#odaroku

The first page introduces the term "Regalia". They are items inhabited by spirits (kami).

It seems that even the police know about these objects. One needs to have a permit/license (免許証) for them.

So yeah, Regalia are the magical items/weapons, like the Leads used in Servamp.

The Japanese reading is 憑物神 which means "spirits/deities that posses".

I think an appropriate term to use for the objects would be "vessels", because it's sounds better than just saying "object". In the first line it says "モノ"にはやがて"神"が宿る.

"Over time, objects become inhabited by spirits."

Objects/items モノ (mono) are emphasized by using katakana and like I mentioned before, I would use the word "vessel".

So yeah, the Regalia are based on the concept of "yorishiro", objects that serve as temporary or long-term vessels for kami in Shinto practice.

Hehe, we have another cute black kitty :) I find it amusing that the mark on its head looks like the icon for Wifi signal :))

So yeah that's it for the first page!

Here's the translation for the tagline 想像と言葉で未来を拓け！

Clear the path to the future with imagination and words!

The color spread shows more characters besides the two main protagonists. Starting with the female character, she has the kanji for snow. The story features the supernatural so maybe some characters have elemental powers?

The next character has the kanji for pine and the following has the kanji that means purification (that' something Licht used to say haha).

The character with braided hair has the kanji that means congratulations/longevity and the last one...Well, he's giving a creepy smile, doesn't he? His kanji means wickedness/calamity. Talk about foreshadowing, huh? There is one more character in the bottom right of the page but he doesn't have a kanji next to him.

Alright, let's move on!

The setting is an illegal gambling den in Asakusa.

We are introduced to one of the main protagonists, Sarutobi Rokurou.

Heck yeah baby, Tanaka-sensei giving names to characters that reflect their personality and names that refence known figures from history and literature. I love Servamp for its references and it looks like ODAROKU will be the same because these first few pages introduce characters that have names to historical Japanese figures.

Rokurou mentions that he can get scared easily. He muses on his current situation and says that he wants to be a better person and he acknowledges that staying in places with illegal activities won't help him but he says that for someone like him who can't do anything, the only thing he can do is put on pretenses.

Oh poor guy...

Like I mentioned before about the meaning of names, Rokurou is written as 碌郎 the first kanji (roku) meaning decent; good; proper and I'd say it reflects his desire of becoming a better person.

The second protagonist :) He will introduce himself later on so I won't give his name for now,.

I'm just gonna say that he's handsome and he's currently my favorite character.

So, I had to look into gambling terms because I had no idea what they were playing. The game is called Chohan bakuchi. Players bet on whether the sum of the dice is even (Chō) or odd (Han).

The character with long hair bets everything that the sum will be even and Rokurou places 2 chips that the sum will be odd.

We're introduced to the woman that appeared on the color spread. Recall that she had the kanji for snow next to her.

Her name is Sanada Yukiura and she's the head of the Sanada family. I find it interesting that the word 一家 (ikka) which has the meaning of yakuza family has the English term in furigana. ファミリー (family) used in Servamp in regard to Niccolo and his family was appropriate because they were Italian, so I find it a bit weird that the Japanese word 一家 (ikka) needed a different reading.

Another note about Yukiura. Her name is altered but it's most likely a reference to Sanada Yukimura, a samurai from the Sengoku period.

I mentioned before how some characters are named after historical figures.

Rokurou's first name, Sarutobi is a reference to the samurai Sarutobi Sasuke. It is said that he joined the Sanada clan, led by Yukimura who formed a group of ten ninjas, called the Sanada Ten Braves.

Some of Yukiura's subordinates are named after those ninjas.

Alright, so, the character with long hair is accused of cheating because he won many times in a row and Rokurou understands that Yukiura wants him to expose him.

We are introduced with another term: Holder.

It's written in furigana so it's the intended reading and the default reading says "owner".

The first page of the manga said that a permit was required if you owned a Regalia and there's a government database for them.

Okay, so, Rokurou proposes a bet: he flips a coin and if its heads, the other protagonist gets double the money and he can leave.

If its tails, the long-haired man has to play Cho bakuchi with Rokuro and he will get 4 times the amount of money if he wins against him.

If Rokurou loses, Yukiura says she will pay but long-hair says something like "If you lose, it won’t end with just you getting killed, right"? and Yukiura says "Even if we sold all of his organs, it wouldn’t come close to covering it.” OMG...

Long-hair recites what Oda Nobunaga used to say "A man's life of 50 years under the sky is nothing compared to the age of this world. Life is but a fleeting dream, an illusion— Is there anything that lasts forever?”

The others were life WTF man? xD

The characters' abilities that have two readings :D It makes me and most likely all the Servamp fans happy to see that they are used here too.

Rokurou has a Regalia named Orihime and it uses the ability "Love me tender" (Smile, O Goddess!)

Orihime's ability: As long as the coin is visible the user can control the outcome of the coin toss.

The reference is the song "Love me tender" by Elvis Presley while the other reading, I believe that given in the context of gambling, it would be fitting to say "Lady Luck" even though it doesn't specify the words luck/fortune.

I would also translate it as "O Goddess, smile upon me!"

Let me know what you think about it!

Oh yeah, I noticed that on Rokurou's license, it appears that his birthday is on September 6th.

Tanaka-sensei seems to be putting emphasis on the number 6. His name could also be written as 六郎 (Rokurou) with the kanji for 6 and the coin he used has the same kanji and there's also his birthday...

Rokurou reveals that his license is a forgery (although maybe his birthdate is true). The license does not specify that he can also use the ability to control up to 2 dice.

Long hair: “Why not add one more die? No matter how many you add, the chance that the sum ends up even or odd stays at 50/50.”

Well damn...

Also...omg, the 2nd page...So many words, like, Jesus Christ! He's explaining something about the game of dice. That's all I can say for now because it's a bitch to translate fully.

In the middle panel of the 2nd page, he mentions that his birthday is June 21 and that he’s a Gemini through and through, known as the most talkative of the zodiac signs.

Rokuro panics because the the mafia will kill him if he loses. He didn't tell them that he can also control dice, so he didn't use his ability but he still won.

He finally introduces himself properly!

His name is Oda Kotohito.

And it's such a weird name XD He even says 『もの言う人』 "A person who speaks". Ok dude...

I guess it relates to the fact that he described himself as talkative. I would translate 『もの言う人』 as "man of words".

Even his design, for example on his shirt collar and scarf he has the kanji 言 (word), so I think it's appropriate to call him man of words.

His surname Oda is most likely a reference to Oda Nobunaga whom he quoted earlier.

The kanji on his folding fan 自在 (jizai) translates as "being able to do as one pleases".

Kotohito gives Rokurou his business card , telling him that he's the owner of an antique shop. Kotohito also figured out that Rokurou can control dice which surprises Rokurou.

He's trying to understand what happened because he thinks that Kotohito did something to make him win. He wonders just who he is...

The subordinate who bursts into the room announces they had intruders.

The Sanada family had Regalia that were extorted from residents and all of them have been stolen. Rokurou believes that Kotohito was a decoy who was buying time so that his allies could steal the items.

Yukiura thinks that Rokurou was working with him and she orders her subordinates to make Rokuro spill everything.

So...Yukiura is freaky because she wants Rokurou to get tortured and she brings up the movie Casino Royale that apparently Rokurou likes and Yukiura is asking if she should treat him like James Bond.

Uhm..so yeah, there is a torture scene in that movie but I didn't want to watch it ;;

When I said that Yukiura is freaky, it's because she proposes to cut a hole in the seat of the chair and...

smack Rokurou's balls from underneath.

Like, girl you crazy XD

Continuing from where we left off, Rokuro manages to escape because someone threw a smoke bomb.

From what I understand, Rokuro says that he had to run away most of his life. "

"I’m just a coward who wants a place to belong but doesn’t have the guts to take responsibility. All I ever do is run away.”

He gets shot but tells the mafia members, "Yeah… just like that Gemini guy said… I’m not cut out for this life.”

Roku remembered his zodiac sign but not his name xD

Kotohito: "I went out of my way to come get you, and you’d already run off by yourself, huh?"

Kotohito comes to the rescue and Roku tells him that the mafia will get him killed because he stole from them.

He tells Roku that although he took the items, the Regalia that he's holding is one that Rokurou wanted to get back.

Kotohito: "That's why you infiltrated that gambling hall, didn't you?"

Rokurou was helped by an old lady who found him injured. The old lady had a Regalia that was a memento of her husband that passed away. The couple used to run a bento shop but the mafia bought land and the couple was forced out from their home.

Rokurou wanted to repay the old lady's kindness and said that he will try to get back her husband's Regalia.

The old lady told Kotohito to help Rokurou because his safety was more important.

Hopefully I understand Kotohito's lines...

He mentions that although the granny asked him to help, Kotohito was impressed by Rokurou's words and wanted to come to come help him as a friend.

Rokurou: “How about I try buying that Regalia back for you? Y’know, to repay your hospitality.” (literary it would be translated as "debt of gratitude for a night's lodging and a meal)

Rokurou says how he wants to become a decent person, but thinks that he'll remain cold-hearted and pathetic.

Kotohito: "A debt of gratitude for a night's lodging and a meal". Those are not words that someone cold-hearted would say.

Rokurou wants to know who this guy is and Kotohito tells him that sometimes he's the stylish owner of an antique store but his true occupation is...

A phantom thief!

So yeah, ODAROKU was described as a supernatural phantom thief manga and Kotohito is that thief.

He has roller shoes xD He mentions that a distant relative is a professional figure skater.

Ok, so Kotohito asks Rokuro what dice mean to him.

Oh man, look at these pages! Tanaka-sensei is so awesome...

Kotohito asks Rokuro if it's enough for a polyhedron to have numbers on its faces, because he will proceed to roll a "die" and tells Rokurou to use his ability to make it land on 3.

Kotohito mentions kabuki and how a folding fan is used as a prop to represent other objects. He uses his Regalia and I dunno if it has another meaning, a wordplay that I can't figure out but his Regalia is called 理扇 (ことわりのおうぎ/ kotowari no ougi）which literarily translates as ”Folding fan of reason/logic". It's a mouthful, huh? Unlike Orihime for example, this one is a description, not a name... I

We'll have to see if other Regalia will be named like that.

In the second page, Kotohito talks about what apparently is the theme of the manga. The color spread had the tagline "Clear the path to the future with imagination and words! and it relates to what Kotohito says:

"You’d be surprised to know that those who speak up win at life. The world is freer than you think. Freedom lies beyond imagination. Imagination lies beyond words."

That's why he's a man of words :D And such a cool, handsome man...I already like him :)

Moving on, I I don't quite understand, because it's obviously a wordplay, is the name of his ability.

It says 断の装 where the first kanji has a few meanings. It can mean "to reject" 断る or "to sever/to cut" 断つ. The second kanji 装 has the meaning of clothes. It's mostly used in compound words and used to say "equipment", "outfit".

To dress (oneself in); to disguise oneself as.

Those are the meanings and my conclusion is that 断の装 could mean something like "Blade mode".

The folding fan was transformed into an Odachi. The furigana for 断 reads たち (tachI) which most likely is supposed to refer to the Tachi sword (it's different from a katana).

That's why I think "Blade mode/sword form" is plausible.

Let me know which one sounds better!

Don't we just love how Tanaka-sensei uses wordplay?

He tells Rokuro that the "die" has been cast. Rokuro tells him to run away but Kotohito asks him "Why run when you are here?

Rokuro says that can't do anything but Kotihito interject and tell him he can do it.

Kotohito: "You can draw in the outcome (future) that you desire "

Kotohito: “Even the goddess of fortune would be surprised—that's some bold cheating."

Kotohito says that the wishes to return the stolen Regalia to their rightful owners but he's short on hands, so much so that he would ask even a charlatan for help.

Now we get to know the name of the kitty from the first page! By the way, he uses "ore sama", to refer to himself ,that's how I could tell that he's a boy. In regard to his name, it's kind of weird because I don't get why his name is

ねこ明 (Neko Aki), like why does he have the word "cat"? Kotohito didn't simply introduced him as "Aki" he says "Neko Aki" like that's the whole name. We'll have to see if he keeps saying "neko", because it's weird, don't you think?

Are we supposed to call him "Aki the Cat?"

So yeah, Rokurou was surprised that a piece of origami transformed into a talking cat. He wondered if if Aki is a Regalia, but it's not mentioned. We'll have to see if he's something else.

Kotohito : "That settles everything for tonight.

If you’re calling yourself a phantom thief, you’d better have style—otherwise, at least make a smooth exit!”

Rokurou: You call this "smooth"?!

So yeah, what do you think about the first chapter of ODAROKU?

Now that we reached the end of the post, I can talk about my theory about the title. At first, when the manga was announced, I thought that maybe it's supposed to be a foreign word because I couldn't find what it means, like it doesn't show up in a Japanese dictionary.

My only theory is that it's a combination of Kotohito and Rokuro's names, although it uses Kotohito's surname...

I was like, "Is Tanaka sensei giving us the ship name? LOL I mean it does sound better than KotoRoku in my opinion. But yeah, maybe we will get an explanation.

So, in conclusion, I already like it and Kotohito is currently my favorite :)