Latest anime and manga which really caught me definitly was Shigurui, so I thought of recomminding it:
Shigurui really not typical manga style, as the drawings are clearly aimed at close contact with reality. Equally the overall scenario is very close to reality, it's basically a mix of historical facts, plausible fighting scenes and japanese myths (By myths I don't mean things like mythical creatures, but persons exceeding human limits to a certain amount in speed and power - but only very slightly, it's not really superhuman. Just too good to be called real, fitting the term of "legendary warriors".) The scenario is early 17th century japan in a Samurai setting. The two main characters are disciples of the middle social class Samurai Iwamoto Kogan, who is known as a legendary sword fighter. The story contains heavy violence such as people beeing cut in halves, and nudity/sex.
Personally I loved it. It's showing very realistic fighting scenes compared to common media which often are very unrealistic. It shows sword fights often beeing decided by the first strike, most hits are deadly or crippling instead of producing only slight cuts like often happening in various movies and manga. It also opposes the hype around Katanas to a certain amount as, even though the fighters are extremely well trained professionals, swords easily break and it's extremly risky to attempt to parry a strike for this reason. The realism is umatched amongst those stories I know and I love Shirugui for that. Based on this, certain things are shown which exceed human skills for sure, such as extreme parries using the pommel, but it's absolutely clear that these things are exeptional and not normal. It's a slightly mythical story after all.
I also think that it pictures the Samurai milieu extremely well, as the social interaction shown is closely based on historical facts. Shirugui also contains many footnotes explaining the historical background.
Here's a trailer for the anime. It covers barely half the storyline of the manga as it was finished after Episode 12, yet it's quite conclusive without the rest. The manga was finished this year, though the last chapters (I think it's 80 in total, approximately 30 pages each) isn't translated into English yet.
Yea Shigurui is awesome. I watched the anime and it gave a whole new meaning of gore.The Animation is superb too and so is the story.
The manga is finished and its 84 chapters. The anime follows the manga closely and it covers till chapter 32. Im waiting for the last 10 or so chapters to get trasnlated so i can continue reading from chapter 32. I dont wanna start reading and wait for months/years for the last chapters to get translated...
I watched the first episode but haven't had time to watched the rest so far. Looks pretty interesting but seems a little slow paced (not necessarily a bad thing though).
On October 04 2010 23:11 stafu wrote: I watched the first episode but haven't had time to watched the rest so far. Looks pretty interesting but seems a little slow paced (not necessarily a bad thing though).
Yes, it definitly is and in the beginning it annoyed me partially, but the pace increases a little (or I got used to it, don't know for certain ) Actually it's much harder to understand everything in the anime. The manga is much easier to read, as many comments and footnotes originally included are simply dropped in the anime.
However, I think the anime transports a great portion of the spirit of that time and environment in this slow pace. Alot of close observations, rather slow and minimalistic in general. I think it suits perfectly in some weird way. In the end anime and manga tell the same story, but complement each other as the anime contains a general style impossible to express in a manga, while the manga goes much further into detail (and completes the storyline).
Started this anime, was very disapointed by it. It had alot of scenes which seemed to be there by random and for no reason at all. It was a while back but i also remeber the dialog being a bit lacking.
On October 15 2010 20:04 mustache wrote: Started this anime, was very disapointed by it. It had alot of scenes which seemed to be there by random and for no reason at all. It was a while back but i also remeber the dialog being a bit lacking.
Whole point of the anime are it's narration techniques. It's mostly elliptic. Very few dialogs and everyone of them counts, would you miss one sentence, you don't get shit of what's going on.
There is nothing random. This shit is actually pretty deep so if you don't pay correct attention, it's just a vague object from afar.
On October 16 2010 00:04 mustache wrote: I don't enjoy watching things that are so "deep" that that you don't know what is going on untill later.
Just my opinion, and if others are like me i think they would like to be warned about it
That's wrong. Because the very first chapter is actually the epilogue of what you're about to watch. I was dying to see all along when Fujiki would actually lose his left arm.
And this manga is fucked up beyond any comparison, how can someone not love this !
On October 15 2010 20:26 igotmyown wrote: Do they do the catching the sword between both hands technique? Because mythbusters disproved that, so it's in the legendary realm.
Yes, that's definitly one of these rather mythical points and not realistic. Yet I think it's about the principles of the basics of a fight, with slightly supernatural skills beeing implemented from time to time, but remaining -in comparison- very realistic in the basics.
Indeed, the anime in specific is not an easy one to follow. I had to read the manga to really understand the details. But I think it creates an uncomparable atmosphere which gives alot of insight into samurai society and thinking. Very minimalistic, close observations, striving for perfection in every detail. Combining extreme slow precision with extreme speed, with leaving out anything mediocre.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss203/T33_K3SS3LCH3N/Misc/Gennosuke.jpg)
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