Myth and Manga

Deus ex machina and NO 6 the anime

2012-02-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

No 6 was an anime instantly that pulled me into its post apocalyptic world. The story started gently, ramped up slowly, and was woven beautifully into a pattern that I thought would lead to an amazing ending. Then I got kicked in the face. Now, I don't know if the eleven episode anime simply compressed the nine volume novel by Atsuko Asano into utter non-sense but I was shell shocked after the

The Book of Friends or Natsume Yuujinchou

2011-04-23T11:29:00.001-07:00

In the country-side of small-town Japan, Takashi Natsume is running from something. Out of breath and slightly panicked, he crashes through bushes to the main road and stops in front of two high-school boys. Out of breath, he asks casually if there's a holy place round. After confirming his route with the baffled boys, Takashi takes off again as if there's a bakemono (monster) after him. There

Conventions in Vancouver

2010-07-31T16:48:00.001-07:00

Vancouver has a large anime and manga related convention called Anime Evolution that I've attended as a convention goer and an artist ever since its inception at SFU. It is a grand place to see the talented artists we have in Vancouver in the Artist's Alley and of course to gorge on fine, imported Japanese popular culture. Two of my favorite artists Nina Matsumoto and Camilla d’Errico whose

The Tale of the Gallant Jiriaya and its influence on Naruto

2010-05-01T06:43:00.002-07:00

Like the story of Kagua Hime or the Adventures of Monkey which respectively influenced Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball, the old Japanese folktale of Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari (The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya) has influenced several stories and characters in anime and manga. Remember the three legendary Ninjas of Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsusande in Naruto? Their names and their powers of toad,

Switching Gender Roles in Manga: Men as Women and Women as Men

2010-04-11T09:43:00.002-07:00

The reversal of the traditional female and male role in a story is interesting to me because it exposes the conventions of a story. In terms of character archetypes, story genres, and the hero's journey, there are reasons why these conventions exists; they work. They work on a level that is universal in that most people around the world despite cultural and traditional differences can

Osamu Tezuka and the Man with no Limbs - Dororo

2010-04-03T19:09:00.003-07:00

Osamu Tezuka is a great name in manga and anime and is said to be the Walt Disney of Japan. He was greatly influenced by Walt Disney and was apparently the instigator for the large manga eyes we all know and love. This Disney connection is interesting to me because my animation teacher (and most other people in the traditional animation industry when I went to school) seemed to dismiss manga

Character Generation in Manga: How to make characters interesting

2010-03-24T23:06:00.319-07:00

My previous post Character Generation in Manga: Characters on a theme showed how to effortlessly generate manga characters within seconds. So now you have the characters, what are you going to do with them? This post will show you how to develop the featureless characters you have generated. This is different from my post on Anime Archetypes which gives you a broad over view of the generic

Character generation in manga: Characters on a theme

2010-03-19T15:46:00.001-07:00

One of the functions of being a published writer is the ability to meet deadlines. Deadlines mean that you don’t have the luxury of running dry or writing when ‘inspired’. You will have to be aware of your writing process and conceptualize your idea with an eye to generating an endless series of plots and characters. It’s interesting that the best way for endless character generation involves

Early Contributions to Sequential Art

2010-03-16T15:49:00.010-07:00

As we approach the 18th and 19th centuries we begin to look more at individuals who contributed to sequential art of Japan and The West. Four specific individuals come to mind when looking at this time frame. Suzuki Harunobu who innovated woodblock printing by introducing full colour prints, Katsushika Hokusai who's sketches became famously known as the first book of manga, William Hogarth who's

Manga as a learning tool: For Wine and the ancient art of Go

2010-03-06T10:03:00.005-08:00

Want to know more about the ancient game of Go or Wines? I didn’t. These activities were as uninteresting to me as learning the ancient art of cloud watching. Here I’ll look into how manga can influence a culture; and turn activities practiced by the few into popular culture. I’ll be looking at Hikaru no Go (Hikaru’s Go) by Yumi Hotta and Kami no Shizuku (Drops of God) by the brother and sister

Manga and Western Comics: A History Part 2: Kusazōshi and Chapbooks

2010-03-04T23:57:00.013-08:00

Kusazōshi were wood-block printed illustrated literature created during the Japanese Edo Period and the Early Meiji Period. These books were cheaply made and therefore became popular with the working class of the time. The “chapbooks” of the West were similar to kusazōshi in that they were cheaply made and mostly read by the working class. In fact, scholars use both chapbooks and kusazōshi to

Manga and Western Comics: A History Part 1: Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga and The Bayeux Tapestry

2010-02-26T09:41:00.007-08:00

The first topic I will be discussing in this series is the history of Manga and Western Comics. In this first article I will be discussing Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga and the Bayeux Tapestry. Beyond cave painting, these are the first significant achievements of illustrative storytelling.Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga, otherwise known as Chōjū-giga, are a set of four picture scrolls (emakimono) that belong to the

Influences of manga – Red: A Haida Manga

2010-02-21T22:00:00.003-08:00

With manga becoming more wide spread around the world, I’ve begun to notice an interesting fusion of the Japanese manga style with other varied and distinct cultures around the world. I believe the reason why manga is doing so well around the world is because of the strong graphic design art style that is easily read by anyone. With manga, it’s easy to bring the stories of your culture and

Vancouver 2010 Olympics: Where to find Manga, Anime, Sushi, and the Daiso

2010-02-10T18:43:00.005-08:00

On February 12th, 2010 the Winter Olympics is going to explode all over my home town of Vancouver, BC. For the thousands of visitors descending on Vancouver for this event, I thought I'd leave you with some good information for hunting down manga, good Japanese food, and good manga influenced art. All these locations are close to skytrain stations and easy to get to. Go to www.translink.bc.ca to

Compare and Contrast: Western Comics and Manga - Defining the Terms

2010-02-07T11:03:00.003-08:00

In my career as an artist I have explored different media and different outlets for my creative expression. I landed on comics as a way of being able to blend artwork and storytelling. As I created more and more comics I began to expand my horizons and look at other ways of creating sequential art. One of the avenues I began to explore was difference between manga and Western comics. The first

I want to be great! The battle cry of shonen manga

2010-02-03T10:34:00.002-08:00

Most good manga start out with the simple premise and goal: A dumb, socially inept kid suddenly fixates on a highly impossible goal and declares to the world, "I want to be a great ___________!" (fill in the blank) Naruto. "I want to be a great ninja!" Slam Dunk. "I want to be a great basketball player!" Great Teacher Onizuka. "I want to be a great teacher!" The character is always male and

Dragon Ball, Saikyuki, and the Adventures of Monkey

2010-01-27T11:10:00.005-08:00

The Adventures of Monkey is another one of those timeless tales that have spawned a myriad of manga, movies, and media. A few of these tales are Dragon Ball, Saiyuki, Naruto, and the recent film by Jet Li and Jackie Chan called the Forbidden Kingdom. The source of all these stories is called Journey to the West, a classic Chinese tale that pulls heavily from Chinese traditions and mythology.

Famous Female Mangaka: From Full Metal Alchemist to Hana Yori Dango

2010-01-20T05:50:00.005-08:00

Have a favourite manga that you've loved and read? Chances are that it was created (both written and drawn) by a female managaka. In writing this post, I was surprised and pleased about how many of the manga I love were written by women. Across all genres and topics, their names leapt effortlessly out at me. In comics drawn outside of Japan, China, and Korea, there's a separation of the job of

The Ninja Run or Shinobi Aruki

2010-01-13T17:07:00.002-08:00

If you've ever had the question, why do anime ninja/shinobi characters run like that!? Read on. Hilarious demo of the ninja run: Shinobi Aruki or stealth walking originated in Japan. It is part of the shinobi's training in Ninjutsu, and one part of the 18 systems for training the warrior. Shinobi aruki is used for the following reasons: a) Sprinting for long distances b) When running two

Kimba the White Lion and the Lion King

2010-01-08T08:50:00.001-08:00

Kimba the White Lion was created by Osamu Tezuka as a manga in the 1950's and became an anime in the 1960's. Tezuka, was and is a major influence on many Japanese manga artists today. He was the Walt Disney of Japan. I was going to compare the two, but this writer's website http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm more than does the job. Can you spot the difference? ahahah. Don't get me wrong. I

Kaguya Hime, Salior moon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Studio Ghibli

2009-12-30T10:51:00.006-08:00

I'm always interested in the sources that present day stories pull their myths and folklore from. It took awhile before I was able to recognize the myths behind the manga as Japanese folklore and legends were unfamiliar to me. My first introduction to anime was Sailor Moon. As a teenager, I watched the first few episodes of Sailor Moon restlessly, with the sense of wtf? This was before the rage

Hayao Miyazaki's Story Themes: How man and nature interact

2009-12-23T17:07:00.010-08:00

In September, I visited the Ghibli Museum. Set in a heavily wooded park in Mikata, Japan, simply walking to the Ghibli Museum from the train station was an experience. The tree lined avenue was lined with beautifully carved poles, indicating the route to the Ghibli Museum. At the end of the avenue was a wooded park where school kids in perfect lines of twos, walked briskly through with their

Villains of Manga

2009-12-02T21:28:00.003-08:00

I don't know what it is, but manga have at once the scariest villains I've ever experienced, and the prettiest. When I started writing this list, I realized the huge contrast with European/American/non Japanese stories whose villains are old, ugly, dark-skinned, overly manly and manga villains who are young, pretty, feminine, and fair skinned. I'm going to list a couple of villains that have

Why most manga are set in schools

2009-11-09T14:06:00.001-08:00

Ok. So you've read a lot of manga and watched a lot of anime. You’re tired of the high school hero boy or girl spiel and you've decided that you want to write your own magical adventure story. You break out your MS Word, you have the characters, the plot, the theme, but what about the setting? You think about it, and you've decided against your character travelling because coming up with new

Theme and Emotions

2009-08-18T17:08:00.004-07:00

The purpose of a story is to make me experience a roller coaster of emotions and its release: catharsis. After several years of doing research and analysis on the kind of stories I enjoy, I've discovered something that took me a fearfully long time to understand. I don't care really care about the plot (sequent of events) or the goal of a story.All writing books ever talk about is plot. So that’s