Category: Manga

I found this very interesting image at 2ch that shows in a quite extreme way the evolution of the drawing style of manga since the Edo era (last frame) until nowadays (first frame). The frame of the Edo era is not really manga but you can already see the fundamentals of what the style would be a century later in Japanese manga. The most exaggerated frame is the second one, belonging to the 90s, the golden era of shōjo manga, like for example Sailor Moon. The third one corresponds to the Dragon Ball years, and the fourth and fifth have an Osamu Tezuka and Tetsuya Chiba (Ashita no Joe) feel. On the other hand the first frame corresponds to the manga style mostly used in the last decade, maybe the most neuter and boring one.

Battle Angel Alita is a very popular manga in Japan, as well as in the west. Battle Angel Alita is the international name but in Japan it is known as Ganmu 銃夢. Battle Angel Alita, created by Yukito Kishiro, is being re-released at the moment in Japan, so I have taken the opportunity to re-read it in Japanese. I think I found it more entertaining when I read it for the first time in Spanish, could it be that I’m getting old? 🙂 However I still find Kishiro’s art fascinating.

It seems that James Cameron is an Alita fan and he will direct a Battle Angel Alita based on the manga. James Cameron will use everything he learned while filming Titanic and Avatar to bring Alita to the big screen; let’s hope it turns out great, it will most likely be released in 2014 or 2015.

Battle Angel Alita

This is my try to copy the art from Alita.

Lone Wolf and Cub is a manga created by Kazuo Koike in the 70s. The manga is set on the Edo period when the samurai had a lot of power in Japanese society.

Lone Wolf and Cub is a fictional story where some real historic events are included. The main characters Ogami Itto and his son Daigoro (fictional character) are falsely accused against the Tokugawa Shogun by the Yagyu clan (one of the most powerful clans during the Edo era, that existed in reality). From that moment and on Ogami and his son will seek revenge against the Yagyu.

Ogami Itto and his son.

Half of the Lone Wolf and Cub Japanese volumes owned by my friend Yamamoto. The whole series is composed of 28 volumes.

Ogami Itto fighting against Retsudo Yubei (one of the legendary Yagyu Yubei brothers).

The manga was a great success in Japan and many movies and TV series where created based on it. Quentin Tarantino saw one of the movies (Shogun Assassin) and became a fan of Lone Wolf and Cub, he read the manga, saw the television series, movies, etc. He used all that inspiration to create Kill Bill. In fact, at the end of Kill Bill Vol.2 the main character and ******* (Kill Bill Spoiler warning) are watching Shogun Assassin laying on a bed.

And not only it has influenced Tarantino, many other samurai movies are inspired in certain way by Lone Wolf and Cub, Final Fantasy video games have subtle references to the manga; and also Rurouni Kenshin anime, the movie Sin City and even The Ninja Turtles have been influenced by Lone Wolf and Cub. For a complete list of works influenced by Lone Wolf and Cub nothing better than Wikipedia.

The TV series soundtrack.