LIST OF CROSS-REFERENCES ORIGINATING IN OOKUMO-CHAN FLASHBACK MANGA AND REFERENCING MYSTERIOUS GIRLFRIEND X MANGA
Riichi Ueshiba is the creator, author, and mangaka of both manga series. Frequently, he would spoof his earlier work, Mysterious Girlfriend X, by placing cross-references in Ookumo-Flashback that refer back to instances and events in Mysterious Girlfriend X. This section chronicles these many spoofs and cross-references.
Front cover of Ookumo-chan Flashback
Front cover of Mysterious Girlfriend X
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The original references of spoof, satire, and parody found in the Ookumo-chan Flashback manga will be displayed in the left hand column. The corresponding cross-references, showing the genesis of such satire that are found in Mysterious Girlfriend X manga will be displayed in the right hand column. Text describing the nature of the cross-references, as well as other interesting information will be displayed in the center, between the pictures.
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SYNOPSIS OF OOKUMO-CHAN FLASHBACK
The main protagonist of Ookumo-chan Flashback is a young woman named Aya Suzuki. She married the guy that dated her in high school, but he died early on in the marriage. She was left with a son, now 16 years old, named Minoru. Her maiden name was Aya Ookumo. She supports the two of them as a mangaka, writing and drawing her own manga that is published in a weekly manga magazine. Her current manga is called Unconfirmed Girlfriend X. Aya is quite cute and attractive for being in her 30's, however, she has a somewhat quirky personality. Many times she thinks, acts, and dresses as if she were still a high school girl. In fact, her sailor fuku female high school uniform still fits her.
Her son, Minoru, is a level-headed guy who does well in high school, the same high school that his parents attended. However, Minoru also has a quirky dilemma. Just before he died, his father was able to somehow transmit a full set of memories from himself to Minoru. These memories gradually have been repressed by Minoru's mind, however, certain events or situations in his life will trigger these images to surface, in the form of mental flashbacks, to him from time to time. The pictures and memories are from when his father was dating his mother, Aya Ookumo, and the various situations and circumstances that they encountered when they were going together in high school. Minoru therefore, by means of the flashbacks, can see his mother as she was as an angst, love-struck high school teenager, and can experience the same shipping and teen love that his two parents had between them while they were dating. Added to the dilemma is the fact that a cute teenage girl in the manga club is attracted to Minoru, and wants to begin shipping with him. This so similar to what his mom and dad did ! Minoru is certain that he can never tell his mother of the flashbacks, even though they cause a very intimate and somewhat erotic bond and shipping to be formed between mother and son.
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OOKUMO-CHAN FLASHBACK CHAPTER 1[]
Aya is drawing a panel of her manga wherein the female protagonist is wearing a polo shirt and bloomers. Aya herself is dressed as such, so that she can see exactly how to represent the character in bloomers. In the last panel, one can see the female protagonist of the manga dressed in bloomers, and pulling on them with her fingers. The cross-reference is probably to Mysterious Girlfriend X Chapter 17, that has the female protagonist, Mikoto Urabe, dressed in bloomers at an athletic festival, and running in a relay race.
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>>>>>>> CHAPTER 2[]
The front cover of Unconfirmed Girlfriend X manga is almost the same as, and a spoof of, the front cover of Mysterious Girlfriend X manga. The female protagonists even have the same pose !
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>>>>>>> CHAPTER 3[]
No cross-references to Mysterious Girlfriend X. However---
A jacket that high schooler Aya Ookumo is wearing seems to imply that it refers to Kashima City. Kashima City, at the foot of Mt. Kashima, is the setting for the anime Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl. The Kashima Municipal High School girl's uniform, with the Kashima emblem emblazoned on the left breast, is shown in the pix to the right.
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>>>>>>> CHAPTER 4[]
( No cross-references to Mysterious Girlfriend X in Chapter 4 )
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>>>>>>> CHAPTER 5[]
( No cross-references to Mysterious Girlfriend X in Chapter 5 )
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>>>>>>> CHAPTER 6[]
Aya is trying to draw how the skirt of a sailor fuku (sailor suit) would twist and flutter, and how the pleats cause the skirt to distort when moving. She is modeling a sailor fuku herself. In Chapter 4 of Mysterious Girlfriend X, Mikoto Urabe is wearing a sailor fuku with a skirt that is also being twisted and is fluttering.
The page that Aya has drawn is of the female protagonist playing baseball and wearing a polo shirt and bloomers. In Chapter 77 of Mysterious Girlfriend X, Urabe, the protagonist, is playing baseball wearing a polo shirt and bloomers.
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>>>>>>> CHAPTER 7[]
At a manga book signing event that she has to attend, Aya is confronted by a female manga fan that shows Aya that she wears a tool in her panties, just like the protagonist of Aya's manga. The fan even takes the tool out and spins it to show Aya how carefully she follows the female character of the manga. This cross-references the times in Mysterious Girlfriend X that Mikoto Urabe will lift up the hemline of her skirt and reach for a pair of scissors that she keeps holstered in her panties, and many times shows off her prowess of spinning them around just like a gunslinger !
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>>>>>>>CHAPTER 8[]
( No cross-references to Mysterious Girlfriend X in Chapter 8 )
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>>>>>>>CHAPTER 9[]
There is no direct, specific reference to an incident in Mysterious Girlfriend X in Ookumo-Flashback Chapter 9, however, there is an almost universal tendency of teen boys to gawk and stare at teenage girls wearing athletic outfits during PE class. This because due to the nature of athletic wear, it almost always shows off the girls' body size and shape, something that most boys at that age are keenly interested in, especially if a boy is dating one of the girls.
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>>>>>>>CHAPTER 10[]
Although it sometimes bothers his conscience, Minoru keeps a picture of his mom that was taken when she was in high school, wearing the cute jumper dress that was the female school uniform. He sometimes stares at it while he is alone in his bedroom. In Mysterious Girlfriend X, Chapter 2, Tsubaki also keeps a picture of his girlfriend, Urabe, with him and occasionally takes it out and stares at it. This even though in the picture, Urabe,dressed in the sailor fuku female school uniform, is giving him the raspberries.
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The list of cross-references for Chapters 11-20 of Ookumo-Flashback can be found here.