We did a guest spot talking about a certain baseball series with Basil of the OSMcast and Drew from Akihabara Renditions. No, we did not talk about the Homer at the Bat episode of the Simpsons. We talked about something even better (if you can imagine that), Mitsuru Adachi’s Cross Game manga and anime. Despite Adachi’s popularity in Japan he is relatively unknown in the U.S. We hope to begin correcting this error by talking about his recently completed series and hope to convince people to try this superb romantic baseball story that has a little bit for everyone. We also talk a bit about Sym-Bionic Titan and Star Driver as our moments of awesome in the beginning because much like the OSMcast crew we cannot help but talk about awesome.
Category: Manga
November’s Final Denouement: A Tale of Master and Student – Kenjiro Hata and Koji Kumeta
At first Hayate the Combat Butler by Kenjiro Hata and Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei by Koji Kumeta might not seem like manga with a common ancestry. The sense of humor and storytelling is quite different in both manga. Hayate has a very traditional design for a comedy manga in Shonen Sunday where as Zetsubou-Sensei is very stylized. But when we realize that Kenjiro Hata used to be an assistant to Koji Kumeta we begin to see greater similarities in their styles. When we look at, Katte ni Kaizo, a manga they both worked on together we can see how Hata was influenced by Kumeta. Hata’s work on Heroes of the Sea Lifesavers is clearly influenced by his mentor. Hata would go on to develop his own style in Hayate while Kumeta would further continue to refine his own style in Zetsubou-Sensei. I have compiled some samples from each manga to help illustrate this evolution.
Lets Do the Time Skip Again
In a strange coincidence I have been partaking an inordinate number of properties that have time skips in them. On the manga front Zettai Karen Children and One Piece have recently had significant time skips. On the video game front Infinite Space has a 10 year time skip between the first and second parts of the game. And that are just what I have seen in the last month. I can also think of major time skips in Claymore, Naruto, Gundam 00, Gurren Lagann, Death Note, Twentieth Century Boys, xxxHOLiC, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. And that is just in series I am aware of. This started me thinking about time skips in general. What is the appeal of the time skip? What does it add to a narrative that it has become such a popular tool? Continue reading
Reverse Thieves 