Manga Capture Depository

Donated by Stephen (unless otherwise noted)

Frequent contributor Stephen, in addition to being the Frank Zappa of manga-inspired web comics, has an absurdly extensive manga collection, and has privileged us with a peek into some panels that are relevant to this site. These pictures appear maybe once in every 30,000 manga panels, if that, so be thankful that we have so many in one place!

asuna.jpg: This is Asuna from Maison Ikkoku, pregnant with twins. I'm pretty sure this is from the final chapter. Stop blushing, Asuna... it's beautiful!

chameleon.jpg Chameleon (known in America as "Bite Me! Chameleon") is a manga about high-school gangsters. In this picture, one of said gangsters is having a weird fantasy/nightmare about getting a classmate pregnant.

cloudworld.gif: This comes from Wanderers In The Cloudworld, by Aro Hiroshi. These are not regular characters-- they were brought in to lend even more tragedy to a mass execution scene. Yay, fun.

dekinai.gif: The star of this "Let's Nupunupu" scan is Dekinai, who is quite literally "The 'I Didn't Do It' Boy," because that's what his name means. Here he's helping a woman give birth, and he's telling her to push and persevere... and then there's something about a cow and I have NO idea what is going on here. Maybe he thinks her breathing exercises sound like mooing or something.

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hen2.gif: A classic storyline: boy meets girl, boy sleeps with girl, boy and girl exchange sexes, girl and boy sleep togther to get their sexes back, girl gets pregnant and is thus stuck in female form. It's old and corny, yes, but some of us never tire of these formula stories.

itazura.jpg: This is a shoujo comic called "Itazura Kiss," Neither Stephen nor I know much about it, because it was a gift from one of his co-workers, but here's a translation of the dialogue:

kerokerofurokki.gif: Mizuta Kyoryu is the guy to go to if you want happy cute characters doing the most twistedly perverse things you can think of. Our star in this scan is Rana-chan, who was born when someone threw a used condom into a rice paddy, and so she has a number of froglike characteristics, one of which is a quick gestation period. She doesn't suspect she might be pregnant yet, but in the next strip she starts spouting gooey strings of eggs, yum.

kingofneko.gif: King Of Neko is the newest manga by Ono-sensei, and his first that wasn't based on some corporate project like Pokemon or Zelda. This woman may or may not be pregnant-- we don't get a full-body view of her, but her dress seems awfully puffy in front. Check it out and draw your own conclusions.

madmatic.jpg More fun from Akira Toriyama... this is the final scene from a story that was a parody of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. (Don't ask what connection this has with Mad Max, though.)

mamadiet.jpg: From Collet, a comic for women. This issue focused on diet and exercise. Here's a cute picture of a woman caught up in an intense exercise class... can't say I really dig the inner fetal view, tho'.

midoripreg.jpg: This is Midori, a character from Dr. Slump, a gag manga created by the legendary Akira Toriyama (the Dragon Ball Z guy). Here's an amazing, dramatic picture in which she reveals her pregnancy to the rest of the house. I'm not sure what "Hoyoyooo!" means, but I'm guessing it's something like "Oy Gevalt!" or maybe a long, drawn-out wolf whistle.

midori.jpg: Another picture of Midori, getting examined by the nurse to determine the cause of her enormity. The real reason, though, is simply because Toriyama thought it would be funny if she got really big. Hell YEAH it's funny! BANZAI TORIYAMA!

Misae

• kureyoncover.jpg Meet Misae, the mom from the long-running, well-loved, VERY crudely drawn manga called Crayon Shin-Chan. This is the cover to the collection showing her pregnancy and birth experience, which I recently acquired a copy of.
• kickboxing.gif: This page is basically a sight gag, but gives a pretty good example of Shin-chan's mindset. Remember to read right to left.
• maternityrider1.gif: Misae has a weird dream about being "Maternity Rider," a sentai heroine. In the transformation panel, she's yelling "Ninshin (Pregnancy)!" That's a pun on the common superhero transformation cry, "Henshin (Change)!".
• maternityrider2.gif: I never considered toilet paper as a particularly motherly weapon... the Maternity Body Attack was a given, though.
• shinbadge.jpg: The horror! The horror!

notasumou.jpg: From Hentai Kamen (Masked Pervert), a goofy gag comic about a superhero who gains his power from sniffing panties. (It sounds weird, but let's not point fingers-- here in the US, he'd probably have been bitten by a pair of radioactive panties.) Here, he's hiding at a temple and listening to people's prayers; first some baseball players come and pray for victory, then a tennis group, and finally what he first thinks is a sumo wrestler-- but no, it's just a woman praying for her child to be born safely!

norikosmom.jpg: Another lovely picture from Jigoku Sensei Nuube. This is the mother of Noriko, a regular character, who in this panel is about to receive a sibling.

okusan1.gif: One Pound Gospel is one of Rumiko Takahashi's lesser arcana, a sports comic about a boxer who likes to eat, and a nun who helps him resist temptation, to maintain his flyweight status. This story had to do with one of his opponents, for whom the support of his pregnant wife was his major reason for fighting.

okusan2.gif: She's a pretty grouchy woman, for the most part; there are images of her smiling, but none of them occur when she's visibly pregnant.

okusan3.gif: What you call "defused," she calls "cheerful." At least her hubby seems not to want to avoid her during her pregnancy, not what you might expect from a steroid-fueled athlete who takes punches to the head.

paranoiya.gif: From the same person as the Cloudworld picture above, but a much more cheerful scene-- that favorite pastime of 'Morning Zoo' DJs, the pregnant bikini contest. This one was apparently organized by former President William H. Taft.

psteve01.gif: If the game Parasite Eve is anything like this panel from the accompanying manga, I'm going to have to buy a PSX very very soon... (donated by I Sing The Songs)

rocketsandlove.jpg: This is from one of my favorite manga of all time-- Toshihiro Ono's Pokemon. Although he was hired to simply translate anime episodes into manga, he (in my opinion) improved on the story immensely, making all of the things I can't stand about the cartoon much more enjoyable. Nowhere is this more apparent than his representation of Team Rocket, who were much less obnoxious than their animated counterparts, and eventually ended up being on almost friendly terms with Ash and company, not to mention one another. Strangely, I'd had this comic for a while, but it wasn't until Stephen pointed it out that I noticed that Jessie is pregnant in this picture... could I get any dumber?

sagirisbaby.jpg: Remember Kasumi? This is one of her friends, another ninja woman... toward the end of the comic, she started a family of her own. Is it just me, or is she unusually busty, even for a pregnant woman?

shortkatsu.jpg: Short Cuts is an extremely funny manga that brings to mind a Japanese Doonesbury, but focused on kogyaru (or "Ko-gals" in the English translation), which is the mythical teenage girl concept that is so fetishized by the mass media. This charming story is about a boy who was so unremarkable that he was able to always stay with the girl he loved, even though she never knew he was there. This scan was provided by Full Metal Jackass.

tonchinscan.jpg: A panel from Tsuide Ni Tonchinkan, the comic that eventually molted and became Miracle Tonchinkan. The pregnant woman shown here had the misfortune to go into labor in the presence of Nukesaku (the bald two-tooth freak in the corner), whose aura of weirdness caused her baby to be born as a chain-smoking Uncle Duke-like yakuza gangster-baby!

Toudai

• toudai1.gif: Toudai isn't this girl's name, it's a nickname for her school, Tokyo Daigaku. However, since we're lacking her real name and I don't want people to call her "Pregsie McButtersex" or anything dumb like that, we shall call her Toudai anyway. So. Look at Toudai! Drink her in, she's posing and everything!
• toudai2.gif: In this issue, Toudai and her friend, also pregnant, went for a walk around the city.
• toudai3.gif: They air their grievances about pregnancy, and the various enjoyable aspects as well.
• toudai4.gif: ....And suddenly she's in labor. A long, protracted, remarkably enjoyable-looking labor.
• toudai5.gif: Many modern labor coaches teach the healing power of touch; in fact, they often recommend that when having a baby, the parents get naked and start making out.
• toudai6.gif: I'm serious, man, it doesn't look like labor, it looks like an intensely syrupy sex scene.
• toudai7.gif: You're all thinking 'sweat', right? Well, I saw this picture and I thought 'butter.' I must be kinkier than I thought.

  vanallenbelt.jpg: From the title, "Let's Nupunupu", you can already guess that this is one weird manga. This is a Valentine's Day strip from when Kazeko, the mother, was pregnant for the second time. Her daughter Yoshie is asking why chocolates are exchanged on Valentine's Day, and in looking it up in the dictionary, Kazeko confuses Valentine's Day with the Van Allen Belt, a cosmic band of highly charged particles between Earth and her moon. Thus, they arrive at the conclusion that they're about to be irradiated into oblivion! So it's off to the front yard to dig a bomb shelter... as Stephen put it, she may be eating for two, but she isn't thinking even for one. (Oh, and her baby turned out to be a necromantic half-fly, half-baby monster. Why can't I write stuff like this?)

Anime Captures

Captured by Invisible Walrus

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The ever-delightful Invisible Walrus has brought some nifty screencaptures for us. Pregnancy may be rare in manga, but it's as common as ninjas by comparison when you look at anime. Here are two exceptions: The first two pictures come from Cowboy Bebop, featuring a woman who, unfortunately, isn't actually pregnant, and even more unfortunately, gets shot at the end of the episode. The second two are from Kodomo no Omocha, or "Kodocha: Sana's Stage" as we Sarah Dyer fans know it. This is a flashback to before bad-boy Akito was born. His mother died in childbirth, however, so his dad and sister blame him. ...Do you see a trend here? What does this say about the mass-media representations of motherhood in Japan?