Tag: Fate/Complete material

The Beginning is the Most Important Part of the Work – Fate/Complete Material Artbook 1: Art Material

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hisui_icon_4040 Type-Moon fandom always feels like the fandom for a popular band in a niche musical genre. If you meet someone who is into the genre you would be surprised if they did not know the band. But anyone outside of fans of the genre is more likely not to know them then to recognize them. If anime and manga fandom is rock, and visual novels are progressive rock, than Type-Moon is Pink Floyd. With that analogy it says a lot about the release of Type-Moon merchandise in English. At first if you wanted anything Type-Moon it was all through word of mouth and bootleg trading. They were a popular enough company in Japan that the hardcore English fandom was aware of them but it was really the Tsukihime anime, and more importantly the Fate/Stay Night anime, that made them more of a well-known name. (I will admit it was mainly Ayako Kawasumi being in the Fate/Stay Night anime as Saber that interested me in the series.) Over the years as the fandom has grown the amount of legitimate material available in English has increased. Type-Moon anime mostly gets licensed outside of Carnival Phantasm which is even too niche for anyone outside of Japan. The main manga series seem to get licensed but the more esoteric manga falls into Carnival Phantasm territory. With Fate/kaleid liner Prisma ☆ Illya Drei 3!! even being simulpubed on Comic Walker and Fate/Zero streaming it seems like while you can’t assume you will get everything from Type-Moon legitimately it does seem like there is little that is off the table.

But two of the crown jewels have always seemed completely out of reach. The visual novels that spawned everything are the grand prize but any conversation with companies that license games makes it clear that they are far to expensive and risky to license. So unless there is a major shift your just going to have to learn Japanese if you want to buy a copy of Fate/Stay Night. But the much more reasonable dream was getting the Type-Moon art books. They are loaded with original information and are not outside of the realm of profitable licensing. Thankfully UDON Entertainment recently released the first Fate/Stay Night art book.  Fate/Complete Material Artbook 1: Art Material is not their first foray into video game art books. If anything they seem to be picking up quite a few titles lately. But Udon is wisely just dipping their toe in the water  with this book and letting sales determine if they pick up more Type-Moon art books.

This post is mainly going to look on if UDON Entertainment is a good fit for the license. Should we be secretly hoping that this is the last Type-Moon artbook they do or are they going to deliver what we have always wanted?

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #167

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Sumo is a gimmick comic. That might seem like an insult but when a gimmick comic concept mixes with a solid story it can become something far greater. When the story is weak in a gimmick comic than you often just wind up rolling your eyes as you call out the novelty piece of the story. But with Sumo its storytelling twist adds to its great story to give you the feeling you are reading something innovative.

The story in itself is simple. A washed out NFL hopeful moves to Japan to become a Sumo wrestler after a devastating breakup. While he has an amazing amount of promise he has been doing rather mediocre and his next match is a pivotal point in his career. The story jumps back and forth in time with each period in time being its own color. This lets the reader know when each piece of the story takes place without text balloons or exposition but at the same time also lets the color of the time period reenforce the mood of the story at that point. The blue really helps reinforce the melancholy feel of Scott’s time in America, the green shows Scott’s awkward transition to life in Japan as he gets to know his manager’s daughter, while the orange helps express the spirit invested in Scott’s critical match.

If the story was not there, this would merely read like a slight curiosity. But instead this instead demands your attention and begs to be used as an example for anyone wanting to explore the use of color in comics.

Sumo is by Thien Pham who worked with Gene Luen Yang on Level Up which we liked a lot.

The story of Scott is a fairly simple one told in alternating time frames but each piece meets up at the end with poetic force. Though I was a bit surprised we don’t know the full outcome, but we do know that Scott’s life and his understanding of what he wants has changed.

Thien’s simple artwork is bold and iconic using strong lines to express a variety of emotion. One minor quibble I had with the art was during the Sumo matches, it was sometimes hard to tell who was who. The use of color as Hisui mentioned is very important in the book with oranges for Scott’s life in the present, bright with possibility; blues for his past in America, a time of coming-of-age and letting go; and greens for his (more recent) past in Japan, new life and growth taking over. All of this makes the sparse amount of dialog more powerful allowing you to let the emotions wash over you.

Sumo is a quiet story that has immense power.

There is a preview available, too.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #163

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Nickelodeon decided to stream the first two episodes of  The Legend of Korra before it airs on TV so I decide to take a look as it was up only for a weekend. The Legend of Korra has a good deal of the same vibe as the original series while at the same time has enough new elements and flourishes to feel unique. How well it will do in capturing the magic of the first series while being able to stand alone has yet to be seen but so far it has been striking a nice balance. The Legend of Korra starts 70 years after the ending of the original series. Most of the main cast is dead but their actions still reverberate in the world. Things definitely have changed as the political structure has clearly been radically altered by Aang’s group and the over all tech level has increased. There are now cars and airships giving the world a very 1920 feel. I am cruious how the fan base will react to this change in the setting. The show makes good use of these changes but I wonder if it is a choice that will alienate any of the original fanbase. The people I asked on twitter seem to approve of the change but they are mostly the more casual (aka sane) fans. Korra herself is much more of a confrontational headstrong Avatar than Aang’s Zen monk persona. Aang felt like a childish Dalai Lama whereas Korra feels like a hot blooded martial artist. Also the whole progression of the show seems different. Aang clearly had to go a defeat the evil Fire Lord by a certain date. The main antagonists are clearly going to be Amon and his Equalists but what exactly their agenda is has yet be be seen. I assume part of the show will be discovering what the deal with the Equalists is. That could lead to some interesting detective work not present in the original. There is also a bending related sport that seem like it will be a major component of the show. I know Pro-Bending and Blitzball are different but it was the first things that popped into my mind when they started playing the game. The production staff is clearly still aware of the opinions of the fan base. They go as far as to make a reference to the whole issue surrounding Zuko’s mother that was so much a point of contention with the fans. So far it seems like a solid show that builds on the original in a variety of strong ways. I look forward to seeing more in April.


Nichibros (The Daily Lives of High School Boys) finished up by starting its episode in reverse order, High School Girls Are Funky had a segment before the true show began but really their best material was the episode before with the rock. The last segment seemed oddly sentimental for the show but then it shows its true colors. True colors being so hilariously random and a little awkward. This was a show that surprised me from the beginning and became a highlight every week. Consistently amusing and rarely let a joke go for too long. Though I still don’t understand why Tadakuni was shoved out as the lead for so long. The show mentioned a S2 in the end credits but it was rather tongue-in-cheek so who knows if that is really in the cards. I sure hope so though!

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