Tag: Manga

Review: Ankoku Shinwa

On By coilerxiiIn A Thousand Words, ReviewLeave a comment

Ankoku Shinwa (Dark Myth)

From the pen of horror mangaka Morohoshi Daijiro came Ankoku Shinwa, a seven chapter manga from 1976 that was turned into a two episode OVA in 1990. In it, teenager Takeshi finds he is simply a force in a cosmic war of gods and feuding ancient families. Its art is good, especially the monsters. Nothing else is.

The fact that a seven chapter manga was shrunk to two episodes without missing much tells a lot. What you get is the following:

  • Good drawings/animations of monsters and mythical beings (again, the art has little complaint)
  • CONSTANT exposition on the jumble of Asian religions that make up the backstory/reason for the manga
  • Set pieces that only exist to provide the base for more exposition.
  • Human villains who do nothing except fall victim to the Indiana Jones Villain Fate where they try to use something supernatural with predictably poor results.
  • All of the above happens very, very slowly.

On one hand, the OVA is inevitably faster than the text manga. On the other, it has the production values of what you’d expect a low budget OVA to have. So… not really ideal either way. It’s a shame, the concept could have been done better.

Review: Initial D Volume 1

On By coilerxiiIn ReviewLeave a comment

Initial D Volume 1

Note: The specific thing I reviewed was Initial D omnibus Volume 1 which is actually the first two manga volumes in one book. But whatever.

Reading the legendary racing series in original manga form made me think that… the anime kind of superannuated it. Ok, I already knew what happened from seeing the anime (spoiler alert: Takumi wins), and while the manga has some distinct diffferences (like the order of races), it’s not all that different. Certainly not different enough to be easily better or worse. This isn’t a “behind every good 1970s movie is a bad 1970s book” type of deal.

But it’s pretty self-explanatory how much better in motion picture form a car racing series works. Having one large panel (even if well-drawn) of two cars at a turn with a huge comic “VROOOM!” sound effect just isn’t the same as watching two cars (even if they’re from PS1/N64-era CGI) zip around the same turn. I don’t blame Shigeno for anything. It’s just the format is a lot inherently less capable.

Review: High Rise Invasion Volume 1

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High Rise Invasion Volume 1

The manga High Rise Invasion was recommended to me, so I decided to give the first volume a try. The premise of this volume is extremely simple-schoolgirl Yuri Honjo ends up in a strange world of nothing but skyscrapers and masked killers. Essentially the entire volume’s plot, save for the last few sections where other sane characters appear, is of Yuri running around and fighting.

It’s shallow but I can forgive it. Remembering that it’s meant to be read one chapter at a time in a magazine serial helps a lot. That and the fundamentals being done well (the art is good and so is the action) makes this worth the cost. I’ve read plenty of shallow but worthy cheap thrillers in text form, so one in comic form can work as well.