Danica Davidson
October 4, 2021 
SAKUGAN makes its debut later this week, on October 7. From today, October 4, until December 19, a charity auction associated with SAKUGAN is taking place in Japan.
SAKUGAN is working with auction site Mobaoku and charity group WakeAi, which helps with food and preventing food waste. You can find the auction site here, in Japanese. The items up for auction (and there will be around twenty of them) entail signed scripts and more autographed objects related to the anime. The money goes to WakeAi Food Bank, and it will help bring food to struggling families with a single parent. The reason for this angle is because the anime stars a dad and daughter in a single-parent household.
The anime is based on a novel, and this description was given for the novel’s setup:
“The distant future, long after the Western calendar is no longer used.
Humans live shoulder-to-shoulder, cramped in the ‘Labyrinth,’ an underground world deep below the surface.
There are many colonies where people live in the underground Labyrinth. The place is known for extreme high temperatures, but also for lodes of gold, silver, and other riches.
In one of the colonies named Pin-in, a curious nine-year-old girl named Memempu and her father Gagumber board a two-person work robot and mine for ore. They eke a living as the lowest of lowest ‘Worker’ occupations.
One day, Memempu begs her father Gagumber to set out as Markers — those who chart the innards of the Labyrinth as a spelunker — to search for her mother who left their home.
If they encounter a ‘mysterious giant creature’ lurking in the caves, the survival rate is less than 5%. Since discovering an unknown world is dangerous work, ‘maps’ hold great value in the world of Labyrinth and fetch high prices on the market.
A Marker is the most dangerous, but also the most lucrative, job.
Gagumber decides he cannot hold back the ever-curious Memempu from going off on her own countless times, and finally gives in. The two embark on a journey together in the work robot.
However, the ‘cost’ of curiosity …
The ‘truth’ they finally uncovered …
This is a father and daughter’s epic journey with the theme of family love.”
SAKUGAN can be watched in America through Crunchyroll.
Source: grape Japan
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, and its sequel, Manga Art for Intermediates, with professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
