Tuesday, March 30, 2004
INITIAL D MANGA
If you're looking for a translated manga that doesn't look "like manga," you may want to check this out. Actually, it doesn't look like any other comic I've seen, manga or no. The artist is Shuichi Shigeno: his stiff figures and odd-looking faces give me the impression that he's self-taught, but have their own charm. I like the idea that a manga with a style as idiosyncratic as this can be a huge bestseller in Japan.
Tokyopop, which publishes the U.S. edition, has taken a lot of flak for Americanizing the characters' names (which doesn't bother me all that much), and for altering the plot, which does bother me. In any case, what I've seen of the story (I've only read vol. 6, which I checked out of the library) didn't interest me that much. I'm not recommending you buy this; but if you're interested in manga's stylistic range, you should at least look at it.
If you're looking for a translated manga that doesn't look "like manga," you may want to check this out. Actually, it doesn't look like any other comic I've seen, manga or no. The artist is Shuichi Shigeno: his stiff figures and odd-looking faces give me the impression that he's self-taught, but have their own charm. I like the idea that a manga with a style as idiosyncratic as this can be a huge bestseller in Japan.
Tokyopop, which publishes the U.S. edition, has taken a lot of flak for Americanizing the characters' names (which doesn't bother me all that much), and for altering the plot, which does bother me. In any case, what I've seen of the story (I've only read vol. 6, which I checked out of the library) didn't interest me that much. I'm not recommending you buy this; but if you're interested in manga's stylistic range, you should at least look at it.
Comments:
Post a Comment
