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Apr 3, 2023
In school, we are taught when examining literature critically to look for the meaning that is there beyond the words. While this can lead to some unhealthy fixations, it's a good rule of thumb and I think borne from something not totally artificial or scholarly. Humans like when something is said in a a veiled way, the long history of poetry and legend can attest to that. I also think that this veil is not something inconsequential either; the way an idea or theme is presented can open doors to nuance that would be otherwise impossible. In the world of manga, we also have the
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added medium of the image to enhance this process, so you would think this would open doors to an infinite amount of permutations of meaning, story, and character types.
As any of us who are remotely familiar with the medium, this is not the case. Although it's always important to consider Sturgeon's Law ("ninety percent of everything is crap"), I don't think it's stretching it to say that most mangas follow a predictable route when it comes to what the message is and how it's conveyed. Keeping this in mind, when approaching a manga that follows a pathologically asocial young man who wants to climb mountains alone, it's hard not to piece together what you think the Disney-tale moral is going to be. Honestly, even if that's how Kokou No Hito turned out, it would still be very good. The art is as breathtaking as the vistas it represents, characters are varied, and the pacing is tight. And even if a few of those more predictable morals come through, Nabeda Yoshiro's authorial flourishes are more than enough to have them hit you in a way you don't expect.
Luckily, Kokou No Hito's ideas are developed and presented in a way that allows them to be realistic and thus feel more earned and authentic. This isn't a manga where characters change through a neat and tidy training arc, and just like in climbing itself, it's often one step forward and two steps back. This gradation makes Kokou No Hito feel fresh and after the early twist, I really found myself reading out of a lust to find out what happens next. Even other great mangas (cough, cough, Vinland) have periods of down-time and inactivity. While KNH isn't perfect about payoffs and side stories, more often than not, they come to a satisfactory close.
Now to completely switch topics; Kokou No Hito's plot material is completely borne from a passion and all the ways that manifests is very cool. From all the branding on the gear to the technical knowledge to the history, one of my favorite niche things is when a manga teaches me about something I had no interest in prior, and through vivid depiction, introspective analysis, and a bit of dramatization, conveys some of that lust for the topic to me. To borrow a phrase, it's certainly made the dark glow of the mountains more understandable to someone like me. If I ever become someone who explores them, this manga will have definitely instilled the seed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 26, 2023
The aesthetics of cruelty...
Mangas tend to fall apart as they go on. Even hallmarks of the genre are marked by a degradation in quality, plot, or ideas as they extend in length and the reasons why this is vary from mundane, to specificities of the Japanese story style, to idiosyncrasies that are beyond the current author. Shigurui is able to buck this trend, instead growing in scope, intensity, and somehow also focus as the story unfolds. I found myself growing more and more involved, surprised, and ultimately enamored by the tale Takayuki Yamaguchi tells with both beautiful story telling, and artwork. No doubt, what we
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have here is a masterpiece which sets out to, and successfully unravels a story, which with its depiction of violence, sensuality, birth, death, the human form, and so much more, concerns itself with the very essence of human existence itself. Shigurui represents the attempt by the author to capture ephemeral meaning that is so rarely even acknowledged, much less sought after, and most rarely of all - captured. It resembles a blossoming flower in this regard, and the manga is one of few works that the author can attribute to genius.
If I could attempt to explain this "truth" in detail, even if the task is failed to do so from the start, as word are just a human attempt to standardize experience; there is a grand, unifying "spirit" that envelopes existence. This connection is felt in everything, from the real to the metaphysical to the metaphorical to the ideal. Human beings are the only part of the system that can recognize it, because of our their intellect, although they are completely unable to grasp or recognize it in its entirety. The best we can do, and indeed the thing we should aspire to, is to attempt to temporarily connect ourselves with this grand truth. The way to do this is absolute dedication to a combination of a skill and an ideal, which meld together in practice in a way where the ideal is expressed through the skill. This being a manga, and even more since it's a manga about swordsmen, this becomes the philosophy of bladesmanship - with our protagonists being very different men who are trying to attain the same thing.
Shigurui is able to use the conventional to establish its foundation for the metaphysical exploration of the typical Japanese fascinations: honor, skill, beauty, and that's just to start. Narrative and concept are spun together in a way that is always free-flowing and never a chore to keep up with, and you get the feeling that the ideas being explored are something the mangaka has mulled for a long time. There is a maturity and grasp that is rarely seen and felt in the medium. Its focus on anatomy, violence, sex, ritual, death, age, and similar expansive themes make it clear that this is a manga about conveying something very real, the very aspects and pith of our experience, that are the most meaningful but also the hardest to embrace. It's something that is can be described as the cutting edge of reality, and moments of extreme intimacy are interlaced with moments of extreme cruelty commonly, as if to show there is some correlation between the two we can't grasp.
The more I am compelled to write about Shigurui, as a form of excited sharing of something great and lesser known, the more I realize it's an fruitless enterprise. The experience is something that can only be experienced, much like the grand truth itself.
Couldn't recommend more, if you couldn't tell from the rambling.
9.5
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 27, 2023
To quote another piece of media that I also recently enjoyed, Pumpkin Night can best be described as "a concept." The concept in this case is a loose series of ideas that serve as the plot in order for artist Seima Taniguch to showcase his absolute mastery at depicting the annihilation of the human form. Make no mistake, the pornographic (no other way to put it) depiction of gore is the heart and soul of Pumpkin Night, and on this front it absolutely delivers. Every way that a person can be mauled, shredded, gored, and much more is depicted with a merciless eye for detail
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and a mean-spiritedness that is hard to believe. Even this hardened basement dweller, who has grown up on spirited explorations of cartel violence, serial killers, and war crimes was found cringing and wide eyed at the despicable creativity of this horrible masterpiece.
I don't wish to dwell too much on the shortcomings of PK as they are obvious and also seem to be known by the creators. Everything outside of the gorey action is pretty cookie cutter, and you often find yourself skimming past it in order to get back to PK disassembling still living people. You're reminded why all the great slasher movies were pretty short on details, plot, and length - because it's a premise that can't survive long, and the longer it does go on, and the more plot it attempts to integrate, it gets away from what made it great in the first place - gore, because you're a maladjusted person.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 1, 2022
The essential balance that decides if an action oriented manga/anime is good or trash is essentially the ratio between how much you "buy" into the actions and plot, and thus how much triumph and adulation you feel with the characters, and how much the the stretching and bloating (of the characters and plot) that's required to bring about said highs make your eyes roll.
Terra Formars manages this parity pretty well, with a few exceptions, and this is coming from someone who likes their manga/anime as "realistic" as possible. All the essentials are there: good, sometimes great art, a productive premise, and a good clip
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to the pacing. What weighs it down is the drastic case of same-face, entirely too many characters ('cause this is a VIOLENT manga, and characters DIE, usually just characters we don't know or care about), and a lot of solutions coming down to deus ex machina, the plot saying so, or the infamous power surge through yelling. The last (current) part is a real slog, and I don't have a huge interest in continuing.
But enough about the bad stuff! I enjoyed the plots attempts, even if not always successful, to branch out into geopolitics and greater themes of our place in the universe and the uniqueness of humanity. On a personal note, the score is probably a bit inflated because I love all the taxonomical and biological information and art that is central to the idea of the manga. Also watching roaches, dressed like 60's gangsters, doing kamikaze air plane assaults.
Final score: 6.5 out of 10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 10, 2022
Brutal, direct, often beautiful, and some times laugh out loud funny, Shamo cements itself as head and shoulders above more known fighting mangas.
Something I especially enjoyed with this series was the creator's establishing of an "feeling" and a vibe that never lets up, despite the fact that making Ryo a more sympathetic character at some point would have been the artistically easier route. We start off dark, and only end up walking more into that absence of light as the manga progresses. Whatever messages or themes that may exist are established early on and mostly forgotten as the series turns its focus on its
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real heart: fighting, raw emotions, the cruelty of the world, and more fighting. The attention to detail when it comes to the fighting world is noted, and definitely is the result of a fan's passion for martial arts, which is a pleasure to see unfold across its pages.
Shamo is ultimately limited by the genre it's a part of, and it never really breaks beyond convention or expectation - it just does what it does really well and manages to emotionally involve you in a very bleak story.
8.5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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