From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aoi House is a shōnen harem Original English-language
manga series written by Adam Arnold, with art by Shiei, and
published by Seven Seas Entertainment. The
story follows the misadventures of two down-on-their-luck college
guys named Alexis "Alex" Roberts and Sandy Grayson who are thrown
out of their college dorm and join an anime club dominated by
crazed yaoi fangirls.
It first appeared as a 36-episode webcomic written by Adam Arnold and illustrated by Jim Jimenez.
It initially ran from 24 January 2005 through 15 April 2005.
Aoi House quickly established itself as a "fandom harem
comedy."
Proving popular enough, Aoi House was re-launched by Seven Seas Entertainment as
part of its standard publishing line. For the re-launch, Shiei
(artist of Amazing Agent Luna) took over
as the illustrator leading to changes in the art style, as well as
additional changes to characters and alteration and expansion of
the story. The re-launch began serialization on the Seven Seas
Entertainment website in late May, around which time (27 May 2005)
a Aoi House theme song, performed by the J Brothers
entitled "Itsumo Futaride", was also released.
In January 2006, Aoi House 4-panel color koma began
appearing in Newtype USA.
Aoi House made its print debut on 15 May 2006 with the
release of the first volume.
New updates of Aoi House appeared every Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday at Gomanga.com and were accompanied by
blog-style entries called "Aoi Notes" by Adam Arnold.
On 19 January, IGN.com announced their "Top 10 Manga of 2006",
which picked Aoi House Vol. 1-2 as the #3 best manga of
the year behind Death
Note Vol. 7 (#2) and the Train Man (Densha Otoko) manga series (#1).[1]
Plot
Alexis "Alex" Roberts and Sandy Grayson are two college students
who get evicted from their dorm lodging due to several infractions
of the rules, including the showing of hentai anime.
Echiboo, Sandy's pet hamster, does not help matters when he scares
the Dean and exposes the fact the Dean is wearing a toupee. Told
they need to find new lodges by sundown, they start to search
campus for a place to live. In their search for lodging, Sandy is
shown to be an obsessive otaku,
while Alex is more focused on the reality of their situation.
Seeing a flyer for "Aoi House," which promises anime and manga viewing, Sandy becomes very excited with
the very idea of an anime club; Alex however is mostly happy to
have found possible lodging. As they head over to housing, Maria is
seen looking at the same flyer Sandy and Alex were just
thoughtfully reading.
Excited about finding the lodging they need before sundown,
Sandy and Alex hurry over to "AOI (Alpha-Omicron-Iota) House." Upon
arrival Sandy knocks a few times on the door but gets no answer, so
Alex takes the more direct approach and throws the door open. Once
inside Alex and Sandy are startled to find a room full of beautiful
girls watching anime. At this point Maria makes her own entrance
and, not knowing anyone is in the doorway, bumps into Sandy, who
stumbles into the room, landing against Elle's lap. Then with a hit
from Elle he falls into Jessica's chest. After Maria enters and
mentions her desire to join the lodge, Sandy and Alex express a
similar desire to the shock of all the girls. The girls at first
mistake Sandy and Alex as a gay otaku couple since they themselves
are "yaoi-crazed females."
Once the truth is revealed that Sandy and Alex are not truly gay
anime fans but two straight males, the girls have some fun with
Sandy and Alex in an attempt to turn them into yaoi-lovers, or at
least make them the lodge's token gay couple. Sandy and Alex learn
that Morgan, who made the flyer, left a few important details off
the flyer - the most important being that "AOI House" was
really "YAOI House," a college yaoi-otaku club turned sorority
using Greek letters to covertly express their hobby - the "Y" had fallen off the sign -
and straight ("perverted") male roommates were not what the girls
were looking for (at least at first). On top of all of this,
Echiboo almost gets them into deep trouble (again) by escaping from
his cage and crawling amongst a pile of Elle's panties. Elle was
already dead-set against allowing two straight males to join "Aoi
House." Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) for Sandy and Alex,
Nina allows them to stay, while Jessica points out to an irate Elle
that "Aoi House" needs members in order to keep their house as much
as Sandy and Alex need lodging.
Chapters
Aoi House Vol. 1
- Episode 1 - "Arrival"; 1 - 30
- Episode 2 - "Fangirl's Delight"; 1 - 27
- Episode 3 - "Echiboo's Big Adventure: Phase 1"; 1 - 21
- Episode 4 - "Echiboo's Big Adventure: Phase 2"; 1 - 20
- Episode 5 - "Mallpisode"; 1 - 17
- Episode 6 - "Food Courtin'"; 1 - 14
- Episode 7 - "Arcade Showdown"; 1 - 22
Aoi House Vol. 2 - "Fun & Games"
- Episode 8 - "Playful Secrets"; 1 - 12
- Episode 9 - "A Date to Remember"; 1 - 26
- Episode 10 - "Charmed"; 1 - 26
- Episode 11 - "Movie Magic"; 1 - 28
- Side Story - "Fruit Cake Fantasy"; 1 - 14
- Episode 12 - "The Nightmare Before Christmas"; 1 - 22
- Episode 13 - "Evergreen Party Night"; 1 - 21
- The Lost Scene (extra in Aoi House Vol. 2 and Aoi
House Omnibus I)
Aoi House In Love! Vol. 1 - "The Great Con
Caper"
- Episode 1 - "Aoi House Hits the Road"; 1 - 15
- Episode 2 - "Check-In Time"; 1 - 12
- Episode 3 - "Rival Schools"; 1 - 24
- Episode 4 - "D for Drama"; 1 - 21
- Episode 5 - "Mr. Wonderful"; 1 - 10
- Episode 6 - "Midnight Rebirth"; 1 - 23
- Episode 7 - "Yaoi 801"; 1 - 16
- Episode 8 - "Cosplay Complex"; 1 - 20
- Episode 9 - "Twilight"; 1 - 9
Aoi House In Love! Vol. 2 - "Happy Endings"
- Episode 10 - "Many Happy Returns"; 1 - 9
- Episode 11 - "Lost and Lonely Souls"; 1 - 23
- Episode 12 - "This is Not Happening"; 1 - 18
- Episode 13 - "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"; 1 - 29
- Episode 14 - "Series Finale"; 1 - 33
- Side Story - "Bond, Echibond"; 1 - 22
- Epilogue - "Where Are They Now?"; 1 - 16
4-Koma
Starting in the January 2006 issue of Newtype USA, Aoi House
began appearing as a series of full-color, 4-panel gag strips. The
4-koma are drawn vertically and read right-to-left. The actual
stories are all stand-alone and tend to be themed for the holiday's
or events in a given month, such as Valentine's Day or college exams.
Recent 4-koma from 2007 have involved spoofs of various anime
series and video games.
Music
Video
On 4 December 2006, Seven Seas' first-ever flash anime music
video was released dedicated to [1]Aoi
House. Aoi House: The Music Video was animated by
Jonathan Talas and set to the Aoi House Theme Song - "Itsumo
Futaride" by The J Brothers. Within its first week of release, the
music video received over 150,000 views on Newgrounds.com, was
awarded with Newground's Daily Second Place award for 12/05/06, and
earned a spot on YouTube.com's "Top Favorites (This Week) in Arts
& Animation" list.
Characters
Major
characters
- Alexis "Alex" Roberts
- Morgan's "yaoi-pet", and perhaps the more level-headed between
himself and Sandy. He is Sandy's friend and roommate. Along with
Sandy, he was kicked out of his dorm because of Sandy's viewing of
hentai anime, and the serving of Ramune which Dean Perkins mistook for an
alcoholic beverage. It seems that Sandy is in fact Alex's best
friend as Alex continues to stand beside Sandy in spite of all the
adventures he has faced as a result of just being near Sandy. It
also seems he has the exclusive attention of Morgan McKnight, who
obviously has a crush on him. At one point in the story the removal
of his ponytail makes him look sufficiently like a bishonen to cast
a "fangirl" effect over the female cast. But as soon as a snippet
of hair was cut, the effect was broken. Becomes stepbrother to
Sandy and half-brother to Angela after his father marries Sandy's
mother halfway through the series. Marries Morgan in the epilogue
and has three kids with her.
- Sandy Grayson
- Sandy is the owner of Echiboo the hamster, and is also Alex's
friend and roommate. Between himself and Alex, Sandy seems the
larger otaku and is much more
immature. Sandy is also the one that Jessica seems the most
interested in, as she calls him "tiger" and teasingly flirts with
him. Sandy appears to be a fan of almost all aspects of Japanese
culture, or at least the otaku culture as is seen by his drinking
of Ramune while viewing anime(he has a Sailor Moon shrine in his room), and likes
to imagine different anime scenarios happening in real life. Has a
strong dislike of corn after viewing Boku no Sexual Harassment's infamous porn
scene involving corn. Becomes stepbrother to Alex and half-brother
to Angela due his mother marrying Alex's father. In the epilogue he
winds up marrying Maria and has two kids named Helena and
Victor.
- Echiboo
- Echiboo is Sandy's pet hamster. Morgan calls him a "panty hamster"
because of the critter's obsession with panties. Echiboo seems to
have taken a strong liking to Elle, or at least her panties. He is
also one of the causes (by taking the Deans toupee) of Sandy and
Alex's need to find new lodging, which eventually led them to
Aoi House. Morgan likes to put a tiny camera on his head
and let him run amuk, getting footage "of the ecchi kind."
Echiboo's name is a pun of Ebichu, the hamster from the Gainax anime series Oruchuban
Ebichu. His name also means "Perverted Fart" in Japanese, which
is appropriate cosidering his obsession with panties. Has an
attraction to Luna-P (who spurns him at first) and defies all laws
of science by having a half pig-half hamster offspring with her
called Diana. In the epilogue, he becomes a famous movie star
thanks to his role in "Echibond".
- Elle Mathers
- The most mature of all the girls and very ill tempered. She
comes from a wealthy family and continually acts upset about having
Sandy and Alex as a part of Aoi House. She does wear a
very interesting costume shortly after their first arrival however
and seems to (barely) mellow down toward them as they become part
of daily Aoi House life. She even began to develop a crush
on Alex, but those feelings ended when he and Morgan became an
item. Elle is on the tennis
team. In the epilogue, she becomes an "Echi-Bond" girl and a
successful actress.
- Nina Parker
- Nina is the most nonchalant member of Aoi House. She
is also seemingly the least concerned about having two straight
male housemates, as she at times continues to walk around without
her shirt on regardless of the fact that she now has two straight
male housemates. She also makes a habit of smoking where she is not
supposed to. She is also a member of the swim team and practices synchronized swimming. Adam
Arnold stated that Nina is the most "macho" of the Aoi House girls,
and she also has the smallest bust. [2] Nina apparently
works at Sandy's and Maria's bookstore in the epilogue, but since
she is still a slacker, Helena and Victor seem to do her job for
her. This attitude is most likely why they let Sanae drag off Nina
from time to time.
- Morgan McKnight
- The most energetic of the group, Morgan is a very hyper girl
who seems to be on a continual sugar high and loves candy. Morgan
has a playful, childlike innocence about her and how she interacts
with Sandy and Alex. In her first meeting with them she claims Alex
as her "yaoi pet" and later uses something of Elle's to lead Sandy
and Alex on a wild chase that ends in the girl's locker room. Her
closest friend who is not an Aoi House member seems to be
the mysterious "Oniisan" who she doesn't seem to hesitate in
telling her secrets, almost as she would to a diary. Morgan also
continues to demonstrate, both in her actions and what she tells
her "Oniisan", a very strong attraction to Alex. She is much less
energetic when talking to her confidant. She and Alex ultimately
start dating in the finale, and they get married in the epilogue
with three kids named Timothy, Harley and Ivy. However, married
life doesn't entirely take away her mischievous side, as she buys
her young son yaoi manga, much to Alex's chagrin.
- Jessica Kim
- Jessica is a Korean-American medical student often found
wearing her nurse outfit, the
subject of Sandy's fetishes. She, along with Morgan,
accepts Sandy and Alex joining Aoi House. Jessica is
almost as playful as Morgan and joins in on one of hers schemes
while helping to defend the ever hyper Morgan's desire for candy;
both of these might be why she seems to be one of the few that can
"control" Morgan. She is very motherly and also teases Sandy, which
causes him many a nosebleed. However, she allows Maria and Sandy to
hook up during the Con Caper. At this point, she also seems to
develop a crush on Mason Blue. She has three little brothers. She
achieves her goal of becoming a nurse at Seattle Grace Hospital in
the epilogue, where her co-workers and child patients are very fond
of her.
- Maria Ortega
- Along with Sandy and Alex, Maria is one of the newest members
of Aoi House. Of Latino descent, she is a little self-conscious
about her uncommonly large bust. She is happy to be in Aoi
House, and is friendly toward Sandy and Alex, who once helped
her shortly after they all joined. Her parents own a local Mexican
restaurant which is a
place she uses along with the other members of Aoi House
to celebrate the new members. She eventually develops feelings for
Sandy, whom she marries and has kids with in the epilogue. They run
a bookstore called "The Bookcave".
Minor
characters
- Oniisan
- Somewhat of a mystery for most of the series. "Oniisan" seems
to be the one that provides Morgan with an amazing amount of
technological equipment including an "Ecchi-cam", a camera that can
be strapped to Echiboo's head. "Oniisan" is also possibly Morgan's
closest and only true confidant, and has counseled her, and Elle,
on their respective attractions to Alex. At the beginning, it was
not certain who or what Morgan's Oniisan was, though, Oniisan was
eventually revealed in "Diary Room Antics" to be human. The
previous theory was that he was some sort of computer (an obelisk
labeled "Sound Only", a reference to the anime Neon
Genesis Evangelion) with various sound and visual links
throughout the house. Oniisan means "big brother" in Japanese, and
all the members of Aoi House (and former member Carlo) address him
as "oniisan." For the majority of the series, Alex and Sandy are
unaware of Oniisan's existence, and the girls of Aoi House seem
either unwilling or just have neglected to enlighten them. The top
half of his face is always hidden; in Aoi House In Love! Vol.
1, he cosplayed as Tuxedo Kamen of Sailor Moon, so his
eyes would be hidden; he later judges a cosplay battle between Aoi and Uri Houses and
the UASOS Brigade wearing sunglasses. It has recently been revealed
that Oniisan is actually Elle's brother and that his real name is
Jacob. As it turns out, he is the one behind Aoi House's creation,
whereas Carlo just pitched the idea to him after reading one of his
flyers. Jacob is apparently the owner of a production company that
was looking to make a new reality series, and with Carlo's
suggestion, Aoi House came to fruition. He continues his Aoi House
series in the epilogue.
- Carlo
- Aoi House's (Yaoi House's) homosexual transvestite founder. When Sandy and Alex
first meet him/her s/he is dressed as a woman complete with wig and
skirt. When the girls arrive and inform them of who Carlo is both
Sandy and Alex shockingly learn that the one they thought was a
"she" is in fact a "he". It is interesting that though they both
have never met him/her, s/he clearly knows about them, indicating
that the girls of Aoi House still keep close contact with
their former founder. Carlo's face has stereotypical macho
qualities. S/he also finds Alex very attractive and went on a date
with him when Alex lost a bet. S/he winds up dating a silent boytoy
named Rocky, whom s/he ultimately marries in the epilogue.
- Mr. Perkins
- Dean of the University. Echiboo stole Mr. Perkins's toupee,
causing Sandy and Alex to search for new housing, which eventually
lead them to finding Aoi House. He continues to be
somewhat of a problem for Sandy and Alex; he keeps a close on eye
them because of the trouble they caused in the past. Mr. Perkins
can occasionally be found watching the synchronized swim team
practice and talking to the swim coach, Ms. Addison. The epilogue
just states that he's on the way to a coronary.
- Ms. Addison
- Coach of the women's synchronized swim team. Goes on to become
an Olympic Swimming Coach in the epilogue.
- David, Daniel and Danny
- The little triplet brothers of Jessica. During the epilogue, it
turns out that one of them becomes a "rebel" with black clothes and
nail polish, along with a spiked collar and a mohawk, whereas the
other two dress in prep school clothes.
- Uri House
- Aoi House's rival from Lawndale State University. Their name is
based on Yuri, Jessica earlier
stating they heard of Aoi House and did a Yuri rip-off. Its current
members are:
Mason Blue - The de-facto leader of the club. While he does not
actually have a definite ending in the epilogue, a man with his
earrings greets Jessica at Seattle Grace Hospital with a
stethoscope around his neck.
A hooded boy named Kevin Cardenas - In charge of their AMVs and
has a thing for Morgan (calling her "McCutie") as well as any girl
he sees. Moves to Tokyo in the epilogue just for the girls
A boy with glasses named Dale Stevens - The club's artist. He
gets roped into moving to Tokyo along with Kevin in the
epilogue.
A girl named Kimberly Ann and her pet pig named Luna-P (A
reference of Chibiusa's Luna-P Ball). She goes on
to win American Idol numerous time in the epilogue.
The open lesbian Sanae - Has a crush on Nina, as well as calling
out that Maria's breasts were bigger than Kimberly Ann's. She
kissed Nina at one point during the Con Caper, and somehow got both
her and Elle into bed (much to their horror when they wake up the
next morning) after the epilogue.
Books
- Aoi House Volume 1, 31 May 2006, ISBN
978-1-933164-12-0[2]
- Aoi House Volume 2, 15 December 2006, ISBN
978-1-933164-30-4[3]
- Aoi House Omnibus Collection I, April 2008, ISBN
978-1-933164-73-1[4]
(Contains Aoi House Vol. 1 and 2)
- Aoi House In Love! Volume 1, 1 July 2007, ISBN
978-1-933164-51-9[5]
- Aoi House In Love! Volume 2, June 2008, ISBN
978-1-933164-96-0[6]
Aoi House Vol. 1 collecting Episodes 1 through 7 was
released on 31 May 2006. In the Aoi Notes on 04/21/06,[7]
Adam Arnold said the book has been given "special edition"
treatment that includes, "minor dialogue and art changes to fix
continuity errors," is displayed with screentone whereas the web version presents
only Shiei's black and white line art, and a new opening page for
Episode 4 and an added scene, "with the guys singing Karaoke at the
end of Episode 2." Other extras included are "Aoi Notes: Print
Edition," "Student Records," "Fun Zone," and "Original Webmanga
Designs."
Aoi House Vol. 2 collecting toned versions of Episodes
8 through 13, plus "Fruit Cake Fantasy" was released in December
2006. The volume carries the subtitle "Fun & Games" on the
inside title page. Extras include "Aoi Notes: Print Edition 2," an
eight-page super deformed character gallery called "Chibified!," a
"Fan Art" gallery, and a two-page story called "Aoi House: The Lost
Scene."
Aoi House In Love! Vol. 1 collecting the Episodes 1
through 9 of the 2nd Season of Aoi House was released July 2007.
The volume is subtitled "The Great Con Caper!" on the inside title
page. The volume also includes 8 color pages that collect the first
twelve Aoi House 4-Koma that appeared in Newtype USA from
January through December 2006. Other extras include a "Last Season
on Aoi House" recap page, "Aoi Notes: Print Edition 3," and a new
"Fan Art" gallery. This volume was designed to be a jumping-on
point for new readers, and features a completely self-contained
adventure following the Aoi House crew at the anime convention
Hatsu-Con.[8]
Aoi House In Love! Vol. 2 collecting the Episodes 10
through the end of the series will be released in June 2008. The
volume carries a subtitle of "Happy Endings." The final twelve Aoi
House 4-Koma from Newtype USA that run from January to
December 2007 will also be included with the volume.
On 23 November, an omnibus edition was announced[9]
and will include reprints of Aoi House Vol. 1 and Aoi
House Vol. 2.
In 2009, Aoi House began publishing in Finland by Egmont. Two volumes are released
up to date.
Tributes
to other media
There are many references to various other real-life celebrities as well as anime and video games mostly in
the form of the characters from Aoi House dressing up in various
character's costumes from the referenced work. In Aoi House in
love! Volume two, they also reference several American series as
well. Below is a list of shows that are either referenced or
parodied as well as the real-life celebrities that are
mentioned:
In addition Adam Arnold has also admitted he is a huge DC Comics fan. Two of the
characters surnames are actually either taken directly from the DC
character's surname or is parodied on a nickname. The two
characters in question are:
- "Sandy Grayson" who's surname is taken from Dick Grayson,
the original Robin.
- "Morgan McKnight" who's surname is actually taken from the
nickname for Batman who is
known as The Dark Knight.
- Alex and Morgan's children, "Harley", "Ivy", and "Timothy" are
named after Pamela Isely a.k.a. Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Tim Drake a.k.a. the third Robin.
- Sandy and Maria's children, "Victor" and "Helena," are named
after Mister Freeze and Helena Bertinelli a.k.a. the Huntress.
- Sandy and Maria's bookstore, Bookcave, is a reference to the
Bat Cave.
- New Aoi House member "Stephanie Kane" is named after Stephanie
Brown (a.k.a. The
Spoiler) and Bob Kane,
the creator of Batman. Her last name may also be a reference to the
second Batgirl Cassandra Cain. Stephanie also has a pet
bat named Babs, which is a common nickname for Barbara
Gordon.
See also
References
- ^ "IGN.com Top 10 Manga of
2006". http://comics.ign.com/articles/756/756462p2.html. Retrieved 24 January
2007.
- ^ "Seven Seas's product details
on Volume One". http://gomanga.com/manga/aoi.php. Retrieved 30 April
2006.
- ^ "Seven Seas's product details
on Volume Two". http://gomanga.com/manga/aoi.php. Retrieved 10 December
2006.
- ^ "Seven Seas's product details
on the omnibus". http://gomanga.com/manga/aoi.php. Retrieved 25 November
2007.
- ^ "Seven Seas's product details
on Book 3". http://gomanga.com/manga/aoi.php. Retrieved 8 June
2007.
- ^ "Seven Seas's product details
on Book 4". http://gomanga.com/manga/aoi.php. Retrieved 25 November
2007.
- ^ "Aoi Notes from
04/21/06". http://gomanga.com/webmanga/index.php?series=aoi&page=144. Retrieved 30 April
2006.
- ^ "Aoi House in Love – Seven
Seas' Hit Harem Comedy Returns". http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2007-08-08/aoi-house-in-love-seven-seas-hit-harem-comedy-returns. Retrieved 21 September
2007.
- ^ "Aoi Notes 11-23-07". http://gomanga.com/webmanga/index.php?series=aoi&page=393. Retrieved 25 November
2007.
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