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.

REVIEW: Lone Wolf and Cub

Lone Wolf and Cub

By Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, introduction by Frank Miller

Originally published in 1970

·         It is to note that the cover for the American publications of Lone Wolf and Cub are drawn by Frank Miller, who in turn was inspired by the style of manga and who wrote an introduction to how much Lone Wolf and Cub inspired his works like The Dark Knight Returns and other Batman works that he did.

·         The specific issue I will focus on is Issue 8 of the American publication.

·         The introduction by Frank Miller doesn’t talk too much the author or even about the status of Japanese comics at the time but more on the censorship on American comics and how the media is slumping in our times yet with the exportation of comics to Japan, manga has taken a life of its own and perhaps we can learn a lot about the medium through how other nations make comics.

·         They choose in the beginning not to translate the sound effects and the names of the characters in the native Japanese writings done by Kazuo. Instead, the translators allowed the dynamic word play to continue on with the first page, translating only what was already in word bubbles and even that varies in importance. This could be seen as an influence to how Miller was to use his own style of words being influential to his works like in the Dark Knight Returns.

·         As manga is a colorless medium, the use of black and white as seen in Lone Wolf and Cub is influential to the mood of the story in addition to how the panels are laid out. Take the second page for example, where there is a panel with our protagonist in black yet the “aura” of his killing intent is in white, which would mean the author took planned drawing the inking and then whiting around the character to make an artificial fire look.

·         Unlike Tezuka, Kazuo took it onto himself to make establishing shots of the backgrounds (like in Page 11-12) to allow the setting to be in the reader’s minds when explaining other portions of the tale. Take it with the pages afterward (Page 13-14) where the assassins are shown and we take it with what we read before to mentally project the assassin’s onto the landscape even though Pages 13-14 are blank in the background.

·         To note Scott McCloud, characters seen in manga that are human or supposed to be at least Japanese have more simplified faces than any more detailed object which we are to not necessarily relate to. Take the people in Page 28, whose facial features look relatively simple in comparison to how more realistic drawings look. Now look at Page 29 with the highly detailed horse. We initially take in that the people are more relatable whereas we see the horse as its own separate object.

·         Speed lines, very prominent in manga, is seen well in this series as with the chain weapon on Page 52 or with the wind that is commonly seen like in Page 51.

·         Overall, this story was really good about a samurai and his son traveling for revenge. I highly recommend it to anyone.

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.

REVIEW: Manga Sixty Years of Japanese Comics

Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics

By Paul Gravett

Printed in 2004

·         The book notably tackles the stereotype that manga is science fiction stories made for little boys full of action where manga, like other media, is a diverse genre that is not so easily defined by one term.

·         They note that American comics did influence the publication style of manga significantly and as such much after comics fell from the popularity of America it is still strong in Japan.

·         Printed blocks is in itself a form of manga printing but this is minute compared to the influence American comics have in manga.

·         In the Japanese education system, they do indeed teach manga as an art form but at best it is a footnote in the history of Japan and claims that Japanese block art is the complete influence of how manga came to be.

·         Unlike American comics, which require lots of colors and its own expensive print method, Japanese manga is noted for being printed in a cheap giant book weekly or monthly subscription form that is to be discarded unless someone wants to own a specific series, which in that case they are to buy a trade paperback of a specific series.

·         The book talks about how manga is creator owned in most cases, so once a writer-artist dies his work also goes with him. However, this allows more creative freedom for the artists and their assistants who help him ink, draw backgrounds, etc. However, given how editors still play a major role in the manga industry some series seem to last much longer than their initial stay in my opinion (like Bleach and its current forced longevity).

·         Early manga before Tezuka show more styles akin to American style as opposed to “big eyed” styles that we are accustomed to in manga today.

·         While American comics are usually sold in specialty stores today due to the lack of drive for everyday people to continue to read three dollar issue comics, manga in Japan are sold in most any market or common grocery store: showing that the livelihood of manga is much stronger than its American counterparts.

·         Digital distribution is a key part of American comics today, but given that Americans need to go to specialty stores today to look for comics this may be why digital distribution is key in the States. In Japan, however, digital distribution is not yet implemented in the norm due to the success of print already in the local Japan.

·         Much like American comics creators today, manga studios can range from a location studio where people have an art desk to just having a really messy art room in one’s apartment.

·         Manga as we know it today stems from what influences Tezuka gave, but also from many lesser known comics creators before Tezuka’s time: like the creators of Sergeant Norakuro.

·          Overall, this was quite an informative book and I enjoyed reading it.

Bibliography:

 Gravett, Paul. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. London: Laurence King, 2004. Print.

REVIEW: Buddha (Tezuka)

Buddha (manga)

Original manga By Osamu Tezuka

Printed in 1972

·         The story is noted for not focusing on the character who would become the “Buddha” in the beginning but rather it focuses on side characters who would influence the Buddha in future chapters, be it in their current incarnation or reincarnation.

·         Despite everyone being Indian as with the origins of Buddhism, the design is reminisce of Tezuka’s other works which makes the characters more simplistic in order to make us relate more to them.

·         Sacrifice of oneself in order to have a better reincarnation is a common theme in this manga. This is exemplified even in the beginning of the story where the rabbit was to sacrifice himself for the benefit of the dying hermit and thus transcended to a higher plain of existence, which was a theme to be consistently delved into in the series. (Buddha, Pages 22-25).

·         Slaves are treated horribly in the comic, as with the example of the slave boy in the beginning with his mother (Buddha, Page 40).

·         People have mystic powers that are not explained well in the mythos of the manga but they serve as part of the narrative to how certain things in the Buddha’s life came to be, Tatta exemplifies this with his powers of going into animals like when he saved the slave mother for his friend (Buddha, Pages 65-69).

·         Death and destruction is a common theme in the manga as people are killed, maimed, sold to slavery, etc that is less seen in mass in any Tezuka work, like the death of entire village with Tatta’s mother and sister dying (Pages 85-89).

·         As a piece of biography, this manga follows much of the established traditions of the Buddha’s lifestyle in the religion and philosophy with added side characters that Tezuka incorporated.

·         Tezuka does not insert himself in this work, notable compared to his other works to stress that this is a piece of fiction. Tezuka not being in this manga can be seen as stressing that this is NOT fiction, making us awe inspired and lost in his work as opposed to the other works where he tries to test our sense of reality.

·         Despite characters looking evil in the manga at times, it turns out that looks can be deceiving as morally decent characters actually can be good while morally deprived characters can look beautiful.

·         Characters dying in this manga are common, but as reincarnation is the theme of Buddhism it is not necessarily the case that we never see the character again: they can reappear as another person later on.

·         In the first book, the titular Buddha character does not even show up until the very last part, and even then he is but born.

·         Animals have their own will in this manga and tend to act rationally as people do. Given how animals can be reincarnated people, however, this should come to no surprise.

·         People are horribly mutilated in the Buddha series.

·         The only character to continue on by the series’ end was Tatta.

·         Overall, this was an excellent series worthy of Tezuka’s namesake.

Bibliography:

Tezuka, O. (2006). Buddha. New York: Vertical.

REVIEW: Astro Boy Film

Astro Boy Film

Directed by David Bower, Original manga By Osamu Tezuka

Film distributed 2009

·         Unlike the original origin of Astro Boy, Toby (the original boy Astro is based on), does not die from driving a future car but rather an incident with a rouge robot with a red evil core. In addition, Dr. Tenma is more open to accepting Astro as his son in this film as opposed to other adaptations of Astro Boy where he rejects Astro but still accepts him as his creation.

·         Past some key citizens of Metro City who are actual side characters from the original Tezuka works (including a cameo of Tezuka himself as a scientist in the film), the other added characters to the franchise look nothing like the style Tezuka made for the series. In addition, the technology and the looks for the robots look nothing like the sci-fi look that Tezuka set for his series originally.

·         Metro City, despite having a distinct Japanese feel to it, is not noted to being part of any country specifically in the film. There are references to New Jersey and other non-Japanese locations and culture making this adaptation unfittingly feels less Japanese and more International.

·         Astro is noted to keeping a shirt and pants for most of the film as opposed to only having underwear like his original comic. In addition, he doesn’t use his signature blaster gun hands and machine gun butt until later on in the film.

·         This film was notably co-created with a Hong Kong animation firm as opposed to a complete Japanese animation house.

·         The film specifically focuses on robotics for the majority of its sci-fi element whereas the original source material had cyborgs, plant people and aliens more regularly in the plot.

·         The classic style of Tezuka interacting with the audience is left out in this adaptation past his cameo as a scientist, which seems lacking in how Astro Boy comics and Tezuka’s style normally is in his animated films and manga. Normally, Tezuka would interact with the audience early on in his works to remind people that what they are reading is fictional, a personal trait of his works after he had experienced the aftereffects of World War II in Japan and how that affected the Japanese mindset.

·         The rules or robotics is made clear that robots cannot harm humans save for an ancient robot ZOG, which sets up irrational situations where robots try to get at humans by circumventing the rules.

·         Instead of the Heart power that Astro gained in the manga and his slow coming to becoming more like Toby, the Astro of the film immediately was given Toby’s memories from a strand of hair DNA and powered by the plot-driven Blue Core.

·         The forced tension of romance with Cora with Astro was unnecessary.

·         Overall, the movie was indeed enjoyable save for the forced friendships that Astro gained with the kids from the surface world. The political tone of the film also drew away from the manga origins where Tezuka focused on human suffering as his subject to his manga and/or how people overcome hardships on a regular basis. Overall though, I enjoyed the film.

Bibliography:

Astro Boy. Dir. David Bowers. Perf. Freddie Highmore, Nicholas Cage, Kristen Bell, Et.al. Sony, 2009. DVD.