Basho Matsuo

Cover to the eBookJapan edition.

**Basho Matsuo** (松尾馬蕉) is a gag work by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro, serialized in Heibon Punch.

## Overview

In this "protagonist-lacking" series where the title character never plays the active role, the university student **Icha Kobayashi** goes to visit his mentor **Basho Matsuo** at the Tokiwa-so apartment complex. Upon his arrival, he finds that the other man has vacated the premises, leaving only a boat inside and a note for Icha to meet him in Tsushima. From here, Icha is taken on a long and winding journey to try to meet up with Basho, experiencing bizarre events along the way while wondering the mystery of his mentor's true identity and face.

Both characters take their names from famous poets of the Edo period, though this Kobayashi's given name is rendered as "Icha" rather than "Issa".

The idea for the series came about from Heibon specifying a work in which a main character wouldn't appear but which would still be centered around the unseen person. With inspiration from the movie *The Third Man* as well as *Waiting for Godot*, Icha's futile attempts to meet his mentor take him through one adventure after another.

## Characters

Aside from the characters original to this title, there is incorporation of Akatsuka's Star System with some outside series' characters existing in various roles and brief cameos. Most notably, Gen-chan of Let's La Gon is re-used for the company president who Icha meets mid-series. Akatsuka himself also appears in fourth wall-breaking introductions to chapters and in the finale.

### Icha Kobayashi

The protagonist, a simple yet hot-blooded young man on a mission to find Basho. However, each time he arrives at a place that Basho was said to be at, he only finds a note from Basho telling him where to meet next, with the other man always being one step ahead. Even so, he is still determined to achieve his goal.

In the final round, Icha hears Basho's voice come from the water after the rest of the cast leaps into a frog pond. He is left frustrated and angered by the fact he's never actually gotten to see his mentor, and after Basho "disappears" once again, he is left running in search of him until he finds a church.

The ultimate punchline reveals Icha staring in shock and awe at a crucified Jesus which bears eight digit hands and feet.

### Basho Matsuo

The unseen person of interest, who always leaves a location faster than Icha can arrive, but still making sure to leave behind each note on where he should go.

He is suggested to be more than just an ordinary man and something inhuman, as Icha and the readers twice get a glimpse of his hand only to witness that it's profoundly shriveled and bears eight fingers and fish scales.

Basho and Icha briefly reunite when Basho is sent to be an astronaut in space and Icha follows up there, but are separated once more when the giant space mushroom that Basho was riding on breaks up in re-entry to Earth, taking them in different directions. Nonetheless, he shows a sign of himself again when he writes "Welcome Chiyojo!" in the sky with his plane after Icha has taken her back to the city, and even illustrates a sky-penis for her.

A possible apparition of Basho is shown when Icha has to investigate a supposed yokai and discovers them to have eight-fingered hands. The next time Icha and Basho meet, he is shown to wear a ninja costume and mask to conceal his features. He is skilled at using his hands to hold many pens at once, as well as expertly play a violin.

### Company President

A short, unibrowed man who rules the company that Icha works at mid-series. Though he makes things difficult for the flustered Icha, he is instrumental in sending him to outer space after Basho.

Though Icha still journeys to try to find Basho at whatever locations he shows up, he winds up having to come back to his usual job with this man each time or wait for another lead.

### Chiyojo

An islander woman who Icha meets after crash-landing in her territory, and takes her back to his office. She is depicted in a highly caricatured blackfaced style with large lips and goes topless save for the strategically-placed breast coverings. Icha and the president attempt to make her a TV star, but her obsession with saying the word "Chintama" and her fixation on mens' testicles make things chaotic.

Her way of bearing children is suggested to be much different than the norm, as the company president is tasked with warming up three eggs that she had laid, which hatch and reveal triplets that bear a mix of both adults' features. She later has Icha do the same to more of her eggs, after she'd been assaulted by a strange man in a park. After this mini-arc and punchline, she is not seen again in the series until the final chapter's lineup of characters that Icha had met in his travels.

## Serialization

* Heibon Punch: April 4th to October 3rd issues for 1983

The series consists of 24 chapters in total, each covering a different adventure or gag situation that Icha is put through.

## Reprints

* Lied SP Comics: 1 volume
* Shogakukan: The Lied volume was digitized for the Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works DVD-ROM set, along with a print-on-demand version later being put out courtesy of ComicPark
* eBookJapan: 1 volume