Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai
Miyamoto Musashi is an instantly familiar name to any Japanese citizen, a legendary swordsman who has become part historical figure and part romanticised hero of myth. In addition to writing one of the key texts on Japanese samurai tactics and philosophy – The Book of Five Rings – he is also famous for inventing the Ni-Ten Ichi Ryu style of fighting with two swords, perhaps the most obvious, internationally recognized visual trademark of the samurai.
But even with so much academic study dedicated to Musashi's life, so many books written on him and an almost infinite number of movies, anime and manga stories inspired by his legendary exploits and teachings, still questions remain unanswered. Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai attempts to answer one of these in particular – what motivated the great warrior to adopt and perfect his dual bladed style?
Toriko Serves up Fights, Monsters and Foodie Fun
I don't watch a whole lot of TV lately, but one thing I'm still addicted to is cooking and food shows. Two of my faves are No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. Why? Mostly because those shows combine travel, adventure and lots of strange but wonderful foodstuffs that you don't usually see at your local supermarket or diner.
So it stands to reason that I love cooking manga, like Oishinbo and Yakitate! Japan. But now there's a new gourmet graphic novel hitting the shelves, Toriko by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro from Shonen Jump Manga.
Toriko follows the over-the-top adventures of a muscle-bound "gourmet hunter" who seeks out the rarest, wildest, most difficult to find and most delicious foodstuffs available on the planet. We're not talkin' digging for truffles or hunting for wild boar -- nope, that'd be too easy. Toriko battles giant four-armed apes, catches 30-foot cod with crayfish claws, and risks life and limb to capture a monster gator, all for the sake of a good meal.
Afterschool Charisma Injects Sci-Fi Suspense Into High School
In your average high school drama manga series, you'll find the usual cast of characters: the jock, the brain, the bully, the sensitive artist, the prissy girl, and the hussy. Kumiko Suekane's Afterschool Charisma has these archetypal characters, but with a twist: they're all teen clones of historical figures. The brainy kid has the same DNA as Albert Einstein. The girl most likely to succeed? She's the clone of Queen Elizabeth I. And the bully is... Mozart?
It'd be entertaining enough to see teen Sigmund Freud, Florence Nightingale and Rasputin deal with the everyday drama of high school, but Suekane takes it to the next level by injecting sci-fi/psychological suspense into the plot. The clones of St. Kleio Academy are already struggling with meeting their teachers' expectations when one of the school's most famous graduates, a clone of John F. Kennedy is assassinated on live TV. This turn of events sends a ripple of fear throughout the school. The clones begin to ask themselves: are they doomed to repeat the lives and deaths of their predecessors?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Takuya Mitsuda's Major Baseball Manga Nears Its End
The Japanese publisher Shogakukan has confirmed in its preview for this year's 31st issue of Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine that Takuya Mitsuda's Major baseball manga is nearing its end after 15 years. The story follows Gorō, the son of a major league batter who dreams of making it big himself. The manga has been running in the magazine since late 1994, and the 76th compiled book volume shipped in Japan last month.
The manga inspired its first television anime series in 2004, and the sixth television anime series just launched this past April. The manga also inspired an anime film titled Major: Yūjō no Winning Shot in 2008.
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