Read this Manhwa


SHAMAN WARRIOR Vol.1
Park Joong-Ki

Recently Dark Horse has started publishing a couple manhwa series, namely Shaman Warrior and Banya: The Explosive Deliveryman. For those not familiar with the term manhya, it is the Korean word for "comic".

Today I read Shaman Warrior Vol. 1, and then... I read it again.

Wow.

I read a lot about this title before actually reading it myself, but let me say it was one of the most satisfying comic reads of recent memory.

For starters, the art is crisp and detailed, without being overwhelming. The experience is a very visceral ride, showing off more fight scenes than story lines, but that is more than OK. The story comes through and the battles are bloody. There are a couple times when Park plays with perspective making me do double and triple takes, but when I could grasp what was going on, I was wowed again.

Some have complained that there is too much fighting, and not enough character development in this first volume, but, personally, I wouldn't change a thing. The story is very moving in a manly sort of way (think Lone Wolf and Cub), and I would recommend having Volume 2 on hand (I didn't) to see what happens next.

New issue of Eiga Hiho, and first big volume of Gunsmith Cats out


My Eigo Hiho campaign is going well, even if people just come here for the info. This month there is a big article on robot movies, in anticipation of Transformers. Eiga Hiho always seems to have pics I can't find anywhere else, so I will share this Cybertron leader Megatron scan. There are also articles on Nazi-themed movies (mostly Euro B-movies), and an interview with Takeshi Miike.

Western TV DVDs are making their way to Japan, and sometimes its strange to meet Japanese people that know more about Friends and E.R. than I ever possibly could. The wonderfully cursed technology of DVD has also brought the good (Heroes, Lost), the bad (Baywatch, Prison Break) and the ugly (4400...wasn't that show cancelled halfway through?). The Japanese news media either avoids the American reviews of crummy movies and TV shows months before they hit Japan, so I hate to see Japanese movie stars so excited to see the premeire of some completely crappy movie like Red Eye... and sometime wonder if they know it's crap. I mean, the Baywatch season 1 and 2 DVD are packaged beautifully, and at around 100 dollars a season... well...

The first volume of Gunsmith Cats is out, and it is big! You are paying for it, but pound for pound cheaper than the average books half it's size. I'll give a more detailed review soon, but it is a fun sexy time...lotsa girls and lotsa guns

Back to the land of the living! It has been a crazy four weeks! Details soon on that but for today, a couple reviews...

If you haven't picked up the March Yuuyake Shimbun, be sure to do so. There are reviews of To Terra, E'S, The Two Faces of Tomorrow and TRAIN+TRAIN, in what I called the "Those Darn Humans" edition. (Each book has humans looking like idiots compared to some superior race or robot).

Two terrific new manga have crossed my path in recent weeks, and I will be reviewing them in the April issue of the Yuuyake Shimbun.

Sometimes hot titles by hot writers don't live up to the hype, but the anticipation for Hiroki Endo's Tanpenshu was well projected. Fans of the Dark Horse Eden series should enjoy this first of two volumes, a collection of short stories. Volume One has three tales, and in another forum site I described them as the manga I had always dreamed of. This stuff is dark, dense, mature, violent and heart-wrenching. Endo's style (which might remind one of Katushiro Otomo's Akira) is stark and warm at the same time. I think it's how he draws faces, usually trying to hide secret feelings, so skillfully that make this a work that is really worth looking into. Volume One is available now, and Volume Two is out in May.

Another title that I read on the advice of a colleague, and didn't expect to like (I seem to have a lot of those) is Vampire Night. In my book, it has everything going against it... I am not a big vampire genre reader, and traditionally shojo is not my bag (though I also really liked Penguin Revolutions a few months back, much to my own shock. I must be getting young in my old age).

More than the story itself, Vampire Knight is carried more than a bit by it's incredibly dynamic drawing and layout. The story and style grow throughout this first volume, and what starts out as a simple premise (School has humans students by day and vampire students by night, our heroes need to keep them separated) evolves into something quite unique and engaging.

I can't say enough about Matsuri Hino's style. I am not a huge fan of the sidebar notes every chapter about what the writer went through in making the story, and what she had for breakfast the day she drew a certain page, but that is really my only complaint about this dazzling first volume. The fashion of the characters, not something I generally put too much thought into, is very goth-cool (especially compared to the last vampire book I read, Until the Full Moon, in which everyone looked like they just walked out of an A-HA video shoot c. 1983).

The sexuality and shojo crushes take a different air when half the characters are vampires trying to quell their own blood lust, and this title already is making its share of worthy buzz. Volume One is out now, and Volume Two is out in the beginning of May.

Maybe it's force of habit, but I always am compelled to show you each month's Eiga Hiho. The cover didn't wow me, but there are some interesting articles on Korea's The Host, the Tarantino/Rodriguez must-see Grind House, and Sonny Chiba's Master of Thunder. This issue also includes a very visual [recent] history of movies made into video games. As gamers know, the union has more misses than hits, and little distinction is made, (not to mention that GTA wasn't a movie), but one thing I like about this magazine is they always use stills you'll never see anywhere else. 'nuff said.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a drawing by Reiko the Zombie Shop creator Rei Mikamoto. For your enjoyment...

Some fun reviews coming up... Night of the Beasts, Vampire Knight, After School Nightmare... you see a theme?