Two On Ice: Research Notes

Tucker

Title: Two on Ice (ツーオンアイス, Tsū on Aisu)

•  It’s just the English phrase written in katakana

Author: Itsumo, Elk 逸茂 エルク（いつも エルク)

• Eats-oo-moe, Elk

• Yeah, definitely a pen name. The family name uses kanji to make it look more like a real name, but it’s a homophone for “always.” Personal name is just the English word “elk” written in katakana. So put together, his name sounds like “always an elk”...your guess is as good as mine!
  

Characters

• Minekoshi, Hayuma

  • Mee-nay-ko-shee, Hah-yɯ-mah

• Sa’otome, Kisara

  • Sah-oh-toe-may, Kee-sah-rah

• Kirishima, Natsubi

  • Kee-reesh-mah, Nats-ɯ-bee

• Kirishima, Natsuya

  • Kee-reesh-mah, Nats-ɯ-yah

• Takkun

  • Ta-[silence]-kɯn

• Laurent Fujiwara

  • Low-rã,  Fɯ-jee-wah-rah

  • “Laurent” is obviously a traditional French name...have you ever heard the actual native French pronunciation of the fashion brand Ralph Laurent? It’s the same as this! 

  • I wrote the pronunciation above as “Low-rã”...here’s what I mean::

    • First syllable is pretty much the same as the English word “low.” The letter combination “au” in French writing almost always corresponds to this sound (a long time ago these words were probably pronounced more like “ao,” but a sound change after the writing system was codified changed it to “oh”)

    • The second syllable is like “rah” but nasalized (the consonant is actually a sound that doesn’t exist in English, but let’s just ignore that for now). I attached an explanation of nasalized vowels in French I wrote for the Champagne episode below. 

• Sora, Takayuki 空天雪

  • Sew-rah, Tah-kah-yɯ-kee

  • Family name written as “sky,” personal name written as “heavenly snow”

• Asakura, Yuni

  • Ah-sah-kɯ-rah, Yɯ-knee

• Suzue, Kotarou

  • Sɯ-zɯ-eh, Koh-tah-roe

• Yu(u?)zen, Muka’u

  • Yɯ-zen, Mɯ-kah-ɯh

  • I put an apostrophe there to emphasize that the last U is a separate syllable

  • “Mukau” is a verb in Japanese that means “to face something”

  • I can’t find the original Japanese, so I don’t know how it’s written originally, but if his family name is Yuuzen with the long first syllable, it could mean a lot of different things. It could mean quiet/secluded; it could mean calm/composed; it could mean “gushing forth” like crude oil…I bet those first two meanings are more what the author was going for

  • It truly is a weird name. 

MaxyBee

Manga Details

• Elck Itsumo

  • Notable people they were an assistant for

    • Daisuke Enoshima (Fabricant 100)

      • on Fabricant 100 (credited in all volumes)

  • Notable people they had as assistants

    • No-one notable, but recording the names here just in case they become notable one day. You don’t have to actually mention them on the show:

      • Nagisa Ide

      • Kamurako

      • Kouta Sasaki

  • Other works

    • Two on Ice is Itsumo’s debut serialisation, but has done some one-shots beforehand, including:

      • Higan no Hi (Jump GIGA, 2021)

      • Railway/Gateway (Weekly Shonen Jump, 2022)

      • She’s nothing but a stone. (Weekly Shonen Jump, 2022)

      • The two in the garden of mourning (Jump Plus, 2023)

      • We are just what we need (Weekly Shonen Jump, 2023)

• Publishing

  • Run Dates: 

    • September 24th, 2023 to April 14th, 2024

  • Series it replaced

• Do Retry by Jun Kirarazaka (2 vols, flop, Shonen Flop Episode 91)

• Series that replaced it

  • Kyokuto Necromance by Fusai Naba (2 vols, flop, COMING SOON TO SHONEN FLOP)

• Series that started at the same time as it

  • MamaYuyu by Yoshihiko Hayashi (4 vols, flop, Shonen Flop Episode 104)

  • Kagurabachi by Takeru Hokazono (3+ volumes, meme hit)

• Chapters/Volumes: 

  • 28 chapters/4 volumes

Manga Itself / Misc thoughts

• As with many modern series on specialist subjects this had a professional advisor consulting on the manga, six-time Japanese national champion Narumi Takahashi, who has won many a medal in pairs skating, knows seven languages, and is a beloved member of the LGBT+ community (and actually became the first out Japanese skater back in 2022).

  • Normally the advisors don’t get much of a spotlight, so it’s novel to see info from Takahashi explicitly noted in some chapters, as well as the dedicated section in each volume. The only other series we’ve covered that gave a volume feature to an advisor was Do Retry.

• Screentone-heavy series like this suffer a noticeable amount from the compression of the SJ app and Manga Plus, and I encourage everyone to pick up the digital volumes, whether in Japanese or the eventual Viz Media versions. The art hits a whole lot harder when it’s nice and crisp.

• Despite mentioning a real skater in chapter 4, Itsumo asserts that Two on Ice is in a different world without real-life athletes. That page was just Itsumo talking to you, the reader.

• The Mistletoe dance sequence in chapter 13 is in that lovely handwritten English in the original version as well.

• Chapter 14 released on xmas eve in the US, and xmas day in Japan, an incredibly lucky bit of timing for Itsumo.

• Volume extras include but are not limited to:

  • Character profiles.

  • Various notes and errata about specific concepts and choices made in each chapter, usually accompanied by a cute doodle.

  • Figure skating guides/q&a with advisor Narumi Takahashi

  • Promo for the series’ X (formerly Twitter account)

  • Bonus strips, including a short epilogue.

  • HUGE TEXT PIECES explaining where every major character would have gone, as well as the broader concepts for their arcs, realised or not.

  • A SEVEN PAGE AFTERWORD.

    • I can’t possibly explain all of it, but Itsumo talks a lot about how the mature themes weren’t intended, but were born out of a want to depict the sport as a real-life drama, as opposed to the exaggerated standards of shonen manga, as well as a LOT of talk about deliberately challenging gender stereotyping as much as possible with the work.

  • Staff credits!

  • One-shots:

    • Higan no Hi (vol.3)

    • She’s nothing but a stone (vol.4)

    • We are just what we need (vol.4)

  • Credits for people and places that helped with research.