashi is the collective name to refer to the variety of spirits that inhabit the world, in addition to having subspecies such as the tsukumogami, a type of ayakashi that take over inanimate objects. A secondary focus in Ayakashi Triangle is Japanese culture. An exemplification of this is how some of the manga's drawings pay homage to the classic style of Japanese art. Another case worthy of observation is that Matsuri is constantly seen wearing a fundoshi, which is a traditional Japanese undergarment for adult men.Up until the 35th chapter of Ayakashi Triangle, the manga had a predominant emphasis on mythological figures from Japanese folklore. As of the 36th chapter, the series started to address supernatural beings from other cultures, with the character Rochka being the first non-Japanese creature seen in Ayakashi Triangle. Rochka, whose name is an abbreviation for Snegurochka, is generally depicted in Russian fairy tales as the embodiment of winter and the granddaughter of Ded Moroz. Described as a "magical Russian loli", she is believed to be the Russian equivalent of Yuki-onna, yōkai that appear as beautiful women in icy, snowy or mountainous regions.
Themes and analysis
The series' main theme is about sexual orientation, and how the romantic attraction that one person feels for another is unrelated to their sex or gender. In Ayakashi Triangle, this is addressed mainly in the interactions between Matsuri and Suzu; the latter's behavior in the manga strongly reflects that of someone who is uncertain of their sexual preferences, as Suzu constantly questions herself in several chapters of the series if it is acceptable for her to pursue a relationship with Matsuri, regardless of whether or not they are of the same sex. Also, Matsuri is forced to examine his romantic interest for the same sex, a situation analogous to that of a person who suddenly realizes that they have feelings for someone of the same gender. The above theme coincides with Yabuki's statement in July 2020 that he plans to include various "relationship triangles" in the manga that go beyond just romance.Publication
Ayakashi Triangle, written and illustrated by Kentaro Yabuki, started in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump on June 15, 2020. The series finished in the magazine on April 18, 2022, and was transferred to the Shōnen Jump+ website starting on April 25 of the same year. It ended its serialization on September 25, 2023. Shueisha has collected its chapters into individual volumes. Sixteen volumes were released from October 2, 2020, to December 4, 2023.Ayakashi Triangle has been licensed for simultaneous publication in North America as it is released in Japan, with its chapters being digitally launched by Viz Media on its Shonen Jump website. Shueisha also simultaneously publishes the series translated into both English and Spanish languages for free on the Manga Plus app and website. In January 2022, both Manga Plus and Viz Media's Shonen Jump revealed that they would not publish the series' 74th and 75th chapters. Viz Media retired the book volumes for purchase from their website. In March 2022, Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they had licensed the manga and will release it in uncut print and digital formats.