i don't, but good news: i like it and made a post to that effect on a forum
honestly it's hard to tell them apart (it should really be in color) and the action scenes are sometimes hard to follow. that's probably why i didn't read through even though i heard of it like a year ago
to my surprise i haven't posted any golden kamui. i'm putting it in a spoiler block since it's gotten the point of skeeving me out a little, which usually means other people will be seriously angry at me for just posting it.
Spoiler:
Noda, Satoru. (2014.) Golden Kamui. (EverydayHeroes, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Shueisha.
Here's the thing with Golden Kamui: it's in some sense the weirdest comic i've ever read. Not because of the content being weird. I mean in this scene it's clearly trying to be weird. The weird clothing there is made of human bodies, if that is not clear.
But no, the weird thing is the combination of moods and writing.
Baka Updates gives this description of the plot, which is basically correct: «In Hokkaido, the far northern lands of Japan, Sugimoto survived the Russo-Japanese war of the Meiji era. Nicknamed "Invincible Sugimoto" during the war, he now seeks the riches promised by the gold rush in hopes of saving the widowed wife of his now deceased comrade from the war. During his hunt of gold, he finds hints of a hidden stash of gold by corrupt criminals. Partnering with an Ainu girl that saves his life from the harsh climates of the north,»
So you're like okay, it's going to be a historical drama. Japan won the Russo-Japanese war but it was pretty hellish for the soldiers (think WWI feat. icy death) and sugimoto's got a backstory based on death. This is a Serious Story. All the recs on baka updates are stuff like Historie and Vinland Saga that are also historical fiction.
But it's really not. The last sentence there ends "they venture into a survival adventure to race against the criminals that seek the hidden stash". "Survival Adventure". That does describe the mood. It's hectic. They run everywhere and get into crazy fights with crazy people. But it's still historical. Their main opposition is a ninety year old leftover from the Boshin War who still fights with a sword, and an IJA intelligence officer who wants to start a coup. Historical. Serious.
But then this happens. The thing in the image there. The intelligence officer guy - who certainly looks like a serious motherfucker, he had most of his face destroyed and wears a mask thing to cover up the lack of skin - runs a fashion show. The model there is a taxidermist who is fucking crazy and makes clothes out of dead people. I mean just... that entire image. Look at that codpiece. Look at it. Absorb it.
It's just so fucking ridiculous. But it never gives up on the historical part! There's a little historical factoid over there on the left! It's probably even true!
It's like... if I had to say it the mood of the comic is sometimes an actual historical political drama, where all the players are basically bit, you know, they're irrelevant to what's happening in Tokyo unless they can get all that gold. But most of the time it's like a horror movie. It has this campness to it. You know, like Return of the Living Dead or something? Silly movie but Tarman is genuinely pretty spooky to look at. The whole premise of this page here is similarly wacky and wack.
This isn't an isolated thing either. There's a Buffalo Bill ripoff, buncha gay jokes (v. problematic). Lots of lots jokes about Ainu culture, not like, racist ones, stuff like all the Ainu thinking miso soup looks like excretement. Jokes jokes jokes for this thing where a dude's guts spill out in page five.
Really weird for a manga. Really weird for anything. I like it, but just, damn, crazy.
franken fran is totally campy horror. there's some anime-ness, like the harem island guy and school, but it's totally secondary to fran being a weirdo. you read franken fran and you're like, damn, i bet the author of this goes to public appearances with a hat that makes it look like his brain is exposed. and he does.
shintaro kago is horror plus pornography. what critics are calling "definitely a combination of things" and "[vomiting noises]"
dowman sayman is... like... a guy. someone. doing things. there's definitely horror movies in there. Girls Day Out is "anime schoolgirls, but they're zombies", straight up subversion. voynich hotel is more actual camp horror without the "ha ha, anime" thing but with a huge amount of just ridiculousness. nickelodeon, i don't know. nickelodeon is on its own.
you can contrast with like, i don't know, guess i'd say "japanese horror" in all ignorance. Junji Itō is sorta there. Might have a basically absurd plot, like... uh... anything he's done, actually, but there aren't jokes. You might laugh at it because of how ridiculously ridiculous it is but it's not funny exactly.
or more like based on what i assume is actual literature you have the "traveling exorcist" thing. like mononoke, mononoke soushi, mushi-shi (the m is essential). Not as violent or rapid as Ito or zombies. Atmospheric. Usually pretty fucked up. Mushi-shi had a cuckoo child and it was still weaksauce compared to the other two.
and even then you have occasional outliers like Goldfish Bowl Man that i'm not gonna try to pigeonhole.
Canno. (2013). A Kiss and a White Lily. (Miam-Miam Team, trans.) Shibuya, Tokyo: Media Factory.
This comic has almost exactly the same setup as Comprehensive Tovarisch: self confident superiority complex chick gets repeatedly owned by lazy genius chick. But it turns out that
when i was a kid i had several friends of various identities, genders, backgrounds, etc, and we had kidly adventures, and maybe i made promises to send a satellite to canada or whatever. and then i moved and it was sad and i'd like knowing what all those people are up to now. it's something i think about not infrequently.
but japan just... what is the deal with "osana najimi"s, anime. why take it this far.
Oda, Tomohito. Miss Komi Is Bad At Communicating. (Underdog Scans, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Shogakukan.
Girl has spiritual powers in that she can make ghosts haunting whatever and haunt her instead, and they help her out. But mostly she's a stalker. It's funny. Stalking is funny.
dumb girl does dumb things. and is dressed as a maid half the time. apex of comedy.
this comic is really... solid, though. well put together. it has that kind of feeling. each chapter is mostly self-contained, but there's enough continuity to provide some extra interest. rather than being a gag comic it has these lengthy stories that are just funny without having punchlines and face faults. i dunno, i really like it.
grandma here turning her café into a maid café because she heard maids were popular is pretty good too.
Ishiguro, Masakazu. (2005). And Yet The Town Moves. (Crunchyroll, trans.) Somewhere, Japan: Shōnen Gahōsha.
im really using the hell out of my shiny new crunchyroll description. professional translations are usually better than fanstuff, and that's true here, except that the blurb is
Maid tearoom (Not Café) “Seaside“ exists in human sentiment overflowing Maruko shopping district, and it is truly ingenious! Hotori Arashiyama is a troublesome high school girl working as Midol(?) at local Maruko shopping district who has admiration for great detectives. Bustling action scenes unveil staged on slightly weird maid tearoom in this common town!
The show is another Shinbo anime, incidentally, and easily one of his stranger efforts in a very subtle way that's kind of hard to get across. Like, most of his comedy shows are zany and fast-paced and the comedy is all about blind-siding you with its weirdness, but And Yet The Town Moves is... slow, very conscientiously so, and the characters are jerks but not in a particularly ludicrous way, and the cinematography is difficult and surreal without being flashy. A lot of this seems to be in the source material, but it certainly translates interestingly.
yeah that's a reasonable description of the comic, though i don't think they're jerks, exactly. they're kind of jerks to each other in the way that you are to your friends when you're sixteen.
there was also this particular chapter, "Novel Between Dream and Reality", that was this layered dream within a dream thing that was pretty friggin surreal... looks like it wasn't adapted, though.
hooray, mango with different art (though it's not usually this exaggerated about it) plus it's alternate history for a period of time noone cares about (heian period), so the chick is a dead emperor and the psycho dude is some minor asshole
what's with that style? the black eyes? o well
PLUS the male lead has long white hair
Nakayama, Atsushi. (2016). Uratarou. (Jaimini's Box, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Shueisha.
yes yes there no more great plot than classic plot you know sacrifice children to safety of us adult n the children broke that tradition so all you useless adult die, which one survivor adult meet the children and blame the child for their own dismiss, so classic and never get old but at the same time its so irritating as hell but overall its good i hope its not get axe before everything clear, like plot and reason uratarou immortal from baby but at the same time he still can mature enough to become teenager ( from physical body i think uratarou body in his 15-18)
the weird thing about Fourteen to me is that it's apparently quite popular in its home country.
I guess Americans just don't find chickens all that scary.
somebody hasn't heard of i forget the name of the actual series now but
The bird let out a slow chicken cackle. It sounded like a chicken, but in her heart she knew it wasn't. In that instant, she completely understood the concept of a chicken that was not a chicken. This looked like a chicken, like most of the Mud People's chickens. But this was no chicken.
i'm happy to announce that the saymen are at it again with the answer to Space Dandy Saaaaayman, Douuuuuman. (2017). How Many Light-Years to Babylon? (Psylocke Scans, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Akita Shoten.
not sure if this is continuing or if the third chapter is the end or what. i guess ending in three chapters would be weird though.
boy sees girl, thinks she's bangin', but he's a taoist and she's a christian so it'll never work out. boy finds out girl is actually part of a necromantic cult dedicated to reviving Marie Thèrése of France. girl kidnaps boy to use as human sacrifice for this purpose. boy is struck by lightning and revives as Marie Thèrése of France.
kinda cliché but it's by the Beezlebub person I think, and I think Icon likes Beezlebub and maybe at times Icon has opinions that aren't completely terrible. Maybe, at times.
Excuse you! For starters, I don't like Beelzebub so much as I think Hildegard is a total cutie. TNS does like it though. Second, I totally have good opinions, a lot of the time. At least 69% of the time.
boy sees girl, thinks she's bangin', but he's a taoist and she's a christian so it'll never work out. boy finds out girl is actually part of a necromantic cult dedicated to reviving Marie Thèrése of France. girl kidnaps boy to use as human sacrifice for this purpose. boy is struck by lightning and revives as Marie Thèrése of France.
kinda cliché but it's by the Beezlebub person I think, and I think Icon likes Beezlebub and maybe at times Icon has opinions that aren't completely terrible. Maybe, at times.
Comments
honestly it's hard to tell them apart (it should really be in color) and the action scenes are sometimes hard to follow. that's probably why i didn't read through even though i heard of it like a year ago
but it's cool enough that that's ok
Igarashi, Daisuke. (2004). Witches. (Mangascreener, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Shogakukan
Seino, Nana. (2005). We're the Mew Research Team. (Golden Roze Scans, trans.) I don't know the publisher.
Cute oneshot about kids trying to figure out what the fuck #151 is.
Komori, Youko. (2013). The Town of Blue Scales and Sand. (Lovely Strange Dark, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Shueisha.
imgur has apparently convinced itself i'm a robot, so if these disappear, they are a merman in chapter eleven
anyway, welcome to innsmouth
Hara, Kazuo. (2003). Noramimi. (Hox or Mangascreener, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Shogakukan
it's day jobs in the world of massively multiplayer Doraemon
Noda, Satoru. (2014.) Golden Kamui. (EverydayHeroes, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Shueisha.
Here's the thing with Golden Kamui: it's in some sense the weirdest comic i've ever read. Not because of the content being weird. I mean in this scene it's clearly trying to be weird. The weird clothing there is made of human bodies, if that is not clear.
But no, the weird thing is the combination of moods and writing.
Baka Updates gives this description of the plot, which is basically correct: «In Hokkaido, the far northern lands of Japan, Sugimoto survived the Russo-Japanese war of the Meiji era. Nicknamed "Invincible Sugimoto" during the war, he now seeks the riches promised by the gold rush in hopes of saving the widowed wife of his now deceased comrade from the war. During his hunt of gold, he finds hints of a hidden stash of gold by corrupt criminals. Partnering with an Ainu girl that saves his life from the harsh climates of the north,»
So you're like okay, it's going to be a historical drama. Japan won the Russo-Japanese war but it was pretty hellish for the soldiers (think WWI feat. icy death) and sugimoto's got a backstory based on death. This is a Serious Story. All the recs on baka updates are stuff like Historie and Vinland Saga that are also historical fiction.
But it's really not. The last sentence there ends "they venture into a survival adventure to race against the criminals that seek the hidden stash". "Survival Adventure". That does describe the mood. It's hectic. They run everywhere and get into crazy fights with crazy people. But it's still historical. Their main opposition is a ninety year old leftover from the Boshin War who still fights with a sword, and an IJA intelligence officer who wants to start a coup. Historical. Serious.
But then this happens. The thing in the image there. The intelligence officer guy - who certainly looks like a serious motherfucker, he had most of his face destroyed and wears a mask thing to cover up the lack of skin - runs a fashion show. The model there is a taxidermist who is fucking crazy and makes clothes out of dead people. I mean just... that entire image. Look at that codpiece. Look at it. Absorb it.
It's just so fucking ridiculous. But it never gives up on the historical part! There's a little historical factoid over there on the left! It's probably even true!
It's like... if I had to say it the mood of the comic is sometimes an actual historical political drama, where all the players are basically bit, you know, they're irrelevant to what's happening in Tokyo unless they can get all that gold. But most of the time it's like a horror movie. It has this campness to it. You know, like Return of the Living Dead or something? Silly movie but Tarman is genuinely pretty spooky to look at. The whole premise of this page here is similarly wacky and wack.
This isn't an isolated thing either. There's a Buffalo Bill ripoff, buncha gay jokes (v. problematic). Lots of lots jokes about Ainu culture, not like, racist ones, stuff like all the Ainu thinking miso soup looks like excretement. Jokes jokes jokes for this thing where a dude's guts spill out in page five.
Really weird for a manga. Really weird for anything. I like it, but just, damn, crazy.
franken fran is totally campy horror. there's some anime-ness, like the harem island guy and school, but it's totally secondary to fran being a weirdo. you read franken fran and you're like, damn, i bet the author of this goes to public appearances with a hat that makes it look like his brain is exposed. and he does.
shintaro kago is horror plus pornography. what critics are calling "definitely a combination of things" and "[vomiting noises]"
dowman sayman is... like... a guy. someone. doing things. there's definitely horror movies in there. Girls Day Out is "anime schoolgirls, but they're zombies", straight up subversion. voynich hotel is more actual camp horror without the "ha ha, anime" thing but with a huge amount of just ridiculousness. nickelodeon, i don't know. nickelodeon is on its own.
you can contrast with like, i don't know, guess i'd say "japanese horror" in all ignorance. Junji Itō is sorta there. Might have a basically absurd plot, like... uh... anything he's done, actually, but there aren't jokes. You might laugh at it because of how ridiculously ridiculous it is but it's not funny exactly.
or more like based on what i assume is actual literature you have the "traveling exorcist" thing. like mononoke, mononoke soushi, mushi-shi (the m is essential). Not as violent or rapid as Ito or zombies. Atmospheric. Usually pretty fucked up. Mushi-shi had a cuckoo child and it was still weaksauce compared to the other two.
and even then you have occasional outliers like Goldfish Bowl Man that i'm not gonna try to pigeonhole.
mostly because the way rooster man there is drawn kind of annoys me, to be honest. i don't know if i could keep up with that.
Canno. (2013). A Kiss and a White Lily. (Miam-Miam Team, trans.) Shibuya, Tokyo: Media Factory.
This comic has almost exactly the same setup as Comprehensive Tovarisch: self confident superiority complex chick gets repeatedly owned by lazy genius chick. But it turns out that Mostly I like the self-defeating beauty of making someone chocolates that read "I hate you"
you know,
when i was a kid i had several friends of various identities, genders, backgrounds, etc, and we had kidly adventures, and maybe i made promises to send a satellite to canada or whatever. and then i moved and it was sad and i'd like knowing what all those people are up to now. it's something i think about not infrequently.
but japan just... what is the deal with "osana najimi"s, anime. why take it this far.
Oda, Tomohito. Miss Komi Is Bad At Communicating. (Underdog Scans, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Shogakukan.
black jack but he's in high school (bleh) with monsters (yay). and also furries.
Gondaira Hitsuji. (2015). Mythical Creature Doctor Toteku. Psylocke Scans, trans. Dunno the publisher, might have been in weekly shonen jump.
it's a oneshot and that sucks.
Girl has spiritual powers in that she can make ghosts haunting whatever and haunt her instead, and they help her out. But mostly she's a stalker. It's funny. Stalking is funny.
Kanzaki, Shummi. (2009). Sayoko-san's Romantic Ghost Story. (Easy Going Scans, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Hakusensha.
dumb girl does dumb things. and is dressed as a maid half the time. apex of comedy.
this comic is really... solid, though. well put together. it has that kind of feeling. each chapter is mostly self-contained, but there's enough continuity to provide some extra interest. rather than being a gag comic it has these lengthy stories that are just funny without having punchlines and face faults. i dunno, i really like it.
grandma here turning her café into a maid café because she heard maids were popular is pretty good too.
Ishiguro, Masakazu. (2005). And Yet The Town Moves. (Crunchyroll, trans.) Somewhere, Japan: Shōnen Gahōsha.
im really using the hell out of my shiny new crunchyroll description. professional translations are usually better than fanstuff, and that's true here, except that the blurb is (also they have an annoying flash reader widget)
there was also this particular chapter, "Novel Between Dream and Reality", that was this layered dream within a dream thing that was pretty friggin surreal... looks like it wasn't adapted, though.
one of the final chapters is all erich zann, mang
plus it's alternate history for a period of time noone cares about (heian period), so the chick is a dead emperor and the psycho dude is some minor asshole
what's with that style? the black eyes? o well
PLUS the male lead has long white hair
Nakayama, Atsushi. (2016). Uratarou. (Jaimini's Box, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Shueisha.
computers suck and also fuck my life so here's another one
Mizukami, Satoshi. (2004). Mizukami Satoshi Tanpenshuu. (Duralumin, trans.)
Somewhere, Japan: Shōnen Gahōsha.
short stories by A Good Comicker.
Ooima, Yoshitoki. (2016). To You, The Immortal. (Sense-Scans, trans.) Bunkyō, Tokyo: Kodansha.
about an immortal shapeshifter. they're not good at being human though.
by the silent voice person so... good.
also tagged "anthropology" on baka updates, presumably because the first human to appear is some kind of inuit
Mori, Kaoru. (2008). A Bride's Story. (Duralumin, trans.) Tokyo, Japan: Enterbrain.
shout-out to one of the zero modern stories set in central asia
Kaneko, Atsushi. (2004). Soil. (Hox, trans.) Tokyo, Japan: Enterbrain.
this is how i imagine unknown armies campaigns end up.
peeps i'm not sure about this. all this science talk is hard to get straight
Matsumoto, Tomoki. (2014). Seifuku no Vampiress Lord. (Vexed Scans & Maigo, trans.) Shinjuku, Tokyo: Square Enix.
(despite the presence of Some Guy Who Definitely Got A Degree it's gay, and by prunus girl person, therefore good)
Saaaaayman, Douuuuuman. (2017). How Many Light-Years to Babylon? (Psylocke Scans, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Akita Shoten.
not sure if this is continuing or if the third chapter is the end or what. i guess ending in three chapters would be weird though.
Onio. (2016). Rough Sketch Senpai. Raptor Scans, trans. Bunkyō, Tokyo: Kodansha.
model tries not to get turned on and fails.
incidentally, the pose here is supposed to be Les Deux Amies, or "Gal Pals" in the original french.
boy sees girl, thinks she's bangin', but he's a taoist and she's a christian so it'll never work out. boy finds out girl is actually part of a necromantic cult dedicated to reviving Marie Thèrése of France. girl kidnaps boy to use as human sacrifice for this purpose. boy is struck by lightning and revives as Marie Thèrése of France.
kinda cliché but it's by the Beezlebub person I think, and I think Icon likes Beezlebub and maybe at times Icon has opinions that aren't completely terrible. Maybe, at times.
Tamura, Ryuuhei. (2017). Hungry Marie. (Jaimini's Box, trans.) Chiyoda, Tokyo: Shueisha.
apparently therese escaped to japan rather than rotting in the temple tower, which i guess is more plausible than jesus doing so
you also have the royal option