Inu Neko Jump!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Inu Neko Jump! | |
|---|---|
 Cover of volume 2 of the manga, with Yuki sporting Hattori's distinctive "cheesy grin" look. |
|
| イヌっネコっジャプ! (Inu Neko Jump!) |
|
| Genre | Romantic comedy, Sports |
| Manga | |
| Author | Mitsuru Hattori |
| Publisher |  Kodansha |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Original run | 2000 – 2001 |
| Volumes | 5 |
Inu Neko Jump! (イヌっネコっジャプ!? lit Dog Cat Jump!), catchline "Boy meets girl in the sky", is a Japanese manga by Mitsuru Hattori, published by Kodansha, that was serialised between 2000 and 2001. It is a romantic comedy about a group of high school students involved in track and field sports, specifically the long jump. The manga consists of 40 chapters (five volumes).
Contents |
[edit] Story
Teenage long jump prodigy Ozu Takahiro finds himself being stalked by a strange girl from his past who he can't remember, Yuki Horiguchi, who somehow knows about his secret childhood dream of jumping so far that he goes into orbit. Yuki, who is also a brilliant jumper, is a tsundere (aggressive yet taciturn) character who permanently wears a personal stereo with large headphones to blot out a world she is otherwise unable to cope with. From her arrival Yuki constantly interferes with Ozu's life, showing enormous jealousy towards all his female friends. Ultimately though Ozu and Yuki share a bond: they both secretly dream of jumping into orbit; and Yuki, whose late father turns out to have been an astrophysicist who made a space telescope currently in orbit, is determined to make this impossible dream come true for both of them.
Inu Neko Jump! contains many plot elements which are a staple of manga stories: a childhood promise or incident; a central male figure who is surrounded by a "harem" of interested females; an aggressive yet vulnerable female lead. However it develops these elements in its own way to create narrative tension: for instance the principal female, Yuki, is a constantly demanding person, yet fails to make clear what her demands are, and the childhood incident between herself and Ozu is not explained until the final chapters. Instead, and despite many boisterous acts and frequent flashes of the cheesy grin frequently sported by Mitsuru Hattori's characters, she remains ultimately an enigmatic and withdrawn figure, head permanently encased in headphones which serve as both an actual and symbolic refuge from the world. With the underlying theme in hiatus, the story dwells instead on rivalries between the various females, on the sporting ambitions of the various characters, and on developing various risqué sub-plots, all of which are ultimately discarded when the story finally returns to its roots.
[edit] Characters
- Ozu Takahiro
- Yuki Horiguchi
[edit] Publications
- ISBN 978-4-06-346074-2, published on 2000-09-08
- ISBN 978-4-06-346091-9, published on 2000-12-26
- ISBN 978-4-06-346105-3, published on 2001-05-09
- ISBN 978-4-06-346122-0, published on 2001-10-09
- ISBN 978-4-06-346141-6, published on 2002-03-08
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Inu Neko Jump! Official site (Japanese)
