Mosaku Anchu

Created by Matsunaga Anshindo

“Glabble”?

For those of you out there (or maybe just Jan) who just can’t get enough of P.I.’s and hippos, you might want to check out the online manga adventures of MOSAKU ACHU, wherein the Japanese private eye confronts the nefarious (and politically incorrect) “The Case of the Oriental Hippo.”

It was one of a series of surreal (and admittedly amateurish-looking) four or five panel strips that appeared in a short blast of online manga from 1995-2000, and one of the relatively few to have been translated into some sort of English. So, I guess I should warn you that almost all of the info about this character and the strips are in Japanese, so almost everything I’m writing here is pencilled in the air.

Still, we’re told Mosaku is “a very good private investigator and has solved many difficult cases,” that he has an assistant, Mr. Kanemistu, and a police buddy, referred to only as “Inspector,” and a rather extravagant mustache hovering below where his nose should be.

But none of the gags seem to make much sense to me (although fans of  loopy non-sequiturs and broken English will love it!). It’s sort of amusing trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

As Mosaku would have put it, “Please alarm somebody in moderation.”

WEB COMICS

• MOSAKU ANCHU, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR
  (1995-2000, www.shonan.ne.jp)
  Written & drawn by Matsunaga Anshindo
  English translation: Katsuko M. Clarke
  • “Private Investigator Mr. Mosaku Anchu”
  • “Chase”
  • “Private Investigator in the Sky”
  • “The Bellybutton Fashion”
  • “Frog”
  • “Rest”
  • “Anger”
• “The Case of the Oriental Hippo”
  • “With a Notice”
  • “The Private Investigator Mosaku Anchu”
  • “Secret Strategy”
  • “Oriental Hippo’s Selection”
  • “Case of Emergency”
  • “Place of Shelter”
  • “Oriental Hippo’s Conceit”
  • “The Origin of an Incident”
• “Kiyo-chan at Seiundo (Coffee Shop)”
  • “Kiyo-chan at Seiundo (Coffee Shop)”
  • “Nervy-san”
• “A Criminal”
  • “Mosaku’s Plot”
  • “One Problem”
  • “Fee Negotiation”
  • “Who Do You Think I Am?”
  • “In the Dark”
  • “All Too Easy Ending”
  • “Disappearance of Loan Bond”
  • “Groundless Suspicion
• “Shamisen-Kid”
  • “Shamisen-Kid”
  • “He Appeared Suddenly”
• “Mr. Sarashina”
  • “Black Vest and Bow Tie”
  • “Mrs. Sarashina”
  • “The Reason of Missing”
  • “Mr. Sarashina?”
  • “Sink Deeply Into His Mind”
  • “A Person Who is Easy to Believe”
  • “Becoming Dead and Cold”
  • “Simple-minded”
• “I may not look as much, but…”
  • “I may not look as much, but…”
  • “I accept your opinion…”
• “Mr.Sadakichi”
  • “A Terrible Dream”
  • “A Wrong Person”
  • “Missing”
  • “Inconvenience”
  • “A Threatening Telephone”
  • “The Person You Are Waiting For Will Come”
  • “Reunion with a Best Friend”
  • “Six Years Ago”

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Big in Japan
  Japanese Eyes

Respectfully submitted (with his fingers crossed) by Kevin Burton Smith.