Tsunami Channel

Tsunami Channel is a manga-style web comic authored by Akira Hasegawa that updates 5 days a week.

The name Tsunami Channel is actually a group header for Akira's, as well as his sister Romy's various works, especially the on-going series Experimental Comic Kotone and Magical Mina.

Table of contents

1 Experimental Comic Kotone 1.1 Main Characters 1.2 Other Characters 2 Magical Mina 2.3 Main Characters 2.4 Other Characters 2.5 Mina's Monsters 3 Other Projects 4 Outside Links

Experimental Comic Kotone

Experimental Comic Kotone (or ExCoKo) follows the story of Kotone, a young android girl designed by Professor Hasegawa, who is attempting to fit into society and does so very well.

The comic originally started as a series of 14 scripts in a semi-interactive format created between June 26 and September 14, 2001, designed in such a way as to resemble a dating game. The comic now has more than 300 strips.

Main Characters

• Kotone is the lead protagonist in the comic (as stated by Hasegawa himself, and hinted at by the name of the comic). She claims to be 18 years old, but is generally considered 12 by most of the other characters in the comic, due to both her apparent mental age, as well as her appearance. She has an extensive collection of stuffed animals that she enjoys playing with.
• Onii-chan or Player is the secondary protagonist in the comic (and it often appears as if he is the true lead character in many of the comics), and is well-known for his powers of quick healing, his clueless nature around girls, and his "Love Sim Syndrome", which causes him to attract girls to him without his knowledge. He currently attends Carnegie Mellon University and is majoring in Computer Science and works on projects for Professor Hasegawa.
• Laika is a Japanese girl who is an expert swordswoman. In earlier comics, she was extremely violent. She is part oni, causing her to occasionally lose control and potentially go on a murderous rampage if not kept in check with an oni seal on her arm, and she works on the same projects that Onii-chan does for Professor Hasegawa. Her incentive for doing so, however, is a promise by Professor Hasegawa to remove her Oni genes following the successful completion of the project, thus fueling her continual insistence that Onii-chan help her complete the project as quickly as possible.
• Konstantin, one of two characters in the comic with real life equivalents, is well-known for his bishounen appearance and hentai personality. He is often quoted for his attraction to "anything that moves." His weakness however are catgirls, eternally causing problems with his relationship with Anya. It is because of Konstantin and his comrade-in-arms Professor Hasegawa that Tsunami Channel has a large cliquish following of hentai-lovers.
• Haruna is the daughter of two beatniks, but was raised by her traditional Japanese grandmother, owner of the large Japanese conglomerate Kurahashi Corporation. Because of Professor Hasegawa's desire for funding while in Japan, he barters with the Kurahashi family for Onii-chan to marry Haruna in exchange for money. Haruna is extremely traditional and cannot speak English. This does not cause any problems with Onii-chan any more however, despite the fact that he knows no Japanese. Initially, Haruna fell in love with Onii-chan due to his similarity to her dead fiancee Mamoru, but she now loves him for who he is, and not for who he resembles.
• Anya is a catgirl who, after having been saved by Konstantin from being run over by a truck, has now fallen helplessly in love with Konstantin. Konstantin's fear of cats, however, has repeatedly caused problems with their relationship, and he often must make a quick escape when she appears.
• Lisa, Anya's sister, is a kitsune, and true to form, she is a trickster, often playing tricks on various characters, particularly Onii-chan, who must be careful to avoid her occasional attacks. She often shapeshifts into other forms, but has recently become rather confused, as most of the characters have been able to identify who she is, despite her being in a different form. This has caused problems, due to an old animal-people legend that states that one's true lover can tell who the animal-person is regardless of the form they take.
• Alex is a young boy who also loves stuffed animals, and in this fashion has quickly become one of Kotone's good friends. He often has problems asserting his manhood, as he looks quite androgynous.
• Professor Hasegawa is the not-often-seen force behind the scenes, often causing problems for Onii-chan, such as leaving Kotone behind upon his leaving of the United States for Japan, sending Haruna to marry Onii-chan, and other similar things. Professor Hasegawa is based on the real-life author, except that he is much more hentai than the real Akira is.
• Tsunami, who is Professor Hasegawa's computer, is not only the namesake of Tsunami Channel, but she also serves as a "computer fairy" who helps him design computer programs and other projects. Together with Konstantin, the Professor seeks to corrupt Tsunami, and she constantly hammers the Professor with mallets for his ecchi and otherwise meddling behavior.

Magical Mina (or MaMi) is an action/magical girl manga that follows the story of Mina, a girl who has gained magical girl powers from creatures programmed by Professor Hasegawa. Mina, however, is hardly your normal magical girl, as she is cool, calculated, and quite smart and strong.

It was originally codenamed Magical Project H, and currently has four chapters.

Main Characters

• Mina is a 12-year-old girl who is rather smart and has gained magical girl powers from various programs programmed by the Professor and his students Onii-chan and Laika. She often fights battles to gain powers, but these battles are consistently against stronger creatures than expected, often causing problems for Mina.
• Mulder is Mina's stuffed animal sidekick who almost never gives Mina accurate information about her enemies, thanks to the supposed overzealous programming attitudes of Onii-chan and Laika.
• Arc is Mina's sidekick who has also received magical powers from Professor Hasegawa. He helps Mina defeat Fire by using a Light spell.

Initially, Tsunami Channel was also known for the ability of fans to create their own adventures with the characters through the Script Writer Akira had used in part for the initial Tsunami Channel scripts. In addition, Akira had previously scripted several Japanese language lessons.

Tsunami Channel also includes a art contest that has recently been more separated from the comic, but is still quite popular.

Tsunami Channel also has a number of fan-led projects, including a project to animate an Anime-like opening theme song, a fan-fiction site, a voice acting project (including a radio drama, Ask the Professor (a series in which people can ask questions of Professor Hasegawa, played by Xuanwu), and Dr. Konstantin (a planned series in which people can ask relationship questions of Konstantin, played by RivaL.)).

Outside Links

• Tsunami Channel - The main comic site.
• Tsunami Channel Voice Projects - The site for the various voice acting projects for Tsunami Channel.
• Tsunami Channel Art Contest - The site for the various art contests sponsored by Akira.
• Tsunami Channel Scripting Page - The site for the various scripts Akira has made, including the Script Writer and its fan-made scripts, Akira's original ExCoKo scripts, and Akira's Japanese lessons.
• Tsunami Channel Forums - The fairly active forums for Tsunami Channel, where the most vocal parts of Tsunami Channel fandom discuss various topics, and where many of the fan-led projects are centered.