Hakutaku: Research Notes

Tucker

Six Word Summary: No one cares about augmented reality.

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Title: 

•  Hakutaku 白卓

  • Hah-kɯ-tah-kɯ

  • Written as “white table,” but is a homophone of the hakutaku (白澤 ), a youkai originating from Chinese myth that is associated with knowledge and good luck (see https://yokai.com/hakutaku/) 

Author

• Ishikawa Kouki 石川光貴

  • Ee-shee-kah-wah, Koh-kee

Characters

• Hikuma Daidai 日隈橙

  • Hee-kɯ-mah, Dah-ee-dah-ee

  • “Daidai” means “bitter orange” written with a single kanji, which is a really bizarre personal name!

• Morimoto-Sensei 森本

  • Mo-ree-mo-toe

• Sano 佐野

  • Sah-no

  • Means “left field,” which is appropriate for a soccer player

• Noto Raika 能登來暇

  • No-toe Rye-kah

  • Raika is written “the next period of free time” which seems pretty deliberate

• Seo Zenjj

  • Say-oh, Zen-jee

• Kitamiya

  • Kee-tah-mee-yah

• Kobuka

  • Koh-bɯ-kah

• Seo Mizuki

  • -Say-oh, Mee-zɯ-kee

• Akamine Nakaba

  • Ah-kah-mee-nay, Nah-kah-bah

Other

• “Pixel Summit”

  • A fictionalized version of Bit Summit, the indie game showcase in Kyouto that dramatically raised the profile of the indie game scene in Japan.

MaxyBee

Six word summary: beta version released as full product

Manga Details

• Kouki Ishikawa

  • Notable people they were an assistant for

    • Yuki Tabata (of Hungry Joker fame) on Black Clover

  • Notable people they had as assistants

    • None known

  • Other works

    • This is Ishikawa’s debut serialisation, but they have previously produced these one-shots:

      • My Neighbour Santa (2012, Treasure Award Winner)

      • Nejiyama-san (2014, Weekly Shonen Jump, Golden Future Cup entry)

      • Jekyll’s Familiar (2017, Weekly Shonen Jump, ANOTHER Golden Future Cup entry)

      • Harada Metal Lifeform (2019, Jump GIGA)

      • Intense Complete Soccer Club (2021, Weekly Shonen Jump)

      • Fujisawa Zombie Time Blues (2021, Shonen Jump Plus)

• Publishing

  • Run Dates: 

    • September 22nd, 2024 to February 2nd, 2025

  • Series it replaced

• Jujutsu Kaisen by Gege Akutami (30 vols, MEGA HIT)

• Series that replaced it

  • Nothing yet, weirdly. Three series ended, only two began.

• Series that started at the same time as it

  • Ichi the Witch by Osamu Nishi and Shiro Usazaki (1+ vol, looking like a hit)

  • Shinobi Undercover by Ippon Takegushi and Santa Mitarashi (1+ vol, doing okay)

    • (same team as Candy Flurry)

• Chapters/Volumes: 

  • 18 chapters/2 volumes (speculative, only 1 volume released as of recording, could be 3 vols with one-shots)

Manga Itself / Misc thoughts

• Identifiable consoles on the first page:

  • Nintendo Switch

  • Nintendo Gamecube

  • Nintendo 64

  • Steam Deck

  • Playstation

  • Playstation 2

  • Nintendo 3DS

  • Playstation Vita

  • Playstation 5

• Consultancy credit on Hakutaku goes to MyDearest Inc., a developer of VR games (including a VR port of popular indie game Exit 8), and their graphics programmer Junya Yamamoto. One wonders if this specialisation in non-traditional games is why the manga characters kept making Augmented Reality games instead of anything interesting. 

  • From chapter 10 ENDROLL, K.K. Also consult. They appear to make AR apps for phones, which is appropriate for what the characters keep making, I guess.

• The FPS Noto and her acquaintances are predator rank on in chapter 3 is, of course, Apex Legends.

• The game of the year award alluded to in chapter 6 is the one from Geoff Keighley’s  The Game Awards, and their iconic stage set is on view in the same scene.

• Tucker has acknowledged elsewhere that Pixel Summit is a reference to Japanese indie event Bit Summit, this is just me also nodding to that observation.

• The final chapter had a minor edit post-release in English. Originally, Noto ended a sentence with kek, now it ends with lawl. This change was presumably made to avoid association with members of gamergate, and as such the gross culture wars surrounding video games at any given moment. Or maybe they didn’t want you to think Noto played World of Warcraft, who can say.