* Beginning its serialisation way back in 1985 and ending in the early nineties, Tsukasa Hojo’s City Hunter is a classic manga that hasn’t entirely aged well. The series has never received a full official release in English, and considering its near-constant barrage of sexism, homophobia, and transphobia, perhaps it is for the best if […]
Read More Manga Madness: City Hunter (1993)****½ The world of manga-to-live-action adaptations is a grim one, full of thoughtless cash-ins, overstuffed plots, and writers with little understanding of their source material. It is a place where often mediocrity is the most that can be hoped for, and the live-action companions of well-loved franchises are hidden away by fans hoping to hide […]
Read More Manga Madness: Oldboy (2003)* Set in the world of illegal Japanese street racing, Initial D tells the story of young driver Takumi Fujiwara (played here by Jay Chou), who unwittingly becomes a legend amongst the racers of his local Akina mountain pass for the skill he demonstrates delivering tofu from his father’s shop. Originally beginning serialisation in 1995, […]
Read More Manga Madness: Initial D (2005)** Originally published in underground manga anthology Ax in 1999, Yusaku Hanamura’s one-volume Tokyo Zombie is undoubtedly, and unashamedly, a cult manga. Drawn in a heta uma (‘bad but good’) style that forgoes the stylish character design and detailed background work found in mainstream series, it is 155 pages of gory violence, graphic sex, and […]
Read More Manga Madness: Tokyo Zombie (2005)*** If there was ever a live-action manga adaptation that actually looked promising, Mushishi is it. Based on Yuki Urushibara’s award-winning fantasy manga and directed by Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo, the film pairs a story suited to live-action with a skilled director familiar with manga and the process of adapting it for the big screen. […]
Read More Manga Madness: Mushishi (2006)* Let’s just start with the obvious: Death Note is a mess. Watching it is like ticking off a check-list of How To Make The Worst Manga Adaptation Ever: Adaptation of a multi-volume series in under two hours? Check. Nonsensically altering the plot to make it ‘appeal to a Western audience’? Check. Completely missing the […]
Read More Manga Madness: Death Note (2017)** “It’s not like there aren’t any East Asian actors who could have done a good job as the Major.” This was me, to my dad, during the height of the Ghost in the Shell whitewashing scandal. Ever clued-up on the workings of the film industry, he rightly pointed out that the film would likely […]
Read More Manga Madness: Ghost in the Shell (2017)Death Note: *** Death Note: The Last Name: ***½ With a manga as world-conquering as Death Note (the series was banned in China, supposedly inspired a gruesome copycat murder in Belgium, and caused havoc in US schools, where students were disciplined for filling replica notebooks with the names of fellow students, teachers, and in one […]
Read More Manga Madness: Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name (2006)Rurouni Kenshin: *** Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno: **** Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends: *** In the golden days before mangaka Nobuhiro Watsuki experienced his undeservedly brief fall from grace in 2017, the phrase Rurouni Kenshin only conjured thoughts of exciting samurai action rather than uncomfortable conflict about the ethics of consuming a story created by […]
Read More Manga Madness: Rurouni Kenshin Trilogy (2012-2014)Part 1: *** Part 2: **½ Okay, so, Attack on Titan… isn’t great. Scenes drag, the dialogue is cringy and exposition heavy, and the characters are either too boring to care about or so positively infuriating that you actually want them to die. It is the epitome of an interesting premise squandered by amateurish writing. Well […]
Read More Manga Madness: Attack on Titan Parts I & II (2015)