Please, Jeeves

Please, Jeeves is a Japanese manga series adapted from the comedic Jeeves short stories written by English humourist P. G. Wodehouse.[1] The series was translated from English to Japanese by Tamaki Morimura and was illustrated by Bun Katsuta.[2] Originally serialized in the magazine Melody, it has been published in five volumes.

Please, Jeeves
Dust jacket of the first volume of Please, Jeeves
プリーズ、ジーヴス
(Purīzu, Jīvusu)
Manga
Written byTamaki Morimura
P. G. Wodehouse
Illustrated byBun Katsuta
Published byHakusensha
MagazineMelody
Original runApril 2008 – October 2014
Volumes5

The series stars the amiable and naive young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his brilliant valet Jeeves. Each chapter of the manga adapts one or two short stories, giving the series an episodic structure, with each chapter being a complete story.

Development

In the years leading up to the creation of Please, Jeeves, butlers became a popular topic for mangas, with one example being the comic character Hayate the Combat Butler. Sometime in 2007, Maki Shiraoka, a senior editor of Hakusensha, conceived of the idea of a manga series featuring Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. She discussed this idea with another Hakusensha editor, Ayaka Tokushige, who found Tamaki Morimura's translation of The Inimitable Jeeves and believed it would be a good basis for a manga. They planned to serialize the stories in the bimonthly manga magazine Melody and then release the stories as one volume at the end of the year. After searching for an artist, they chose Bun Katsuta, who is known for her "retro" style.[3]

Early in 2008, while working on adapting Wodehouse's stories into manga form, Bun Katsuta and Tamaki Morimura realised that they needed to know more details about 1920s–30s London, such as what a ten-pound note looked like. They visited London and the nearby countryside together for research and studied English stately homes, shops, and architecture, guided by Wodehouse experts.[2] Editors Maki Shiraoka and Ayaka Tokushige were also part of the tour. The first Please, Jeeves story was published in the April 2008 issue of Melody and was an immediate hit.[3]

Publication

The short stories adapted for Please, Jeeves were originally published between 1919 and 1930. Authorized by the P. G. Wodehouse estate, Please, Jeeves was serialized in the bimonthly manga magazine Melody, published by Hakusensha, between 2008 and 2014. It was also released in five volumes by the same publisher, under the company's Hana to Yume Comics label. The first three volumes, which are numbered as a set with white dust jackets, were published in March 2009, December 2010, and October 2012, respectively.[4][5][6] The fourth and fifth volumes are not explicitly numbered, and have a red dust jacket and blue dust jacket respectively, though both are still stated to be part of the "Please, Jeeves Series". They were published in November 2013 and December 2014.[7][8]

In the manga, Jeeves is called a butler, because the Japanese are not familiar with the word valet.[3]

Volumes

Each volume contains between four and six stories. All five published volumes include the original magazine publication date for each story. The last volume also includes a text translation of the short story "Jeeves Makes an Omelette" with five illustrations.

Volume#Melody publication dateOriginal short storyOriginal collection
1 1 April 2008 "Scoring off Jeeves" and "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch" The Inimitable Jeeves
2 June 2008 "The Purity of the Turf" and "The Metropolitan Touch"
3 October 2008 "Jeeves in the Springtime"
4 December 2008 "Comrade Bingo"
5 February 2009 "Bingo and the Little Woman"[4]
2 6 August 2009 "Jeeves Takes Charge" Carry On, Jeeves
7 October 2009 "The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy"
8 April 2010 "Without the Option"
9 June 2010 "Clustering Round Young Bingo"
10 August 2010 "Bertie Changes His Mind"[5]
3 11 December 2010 "Aunt Agatha Takes the Count" The Inimitable Jeeves
12 February 2011 "The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace"
13 December 2011 "Jeeves and the Yule-tide Spirit" Very Good, Jeeves
14 February 2012 "Jeeves and the Impending Doom"
15 April 2012 "The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy"
16 June 2012 "The Love That Purifies"[6]
4 17 October 2012 "Jeeves and the Chump Cyril" The Inimitable Jeeves
18 December 2012 "Episode of the Dog McIntosh" Very Good, Jeeves
19 February 2013 "The Spot of Art"
20 October 2013 "The Ordeal of Young Tuppy"[7]
5 21 June 2013 "Jeeves and the Old School Chum"
22 August 2013 "Jeeves and the Kid Clementina"
23 June 2014 "Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest" Carry On, Jeeves
24 October 2014 "The Aunt and the Sluggard"[8]

See also
  • List of the Jeeves short stories

References
  1. "MANGA: Please, Jeeves". Internet Archive. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  2. Morimura, Tamaki (Spring 2012). "Translating P. G. Wodehouse" (PDF). Plum Lines. 33 (1): 8–9. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  3. Woodger, Elin (Autumn 2008). "Manga!" (PDF). Plum Lines. 29 (3): 1–2. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  4. Katsuta, Bun (10 March 2009). Please, Jeeves 1 (in Japanese). Hakusensha. ISBN 978-4-592-18693-9.
  5. Katsuta, Bun (10 December 2010). Please, Jeeves 2 (in Japanese). Hakusensha. ISBN 978-4-592-18694-6.
  6. Katsuta, Bun (10 October 2012). Please, Jeeves 3 (in Japanese). Hakusensha. ISBN 978-4-592-19753-9.
  7. Katsuta, Bun (10 November 2013). Jīvusu Igirisu shinshiroku (in Japanese). Hakusensha. ISBN 978-4-592-19754-6.
  8. Katsuta, Bun (10 December 2014). Jīvusu kyōsō shinshiroku (in Japanese). Hakusensha. ISBN 978-4-592-19755-3.
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