幼いころからギャグ漫画が大好きでした。小学校低学年のときに週刊少年チャンピオンで読んだ「ガキデカ」の衝撃は忘れません。勝手に影響を受けて，隙あらば「死刑」のポーズをしては周りの失笑を買っていました。度が過ぎてコミックスを父親から取り上げられたのを懐かしく思い出します。その後，少年ジャンプの「トイレット博士」にハマり，二言目には「マタンキ」と言ってひんしゅくを買っていました。今思うと両作品とも画期的なすぐれた作品でしたが，幼い自分は作品の真価はわからぬまま，下品な下ネタに興奮していただけでした。
そんな中，単なる一発ギャグや下ネタとはちょっと違う，シチュエーションの可笑しみというものを感じさせるギャグ漫画に夢中になりました。週刊少年ジャンプ連載，江口寿史さんの「すすめ!!パイレーツ」です。
I’ve loved gag comics since I was a little boy. I’ve never forgotten the impact I felt when I read “Gaki Deka” in a weekly comic magazine named Shonen champion, as I was in the lower grade in elementary school. I was so influenced by the manga that I always struck a pose saying “Shikei” whenever I can. I look back with nostalgia on the day when my father took the comic away from me because I did it too much. After that, I was so into “Toilet Hakase” that I always tried to say “Matanki” anytime I can to end up being frowned on by others. Now I’m sure that I was just excited by some obscene gag without knowing how the works were valuable because I was too little to be able to know that.
Then I was absorbed in a gag manga which has something, so to speak, the humor of a situation, not just a quick, tricky gag nor obscene one. The manga was “Susume!! Pirates” by Eguchi Hisashi which had been serialized in Shonen Jump.
前回，Shiggy Jr.についてふれた際に，江口寿史さんのイラストにも言及しました。「すすめ!!パイレーツ」に惹かれたのも，まずは絵のうまさでした。出てくる女の子が実にキュートで，勝手に胸をときめかせていました。その上に，それまでに味わったことのないような可笑しみがちりばめられており，笑いが止まりませんでした。また，そのころの流行りや勢いのあったミュージシャン，他の漫画のパロディなどが巧みに作中に取り込まれていました。初めてサザンオールスターズを知ったのもこの作品においてでした。粳寅満次（うるとらまんじ）というキャラが隙あらば「今何時！」と歌ってみせて周りを翻弄する場面に大喜びしたのを覚えています。ギャグ漫画とはいえ，読む者の価値観を豊かにする作品があると思えば，サブカルというものの持つ力を今更ながら実感します。
Last time I wrote an article about a band named Shiggy Jr. and I mentioned Eguchi Hisashi’s illustration in the blog. The first reason why I was attracted by “Susume!! Pirates” was his great skill in illustrating. He illustrated girls so cute that I was excited by them with my heart pounding. On top of that, the manga was full of humor I had never felt before so I couldn’t stop laughing while I was reading it. Plus, some of the latest trends in those days, some popular musicians and parodies of other manga appeared in it, for example, I came to know the band Southern All Stars for the first time by reading it. I remember I was really overjoyed at a hilarious character named Ultra Manji who tried to shout “Ima Nanji!” whenever he got chances to do so having people around him at his mercy. Even though it was just a gag manga, I felt it had a power to widen readers sense of values so I’m realizing now how subculture has great effects to our life.
