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Art Manga

The Genius of Katsuhiro Otomo

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Katsuhiro Otomo is one of my all-time favorite manga creators, and what you see in the images above — see this tweet by Max Humphries for larger images — is yet another example of the genius that is Otomo.

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Urusawa Naoki no Manben

I’ve just discovered my new favorite TV series. Urasawa Naoki no Manben is a documentary series on NHK Educational that follows Naoki Urasawa – my favorite mangaka – as he interviews various manga creators. What’s especially interesting here is that the cameras follow the person over 4 days, as they are working on pages, and so the “interview” is basically Urasawa and the guest commenting as you (and them) watch the artist in action. Even if you can’t understand all of the Japanese, it’s fascinating to see these pages getting made, and all of the care and attention that goes into them. The episode I watched is with Kengo Hanazawa, the creator of I Am A Hero (a series I’ve recently been reading obsessively), and I was mesmerized watching him addressing issues like trying to give a creature more realism through the depiction of its muscles, or for the expression on a character during a pivotal scene. I can’t recommend this series enough, especially if you have any love for sequential art.

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Master Keaton

While I wait for the final volume of Naoki Urasawa’s Billy Bat to begin serialization this summer, I decided to explore his Master Keaton series. I’d read a couple of chapters a while back, and it hadn’t really grabbed me at the time, but this time, after reading the first few chapters, I started really appreciating the character and the types of stories that are told. At first I think I was disappointed because I wanted something that was more ongoing, like with Monster or Billy Bat, but now I really appreciate that each chapter is a self-contained story, and I’m digging the investigative nature of the series – along with the historical aspects (Keaton is an archeological professor at heart, but also works as an investigator for Lloyd’s of London). I’ve read the first 3 volumes of the original series, as well as the first few chapters of the Master Keaton Remaster series, which takes place 20 years later. Great stuff.

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I Am a Hero

Since yesterday I read the first 5 volumes of this series, and I just can’t stop (I think there’s close to 20 volumes out at this point). I actually did read the first 3 volumes or so a few years ago, but that was all that was out at that point, and then I never got around to reading it again. I decided to start reading it from the start again, and I am completely sucked in. I just love so much about it, even the fact that the setup for the series basically takes an entire volume. I also like how they treat the way people react to this zombie apocalypse – feels more realistic than The Walking Dead, or at least I completely see how people in Japan would react that way. In fact, I think that’s part of the reason that it speaks to me more than Walking Dead, I’m much more familiar with this setting than the US portrayed in Walking Dead – the Tokyo part takes place in the general area where I lived for around 13 years (Ikebukuro), and then Shizuoka, Fuji-san, etc. The setting, the way people act, it just speaks more to me. And I really enjoyed how a few chapters are pretty much told through 2-chan threads, which worked well with the story. 

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Koe no Katachi

After devouring the Ajin manga (I’m all caught up and waiting for new chapters), I’m now on to something completely different, and that I wouldn’t have thought I’d enjoy reading (it was recommended by the same friend who suggested I check out Ajin). Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice, in English) is basically a junior high romance, about a bully who after being nasty to a deaf girl, becomes regretful, and tries to start a relationship with her. It’s definitely not the type of thing I thought I’d be reading and getting really into, but I find myself really enjoying it. I’m still only about 10 or 11 chapters in, but look forward to reading through it all. 

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Billy Bat

The serialization of the latest (and penultimate) volume of Billy Bat was recently completed, and boy does it make me look forward to the final volume, which will begin serialization in June. I can definitely say that I’ve enjoyed Billy Bat more than Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, and even though it sometimes felt like it was going nowhere, it’s fantastic to see so many pieces come together in the end – and to see some characters go to places you never imagined they’d end up going. Really can’t recommend this series enough.

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Akira 3

I’m still in the process of going through Akira again, reading a volume every once in a while. This morning I read through all of volume 3, which is where it starts to diverge the most from the movie. When I read this, it makes me a bit sad that we never got more manga from Otomo, but then again, if that’s what he had to say, then so be it. Can’t complain too much about having such an amazing series like Akira to revisit every few years.

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Ajin

A friend recommended the manga series Ajin to me earlier today, and I then proceeded to start reading it feverishly, currently up to volume 3. I so love it when a manga series draws you in like this, and you just can’t stop reading chapter after chapter. It tells the rather violent story of a boy who finds himself to be an Ajin, some sort of immortal non-human (we don’t really know the details yet) that when discovered, get hunted and dissected. I wasn’t so crazy about the art style at first – especially the character designs – but it’s grown on me, or I’ve just gotten used to it. Recommended if you like stuff like Gantz.

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Akira (Manga)

After re-watching the Akira movie recently, I decided it was about time I revisit the original manga, which I don’t think I’ve re-read in a couple of decades – and that would have been the version that was published by Epic, colorized. I’m reading the B&W version this time, and I just blasted through the first volume in one sitting. I’m so happy that this is still such a fantastic read, and that it still feels like such a vital piece of comic art. It’s still astounding to me that something this massive and this good could get published in the first place. Of course, it makes you think about what Otomo could have maybe done if he continued creating comics (after Akira, he only wrote The Legend of Mother Sarah), but then again, you can’t blame the guy for not really wanting to go through the creation process of creating another magnum opus like Akira.

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Billy Bat

Naoki Urasawa is my favorite mangaka, and his current series, Billy Bat – the story of a Mickey Mouse-like comic strip character that is more than it seems – has been a treat to follow. I hadn’t read any new chapters since earlier in the year, and just this week went and got caught up on what was published this year. If you haven’t already, do take the plunge. It’s as enjoyable if not more than Monster and 20th Century Boys.