Akihabara@Deep
| Akihabara@DEEP | |
| File:Akihabara deep.gif | |
| Genre | Comedy, Action, Drama |
|---|---|
| Manga | |
| Written by | Ira Ishida |
| Published by | Coamix |
| Magazine | Comic Bunch |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Original run | August 12, 2005 – May 04, 2007 |
| Volumes | 6 |
| Anime | |
| Directed by | Hitoshi Ohne |
| Released | June 19 2006 – present |
| Anime | |
| Directed by | Takashi Minamoto |
| Studio | Toei Company |
| Released |  September 2, 2006 |
Akihabara@DEEP (アキハバラ@DEEP, Akihabara atto Dīpu) is a 2004 novel by Ira Ishida which spawned a manga, television drama, and movie adaptation.
Taking place in the Tokyo district of Akihabara, or Akiba as it is often shortened to, the story focuses on a group of outcasts of society, mainly otaku, and a company they establish to "troubleshoot" the problems of Akihabara. The manga and the drama follow the same story of a group of young otaku forming a company to help others like them in Akihabara. The movie, on the other hand, shows a much darker, more violent and slightly twisted perspective of life as an Akiba-otaku.
Akihabara@Deep was adapted into a manga a year after the novels publication. It featured art by mangaka, Makoto Akane, and followed the same story as the original novel. It was serialized in Japan across Comic Bunch, a seinen manga magazine, in August 2005 and spanned a total of 6-tankobon volumes.[1]
Plot
It all begins when a mysterious online personality named Yui decides to assemble these outcasts to try and form a group dedicated to solving the problems that plague Akiba by forming the "troubleshooting" company, Akihabara@DEEP, often shortened to just @DEEP. One example of this troubleshooting would be that the otaku of Akiba have come under a surge of bullying. @DEEP's first task was to eliminate this bullying. After getting rid of this problem, @DEEP began taking up other tasks as well. Some of these include clearing the name of a cosplayer in a case that involved the distribution of underground videos depicting other cosplayers getting undressed in dressing rooms, protecting a news anchor from attacks by otaku who were enraged at a story that she had previously worked on that bashed the youth of Akiba, and helping out a maid cafe that the people of Akiba frequent from an opposing maid cafe that was acting extremely hostile to this maid cafe and even provided various prostitution services to the visitors of the opposing maid cafe.
While @DEEP solves these cases, the group unintentionally attracts the attention of a seedy character named Nakagomi Takeshi. The reason behind this is because of a secret past relationship between Nakagomi and Yui. What adds to this is a fully self-reliant AI program that Nakagomi would greatly benefit from if he got his hands on it. This is because he is the president of a very influential electronics company called Digital Capital, often shortened to DigiCap. He will eventually raid @DEEP's headquarters, steal Yui's AI, and kidnap Akira.
Characters
The main characters of @DEEP are all outcasts of society and usually have something fundamentally wrong with themselves. After getting advice from a Website called "Yui's Lifeguard" these six individuals are called together by the website's creator, Yui, to help clean up Akiba.
- Page (ページ, Pēji)
- (Drama: Shunsuke Kazama; Movie: Hiroki Narimiya)
- Page is the leader of Akihabara@DEEP. Although articulate, he has a severe stutter that prevents him from speaking at length without the aid of a text-to-speech program on his computer, which Taiko later upgrades to speak more fluently in Page's own voice. Page is the only member of @DEEP without a particular area of expertise, but proves a worthy leader for the group. He always has his friends' best interests at heart and works hard to protect them, as seen when he stops the merciless beating of Akira, Box, and Taiko by threatening to blow himself up with 'bombs' (in actuality, fireworks) strapped to his body.
- At the beginning of each mission, he often says, "All right, planning time!" to the point where he is teased by the others for its constant repetition despite his inability to say it properly.
- Box (ボックス, Bokkusu)
- (Drama: Toma Ikuta; Movie: Shugo Oshinari)
- Box is @DEEP's resident graphic designer. He wears gloves at all times to prevent direct contact the world, and changes to a fresh pair every two hours. Box is afraid of women to the point that he foams at the mouth if one gets too close. He, however, has no problems at all with what he terms '2D women', for example animated women, female cosplayers, or maids (although not ero maids; Box declares them to have too much bare skin to be grouped in with his 2D women).
- Taiko (タイコ)
- (Drama: Gen Hoshino; Movie: Yoshiyoshi Arakawa)
- Taiko is a techno-musician who creates ringtones and the like as a hobby. When he is exposed to flashing lights, he seizes, freezing up like a computer. His nickname is derivative of his musical ability.In the movie, he appears to be a mechanic/technician, instead of being a musician.
- Akira (アキラ)
- (Drama: Yuka Kosaka; Movie: Yu Yamada)
- Akira is @DEEP's fighting maid, working at 'Akane-chin' during the day and fighting cat-fight cage matches at night. She provides the initial funding for @DEEP's headquarters and activities with the prize money she wins in a high-profile match. Although already quite popular among Akihabara otaku, Akira begins to attract an exponential amount of attention after Page, Box, and Taiko create her official website.
- Ism (イズム, Izumu)
- (Drama: Hatsune Matsushima; Movie: Haruma Miura)
- @DEEP's coding and hacking prodigy, Ism is the one who programmed Yui's website and AI system. In the novel and film, Ism is male, but in the manga and drama is female. S/he suffers from a condition which causes her to have ice-blue eyes.
- Daruma (ダルマ)
- (Drama: Yuki Himura)
- Daruma is @DEEP's cosplay expert. In the novel and manga, he is a middle-aged lawyer who provides legal consultation for the team. In the drama, he retains his cosplay expertise, and also serves as @DEEP's accountant, but mostly he provides comic relief. He was excluded from the film entirely.
- error: {{nihongo}}: Japanese or romaji text required (help)
- (Drama: Manami Honjo)
- Yui is the mysterious woman who brings the members of Akihabara@DEEP, all regular visitors to her website, together. She once had a relationship with Nakagomi which ended because of their contrary motivations; Nakagomi sought financial gain, while Yui simply wanted to help others. After Yui dies, her AI (designed by Ism) evolves into a sentient program.
- Takeshi Nakagomi (中込 威, Nakagomi Takeshi)
- (Drama: Kazuki Kitamura; Movie: Kuranosuke Sasaki)
- Nakagomi is the CEO of Digi Capital, and an otaku himself. He and Yui were in a relationship and had planned to start Akihabara@DEEP together but differed in how to run the company, Nakagomi wanted to make money while Yui wanted to help people. After learning of the existence of Akihabara@DEEP, he attempts to help them anonymously, but when they refuse to surrender Yui's AI to him, he seeks to destroy them.
- Professor Wataru Hanzawa (半沢 航, Hanzawa Wataru)
- (Drama: Mickey Curtis)
- He was a Communications Engineering professor at an electronic engineering university. He taught both Yui and Nakagomi, he and Nakagomi were working on a new OS system. When it was almost finished Nakagomi stole the data and sold it. He used the money from this to start Digital Capital. In the drama he warns the @DEEP crew about staying away from Nakagomi.
- Naoki Tousaka (遠阪直樹, Tōsaka Naoki)
- (Drama: Satoshi Matsuda; Movie: Masato Hagiwara
- Friend of Ism and fellow programmer who works for Digital Capital. He had a company similar to @DEEP but lost it to Nakagomi. At the end of the series he becomes a prominent figure in the programming field.
- Kounosuke Shimoyonagi (下柳幸之助, Shimoyonagi Kōnosuke)
- (Drama: Masayuki Izumi)
- Nakagomi's manager/assistant. But seems to appear that he's Nakagomi's gofer, also provides some comic relief. He's a character exclusive for the Drama.
- Ajita (アジタ)
- (Drama: Youssef Lotfy)
- An Indian sidewalk vendor in Akihabara. He offers some some fine second hand items such as computer parts, rare items, and even illegal paraphernalia. At the final episode, he gave assistance to Akira, and the other @deep members for the infiltration on DigiCap Headquarters.