Archive for the ‘Manga’ Category
Fate Stay Night
Posted by Ian | Filed under Manga, Portfolio, Review
The Holy Grail in history is something that many searched for and no one has ever found. Wars were fought for the supposedly holy land of Jerusalem and thousands of people have died in wars for the holy land and the many artefacts that have been left over from Jesus Christ’s time on the world.
However, in Fate Stay Night the Holy Grail War is something entirely different, it’s a time when seven Masters summon seven Servants to fight for the right to obtain the Holy Grail so that their wishes can be granted.
Our main protagonist, Shirou Emiya, is the sole survivor of a great fire, the incident that managed to kill his entire family and leave Shirou as an orphaned boy. He was lucky enough to be saved that fateful night by his adopted father, Kiritsugu Emiya. Since that day Shirou has done everything in his power to become a Hero of Justice and has tried to live every day the best he could. This budding engineer and high school student had no idea that his father was already a Hero of Justice. However, unlike his adopted dad, he had none of the skill or the power that led to Kiritsugu becoming a Hero of Justice and a Magus. A Magus is a powerful Master who is able to summon a Servant to fight in the Holy Grail Wars so that they are able to have their wishes fulfilled by the Holy Grail.
One day on his way home from school Shirou stumbles across two men who are fighting in the street, unsure as what to do, fear takes hold of him and Shirou tries to run away from these two battling men. Unfortunately as he turns to run he is fatally struck down by one of the combatants and much to his own surprise rather than simply dieing he manages to live and is approached by Saber, an armour clad woman, who tells him that he is now a Master and has been chosen to participate in the Holy Grail War. He has no interest in participating in this War, but he discovers that it was his wish to become a Hero of Justice that caused the Wars to start again. Upon this realisation he decides to take full responsibility and actively participates in the War.
There’s an indepth storyline in Fate Stay Night and this expensive story is explained bit by bit throughout the first volume of the manga. Where characters that are introduced in the opening pages that have a much more critical role in later stages in the manga. With a large number of characters it can become a little confusing as to who is who, and the dialogue can confuse the reader a little as it doesn’t appear that there’s much direction to which character is speaking in the early pages.
Throughout the story there are flashbacks to Shirou’s childhood, when Kiritsugu is adopting him and when he passes away. These flashbacks, which are vital to the plot, seem to be littered around the manga and do not appear to have a direct trail in this volume. This isn’t helped by the rapid character development and the occasional data dump to actually explain what’s going on.
Fortunately though these data dumps actually enlighten the reader and bring a strong sense of clarity to the book, which is to be expected with an indepth storyline such as this.
» Final Score
7
Fate Stay Night is a strong opening to a manga with magic, mages, death and destruction. The main problem is the rapid character development and all too often data dumps; however, these are small prices to pay considering where this could go.
Tags: Manga, News-Anime.com, Review
Leek & Sushi’s Manga Show 150 Years of Friendship
Posted by Ian | Filed under Manga, Portfolio, Review
Worldwide the manga industry seems to be in some form of decline – this is due to the recession worldwide. Some of the biggest publishers in the market such as Tokyopop are scaling back their number of releases per month and this trend doesn’t seem to be shrinking in the professional market. Fortunately the UK has a thriving manga underbelly where professional and semi-professional artists are getting together and releasing their work to the Indie scene.
ITCH publishing are one of those independent publishers who have enough pulling power that they are able to collate most of the runner ups of the Manga Jiman competition that was held by the Japanese Embassy in the UK to celebrate the diplomatic ties between our two countries. Due to the nature of the artists who entered this competition, ITCH was able to collate their work and create an anthology out of it.
Many anthologies manage to destroy the intention of the original author and artisit’s work due the very nature of an anthology. With Leek & Sushi’s Manga Show 150 Years of Friendship the nature of all of the work is the same, it’s centred around 150, as that’s how many years the Anglo-Japanese relations have existed. However, just as with all artists, the manga strips that have been collated together are as different the very cultures between the UK and Japan.
Due to the skill of Willie and the team, the transition between sketches have been made very smooth by the insertion of Leek & Sushi, who are easily the highlights of the anthology. The pair interjects a unique brand of humour between sketches and manages to open up the anthology in an interesting and different fashion without appearing boring – a huge feat in itself given the topic.
Between each strip Leek and Sushi introduces what’s coming up in the next strip and will often have a conversation with a caricature of the author. Although that’s not always the case as occasionally they’ll do nothing but talk over the character and sometimes Death will appear and, well, naturally Leek and Sushi are a little concerned.
Leek and Sushi are simply drawn characters that each have a lot of personality and are able to convey messages by joking around with one another. At all times it feels like the reader is in the centre of an “in-joke” but knows what the “in” bit is, which is a rare accomplishment in any visual form. As they are very basically drawn, they take nothing away from the other artist’s strips in the anthology.
The stories themselves are too numerous to name but manage to range from being incredibly serious to as light-hearted in nature as Leek and Sushi. Although one poignant moment in the manga is towards the end where the artist is showing how grief can be coped with, and how little mementos can make a huge difference in how one can grieve.
The quality of illustration and style vary greatly from author to author, from the fairly grungey style of Samuel Barker to the super detailed Karen Yumi Lusted and back to the more cartoony style of Sammy Barras and Laura McNulty. This means that there’s something for everyone. Almost all of the characters feel very real and given the fact that the storylines all have to feature around the 150 theme, the character are easy to connect with.
However, the highlight of the entire anthology have to be Sushi and Leek; who have a distinct and simple drawing style and a humour that is entirely their own. They manage to make a great set of stories something that bit better with their edge and wit.
» Final Score
9/10
Leek & Sushi’s 150 Years of Friendship is a huge accomplishment out of a small and independent manga studio in the UK and is a necessary buy for all manga fans. With 250 pages of individual and unique manga goodness it’s a worthy investment.
Tags: Manga, News-Anime.com, Review
Goth Volume 1
Posted by Ian | Filed under Manga, Portfolio, Review
To be a Goth is to be a member of a rich and substantial subculture that pulls on various influences from throughout history. A Goth cannot be categorised as someone who enjoys the dark side of life, someone who enjoys death or someone who is always miserable and depressed as they are merely a few areas of the wider subculture. As such, for this name to be used as a title of a novel, and subsequently a manga is ambitious.
Illustrated by Kenji Ooiwa from Otsuichi’s original Goth novel, the first thing that Itsuki Kamiyama noticed about Yoru Morino was her hands. The clear sign of scars across her wrists informed him immediately of what type of person she was, and her infinitely pale skin made them even more noticeable. Kamiyama wants those hands, but not the girl. This horrific thought is the start to a very strange friendship between the pair.
With a strong draw to one another, Kamiyama and Morino soon discover that they both have a fascination with death, torture and sick crimes; that make normal people turn away. These crimes touch the darkest parts of their souls and make them feel like they can truly experience life and live. Goth is made up of six stories, each one depicting a different type of death, and dealing with the fascination that the lead characters have with murder and suicide.
However, this fascination with death and suicide is never eluded to be wrong. Throughout the six stories the pair manage to find themselves dealing with people who all ultimately end up regretting their murders in some respect. The regret of being caught is naturally the first, and that is swiftly moved on from by the regret of killing a loved one and the regret and guilt of lying.
Throughout the manga, darkness is used as a theme to heighten the macabre feeling of the characters. Although there is some horrific violence in Goth, the violence is not overused at any point. In fact, the conservative use of illustrating the violent crimes heightens the sense of horror when the occasional images arise. The images themselves are normally against a black backdrop and have little shading, the type of murder is shown clearly and the wounds are detailed.
The two most haunting images are towards the beginning and the end of the novel respectively. The first is a woman, who has been entirely mutilated, with her head in another part of her anatomy, maimed breasts and eyes in her hands. Whilst the second is the other haunting image is that of asphyxiation by hanging, which is unusually against a clear backdrop.
At no point can this be defined as high art; however, the artwork is drawn to a strong standard and the artist knows when less is more. Unfortunately, the story itself is stripped bare from the original novel. Throughout the lead character Kamiyama seems to instinctively know who the murderers are, and where to go to catch them and to save Morino. Morino appears to always be at the centre of most murder and kidnap plots, and Kamiyama seems to have the best luck at catching criminals. As the storyline has been stripped back, sometimes the plot can feel a little contrived and convenient.
» Final Score
8
Goth is a frighteningly horrific owing to its almost real life events. Although it has been stripped down a lot from the original novel: “Goth A Novel of Horror” by Otsuichi, the manga manages to capture the essence of the book. At most points sympathy is felt towards the murderers, which in itself makes the manga more evil.
Tags: Manga, News-Anime.com, Review