REVIEW: Akira (Manga)

Akira

By Katsuhiro Otomo

Akira

Originally published in 1982

·         The manga starts off giving its science fiction back story on how the world of Akira is based on an alternate reality where Japan was bombed and that caused World War III, predating Code Geass and other realities where the basis of history in manga differs drastically from our own timeline in an effort to make a metaphor to how Japan has changed drastically (Akira, Pages 6-11)

·         Our protagonist is NOT named Akira but is instead a punk ass kid Kaneda who would beat up a bystander who happened to have superpowers. In addition, in the reformed version of Japan’s state the teachers are allowed to give their students a good sock in the face for some odd reason regardless of child abuse laws in our own reality. (Akira, Page 31)

·         The architecture of Japan in Akira notably is new buildings being built on the ruins of pre-World War III Japan. This is exemplified where tall buildings much like Judge Dredd which houses entire populations exist over the old Japanese skyline. (Akira, Page 35)

·         The club that Kaneda goes into notably has a Dante’s Inferno reference with the “Abandon All Hope” graffiti over where the story really kicks off. (Akira, Page 40)

·         The news with the pictures is notably photorealistic compared to the cartoony version of how people look in the world of Akira. (Akira, Page 109)

·         Of course, an evil corporation with human experimentation is the cause of all the mutations and weird stuff that is going on around Japan.

·         A LOT of the plot of the first part of Akira is based on motorcycle chases, which given pre-psychic powers this serves as the only action in the manga. (Akira, Page 125)

·         Of course, the protagonists and major characters in Akira are high-school students. However, this reflects how college is seen in America as the time of great self-discovery and nostalgia for the Japanese audience.

·         Kaneda is really a punk ass kid who takes the entirety of the situation in strides even though he’s been caught in gun fire and the sight of unholy psychic abominations at the beginning, hitting on Kei and actively threatening Resistance members. (Akira, Page 151)

·         People notably die horrible, gruesome deaths in Akira, like the gangsters who get their head exploded by pure psychic terror from Tetsuo. (Akira, Page 186)

·         There is little depiction of women save for the nurse that Kaneda slept with and Kei, though as most of the manga is based on gang wars and military psychic drugs it makes sense for this to be.

·         Over all, I like this manga a lot as a future cyberpunk psychic Japanese manga, however the trope has been done to death nowadays as with the titles of Code Geass, Gundam, and the like.

Bibliography:

Ōtomo, Katsuhiro, Yoko Umezawa, Linda M. York, and Jo Duffy. Akira. New York: Kodansha Comics, 2009. Print.

REVIEW: Lone Wolf and Cub (TV Series)

Lone Wolf and Cub (TV series)

By Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima

Originally published for DVD in 2008

·         As stated on Wikipedia, this adaptation of Lone Wolf and Cub for television is the most faithful to the original works of Koike and Kojima, with the son Daigoro actually being part of a number of assassinations.

·         The order of the TV series is more liberal than that of the manga, with the assassination of the guy with the hawks and several other ronin targets plus a love affair maiden having their stories intergraded together in the first episode. In addition, they note Ogami’s back story with the government and the Yagu clan very early on in the series whereas the manga had him fighting people anonymously for some time.

·         The opening notably uses art similar to the manga for the theme song as it depicts the Father and Son similar to the manga leading up to the reveal of how the characters look live action.

·         This adaptation is notable for being live action as opposed to an anime series, with the actors looking masculine and rough compared to how contemporary Japanese actors look, making this adaptation much like the samurai films of older Japanese cinema.

·         The actor of Daigoro notably has his hair in a similar style, even cutting a good number of his hair and having that “eyebrow” look on his head.

·         The sound used in the TV series notably has disco bass beats to it, much like samurai movies in the 1960s. This is a noted subtle touch to the series that makes it fee like an authentic retro samurai film.

·         As a minor thing, I liked the vigilante feel of the TV series, much like pulp fiction and Western cowboy films in America. The protagonists go into town and kill some trouble makers without the question of morality as our protagonists and their values are always seen as moral. Thus, we do not once consider necessarily if the bandits or the prostitutes that are in the series are in the wrong and so the writers could focus on the violence as opposed to the social matter.

·         The fight scenes take much longer to kill off villains than in the manga, though this may be due to the fact that this is a live-action adaptation so real martial arts and real-time physics played a role in how the characters interacted.

·         Most of each episode for the first thee episode goes down to the characters in the environment being shocked by the premise that Daigoro is following his assassin/mercenary father so loyally into the jaws of death and that Daigoro is so calm at watching people die in front of him. Based on the DVD description, Daigoro is one year old or slightly older so it is even more improbable than the manga in that Daigoro can do so much like make a fishing line with a horse’s tail, wield his father’s sword, or pick a lock.

·         The baby cart was tricked out even more in the TV series with pole arms and bullet proof padding on it more so than in the manga.

·         Overall, the TV series was a great adaptation of the manga as the theme of a father and child assassin team was done extremely well.

Bibliography:

Lone Wolf and Cub: Live Action TV Series 1. Perf.  Kinnosuke (Nakamura) Yorozuya, Katzutaka Nishikawa. Tokyo Shock , 2008. DVD.

REVIEW: Lone Wolf and Cub Vol. 1

Lone Wolf and Cub

By Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, introduction by Frank Miller

Originally published in 1970

·         There are many ridiculous forms of martial arts that is used in the series, like the “Hawk style” where the assassin’s against the Wolf and Cub used a hawk as the major part of their martial arts. (Pages 17-19)

·         A lot of the comedy of the manga comes from the interaction of the child with his environment, like with the daimyo threatening our protagonist while the child was crying to pee and they had to let the protagonist go so he could let his son piss. (Pages 23-25)

·         The action is notably defined by the lines used with the deadly slashes seen in the manga. (Page 28-29).

·         There is a lot of iconography of the father and son motif in this manga, like the image of introducing the Wolf and Cub assassin with dialogue with the image of a literal wolf and its cub and the two animals heading to the readers. (Page 37)

·         It is to note that the horse stampede is drawn realistically, but also that the assassin Lone Wolf is willing to use his son and the environment around him to throw his opponents off track: like how people are unwilling to slash at him because his son is on his back and then Lone Wolf cuts them down due to this flinch in weakness. (Pages 52-55)

·         The cart is notably its own character in Lone Wolf and Cub, as it is not only bulletproof but also can be used as a tool besides the sword and his son for Lone Wolf. (Page 85)

·         The child is notably very intelligent for being a three year old boy, being able to recite music and choose the way of the sword compared to the way of normalcy. This would imply he’s as much a warrior as his father yet this requires the suspense of disbelief that a child could be so capable at such an early age. (Page 114-117, 224-228).

·         Much like Miller’s work, women in Lone Wolf and Cub are notably capable of being adversaries alongside the normal brutes that make up the enemies of the protagonists. This is included with the eight deadly femme fatales that Lone Wolf and Cub had to surpass and kill in one story arc. (Pages 137-157)

·         Women are also victimized in the series as one lady was raped and strangled to death in front of the Lone Wolf and Cub, which contrasts with what we read in the previous chapters with femme fatales and with the gentle ladies. (Pages 173-174) This is to contrast with Miller, however, as he does not include gentle ladies in his works, only femme fatales and ‘whores.’

·         Overall, this is an excellent series but it is noted compared to other manga works due to the outlaw style of storytelling. This is a huge contrast with the manga that was designed for children that we saw with Tezuka.

Bibliography:

Koike, Kazuo, and Goseki Kojima. The Assassin's Road. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics, 2000. Print.

Miller, Frank, Klaus Janson, Lynn Varley, John Costanza, and Bob Kane. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. New York, NY: DC Comics, 2002. Print.