The Collapse of the Sheeh! Religion

Frontispiece for story, with the cast list.

**The Collapse of the Sheeh! Religion** (シェー教の崩壊) is a 1996 one-shot by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro, done as commemoration for Akatsuka's 60th birthday and published in Big Gold magazine.

## Overview

By the time of Akatsuka's 60th birthday in 1995, Fujio Pro had been in a state of decline with the departure of some assistants and the decrease in published series, along with his alcoholism having increased. It was decided by Kenichiro Takai for all available members of Fujio Pro, current and past, to participate in crafting a new one-shot.

In total, 30 friends of Akatsuka participated in the project, most being assistants from Fujio Pro history though some former mainstays such as Kunio Nagatani and Takayoshi Minematsu were not present.

The work touches upon parodying the infamous religious cult of Aum Shinrikyo, which had been responsible for the then-recent sarin gas attack of March 20, 1995.

In the work, Iyami (taking the alias of "Ashoko Iyami") visually parodies the founder of Aum Shinrikyo, Shoko Asahara. He sets about on kidnapping a king's daughter and crafting the all-Japanese religious force Sheetian (a parody of "Satian", a sect of Aum Shinrikyo). Iyami demands a ransom to be paid for the princess' return and employs the Matsuno sextuplets to retrieve it. The ultimate fate of Iyami and his cult unfolds through these events...

## Artists for the feature

The art through the comic shifts many times, and though some panels feature artists' signatures to identify the style, there are many times it is left for the readers to deduce who drew what.

* Fujio Akatsuka: Composition for opening pages, inked and colored by assistants
* Kenichiro Takai
* Mitsutoshi Furuya
* Kenichi Kitami
* Yoshiko Tsuchida
* Kazuyoshi Torii
* Tsutomu Adachi
* Keiji Terashima
* Jin Kawaguchi
* Makoto Iwasaki (as "Fujio Pro")
* En Yamamura (as "Fujio Pro")
* Kenji Morita

## Characters

Many Akatsuka characters show up in the plot along with even a few other authors' works as cameos (particularly *No-Good Father* and *Marude Dameo*).

The series of Osomatsu-kun, The Genius Bakabon, Extraordinary Ataro, Akko-chan's Got a Secret!, Hennako-chan, and Let's La Gon can be said to be represented to different degrees. Bakabon himself is listed in the cast billing at the start of the one-shot, yet is not seen among the rest of the characters.

### Iyami

A long-haired, large-toothed and shady guru who recruits children under his watch to help spread his cult. He easily makes off with the princess, and delivers the ransom call to her father. Before he takes on the Shoko Asahara look, he is shown to be his usual appearance and wearing a golden-colored suit in the opening pages.

In the end, he is brought two karinto by Osomatsu and given the choice to eat one, but winds up eating the poisoned one filled with "karin" against the boy's attempts to explain not to eat it. After performing one last "Sheeh!", he drops dead and his cult falls apart.

### Hennako-chan

The young daughter of the king, abducted by Iyami for ransom. This is specifically the recent 1990s version of Hennako, who had appeared in the Weekly Josei series that had ended in 1994.

Iyami wishes for her to refer to him as "Guru-Papa", but she instead calls him "Gero-Papa" ("Puke-Papa") and "Biro-Papa" ("Nyeeh-Papa", in her sticking out her tongue).

### Akko-chan

A young girl working under Iyami as one of his subjects, shown with Beshi and Kemunpas accompanying her. She joins in on showing the cultists how to "Sheeh!".

### Bakabon's Mama and Hajime

Briefly shown as cultists brought to the stage by Iyami.

### Dayon

Shown attempting to bring Iyami an offering of ramen.

### The Sextuplets (Osomatsu, Ichimatsu, Karamatsu, Choromatsu, Todomatsu, Jyushimatsu)

Six young boys from Tokyo who become part of the cult. During their attempt to retrieve a ransom, Choromatsu aims to defect from the group after impulsively kissing and falling in love with a middle-aged man, though he is later shown to have rejoined the others (either by art mistake or in actuality) by the time they run into Bakabon's Papa.

In their introduction, after Osomatsu, Ichimatsu, and Choromatsu properly introduce themselves, the other three boys instead sing and quote the lyrics to the Yanmar Weather Broadcasting theme (with two taking the parts of the twin mascots Yanbo and Marbo).

### Chibita

Another young boy in Iyami's cult, who requests leave to go eat oden. He is later attacked by the sextuplets for his oden, which they aim to collect as the ransom. After seeing Choromatsu and Yoshio's romance happen, he and Hatabo embrace.

### Ataro, Dekoppachi, Batsugoro

Ataro and Dekoppachi are shown mocking Chikako as "ugly" when she drops by their vegetable store, while Batsugoro floats and observes the situation.

### Boss Kokoro and Kopun A and B

The three are briefly shown after the above scene.

### "Yoshio"

Otherwise known as a certain Kaoru-chan. He approaches the boys after their fight with Chibita and asks them if they know the meaning of a man's love. A flustered Choromatsu steps forth, to the shock of his brothers and Chibita, and makes out with Yoshio.

### Dekapan

Seen to be beaten up by the remaining sextuplets after the incident with Yoshio. Upon trying to strip his pants off, one of the boys comments that his unseen body parts are huge (*dekai*) too.

### The Police Officer with the Connected Eyes

Attempts to stop the sextuplets' harassment of Dekapan, but is beaten up and stripped by them, only to reveal that their genitalia can fire much like a gun.

### Bakabon's Papa

Shown kicking down Rerere no ojisan after he asks if he's going out. He tries to confront the sextuplets, but is beaten up and stripped as well. He encounters Nyarome and gets into a fight with him, resulting in some of Nyarome's lineart vanishing.

## Reprints

* Shogakukan: Included in the "1990s" volume of the "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works" DVD-ROM set. A print-on-demand version was also made available courtesy of ComicPark.

Other than this, there has been no current print or digital re-release of the one-shot.

## External Links

* Documentary on the one-shot: Fujio Akatsuka and His Unbelievable Friends (Japanese)