Shueisha has continued to maintain radio silence regarding their removal of two chapters of Ayakashi Triangle from their digital Shonen Jump magazines.
Back in January, Shueisha banned Ayakashi Triangle Chapters 74 and 75 from both their Japanese Manga Plus app and English language partner Viz’s Shonen Jump app.
Since then, there has nothing but complete silence from either outlet outside of a vague confirmation statement by Viz on the series’ English language webpage informing readers simply that “Ayakashi Triangle chapters 74 and 75 will not be published on Shonen Jump.”
A romance/comedy/ecchi manga by Black Cat and To Love Ru mangaka Kentaro Yabuki, Ayakashi Triangle has been running Weekly Shonen Jump since June 2020.
In a world filled with roaming Ayakashi, evil spirits who can only be stopped by skilled ninjas, protagonist Matsuri finds himself cursed by one such spirit to live as a girl until the curse can be lifted (Think Natsume’s Book of Friends meets Ranma 1/2).
Ayakashi Triangle leans extremely on the ecchi side of the spectrum and has become known for pushing limits, with nudity and intimate contact serving as the basis for many of its jokes.
Admittedly, the jokes are very hit or miss, but we’ve seen more visually disturbing content in Jump series like Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw man.
Chapters 74 and 75 were published in Weekly Shonen Jump as normal in Japan, yet overseas the editors at Shueisha decided to refrain from releasing the chapters on Manga Plus.
Further, despite us – as well as many others – having reached out to multiple Shonen Jump editors for comment, we’ve heard nothing from anyone involved.
This silence has left the manga community curious as to what kind of risque content Yabuki put in these chapters of Ayakashi Triangle to make Shueisha feel the need to push the ban button. Fans have called it the one of the strangest moves out of Shueisha in a long time.
When the chapters were first banned back in January, the manga community leapt into action, providing a fan translation literally the same day they were released.
The content within chapters 74 and 75 is based around side character Lucy Tsukioka, an amateur detective currently investigating the ‘disappearance’ of the male Matsuri, unaware of his current predicament.
In chapter 74, Lucy’s investigation leads her to Matsuri’s home and she begins snooping around for clues.
Amidst her investigation, she discovers that a multiple-centuries-old Russian snow fairy ayakashi named Rochka has been living with Matsuri and pretending to be his little sister.
However, as Lucy is in complete denial about the existence of Ayakashi, she’s completely unable to see Rochka in her true form.
Eventually, Rochka gets fed up and moves to change into her real form, but as she begins to transform, she vanishes before Lucy’s eyes.
Shocked, Lucy reaches out to find her, only to wind up accidentally groping and inappropriately touching the Ayakashi.
Though Lucy finds herself somehow turned on by this, she still can’t see Rochka – and of course, Rochka freaks out and runs for help.
As for Chapter 75, its events are relatively tame in comparison to not only Chapter 74, but shonen manga in general.
After cooking dinner and cleaning up for the evening, Matsuri decides to draw a bath, only to be suddenly joined by a helpful Lucy who offers to wash her back.
What follows is a brief risqué scene in which Lucy, believing Matsuri to be an alien due to her odd behavior and unawares that this strangeness is a byproduct of her gender-switching curse, proceeds to sensually wash and move closer to her confused host.
“I want you to show it to me,” Lucy tells Matsuri, referencing what she believes to be her true alien form. “Your everything.”
Further, at the end of the chapter, Lucy’s bare chest and genitalia – slightly censored by small white flashes – can be seen on full display.
This kind of ecchi humor is typical for the series. The female Matsuri, herself only 16-years old, gets groped practically every chapter.
Yet one centuries old Ayakashi that looks like a loli gets into a similar situation and ‘NOPE, BANNED’.
I did a live reaction for each chapter and, compared to the rest of Ayakashi Triangle, found chapters 74 and 75 to be TAME.
http://https://youtu.be/yyn0qae-Tws
I mean, Chapter 75 is basically a typical chapter of Ayakashi Triangle, so the only reason I can speculate as to why chapter 75 was banned was because it was part of Lucy’s story arc.
http://https://youtu.be/8oWyUy1MoTA
What makes this whole situation even more interesting is that Ayakashi Triangle is getting an anime adaptation.
Hopefully, as the series is being produced by Aniplex, it won’t end up in an Interspecies Reviewers type of situation.
On March 23, 2022, Seven Seas announced that it will be licensing Ayakashi Triangle and releasing the series uncensored in single volume editions as part of their Ghost Ship imprint
The first volume is set to come out in November 2022 and retail for $13.99 USA / $17.99 CAN in print and on digital platforms.
As of writing, though it’s marketing as ‘uncut’ seems to imply as much, it is currently unknown whether Chapters 74 and 75 will be included in Seven Seas’ releases.
What do you make of the situation surrounding Ayakashi Triangle? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!