Tag: manga

Halloween Horror

Happy Halloween: Third and Final Chapter: Horror Manga

Japanese horror tends to focus on psychological horror and tension building and suspense, particularly involving ghosts and poltergeists, while many contain themes of folk religion such as: possession, exorcism, shamanism, precognition, and yōkai.

Recommended: Graphic horror works by Junji Ito ( “The Enigma of Amigara Fault” and “Uzumaki”) and “Jisatsu Circle” by Furuya Usamaru.

Recommended: Films:  “Jigoku”,1960 by director Nobuo Nakagawa; “Tetsuo: The Iron man”,1989, a cyberpunk horror film by Shinya Tsukamoto;  “Ringu”, the original Japanese version of the Americanized “The Ring”,1998, directed by Hideo Nakata.

Enjoy. Do not forget to turn off all the lights. No flashlights allowed. Happy Halloween to all of you.

Hiroaki Samura

Hiroaki Samura, “Blade of the Immortal”

“Blade of the Immortal” is a Japanese manga series by Hiroaki Samura. The series is set in Japan during the mid-Tokugawa Shogunate period and follows the cursed samurai Manji, who has to kill 1000 evil men in order to regain his mortality.

The manga was originally published in Afternoon from June 25, 1993, to December 25, 2012. A 2008 anime adaption was produced Bee Train and Production I.G. Also in 2008, the novel “Blade of the Immortal: Legend of the Sword Demon” was released in Japan by Kodansha, and two years later in the United States by Dark Horse Comics. A live action film adaptation is scheduled for release in 2017.

Kenji Kawai, Inner Universe, Ghost in the Shell

Kenji Kawai, Inner Universe, “Ghost in the Shell”

The Ghost in the Shell (Kokaku Kidotai) is a 1995 animation film based on the manga series of the same name. It was directed by Mamoru Oshii, written by Kazunori Ito and Masamune Shirow who wrote the comic series. It starred Atsuko Tanaka and Iemasa Kayumi.

It was later redone as a live actor movie in 2017 directed by Rupert Sanders and starring Scarlett Johansson, Michael Pitt, and Juliette Binoche. It was filmed at locations in New Zealand and China.

In this post-cyberpunk iteration of a possible future, computer technology has advanced to the point that many members of the public possess cyberbrains, technology that allows them to interface their biological brain with various networks. The level of cyberization varies from simple minimal interfaces to almost complete replacement of the brain with cybernetic parts, in cases of severe trauma. This can also be combined with various levels of prostheses, with a fully prosthetic body enabling a person to become a cyborg.

The main character of Ghost in the Shell, Major Motoko Kusanagi, is such a cyborg, having had a terrible accident befall her as a child that ultimately required that she use a full-body prosthesis to house her cyberbrain. This high level of cyberization, however, opens the brain up to attacks from highly skilled hackers, with the most dangerous being those who will hack a person to bend to their whims.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Yuuki Yugo

Wolf Guy

Wolf Guy is a Japanese manga series of two volumes published in 1970 by Bunkasha. Originally written by Kazumasa Hirai and illustrated by Hisashi Sakaguchi (坂口尚), the series has been readapted with a more violent and mature setting in 2007 by Yoshiaki Tabata and Yuuki Yugo. This new adaptation, also known as Wolf Guy: Ōkami no Monshō, has been released as twelve volumes by Akita Shoten.

The main protagonist of the story is Akira Inugami, a Japanese-American exchange student. He is constantly bullied and abused by gang members (whom in the stories, he usually ends up killing or maiming). His parents were killed by hunters when he was young, mainly because of their werewolf lineage, and was raised by a pack of wolves he had befriended. He can transform into a werewolf in his own will. He is quite powerful during full moons and is weak only during the days of new moons.

Mentaiko Itto

Mentaiko Itto, “Priapus” and “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”

Mentaiko Itto’s amusing gay mangas are a major part of the Japanese manga publications. Bruno Gmünder has published his works for the first time in English, introducing him to a broader audience. There are already two manga volumes released from Mentaiko Itto: “Priapus” and “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. Following Itto’s success, publisher Bruno Gmünder introduced a poster book in a large-scale format.