TSOJ - Nihongo Hunter

Terahiko Terada's World of Sound

2012-01-27T19:06:00.000-08:00

Terahiko Terada (11/28/1878 - 12/21/1935) is a well-known (in Japan) physicist who is most famous for the essays he wrote on a variety of subjects. He studied under Natsume Soseki in high school, and was a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University. As shown in the story below, he's also featured on Japanese postage stamps. Gakken included a 10-page manga based on one of his essays within the mook for their "With KIDS" sound wave visualization kit. Because I'm building up my Gakken blog with information on Japanese scientists, I decided that I might as well translate this manga when I got the chance. (The word balloons are kind of small and there's a lot of text even in Japanese, so at the current image size it may be hard to read. I'm looking for a better way to present the larger images.)

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Space Family Carlvinson, chapter 2

2011-09-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

Space Family Carlvinson, chapter 2
I really like this series, and I recently got my hands on volume 1 of a reprint version of the manga from 1999. As I was reading through it, I decided that I had to scanilate at least one chapter, and the expressions on Corona's face pretty much guaranteed that it would be chapter two. So, here it is.

Short summary: A troupe of space-traveling dramatic performers accidentally sideswipe an Earth ship and kill the two adults on board. The troupe discovers the sole survivor - an infant they name "Corona". The series starts up four years later as the group takes on their greatest performance - acting like Corona's parents on a remote planet while waiting for another Earth ship to come pick up the girl. It's a sitcom with LOTS of references to contemporary U.S. movies (one of the supporting characters is an alien disguised as a wolf, named John, who likes to show horror flicks at his movie theater - CHUD, Dawn of the Dead, Deadly Spawn. He wears a jacket with "Carpenter" stenciled on the back).

The primary cast:

Mother: A large furry rat. She's the de facto leader of the troupe, and the one who was driving the ship when it clipped the Earthling craft.

Father: A battle robot. The dimmest bulb in the box, but the most devoted member of the troupe when it comes to caring for Corona.

Corona: The star of the series, more or less. A 4-year-old girl with a curiosity streak a mile wide. Very similar to Arale-chan from Dr. Slump but not as indestructible.

Tur-kun: A creature pulled straight from a 1980's Hollywood horror flick. Identified as Corona's "pet squirrel". At one point, is shown with the full name "Turbo" (where "bou" is a suffix added to boy's names). Loves to get into close-up shots to the reader for the shock value. In one chapter, he states that he is a pet squirrel, not a cauliflower.

Belka: An elf-like humanoid who loves weapons and fighting. When panicked can generate enormous strength. When over-heated, becomes brain-dead. Spends most of her time acting as the local police force.

Andy-kun: One half of an android (the legs and head part). The hardware technician in the troupe. Speaks with a metallic accent.

Parka: Not exactly sure what Parka is, or its role in the troupe. Mostly it just stands in one place. The character design is a parody of the cover art for the Japanese release of one of Fred Saberhagen's "Berserker" books.

Click the image below to start reading.

Akihio Itou Interview from AA

2011-05-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

There aren't many interviews with Akihiro tou that I know of, and I haven't seen any in English. The one I do know of is at the end of Geobreeders: Atomic Attack, when Imakake sat down to talk out the plans for AA in advance. I was hoping for a few more revelations but the majority of the transcript is fairly superficial. In any case, I did want to at least try to get this one out onto the net. In several cases I paraphrased Itou's answers, so if you see anything where the translation could be more accurate, let me know and I'll make the corrections then. I'm including the Japanese script here for reference, if you want it.
-------------------------------------------

Before the Attack!

Two guys in heated discussions...!

During the Fall of 1995, Itou and Imakake met in a family restaurant in the suburbs of Ayagane City to discuss the battles in Atomic Attack. Below is the excerpt of that meeting.

Itou (I) : Nice to meet you!
Imakake (K): My pleasure!

I: I brought the "Votoms" manga.
K: Uwah... Thank you! I asked the editorial department for these three days ago and never heard back from them. It was rumored they'd been packed in tin cans. (^_^)

I: I've never had that problem. I just narrowly escape all the time... (^_^) When I read the manga as it was being serialized, I'd gone "Wow, this is great!" and I bought the volumes right away. Which, unbelievably, brings us to today. (^_^)
K: I know, right? Actually, when I was just starting in anime, a long time ago, I was on another project and I just sat down and read all of the Geobreeders manga at once, just like that.

I: Recently, when I was talking with the editorial department and they said your name, I answered "no way, I'll take care of it right away!"

K: Shall we get right into the questions?...
I: Ok.

K: The Vamos is fundamentally a really normal vehicle, right?
I: I have no idea. (^_^) I know very little about cars... Even though I draw them myself!

K: Eh! But you create these fanatically-detailed vehicles.
I: It's because there are car fanatics out there that can look at a picture, no matter how messed up it is, and say "it's this particular vehicle" just based on some set of details.

K: Why did you select the Vamos?
I: Because it's easy to draw.

K: What! It's not difficult?
I: But, no matter what you do with it, you can tell what it is. (^_^)

K: What do you use for reference materials? You don't just cruise around town all the time, right?
I: I'll look at mini-cars in catalogs and draw them.

K: That's great. I plan on using the Vamos myself. Is it ok if I remodel it?
I: Please change it as much as you like.

K: I'm not intending to alter the outer appearance, though.
I: You say you want to change it, but I don't understand what you would change. (^_^)

K: Changing the topic, regarding weapons, is there anything you'd say like "use this one"?
I: As a foundation, for Hound, use the latest ones. Umezaki likes older guns... Everything else are special cases.

K: When you say "older", what will you allow?
I: Umezaki likes the major ones where the model guns are no longer available for sale. The kinds where an older gun collector would say "I have that one", that kind of thing.

K: I see. Not ones preferred for actual fighting, but those turned into plastic model guns.
I: She'll pick the ones that are really impractical.

K: In volume 3, Umezaki was looking for references on a "long weapon" although she never actually found it...
I: Ah, the Bren light machine gun wasn't it. I remember looking at either "Monthly GUN" or "Combat Magazine" and thinking "I wish I had one". (^_^)

K: What do you use for reference materials?
I: I'll fish through magazines at old bookstores. Although, getting my hands on the model guns is also good. Though, if they're rare, they get very expensive... I'll pick what's needed to draw from. But, sometimes I'll think "I want to draw that!" and I'll use whatever I can get.

K: I see.
I: I'm just talking. I don't really think about the details. (^_^)

K: But the results still look great.
I: I want to be at the level of the Votoms manga. Just looking at the story crammed in that page count, I could never do that no matter how many pages I drew.

K: Then in the last two volumes the page count went up. Although he was the comic-ilizing the anime; he had the outline and schedule, and after that he had a lot of freedom...
I: Think the same way about "AA". Do what you want with it.

K: Let's get to the main conversation. The majority of your cars are cute, right?
I: Actually, while there are specific rules, I don't draw cars with lots of curves. Pretty much nothing if it's not boxy. (^_^).

K: In that case, it's no problem putting foreign cars in the "Geobreeders" universe if they have lots of straight lines?
I: No, it's just that I can't draw draw them.. Imakake-san, you can draw whatever you like.

K: I want to stay as close to the original image as possible...
I: Conversely I want the opposite. (^_^)

K: By the way, you really like guns, don't you.
I: I don't think of guns that way. While I hear "is he a gun lover or a military fan", I don't think I'm either one.

K: Eh?
I: I like pictures of "gun fights"... That's why I don't draw revolvers.

K: If there's no ejecting shells, it's a dull image. (^_^)
I: A contest of who has the most cartridges! (^_^)

K: Well then in "Atomic Attack", where we see what the cats in Mahama (the setting of the story) are thinking and doing, the main focus will be on the one called Manx...
I: It's not a very flashy summary, eh.

K: And the Kagura members won't be making an appearance either..., I think...
I: It's not problem if they don't appear. (Paraphrased) I want to see what happens in my world. (burst of laughter)

K: What will happen to Manx after this book?
I: Well, he may reappear... (^_^)

K: As a very ordinary old man, though.
I: With that kind of character, that'd be great!

K: Then, with Irie and Kuro-Neko... and the Mahama cats... (discussion of plot omitted) I've been thinking of lots of possibilities. Is this ok?
I: It's fine! Hmm, I like it!! I'm thoroughly sold.

K: I'm having problems with names for the new cats, though.
I: Usually I don't come up with names until the end. Initially I had rules, but I gave up on them. Lately I've just been using a picture book for ideas. That's what happened with "Rudo" in the anime.

K: I'd also like to tie this together with the beginning of volume 6.
I: Giving the impression that this is all being compressed together, eh.

K: I think it would be good, if possible.
I: Might be fun.

K: Ah, it wouldn't be impermissible for Taba to investigate the nuclear power plant, would it?
I: It's ok! I'll fix the beginning of volume 6 to read "Third Mahama Power Plant Capture". (^_^)

K: Thank you. I'll work hard on making the 2nd capture then. I'm worried about properly setting up Hound's actions and Irie's speculations, though.
I: Because there's going to be lots of great puzzles, right? (^_^) When I reread my works , there's lots of times when I can't remember what the answer was supposed to be for a specific puzzle.

K: I'm worried about following up on Vashuka's trip to Russia.
I: I did have plans for that. Vashuka escaping in a jeep in the snow... Hound pursuing... I gave up on it Snow... mountain... night... Ahhh, I thought it'd be fun, too...

K: Ok, I'll do that then. (^_^) Though, I'd like more clear reasoning for the occupation of Mahama...
I: In fact, that comes later.

K: Ah, is that right. Ok, I'll handle that carefully. By the way, what is Manx's position in the organization?
I: No idea. (^_^) Haven't thought about it.

K: He could be going up or down. Well, I'll try to help him out.
I: That's great!!

K: This has been a very boring discussion for you.
I: Not at all, it's been fun. Good luck!!

K: Thank you very much.

(Transcribing and editing: OURsLITE Editorial Dept.)

--------------------------------------------
Original Japanese text.

『前夜』

熱く語り合う二人。。。！

平成12年秋、アトミックアタック連戦に先立ち綾金近郊のファミレスにて伊藤。今掛両氏の顔合わせ兼打ち合わせが行われた。以下はその抜粋である。

伊藤(以下/ 伊) 始めまして！
今掛(以下/ 今) よろしくお願いします

伊わたし、ボトムズの単行本持ってるんですよ
今うわあ... ありがとうございます。あれ連戦中に一度、編集部に呼び出されてそのまま3日間帰らせてもれらえなかった事があったんですよね。ああ、これが噂に聞く缶詰めってやつかと(笑)

伊わたしまだ経験ないですね。何時もギリギリの所で回避してる。。。(笑) ボトムズの漫画は連載の時から読んでて、『うわあカッコイイ』と思ってて... 単行本もすぐに買って...。それがまさか、こう云う事に成るとは(笑)
今本当ですね。実は最初のアニメ化の時に、結局は流れちゃったんですけど、平行して別企画が在ったんですよ。そっちで声が掛かってたんでジオブリ全巻渡されて読んでました。

伊今回、編集部から話しが有った時今掛さんの御名前が出て、『いやもう是非に！』って答えちゃいました。

今早速なんですが、具体的に伺いたい事が幾つか...
伊はい

今バモスって基本的にノーマルのままですよね?
伊判んないっす(笑) 実はあんまり車の事判んないんですよ... 自分で描いてても！

今ええ！そうなんですか？結構マニアックな車を出されてますよね
伊あれは詳しい奴が居るんです。絵がなんぼ崩れても、その車だって判る車って何かないかって聞くと『こんなのが有るよ』って...

今バモスに決めた理由は？
伊描け易い車だって事で

今ええっ！難しいじゃないですか描くの
伊でも多少崩れてもバモスだって判りますから(笑)

今資料とかどうしてるんですか? もう街中でも見掛ないですよね
伊カタログのコピーとミニカーを見て描いてます

今凄いですね。バマスを出す予定なんですが改造しちゃって平気ですか?
伊もう、どんどんやっちゃって下さい

今外見が変わるような事はしないつもれすけど
伊此処をこう云う風に改造しましたと云われても実は判りません (笑)

今ちなみに銃器係で『これは使ってくれるな』とか有りますか？
伊ハウンドは最新式、梅崎は古いのが好きってのが基本なんですが... それ以外は特には。

今古いってどの辺りまで許されるんでしょう？
伊梅崎が好むのはモデルガンが発売されてる様な、メジャーな感じの奴なんです。昔のモデルガンマニアが『ああ持っていたね、こう云うの』って云いそうな奴ですね

今なるほうど、実戦で有名な奴とかじゃ無くて、モデルガンになってるかどうかが基準なんですね
伊実際にはあんまり役に立って無い様な奴を選んでますね

今 3巻で梅崎が使ってる長物(ナガモノ)の資料を探したんですけど、見つけられなっくって...
伊イギリスのブレンガンですかね、月刊GUNかコンバットマガジンだかに載ってるのを見て『いいなあ』って思って出したんですよ (笑)

今資料探しはどうしてるんですか？
伊古本屋で雑誌を漁ってます。モデルガンを手に入れられたら善いんですけど。中々手が出せない値段だったりするんで...。割と適当に選んで描いてます。その時、描きたいって思った奴を描いてるんですね。もっと極端な事を云ってしまうと。ああこの銃を描きたいって思ったら、それが使える状況の話を1本作っちゃたります。

今なるほど
伊雪山の話なんかがそれですね。後先何にも考えてませんから (笑)

今それでちゃんと収めちゃうとこが凄いですよ
伊ボトムズの漫画も相当凄かったですよ。あんだけの話あのページ数の中に入ってるですもん。わたしだったら数十倍ページを使うわないと無理っす。

今さすがに最後の二本分だけは無理だったんで増ページしてもらったんですよ。。。あれはアニメのコミカライズでしたが、実は設定と脚本だけもらって。後は自由にやらせてもらったんですが...。
伊『AA』も同じ調子で、自由にやって下さい

今話は戻りますが、車は可愛い系のが多いですよね?
伊実は明確な法則が有って、曲線の多いデザインの車は出ないんです。四角い車しか出ない。描けないから(笑)

今例えば外国の車を出そうとした時に、ジオブリの世界として四角っぽい車であれば問題ないですか?
伊いや、わたしが描け無いからそう言う選択に成っているだけで、今掛さんは自由にやって下さい。

今なるべくイメージは近くしておきたいんですが...。
伊逆にこちらが取り入れさせてもらいます(笑)

今ところで、銃ホントにお好きですよね
伊銃そのものにはそんなに思い入れが無いんですよ。ガンマニアなのかミリタリーマニアなのか...どっちなんだ? とよく訊かれますが、どっちでも無いんです。

今えっ?
伊『銃撃戦』と云う画面が好きなんですね... だからリボルバーは出て来ない

今排莢されないから画面が地味になっちゃいますしね (笑)
伊薬莢の量で勝負！ (笑)

今それで、『アトミックアタック』なんですが。真浜で猫たちが何をして、何を考えていたかと云う部分をマンクスをメインに進めて行こうと思っているんですが...。
伊それはまた渋い事に成りそうですね

今なんとか神楽のメンバーも出さなくてなくては... と思って居るんですが...。
伊出なくても全然問題ないッス。わたしは特殊な読者ですから凄く嬉しいんですけど... 世の中的にはどうなんでしょ? (爆笑)

今マンクスって今後本編に絡んできます?
伊うーん多分出てこないんじゃないかと(笑)

今ごく普通のおじさんになってますけど。
伊そーゆーキャラ、いいっすねえ！

今で、入江と黒猫を... それで真浜の猫達を...... (以下、構想を語る)... と云う様な事を考えているんですが。その辺は大丈夫ですか？
伊大丈夫です！うーんわたし好み！！すっかりお客さんになってますな。

今新しく出て来る猫のネーミングが問題なんですが。
伊わたしも困ってます。なるべく名前を出さないで済む様にしてます。最初は法則に合わせてやっていたんですけど、ネタ切れです。最近は絵本とかにまで手を伸ばしてて、アニメ版の『ルド』なんかそっちの方から取っちゃいましたし。

今で、コミックス6巻の頭に繋がる形で決着を着けたいと思ってます。
伊ぎゅうううと詰まった集団劇って印象ですね

今そんな感じになればいいなと思ってます。
伊なんだかニコニコしちゃいますね

今あっ、田波が原発の構造とか調べて許しくなったりしたらまずいですか?
伊大丈夫です！ちまにに単行本の6巻の頭を『第3 次真浜原発攻略戦』に直しましたから。 (笑)

今有り難うございます、頑張って第2次をやります。ハウンドの動きと入江の思惑なんかを上手く繋げられるか不安は在るんですが。
伊なんか追い詰められたんで謎にしちゃってる所が結構有りますからね (笑) 自分で読み返していて、あれ? この謎の答えは何だってかなって思い出せない所が沢山在るんですよ。

今ヴァシュカのロシア行きとかフォローしようかどうか悩んでます。
伊予定は在ったんですよ。ヴァシュカが雪の中をジープで逃げ回って、ハインドが追い掛けるってのをやりたかったんですが、ページの関係で諦めました... 雪、山、夜、で。ああ楽だって思ってたんですが...。

今じゃあ、それやりましょう (笑)。真浜占領の目的って云うのも明確にしたいんですが...。
伊実はそれ後の話に絡んで来るんです。

今あっそうなんですか、じゃあ慎重に扱わないと。ちなみにマンクスて組織の中ではどんなポジションなんでしょう?
伊判んないっス (笑) あんまりそーゆーの考えてないんっす。

今立場を上にも下にも出来そうなんですが。まあ兎も角マンクスに頑張ってもらおうかと。
伊いいですねえ！！

今傾向として、非常に淡々とした話になっちゃいそうなんですが。
伊そう言うのが見たかったんですよ。楽しみにしてます！頑張ってください！！

今有り難うございます。

(構成.文責/OURs LITE編集部)

Geobreeders, Part 3, First 3 chapters

2011-05-08T17:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the work of a specific visitor (thanks, James!) I was able to get my hands on the first three chapters of the work that Akihiro Itou was just starting up before he became ill and stopped drawing manga. Back in 2009, he was just starting up Geobreeders Part 3 - "No Cats Allowed in the Company". Someone scanned the pages as they came out from Young King Ours, but it's hard to track down who exactly did it. Either way, I decided to translate the story just because. I put the pages here if you want to read them.

Right now, we only know of these three chapters. If you have access to a 4th, please let me know. I'm really hoping that Itou gets better because I really like his work and I want to see where the story would go in the future.

Garo #306

2011-03-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

This is the last of the three Garo issues that I bought specifically for the Tori Miki stories.

Mr. Saeki's Afternoon

This is a simple gag comic showing a good day in a man's life.

Garo #290

2011-03-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

(All rights reserved by their owners. All images used here for review purposes only.)

Cyber People.

This is Tori Miki's "adult" story. I'm only uploading the splash page because the rest of the story may not be appropriate for minors (it's not overly graphic, though). An online detective is trying to track down a cyber perp in a program designed for virtual sex. In the end, the detective turns out to be an old man in a hotel room, and the perp (posing as a beautiful young woman) is a teenage fan boy living in his mother's house's basement.

Garo #285

2011-03-14T19:12:00.001-07:00

(All rights reserved by their owners. All images used here for review purposes only.)

In the later Garo issues, the stories tend to be shorter (nothing like Shirato's 100-page Kamui-den monsters) with almost twice the number of artists. Since I only really want to read one of them, I'm going to stop scanning all of the others or trying to translate everyone's names. Instead, I'm just going to run the Tori Miki manga, and reprint the table of contents for anyone that wants to look at it. Tori Miki didn't appear all that regularly - maybe only every 3 or 4 months. And then again, Mandarake doesn't have every issue used for every year. So, going through what they do have, I was able to find 3 issues that Tori was in. Unfortunately, one of the issues was "alternative adult" enough to prevent me from showing it in an area that minors can access. So, I can only show 2 of the 3 stories next.

King Rilke

This is the first chapter of a potential short series, which wasn't continued in any of the other volumes I found. Click on the image to start reading it.

Ad for "Damatte ore ni tsuite koi" (which I'm translating as "Shut up and come over here").

Garo in retrospect

2011-03-14T19:11:00.001-07:00

Now that I'm wrapping up my reviews of Garo, I'd like to take the chance to comment on my current opinions. When I first starting thinking about buying Garo, my thoughts were that it was an over-hyped art magazine that people revered instead of read (kind of like with all "great" literature along the lines of the Great Gatsby and War and Peace). Every time someone in the English newspapers in Japan reviewed something translated by Drawn and Quarterly (Like Red-Colored Elegy) they'd mention Garo in reverent tones. The problem was that I'd be looking at the cover artwork and maybe a few sample pages of the title being reviewed and thinking "what a great big waste of ink". Didn't do much for giving me incentive to read Garo at all.

Naturally, as I started reading Garo on a regular basis, my opinions changed. Then we had the exhibit for the first ten years of Garo at The Center for Book Arts in New York, and this thrust the opinions of an assistant art professor (Ryan Holmberg) in front of my face. The interview on Garo with Ryan gets all artsy, and I don't agree with most of the assessments being made about the magazine during this period. Then again, I only looked at the period from July, 1966 to July, 1971, and I can't comment on anything outside this period that I didn't read.

My thoughts: Garo doesn't really have specific beginning and ending points that you can wave at and say "this is when the anti-Vietnam War era started, this is when Seiichi became anti-woman, etc.". There are waves, when other artists try to imitate the surreal works of Maki Sasaki, or the horror of Mizuki, but they overlap each other. In terms of what appealed to me most, I think I liked best the period between 1966 and 1968, specifically when Mizuki was running the Kitaro serial. During this time we had Shirato creating a balance of power in "Kamui-den", where the peasants were experiencing various successes; we had "Kitaro"; we had Kuniko Tsurita playing around in a light-hearted way trying to find her voice as a writer; and we had Yoshiharu Tsuge doing different kinds of stories. Somewhere between 1969 and 1970, Mizuki takes a break from Garo, Kamui-den turns dark and ugly, and Yoshiharo gets replaced by his brother Tadao. More artists experiment with surreal stories, and any continuity there had been from one issue to the next disappears. Shouhei stops doing Edo-era stories and goes more modern, while Ryuuichi Ikegami tries his hand at horror with limited success.

I did like it when Yuu Takita dropped his short gag strips and switched to the Terajima series, but then he too started to become less frequent and started playing around with the surreal format. By the end, between 1969 and July, 1971, Garo starts feeling like any other manga magazine at the time. I think that the gekiga concept was becoming more mainstream, and the artists that started out at Garo were finally finding other outlets to publish through. In any event, the sense of "wow, there's nothing else like this on the shelves" was strongest for me between 1966 and 1969. This is one reason why I want to set Garo aside now and move on to something else - the stories showing up from 1970 onward don't excite me anymore.

I liked:
Early Kamui-den, before the old magistrate died.
All of the Hakaba Kitaro stories.
Anything by Kuniko Tsurita.
The Terajima stories by Yuu Takita.
The first 10 stories by Shouhei Kusunoki, up to Red Water.
What little came from Manabu Ohyama.
Everything from Tamehiro Tashiro.
And most of what came from Yoshiharu Tsuge.

Would I recommend Garo? Of course. I think that anyone interested in manga history should read the first 6-7 years of the magazine. I'm not so sure I'd recommend the titles that have been commercially translated in the U.S., that originally ran in Garo, though. The people that I like the best aren't the ones getting published. I still think that titles like "Red-Colored Elegy" and "Red Snow" are over-hyped. The problem, though, is that it's getting much harder to find used issues of Garo, and unless you're living in Japan, you're pretty much going to be out of luck. If you do live here, a number of the titles have been published in collected volumes, like Kamui-den, Kitaro, and Neji-Shiki, that are still available in Japanese used from Mandarake.

As a side note, one of my favorite artists is Tori Miki, and he had several stories published through Garo in the 1980's. I picked up three more issues during this time period, and I will do two more posts containing just his stories. But, it's like the entire magazine went shojo somehow. And even the Tori Miki stories aren't that good. On the other hand, the issues from the 1980's are about 300 yen each ($4 USD). I'm not completely giving up on Garo, but I'm moving on to stuff that I like more, now.

Garo Feature #260

2011-03-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

For the Feb., '88 issue, I'm highlighting:

Miki Tori's - Construction Sign Counterattack

路上観察物件の逆襲 (Construction Sign Counterattack)

Miki is out walking with his camera, looking for construction signs. There are a lot of different variants on the "construction worker bowing and apologizing for the inconvenience", which has attracted his attention. What he wants to know is where they come from, and what they do when they go back to wherever they came from at the end. Suddenly, one of the signs comes alive and starts to give him answers, except that a worker soon comes up to them, grabs the sign, throws it into a truck and drives off.

Ok, this is the one manga I wanted to get to. Not one of Tori Miki's best works, but it is representative of his earlier style.

Garo Feature #73

2011-03-06T17:50:00.000-08:00

For the July, '71 issue, I'm highlighting:

Genpei Akasegawa's - Sakura Pictorial
Sanpo Yodogawa's - Mystery Man M and the Boy's Detective Club

桜画報 (Sakura Pictorial) #3

A young boy and his horse have a variety of strange dreams. Very surreal, with no actual storyline.

怪人Mと少年探偵団 (Mystery Man M and the Boy's Detective Club) #3

The story in this chapter is just the lead detective taunting M and making bad jokes. On the last page, the tables turn and M prepares to fight the team along with some henchmen.

Garo Feature #68

2011-02-27T18:04:00.000-08:00

For the Apr., '71 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shouhei Kusunoki's - Soybean
Hiroyuki Ohtani's - Detective Inkouyoko

まめ (Soybean)

A poor Edo family is running out of things to eat, leaving a rooster and some soybeans. The father goes out to conduct business, leaving the kids at home to play games. When they get hungry, they're told to eat the raw beans. The next day, the mother prepares a big stew, and the family can't eat it because they're already filled up on soybeans. Later, a neighborhood woman complements the family for the delicious food she got from them (probably the stew leftovers), while the family just stares at her, with a single bird feather fluttering by (implying that they'd cooked the rooster but weren't hungry enough to eat it.)

探偵陰溝蝿児 (Detective Inkouyoko) #3

Inkouyo pulls out a knife and threatens the gay family member, who is suddenly guarded by the thug that had the tree fall on him (Eli). Eli takes Inkouyou out to the garden, and from a tree branch they watch a hooded figure enter the woman's room and do stuff to her. Later, the head of the family gives Inkouyou cash to leave the house and not talk to anyone about what's going on there, but Inkouyou hears a strange moaning coming from somewhere and follows it through a secret passage into a dungeon where the gay member is being tortured. Eli shoots the victim before he can talk. Inkouyou then rushes to the woman's room and tries to get her to go with him to freedom. He discovers her secret - she's actually a guy in drag, and "she" bites her tongue off. As she dies in Inkouyou's arms, Eli enters the room and shoots Inkouyou in the chest.

Garo Feature #66

2011-02-20T18:07:00.000-08:00

For the Mar., '71 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shinichi Abe's - Miyoko Asagaya's Feeling
Tadao Tsuge's - Back West Village

美代子阿佐ヶ谷気分 (Miyoko Asagaya's Feeling) #1

A woman wakes up one morning and prepares herself for the day, putting on makeup, eating breakfast and playing guitar. At the end of the day, she says "time to go back", and climbs through a hole in the ceiling in the storage space used for keeping the futon mattresses.

うらにしの里 (Back West Village)

This looks like a travelogue story, but this time from Tadao. He takes a bus up into the mountains, but finds that the people he encounters there dislike strangers. He reaches a Shinto shrine, but the priest running the place has gotten fed-up with tourists and won't let Tadao stick around long enough to even catch his breath. In the end he finds himself walking down the other side of the mountains.

Garo Feature #61

2011-02-13T17:43:00.000-08:00

For the Nov., '70 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shigeru Mizuki's - Man Who Seized the Star
Tadao Tsuge's - Easy-going Night

星をつかみそこねる男 (Man Who Seized the Star) #2

Shigeru is starting up a new series. In chapter 2, our "hero" is a 16-year-old boy who lives at his father's kendo dojo. A "dojo hunter" drops by to challenge the master to a fight. A medicine delivery boy steps in to defeat the dojo hunter, but is in turn defeated by the other students. The hero asks his father why someone so weak can be so strong and the father's answer is in the form of a riddle. The delivery boy wants to join the dojo, and the hero's father agrees, but only if the boy can hit the hero three times with a wooden sword. The hero just stands in place and allows himself to be hit, later telling the boy that he lost because the other boy is so strong. The hero sees some friends standing around looking at a piece of paper with a drawing of some foreign steam ships. They all want to go look at the ships in Yokohama, where the real thing is even more awe-inspiring than the fanciful drawings were. However, they encounter a very clean-cut samurai who comments on the dangers the foreigners could bring to their isolated world. Note: The splash page is a ukiyo-e-style drawing of Commodore Perry.

夜よゆるやかに (Easy-going Night)

A father living with his wife and idiot son starts suffering flashbacks to when he was serving in the Japanese Army during WW II. His wife and son live a fairly carefree life, but they insult the father a bit too much. He, meanwhile, visits a doctor, who diagnoses him with a heart condition. He continues on to his job at a factory, where his boss is trying to force him to take a shorter vacation this year to allow everyone else to take off instead. Later, the guy is heading back home when he bumps into a woman that works as a dancer in a nightclub. She talks him into buying her coffee, but she then complains about how dark and brooding he is. He says that he's just been fired, and he doesn't want to face the wife and son right now. After it gets dark, the girl decides to walk out to an abandoned field where she tries to get the guy to loosen up and dance with her. He keeps asking her if she really wants to be out in a secluded place like this with a strange man she's just met, and she ignores the question. Finally, he assaults her and forces himself on her, while asking why she's not shouting for help. Eventually, a middle-aged woman that had followed them to the field and watched them having sex, waits until they're finished and starts shouting about a rape and calling for someone to come help. The girl gets upset at having been seen, and takes this moment to call for help as well while trying to run away. The guy chases after her, demanding to know why she hadn't tried to stop him earlier. When he finally catches her, she laughs and he holds on to her for dear life, thinking that his heart condition is going to flair up.

The world according to Kiyoshi

2011-02-06T18:41:00.000-08:00

Sorry, but there's nothing in particular I feel like highlighting for the Aug., '70 issue.

Instead, I'd like to talk about Yuu Takita a little more. One of the things that I really respect about his Terajima stories is how he tries so hard to capture the feel of the time period his manga is set in. Kiyoshi, the boy protagonist of the series, seems to be immersed in the era, with various cultural elements showing up continuously that should really appeal to the amateur manga historian.

Kiyoshi's mother has just come from the public baths. She is carrying her bath bucket, towel and soap. Then it starts to rain and she broods over how she's just thrown her money away on a bath, now that she's getting soaked all over again.

Kiyoshi's books mostly consist of manga, including a rental book copy of Norakuro.

At the kabuki theater.

Wood-covered sewage ditches along side the streets.

A genmai pan (rice bread) seller.

Playing cards. The idea here is to make your opponent's card flip over when you throw your card down.

Mice.

Picking destinations to run to as part of a chase game.

An odango (pounded rice balls with flavored sauces on top) salesman.

Horse droppings.

Around 1931, a patent was issued for a reflective-style projector, called the REFCY. Unlike regular film projectors, the REFCY used a paper roll. Light from a bulb bounced off the paper and was then focused through a lens onto the projector screen. These were very popular projectors in Japan for a long time, and we have one such pictured here. The film being shown is a very famous samurai drama.

The word "chindon-ya" literally translates to "tweet + bang + shop". A chindon-ya was a person paid to play music on the streets to call attention to some product or store that hired them. At a minimum, you need a drummer and a flute player. Chindon-ya are still used occasionally in Tokyo to advertise pachinko parlors.

School punishment. Kiyoshi and his classmate got into a tussle while practicing kanji drawing in class.

An old-style kitchen. The problem is that the cat may occasionally use the rice cooker as a litter box...

Playing with tops. Battle tops are still popular in anime on TV in Japan. The two ways to fight it out in the past were in seeing whose top could knock the other out of the ring, or which would spin the longest.

Comments?

Garo Feature #56

2011-01-30T18:14:00.000-08:00

For the July, '70 issue, I'm highlighting:

Tadao Tsuge's - Ditch Road, Final Part
Kuniko Tsurita's - Misfortune

どぶ街 (Ditch Road, Final Part)

The artist from the previous chapter is out walking around the village, and meets up with some of his old companions. He eventually makes his way back to the house of his friend's girlfriend and moves in with her (since the friend is going to be in jail for a while). Simultaneously, there's a typhoon coming, and two of the guys working at a factory debate quitting and finding new work. In the end, the older of the two workers goes home after the typhoon has ended, and steals some money from his wife to go play pachinko.

災難 (Misfortune)

A young man is imprisoned with a number of killers, but he remains optimistic because he didn't do anything wrong. His cheerfulness seems to be unappreciated and he is locked up in solitary confinement. Some months later, his jailer is back, this time to take him to the gallows to hang. He repeats that he's innocent, and the hangsmen all repeat that everyone says that. The man tries to escape but is captured again. When he says that he's just one man, and that they should let him go, the jailer repeats that everyone executed up to this point was "just one man".

Garo Feature #54

2011-01-23T19:16:00.000-08:00

For the May, '70 issue, I'm highlighting:

Ryouichi Ikegami's - Blurred World
Ryouichi Ikegami's - Slip

ぼやけた世界 (Blurred World)

Yukio is a former Japanese boxer who was KO'd during a title match against a black opponent. Several years later, he's a cheap thug who beats up drunks so that his partner can take their wallets. The partner promises to bring a new girl around to their regular haunt - a jazz club - that evening. Yukio doesn't care, because all he has any interest in is boxing, and no non-boxer could understand that. Unfortunately, one of the aftereffects of a lifetime of boxing is blurred vision and a smashed in nose. The partner arrives with the girl in tow. Her name is Rumi, and she acts impressed at Yukio's list of credits, saying that she loves strong men. Later, Yukio and the partner walk out to a park to look for another drunk to roll, and Yukio says that he couldn't go out with Rumi - she's a fan of his and he wouldn't do that to a fan. However, when Yukio starts pounding of their target, he's relentless, and the partner runs away in fear. The drunk collapses to the ground, and Yukio finds himself helpless - his glasses had fallen off and he can't find them on his own. The partner runs back to the bar to confirm something that Yukio had said - yes, she is indeed Yukiko's little sister. The partner calls her a slut, and she just laughs hysterically, tears rolling down her cheeks.

スリップ (Slip)

The story starts with a truck hitting a small boy. Then switches to a taxi dispatch center, where some of the drivers are putting snow chains on their tires in preparation for the snow storm predicted to hit the city that night. The main character, named "Te-chan", decides to not put on the chains since he doesn't need them. That night, he's driving a well-dressed female passenger when he slips into a daydream of being at home and playing with his wife and small son. They watch Tensai Bakabon on TV. Suddenly he snaps out of the reverie in time to barely avoid smashing into a telephone pole. As it is, he'd slid in sideways and cracked the sideview mirror. The passenger just explodes on him, demanding to know why he doesn't have chains on the tires, why he'd endanger the life of a valued passenger, and what he expects her to do now that they're stranded out in the middle of nowhere with no other cars nearby for her to ride back in. He envisions the small boy that had been hit by the truck at the beginning of the story, then snaps and attacks the woman, with her image reflected in the cracked mirror.

Garo Feature #48

2011-01-18T21:50:00.000-08:00

For the Jan., '70 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shouhei Kusunoki's - Thief
Shigeo Masai's - Mime
Tadao Tsuge's - 2 People, 3 Legs

盗っ人 (Thief)

This is kind of a rambling story that starts out with a high school student that sees someone stealing a magazine at a bookstore. Eventually, the boy himself works up the nerve to steal a pen, which he gives to his girlfriend. He starts having dreams of a fishing boat in a storm, and things escalate, with an attack on his girlfriend, and getting drunk with another punk. At the end, the hero and the drunk go past a harbor where the hero recognizes the boats from his dream. The two of them pass out in a room, but when the hero wakes up the next morning, the other guy seems to have not existed, and the hero goes out to walk along the shore.

Mime (Mime)

Shigeo's maestro character gets stuck in a maze, and ends up seeing himself reaching the end. An ambulance arrives to cart him off to the asylum.

二人三脚 (2 People, 3 Legs)

Two guys working at a factory share the same room in an apartment building to save on rent. The hero gets disgusted at the behavior of his roommate, and escapes to the factory to take a shower. The water of the communal bath is too cool, so the hero works on the boiler to bring the temperature up, but with little success. While the rest of the workers bathe, the hero plays cards with two friends, and talks about the bad behavior of the roommate. The hero wins the game and leaves to take his bath. The roommate stumbles in, stinking drunk, and makes a mess of the bath. At the end, the hero tells the roommate that he's horribly disgusting, and the guy just stands there staring, drunk and with vomit running down his chin.

Garo Feature #50

2011-01-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

I'm not really running anything by Seiichi Hayashi this time, even though this is a special issue dedicated to him. In part it's because a lot of the stories in this issue are from the Red-Colored Elegy series, which has already been translated into English by Drawn & Quarterly, and in part because some of the material won't play well in front of children. That, and I'm not really a fan of his later works.

For the Feb., '70 issue, I'm highlighting:
Susumu Katsumata's - Nostalgic Melody

なつかしのメロディ (Nostalgic Melody)

Susumu copies Hayashi's style to highlight the majority of his characters, with no real story.

Yumebi Exhibit on Shigeru Mizuki

2011-01-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

This is a copy of the post I put on ThreeStepsOverJapan. Because of the relationship to Garo magazine, I decided to put it here also.

The Yumebi gallery in Hachioji has been a good place to see anime and manga related exhibits over the last year. They had both the Macoto, and Art of Mamoru Oshii exhibits over the Summer, and they closed out the year with The World of Mizuki Shigeru, running from Nov. 26, 2010, to Jan. 23, 2011, in part as a commemoration of Mizuki's 88th birthday. Entry is 500 yen ($6 USD) for adults.

My winter break at work continued to Jan. 5th, so on the 4th I took the opportunity to visit the Yumebi. As always, the gallery had some artwork in the front lobby, and a TV to one side for people to watch. This time, the DVD seems to have been about Mizuki's studio. I tried finding a copy in the gift shop, but it's apparently sold out. A second TV was playing episodes of "Gegege no Nyobo" (Wife of Gegege). And, the goods shop was stocked with post cards, art books and snack foods featuring the Kitaro youkai.

The exhibit itself starts out with a series of drawings of the Kitaro characters, accompanied by short written descriptions of each. There's a larger collection of paintings of various youkai that have appeared in the Kitaro and Akuma-kun manga, and a few really old Japanese books inside glass cases that have the same youkai that Shigeru apparently used as reference material. There's also 3D art, including life-sized statues of Kitaro, Oyaji, and the cement wall monster, plus models of Kitaro's tree house, and a diorama of a waterfall in the mountains occupied by all of the youkai that had been in the paintings on the gallery walls. The next section of the exhibit includes a parody of Hokusai's 36 Views of Mt. Fuji ukiyo-e woodblock prints, with the same youkai appearing in the villages and landscapes that were the focus of the original prints.

In the adjoining room, one wall has the original pencil artwork from selected pages of some Akuma-kun and Kitaro manga, including the page with the birth of Kitaro from the "Hakuba Kitaro" series. One half of the room also contained the complete set of Garo magazine issues from vol. 1 all the way up to #55. Now I know why all of the copies are missing from the Akihabara Mandarake shop. In addition, there is a section dedicated to some of the Garo manga artists that Mizuki worked with: Yoshiharu Tsuge, Ryouichi Ikegami and Sampei Shirato, with selected manga pages and photos of some of the artists. In fact, one full display case is dedicated to "Garo before Garo", a magazine created by Sampei Shirato entitled "Ninpou Hiwa" (Ninja Arts Secrets). Check out the Italian fan site for more images. It ran from 1960 to 1965, and included manga from Mizuki.

I should also mention that there's one corner with early copies of Shonen Sunday and Shonen Magajin. Both magazines started in 1959, and Mizuki had stories running in both of them from the beginning.

The rest of the exhibit includes masks of the Kitaro characters, collectors items like key chains, cell phone straps and toy figures, plus there's a long scroll drawn as an autobiographical manga showing Shigeru's life from birth up to about 1965. Naturally, the gallery doesn't allow photos within the exhibit, so I can't show you all the good stuff here. Suffice it to say that if you're in Hachioji before Jan. 24th, this is definitely worth the 500 yen to go inside. Highly recommended, especially if you're a Garo enthusiast.

Garo Feature #59

2011-01-02T18:41:00.000-08:00

For the Sept., '70 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shouhei Kusunoki's - Bomutsu
Tadao Tsuge's - A Current Popular Song

暮六つ (Bomutsu)

A toy maker in old Edo is suddenly visited by an old man. The two of them go out to a field where the toy maker hopes they'll be unseen by his family and friends. Unfortunately for him they all show up, and take turns either begging the old man to leave the toy maker alone, or to fight them instead. The old man doesn't respond, and finally the toymaker dresses himself up for a sword fight. They swing, and the toymaker falls dead, to everyone's shock. The old man moves on the the next village.

いざ歌謡曲 (A Current Popular Song)

A group of three guys working on a book are trying to decide on the cover art. The writer wants to use a destroyed battleship picture, while the cover artist wants a new-looking destroyer. The youngest-looking of the three wants to move into manga. The cover artist leaves, and the writer tries to convince the younger one that "having something that sells" is better than "producing art that one can be proud of". At one point, a would-be artist drops by the studio to try to sell them a manga entitled "Zenmai-shiki" that features a wind-up doll, and a cameo by Yoshiharu's "Neji-shiki" character. The magazine publisher the group is contracted to stops by, showing the upcoming issue that they'll be appearing in - the cover has the new-looking destroyer on it. The younger artist and the writer go out drinking, reminiscing about the past, and singing. The younger artist finally agrees that creating stuff that sells is probably the best philosophy.

Vent time.

2010-12-29T18:41:00.000-08:00

I hate bad software. Having been a programmer for over 20 years, I know what it takes to make a good application. And it drives me up the wall paying for anything substandard, even if it was only $25-$50. Further, I had been pretty satisfied using Microsoft's Front Page for Win 98, ignoring the flaws with it, because it wasn't that hard to use and I could work around the limitations. But, then my laptop crashed, I had to upgrade to Win 7, and Microsoft stopped supporting Front Page on the later versions of Windows. So I looked around a little and found what was purported to be a decent low-end (meaning cheap) HTML editor called Coffee Cup.

Man, what a nightmare. Seems that the CoffeeCup programmers only want to focus on stylesheet support for fancy-looking commercial websites. That's not what I need for creating code to be used on TSOJ.manga.org. What I need are simple tables, and links to images on Mediafire. CoffeeCup doesn't support tables well (they've got menu items for inserting rows into tables, but according to the CC support staff, there's no plan to implement the code for it), and it refuses to do relative addressing of page links. To insert rows I have to go into the code editor and do it by hand, which is a pain if there are a lot of tables. Plus, there's no support for column-wide selections so if I do insert a row I then have to go in by hand and reposition the individual cell contents one at a time if I don't want a gap in the middle of one column. What I want is column selection ala Excel. For page links, I'm writing the HTML on my PC, then uploading it to manga.org. I don't want to hard code the page links, because I can't test them prior to uploading them to the server. But, if I do make them relative, CoffeeCup messes up and prepends "D:file\\" to the beginning of the link every time I switch views. This breaks the link even for testing on my laptop. So I'm forced to use hard links and give up the idea of local testing.

But I can live with that. In fact, I have been living with it for the last 9 months. What finally tipped me over the edge was when I was updating the Garo Special Issues webpage to add a table for Katsumata Susumu. This required that I put a new table in between the entries for Yuu Takita and Kuniko Tsurita. I'm using CoffeeCup's own copy-paste functions, and suddenly, the entire page is broken. Every time I switch between Code View and Page View, CoffeeCup adds duplicated code for both the Susumu and Kuniko tables, doubling the length of the file. Delete the offending duplication, and it just comes right back the next time I look at the finished page. Delete the page, start from scratch and add a new table for Shinji Nagashima, and the problem resurfaces all over again. I lost a full day messing with this.

Originally, I wrote a visual basic script to automate the process of generating the webpages for the regular Garo issues because of how long it was taking to do it by hand. I hadn't extended the script to the special issues because I only had 1 or 2 volumes to contend with at the time and rewriting the script didn't seem necessary. Not any more. Being fed up with CoffeeCup, I spent another hour rewriting the VBS to include special issues. Now, instead of the 30 minutes it would take to hand-edit the HTML in CoffeeCup (even when it didn't mess up), I can just run two scripts and everything's done in less than a second. This is a major deal, since I've got 3 more special issues that I picked up from Mandarake recently.

Which brings me to my next major announcement.

The Mandarake store in Akihabara seems to have gotten rid of 75% of its used Garo back issues. I went in around Dec. 17, thinking that I'd grab as many issues from 1970 as I could to work on them during the Christmas break (when my office is closed) and there was nothing there. Everything from 1964 to 1985 was gone. The shelf space was taken over by old copies of Shonen Jump instead. I didn't have time to ask the staff where the Garo issues went, but later I headed over to the Nakano store, and the Akihabara issues weren't sitting on the Nakano shelves. Nakano did still have some older issues, so I grabbed what they had up to July, 1971, which wasn't much. Mainly 4 special issues (Shinji, Katsumata, Seiichi and Ikegami), and 3 regular issues between Jan. and June, 1971.

In any event, I am getting tired of working on Garo, and had been planning on stopping when I got to the point where Kamui-den ended in July, 1971. But, if Mandarake is cleaning Garo off it's shelves, then I'll be finishing that much sooner. In any event, I've still got enough issues lined up for two months, at my current 1-a-week pace. I may take a break after that, but I don't know what I'll tackle next. I was thinking of sampling COM, but most of the COM issues disappeared from the Akihabara shop as well, kind of killing that idea. Nakano does have some COM issues, but it's a pretty small selection. The last time I was at the Shibuya store, there was nothing for either Garo or COM. So, at the moment, it looks like I'll be continuing the Garo features here on Nihon-go Hunter for no more than 2 more months.

End of vent.

Garo Feature #41

2010-12-26T18:35:00.000-08:00

For the July, '69 special issue, I'm highlighting:

Shinji Nagashima's - Boy's Summer
Shinji Nagashima's - New Ugetsu Story

少年の夏 (Boy's Summer)

The story is set at a beach, where a young boy walks in the sand before sitting down. Crowds come in to enjoy playing in the ocean, and then leave, with trash scattered all across the sand behind them. Suddenly the scene jumps to a hospital office where an old man with a cigar is telling a younger, thinner guy something about cancer, the amount of money involved, the idea that the money might stay in the family, etc. Then the scene shifts back with the boy standing up, brushing the sand off his seat and walking back home.

新雨月物語 (New Ugetsu Story)

This is a combination of three short stories. It's related to the ghost story "Ugetsu Monogatari", which among other things was turned into a movie in 1953. In Shinji's version, we first have a hobo and his son and a dog, walking the countryside before they find a massive tree. The hobo settles down and starts carving the tree into a Buddha statue. The man dies and his son grows up and takes over the carving. But, he turns the statue into a modern art sculpture. He too dies of old age, and a passing traveler chops the remaining parts of the tree up to make crosses for the bodies of the boy and the dog, then uses the rest of the tree for firewood. In part 2, a young boy standing outside of a girl's house, holding a bunch of flowers, waits so long that his corpse ends up wrapped in with the ivy vines that grew up the outer wall. In part 3, a man dressed up as a clown and holding a sign advertising a coffee shop, watches as people pass him by on the sidewalk. At night, he goes home, takes off the makeup, and sits in front of an easel where he does oil painting. Over time he watches as one girl grows up, meeting a boyfriend, getting married and having a child. Just about when the painting of her is finished, the clown dies. The painting is put on display at an art gallery. The woman visits the gallery, sees herself in the painting and cries, remembering the clown that used to stand outside on the sidewalk.

Garo Feature #53

2010-12-19T18:38:00.000-08:00

For the May, '70 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shouhei Kusunoki's - The Large Room
Tadao Tsuge's - Ditch Road, Part 2

大部屋 (The Large Room)

Note: The title, "Ohbeya", can simply mean "large room", an actor's common-use room, or a hospital ward. The story takes place in a hospital, where various patients are waiting for major surgery. The majority of the conversations revolve around the decision whether to have the surgery or not, with rumors about why any given decision would be bad. If you have the surgery in the morning, the doctor might be coming in drunk; in the afternoon the doctor is tired and making mistakes. If you don't have the surgery, you usually only have 6 months to live. If you do have it, you may overhear the nurses wondering where one of their pairs of forceps went, or that their post-surgery inventory of the needles is coming up one short. Two guys get the surgery at the same time; one comes out of it fine, the other starts coughing a few days later and dies under a post-surgery operation. Another patient comes in, saying that he'll have his surgery in a couple of months, so two of the ones that have already had their surgeries start joking about missing needles, and the new guy yells at them for making him worry, with the resulting tension about to flare into a fist-fight. Eventually, most of the people have left, with one guy who put off the idea of being operated on looking emaciated, coughing weakly, and near-death.

どぶ街 (Ditch Road, Part 2)

An artist approaching a pachinko parlor gets harassed by some local thugs protecting their turf. The thugs' leader comes out, recognizes the artist as his friend and apologizes to him. They go to a coffee shop to talk. Turns out the artist has fallen on hard times and lost his job. They depress each other, and go back out to the street. A woman happens by and asks the artist to meet up with her to go drinking. A little later, the thugs run to get their leader to announce that a rival gang is trying to get into their pachinko parlor. There's a fight and one of the enemy gets knifed and dies. Everyone scatters, but the police are summoned and they catch the leader as he flees the scene. The artist and the woman happen on the scene, and the woman runs to the leader to demand that the police let her husband go free. The artist wanders away and despondently kicks through some lumber at a demolished building site before walking off.

Garo Feature #46

2010-12-12T17:59:00.000-08:00

For the Oct., '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Susumu Katsumata's - Kapparou

かっぱ郎 (Kapparou)

A young kappa tries to fit in as a farmer in the countryside, with poor results.

Garo Feature #63

2010-12-05T18:07:00.000-08:00

For the Dec., '70 issue, I'm highlighting:

Susumu Katsumata's - Gossip Woman

I've actually managed to skip issue 67, the special dedicated to Susumu. I need to go back and upload that one next week. In the meantime, I'm just featuring this one story by Susumu, because it's funny, but also because so much of Kuniko's works have already been included here.

噂の女 (Gossip Woman)

This is essentially a parody of Kuniko Tsurita, using characters from her various stories plus cameos by Akira Ogawa, Shigeru Mizuki, Yuu Takita, Yoshiharu Tsuge and others. The "story" is that each of the characters are being asked where Kuniko is, and they all repeat rumors that they'd heard about her.

Garo Feature #49

2010-11-28T16:20:00.000-08:00

For the Feb., '70 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shigeru Mizuki's - Future Tokyo
Tadao Tsuge's - Certain Scenery

未来のトオキョウ (Future Tokyo)

This is a little 2-page piece showing the Tokyo of the Future as an over-built monstrosity.

或る風景 (Certain Scenery)

A man goes walking out on the roads to reach a favored fishing hole. Along the way he narrates the difficulties he'd had with his parents when he was younger, and how he'd badly injured his right foot as a child. It still hurts him now. When he gets to the fishing place, one of the other men that likes fishing there comes up and chats with him for a while. The visitor asks why the fisher is here since there's few fish in the area, and the guy answers that he likes the scenery. The visitor is surprised, since the place is fairly desolate and there's nothing scenery-wise worth looking at. They both leave and the first guy goes to his shop and opens it up for business. As he's washing down the sidewalk, a customer comes up and comments that he'd been afraid the place would be closed for the day. The owner answers that the off day is tomorrow. The customer buys some bait, and remarks on how clean the shop is. He leaves, and as other customers come by, the owner narrates again about having two younger brothers, the problems he'd had with his parents, and that when they'd died he'd inherited this grocery store out in Chiba prefecture. He goes home, where his wife says that she'd gotten a call from her mother saying that she was feeling ill, so the wife is going to go back home during the off day tomorrow. She makes up meals for her husband and asks what he'll do with his free time - he answers, "fishing". His foot bothers him, and we see that it's in bad shape. He peals dead skin from the top of it. That night they go to sleep and he wakes up with a start to see that she's staring at him. He asks why she's awake, and she answers that he'd been making weird noises in his sleep. They go back to bed, and she wakes him at 9 AM as she prepares to visit her mother. He's going to nap longer then suddenly his foot cramps up. He gets his glasses and rests his eyes while sitting up, and dreams that he's in the middle of a road, wearing just his night robe.

Garo Feature #47

2010-11-21T18:12:00.000-08:00

For the Dec., '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Susumu Katsumata's - I--diot

あ～ほ (I--diot)

Actually, Katsumata is using this issue to run a full 12-page story. Essentially it's a crow's perspective on Japanese rural life, debunking various myths and explaining the real reason why crows cry. That, and that they'd rather eat chicken eggs than watermelons.

Kazuo Kamimura Exhibit

2010-11-18T07:53:00.000-08:00

For those of you that like the gekiga-style artists who may not have actually appeared in Garo, I posted a review on my other blog site of an exhibit that's running in Shimokitazawa right now, in Umezz's GAoh! gallery - for Kazuo Kamimura (illustrator on Lady Snowblood).

Garo Feature #45

2010-11-14T19:25:00.000-08:00

For the Nov., '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Tamehiro Tashiro's - Painful Evening
Shigeo Masai's - Mime
Ouji Suzuki's - Helping Shou

痛かった夕暮れ (Painful Evening)

The master of the wordless manga explores new ground with a story where the characters actually talk. A regular guy tries getting a train ticket, only to be insulted and injured by the station personnel. In the end, he is forced to walk back home.

Mime (Mime)

Shigeo is going by a slightly different spelling of "Shigeo" (Shige + "fish"), and the English version of the name is just S. Masai". It's been quite a while since we last saw him, with "Demon Phone" back in Oct., 1966. A guy dressed up like a 1700's classical musician stands next to a tree and cries when the last leaf falls to the ground. His tears cause his shoes to get dirty, so when his attempts to get revenge on the tree fail he steps on the leaf, cleans his shoes, and comments on the crows flying away resembling the fleeting Autumn.

庄助あたりで (Helping Shou)

This is a selected work by a new artist. A young man visits the apartment of his friend, Shou, and notices that the friend doesn't look very healthy. Shou complains about being cold, and takes the visitor's book and reads it out loud. The visitor leaves and comes back some weeks later, only to find that Shou has sold all his belongings, is now living out of a box on the floor, and is looking very thin but strangely beautiful. Shou explains that when he'd gone out to get some cold medicine, he'd discovered a statue of a very pretty girl, who he'd been able to talk to. Over time, he spent all of his money on the medicine as an excuse to visit the shop. Shou dies a few days later, and the friend retraces Shou's steps to try to track down the statue. The pharmacy has remodeled and changed its name, but inside the building is the statue. Of a pregnant woman advertising baby formula (called "Mama Milk"). The friend is disgusted by this turn of events and leaves.

Garo Feature #44

2010-11-07T19:40:00.000-08:00

For the Oct., '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Tadao Tsuge's - Rainy Season, Part 2
Shouhei Kusunoki's - Stone Worker

雨期 (Rainy Season, Part 2)

This story is largely unrelated to part 1. The art is cruder, and it looks much more amateurish than before. The basic story is that a woman running a drinking room and her friend are joined by a customer. They talk for a while and it becomes obvious that the mama-san (female bar owner) is preoccupied. The friend and the customer talk her into explaining what the problem is. Turns out that her adult daughter had been seduced by a street thug (presumably the one from part 1), and had disappeared for a few days before suddenly coming back home. When the daughter had first tried to move in with her "boyfriend", the guy's thugs had threatened her into turning tricks for them. At this point in the story, the friend and the customer get embarrassed and tell the mama-san that they've heard enough. The story ends with the approaching storm building up and getting stronger.

石匠 (Stone Worker)

This is a simple slice-of-life story with art by Shouhei, based on a story by 冬木良 (which could be read as Yoshi Fuyuki). There's nothing coming up on him in either English or Japanese, except for references to this particular story.

A tall man visits his friend, a young woman that had quit her job in order to take care of her father. The guy doesn't understand why she is so dedicated to the old man, and constantly urges her to get on with her life. While he seems to be attracted to the girl, she just treats him as a friend. But, it is true, that while they visit a cemetery, that she shows a morbid side. Later, the father talks to his daughter, and he comments that she likes a particular stone cutter named Kuroushi, and he follows this up with the comment that he can hear Kuroushi walking up in the snow. He dies, and the tall friend accompanies the woman to the funereal. The tall guy sees some round boulders in the father's studio and is inspired to carve similar boulders himself. Then, he drives to the hills, where he tracks down the woman. She's with the other stone carver, Kuroushi, who is polishing a slab of granite. He watches as the couple frolics in the grass near a flowing river.

Garo Feature #43

2010-10-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

For the Sept., '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Sanpo Yodogawa's - Boy
Tadao Tsuge's - River with Kappas

少年 (Boy)

A pair of young boys are out walking along a river near some bridges. One, kind of a beaver-face and wearing a helmet, tells the other, a young version of the Three Stooges' Moe, that he's found a place where there are a lot of fish. "Moe", the leader of a secret club of boys, is referred to as "oyabun" (boss), and he orders helmet head to go back to the club house to round up the others. Helmet head goes to the club house, and gets "doc" and the rest. Doc gets out a fireworks rocket, and Helmet Head puts a frog in it - they launch the rocket to let oyabun know they're ready - the explosion at the end is fairly rough on the frog. They go out and catch a bunch of fish. Along the way, Helmet Head encounters Yomi-chan, a girl that is friends with the group. Helmet Head tries to use a dragon fly that he notices in order to put the moves on Yomi, but she's not interested. HH invites Yomi to explore the flood gate control room located near the river, and everything is fine until the control system automatically opens up the sluice gates and Yomi is swept into the water. Oyabun hears the cries for help and dives into the river to rescue the girl. Finally, everyone is back in the club house and HH recovers consciousness. Yomi is in the arms of her rescuer, and oyabun is basking in the moment. HH is so jealous, he goes over to an insect cage, and sets two spiders against each other. The one HH labels "oyabun" loses in the battle, and HH wishes death on his leader.

河童の居る川 (River with Kappas)

An old man likes to fish. A younger coworker also likes fishing in the same area, but refuses to give away his secret fishing hole. At work, the older guy gets abused by his other coworkers, but the group as a whole is kind of dysfunctional. One night, after a drinking party where the older one confuses everyone with a strange pre-War reminiscence, the two fishermen travel out to the older one's station (Edogawa-dai, in Chiba, northeast of Tokyo), which is far from the city, but close to the fishing river. The older one continues on home, where his wife is uncharacteristically awake and up waiting for him. The couple has been married so long that there's no mysteries between them. When she goes to bed, he has a revelation. After this, the older guy stops going to work. The younger one decides to go out fishing again as a pretext to find out what happened to his coworker. At the final train station, the younger worker encounters the older one's wife, who says that her husband has taken up photographing kappa (mythological river spirits). The guy continues to the river, puzzled by what the woman had said. He sets up his rod and reel and eventually the older guy arrives. When the younger one tries to ask what's going on, the older one yells out "kappa!, there's a kappa!" and runs into the tall grass along the riverbank.

Drawn and Quarterly comments

2010-10-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I write up these Garo summaries/reviews well in advance of when I run them. Right now, I've got two concerns regarding these write-ups. First, I'm hitting the section of the Mandarake shelves where a lot of the issues are unavailable. For the first half of 1970, about 4 regular issues, and several special issues are missing. Second, I'm trying to focus my energies on studying for my level 2 Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December, so I'm not buying Garo much at the moment. But, I am taking the time to enter issue information from the net into the Garo database. Since I'm not reading and scanning the manga now, updating the database is going fairly quick, and I'm well into 1970 right now.

Because I keep running into the same title over and over again in the span from 1969-1970, I decided to check out the Drawn & Quarterly site to verify something. The title is Seiichi Hayashi's "Red-Colored Elegy" and what I wanted to check is whether this is the one that D&Q carries. Turns out it is. To me, the Japanese version of the manga is just a series of nonsense images. According to D&Q, it's a metaphorical story about 2 lovers during the turmoil of 1960's Japan. If you like Seiichi's manga, and you don't already own it, here's your chance to support the author.

Of course, Susumu Katsumata's "Red Snow" is carried by D&Q. He did die in 2007, but you can still support his family by buying the book.

Finally, one thing that caught my eye, and prompted me to write this entry, is that Shigeru Mizuki is also included in the list of D&Q's artists. He's not in the product catalog yet, but the fact that they have a biography on him seems promising. Maybe this means that they'll run some of his works in English soon.

Garo Feature #42

2010-10-24T19:35:00.001-07:00

For the Aug., '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Tadao Tsuge's - Rainy Season, Part 1

雨期 (Rainy Season, Part 1)

Some time ago, a group of punks ruled the street. Years pass, and two of the punks get together again, one of them being the former leader. They reminisce about the old days. Time has not been kind to them, and the leader wants a bar to sit down at and talk. But, the younger one doesn't understand what the deal is. The younger one also suddenly gets sick and throws up. The leader comments on the smell of blood on him, and the younger one answers that he'd been working at a shop carving up body parts for medical analysis. It's a horrible job and he can't do it any more. The two of them nervously talk around various subjects and the leader finally gets them into a secluded bar. His ulterior motive to to show this nasty growth or wound over his right shoulder blade and upper back. He tells the younger guy to touch it and it feels cold. Another customer at the bar laughs, but quickly looks away. The two leave the bar and head for an unprotected rail crossing where one of them had witnessed a suicide years before. They stand there, thinking about how the town changed, how they don't fit in any more and how convenient it would be to end everything. The last train of the night comes barreling up, and it looks like they decided not to stay in the middle of the tracks after all.

Garo Feature #40

2010-10-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

For the July, '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shouhei Kusunoki's - Jeeze
Takao Takahashi's - One Night
Masuzou Furukawa's - Field Bath

チェッ (Jeeze)

I really do prefer Shouhei's Edo-era dramedies. His modern-life stories don't work as well. In any case, "Jeeze" centers on a young man that seems to have a fixation for ramming into people with his shoulder and then apologizing for it. The guy gets a job as a mover for a transport company and spends his day listening to rude jokes by the driver. At one point they go to a public bath, where the other customers notice the nasty scar the guy has on his shoulder. He initially says that he got it from a 5-on-1 fight against some yakuza, then claims that he's joking and that it was actually a machine accident. Another night, out on the street walking home with 3 other people, the guy has to jump to one side to avoid being hit by a racing motorbike taking a corner too tight, and all four of them bash into each other and ending up apologizing. Finally, the guy trips into one businessman who actually ignores him. The guy follows the businessman out to a secluded area and pulls a knife on him. The businessman just stares at him, and the guy laughs before running away. When out of sight, he stops and gasps for air out of terror.

ひとつねた (One Night)

Takao Takahashi (高橋高雄) ("Lingering Song", "Sampei the Fisherman") is writing under the name Takao Hashi(橋高雄) this time. An old man is caring for his two young grand children, and the narration is kind of reminiscent of a children's rhyme. The children's father had to leave the town to find work, and he never comes back. The mother works the fields of their farm, gets sick and dies. A natural disaster hits the town, and everyone else leaves to find employment as migrant workers. This just leaves the old man and the two children alone to fend for themselves. One scene shows them with angel's wings, implying that they may also be dead right now, or that it will happen eventually. With all of the catastrophes that have plagued them, though, they're not scared. What's a lot scarier is the grandfather's ghost stories. On the last page, the old man thinks "If I die, who will take care of these children?"

野風呂 (Field Bath)

This is a very silly, fairly crudely-drawn tale of Pon-tarou, a young tanuki (racoon dog) out on a stroll on his own. His mother told him that it's ok to wander away from the house to play, just stay away from humans. Unfortunately, Pon forgets her warning, and eventually discovers a hot tub in the middle of a field. He crawls inside and enjoys a hot bath, until the old man that built the tub comes along. Pon remembers his mother's words, and tries to shapeshift. However, he's never been able to shift before, so the best he can do now is turn into a fish. The old man gets into the tub and after a while starts noticing a tickling. Since fish are not commonly found in hot tubs, he becomes curious and tries to catch it. Pon is overcome by the heat and stress, and reverts to tanuki form. The old man is amazed by this, but Pon is sweating so heavily, he throws the creature away. Pon recovers and runs happily back home to tell his mother than he can shapeshift now.

Garo Feature #39

2010-10-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

For the June, '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Manabu Ohyama's - Fossil Forest
Ryouichi Ikegami's - White Fluid

化石の森 (Fossil Forest)

A young man, an engineer, lives with his wife and father. The father was against their marriage, and always argues with them. However, occasionally, when it snows, he just stands outside in a daze, acting like he wants to freeze to death. One day, the father pleads with the engineer to take him on a trip before he dies. As they're on the plane to Hokkaido, the man asks to know where they're going. The father answers "Karafuto" (the disputed island of Sakhalin near Russia). It's prohibited for Japanese citizens to go there, but the old man knows how to get past the border. He then tells the engineer "you're not actually my son". Turns out that following WW II, the Russian army was rounding up and executing Japanese citizens living on Karafuto. The old man and his wife had two young children then, and as they were escaping through the snow packed woods, the old man suffered a broken arm and the wife had a leg injury. They couldn't carry their children, so in one clearing, when the kids had collapsed, the father had buried them under the snow. The husband and wife made it to a port and caught a ship going to Hokkaido, and as they were about to depart, spied a small boy who'd been separated from his own parents. The couple adopted the child, who, now as an adult, is left wondering who he really is and what had happened to his own family. Then, the old man and the engineer reach Karafuto, and the old man goes running off to what he thinks is the right spot. The engineer can't believe that they'd be able to find two bodies out in the open like this after 24 years, but they do. However, while the bodies are of a male and a female, and they are wearing the right clothes, the bodies look too old. In any event, the father sweeps them up, hugging them and crying, apologizing and asking if they feel cold.

白い液体 (White Fluid)

Ryouichi really likes his horror stories. A young man gets the urge to jump on a train and goes traveling for no particular reason. He arrives at Hanukebito station and exits the train. The ticket master looks like a ghost, and doesn't talk to the guy as he passes through the gate. The man goes through town, noticing that it's empty. He finds a inn, and an old woman checks him in, saying that they only have the one room, and there's only the one guest who'd arrived 1 year earlier. Things continue taking a surreal turn as the room is filled with spider webs, the guest almost looks like a corpse, the woman is married to the ticket master, the couple has only what seems to be one grandson, no one has any teeth, the village is otherwise deserted, the train only stops once a year, the place is infested with flesh-eating locusts, and the only food is a white liquid that comes out of a pipe in the garden. The guy gets bitten by the insects, and when he tries to talk to the other people, is told that they only want to sleep. The rain pours down days on end, and the guy feels really lethargic shortly after drinking the white liquid. He never does figure out where the liquid is coming from, and eventually the other people in the inn die one after the other. His teeth start falling out, his memory slips away from him - he can't remember the name of the station he'd gotten out at or why he'd come here in the first place. The corpse of the other guest seems to be laughing at him, and the only time he seems to be lucid is when he's sleeping. Eventually, he forgets to go to the station the next time the train is due to stop, and in the final panel, he's covered with locusts.

(Ha nuki bito = Teeth Fell Out Person).

Source:http://www.infonet.co.jp/apt/March/comics/Garo/69.06.html

Ryouichi really likes his horror stories. A young man gets the urge to jump on a train and goes traveling for no particular reason. He arrives at Hanukebito station and exits the train. The ticket master looks like a ghost, and doesn't talk to the guy as he passes through the gate. The man goes through town, noticing that it's empty. He finds a inn, and an old woman checks him in, saying that they only have the one room, and there's only the one guest who'd arrived 1 year earlier. Things continue taking a surreal turn as the room is filled with spider webs, the guest almost looks like a corpse, the woman is married to the ticket master, the couple has only what seems to be one grandson, no one has any teeth, the village is otherwise deserted, the train only stops once a year, the place is infested with flesh-eating locusts, and the only food is a white liquid that comes out of a pipe in the garden. The guy gets bitten by the insects, and when he tries to talk to the other people, is told that they only want to sleep. The rain pours down days on end, and the guy feels really lethargic shortly after drinking the white liquid. He never does figure out where the liquid is coming from, and eventually the other people in the inn die one after the other. He teeth start falling out, his memory slips away from him - he can't remember the name of the station he'd gotten out at or why he'd come here in the first place. The corpse of the other guest seems to be laughing at him, and the only time he seems to be lucid is when he's sleeping. Eventually, he forgets to go to the station the next time the train is due to stop, and in

AX - Alternative Manga, #47

2010-10-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

Time to move on to the second of the two AX issues I picked up at the Nakano Mandarake shop. Notice that there's nothing here I want to give the "Garo treatment" to.

----------------------

AX, vol. 47, 2005
Tokyo Zombie
352 pages
933 yen

The magazine starts out with 20 pages on the making of the Tokyo Zombie movie, including a small fold out poster. There's a paragraph on manga artist Kazuo Umezz (who apparently appears in the movie), and a couple of sample pages from the Tokyo Zombie manga ("where is Russia?") In the middle there's another 20 pages of articles, and reviews on etchi manga. In the back there's yet again about 20 pages of ads, and reviews of movies and stuff.

「生活」1 - 福満しげゆき
"Life", #1, by Shigeyuki Fukumitsu

12 pages. (Fukumitsu has a manga running in weekly Morning right now.) A teenager working part time at a convenience store takes a train one day when he happens to be sitting next to a small boy that dislikes listening to people talking on their cell phones in public. The boy grabs several phones and runs away to toss them in the trash bins. The teenager chases him, and they crash into each other. After talking, the two get along fairly well. That night, the teenager encounters a drunk teacher crawling through the streets, and when he tries to talk to him, the teacher hits him in the face with a bottle. The younger boy subdues the teacher, and the two of them tie the guy up in the school. Later, things settle down.

「トロイメライ」2 - 島田虎之介
"Toroi Merai", #2, by Toranosuke Shimada

18 pages. (Shimada wrote "Log King Erickson" in vol. 21.) A young woman tracks down a piano that had been played by various people throughout Europe, India and Malaysia in the 1800's on up. The piano is in lousy condition, but she thinks it can be restored. At the end of the chapter, she arrives at a creepy house where a rumored restorer lives.

「コイソモレ先生」2 - しりあがり寿
"Koinmore Sensei", #2, by Kotobuki Shiriagari

6 pages. (Shiriagari wrote "Old Man Twins".) Just a series of poorly drawn, stupid 4-panel gags.

「正義隊」第11章前編 - 後藤友香
"Righteous Corps", first part of chap. 11, by Yuka Gotou

14 pages. (Yuka wrote "Puzzle of the Manhole".) A school girl sees a strange figure sitting in a classroom alone late at night. She follows it to another room where it is tending an intelligent fish that plans on wiping out all humans. Again, very badly drawn.

「変わってるから困ってる」6 - 藤枝奈己絵
"Worried, so Troubled", #6, by Namie Fujieda

20 pages. (Namie has several manga out under her own name, but there's no real profile on her outside of the brief mention on Spysee.) A fairly well-drawn high school girl's comedy. In this chapter, a school girl has conflicts with her friends, and imagines the etchi behavior of some of the teachers. Nothing happens by the end, though.

「お笑いライヴの午後十時…」7 - 三本美治
"Comical Live Show at 10 PM", #7, by Yoshiharu Mitsumoto.

24 pages. (Mitsumoto wrote "Favorable Wind".) Various patrons at a cafe behave like it's open mike night on stage, doing things like stupid dances or pulling a linked chain through their nose.

「屍錦」 - 桐山裕市
"Corpse Brocade", by Yuichi Kiriyama

14 pages. (There's nothing really on Yuichi that I can find easily.) The story is fairly crudely drawn, about a high school biker chick that hangs out with a tough crowd then eventually smashes her motorcycle into a power pole and decapitates herself. Treated kind of like a documentary with the central character just hanging around in various poses.

サマータイムブルース」 - オカダシゲヒロ
"Summertime Blues", by Shigehiro Okada

8 pages. (Almost nothing on Okada, either.) A boy climbs a tree, but a branch breaks and he lands on his head. He awakens in a hospital, bandages covering his face and unable to see or speak. His family cries with relief. He signals for a pen and paper and writes out a message complaining that they're too noisy.

「クリスチーナZ」15 - 河井克夫
"Christina Z", #15, by Katsuo Kawai

6 pages. (Katsuo co-wrote "Home Party".) Etchi chapter with three women sitting at a table at a cafe. The first two succumb to the tongue of the guy hiding under the table. The third gets up and walks away, causing the guy to come out and challenge her.

「JUKU」流星編6 - 清水おさむ
"JUKU" (meteor compilation #6), by Osamu Shimizu

20 pages. (Osamu's JUKU is available in collected format on Amazon. He's also listed in the production credits for one Naruto movie and 2 Bleach movies. Otherwise there's no real profile for him. The artwork here is pretty well-developed and highly-detailed.) Kind of a rambling tale that starts with someone like a yakuza boss riding in a car talking to an underling. Then wanders through ancient Egypt and the wars crimes of WW II. One recurring image is a big boil on the back of someone's neck.

「恋の魔法-東京ルリ子-」 - 百田千峰
"Tender Passion Witch - Tokyo Ruriko", by Chiho Momota

10 pages. (This story is kind of similar to that by Chiho Murata in vol. 21. There's no real info for her, but she does have at least one book on Amazon, and the above link goes to her blog. The artwork is very light and airy; very shojo-ish.) A girl in a headscarf working at a coffee shop goes out to get some perfume capable of causing a specific boyfriend to be more attracted to one of the female patrons. After much trouble, she gets the perfume, secretly puts it on the customer, and the customer's boyfriend falls in love with her. The story ends with the coffee shop girl pleased at having played cupid.

「青春うるはし！うるし部」ドクターE・D編4 - 堀道広
"Aoharu Uruhashi! Urushi-Group", Doctor E-D #4, by Michihiro Hori

10 pages. A school punk fights in a tournament against a big guy with a phallic neck. After neither of them scores a direct hit, the big guy pulls out a Buddhist shrine and reaches into a hidden cabinet to pull out a secret weapon. To be continued.

「屋上哀歌」- 川崎タカオ
"Rooftop Elegy", by Takao Kawasaki

10 pages. This is one of the stories appearing in the AX Anthology, vol. 1. A dying assassin up on the roof of a building to make a hit encounters a suicidal salary worker contemplating jumping off the ledge. The two get to talking and the hitman asks the worker to shoot him so he can take the elegant way out. After the worker kills the assassin with the guy's pistol, a second shooter on another rooftop puts a bullet through his head. The second shooter radios in that he's made the hit but that the target doesn't quite match the photo. Since there's no one else visible on the other roof, the sniper decides that he's shot the right person.

「四番目の男」9 - 古泉智浩
"Man #4", #9, by Tomohiro Koizumi

8 pages. (Tomohiro wrote "Cherry Boys".) A fairly ugly group of people meeting in a warehouse go out to the woods when a meteor streaks through the sky and slams into the ground. The group discovers a a capsule that looks like a big beer keg, and a creature in catsuit pajamas climbs out.

「新・中学生日記」 - Q.B.B.
"New Junior High School Diary", by Q.B.B.

8 pages. (Not a lot of direct information on Q.B.B. One site gives the initials as being "Qusumi Brothers Band". The subcaption on the title page of this manga says Q.B.B. is "kusotare, bakatare, buutare" (shit, stupid, fart). Otherwise, Q.B.B. does have several books on Amazon, and he (they) won the 1999 Bungeishunju Manga Award for this specific manga title. Basically just a bunch of badly drawn 4-panel gags about high school students.

「MOTHER COSMOS」9 - 杉山実
"Mother Cosmos", #9, by Minoru Sugiyama

16 pages. (Minoru is credited as a stage designer on one game, and had appeared at Creator's World 2010 according to ANN. According to the Japanese wiki there's a chance he's related to soccer player Makoto Sugiyama, although this may be the case of two people with the same name.) One chapter in the ongoing SF saga pitting a mysterious power called "cosmos" against a big guy in a huge wheelbarrow. The resulting battle consists of the wheelbarrow guy's army shooting laser rifles against some gigantic blob monsters.

「空の巻き貝」4 -逆柱いみり
"Sky Snail", #4, by Imiri Sakabashira

8 pages. (Imiri's "The Box Man" has been translated by Drawn and Quarterly.) Surreal gag strip that wanders from discussions of insects to a battle between a man made up of fish versus cat people.

「さかあがり」 - 衿沢世衣子
"Forward Roll-up", by Seiko Erisawa.

4 pages. (The title is the name of a move that comes from gymnastics. There's little on Seiko in English, while the Japanese wiki lists several titles to her name. The link given for her website doesn't do much other than redirect you to her blog.) A boy out playing on the playgrounds does a roll over a metal bar, causing all of his change to fall out of his pockets. A female classmate out talking with him scoops up the money and notices that there's also a small piece of colored glass used to play a game similar to tiddlywinks. The boy explains that it's a memento. When he was much younger, he'd accidentally swallowed it and had to be taken to the doctor. It had passed out naturally, so he kept it. The girl tries to run away with it and the boy chases her.

「菅原家」5 - 英之助
"Sugewara Household", #5, by Einosuke

10 pages. (Ok, it's really hard to find info on someone that's just going by a common first name. I'm not even going to bother trying. If you have a link for this guy, please pass it on to me.) A young boy and his old father are out playing catch in the park and the boy hits the man in the face with the ball. The father sits down next to an old woman who offers a blackened banana for him to eat. Nearby, a constipated dog attempts to take a dump.

「スイッチ」 - うらどめとどめ
"Switch", by Uradometodome

8 pages. (No real info on Ura, either.) A girl notices that her little toe on her right foot is missing, and that a string is sticking out of the hole of her hollow foot. She finds the toe in a corner of the room, but when she puts it back on, it acts like a switch to eject the rest of her toes. Now there are 4 more pieces of string sticking out. She pulls the string and gets buried under the giant roll that forms in her room. (This is a retelling of the ghost story of the girl with a thread sticking out of the earring pierce in her earlobe.)

「お茶っぴきババアのバー。」 - 東陽片岡
"Old Woman's Bar", by Kataoka Touyou

4 pages. (Touyou also wrote "That Guy Listened to the Springtime of My Youth".) An old woman argues with some customers in her bar. Nothing much interesting happens.

「お年頃」 - 齋藤裕之介
"About that Age", by Younosuke Saitou

7 pages. (Nothing on Saitou in English. His blog has a profile on him, and he does have some works published.) Two tiny teenagers, one male and one female, find themselves climbing on the huge body of a naked man in a game of tag. The girl explores around the pubic parts, unable to find her opponent. When the boy announces himself on the other side of the naked guy's hip, the girl runs after him.

「ボーリング」 - 田中六大
"Bowling", by Rokudai Tanaka

16 pages. (Not a lot to work with here, just a link to his blog.) Two children and a humanoid dog are sitting on a bench waiting for a man to arrive. The guy is late, but he does show up, and he suggests that they go bowling. While the lanes are supposed to be near by, it takes several hours of walking out into the countryside before they finally find a pin on the ground. A few minutes later they locate a bowling alley, but it's not open yet. They find a ball on the ground and following the scent they locate another alley. Unfortunately, it's closed for the day. The dog leans against the wall and discovers a secret passage leading deep into the ground where lots of people are mingling around. The group orders some udon, and then asks the restaurant owner if there is a bowling alley they can go to. The owner points them a little farther underground, where they reach a huge building that says "bowling alley". "Closed today."

「群青色の舗道の上で」 - 春礼六
"Above the Ultramarine Pavement", by Roku Harurei (?)

6 pages (I can't get any kind of pronunciation for this name, sorry. He/she appeared in the Nov., 1994, issue of Garo with "Angelica".) Essentially this is an impressionist piece with the goddess of life giving rise to insects, stars and bluegrass jazz.

「ロボとピュー太」7 - 南伸坊
"Robo and Puter", #7, by Shinbou Minami

4 pages. (The Japanese wiki has a long list of Minami's works. There's almost nothing on him in English, though.) A father is lying in the living room reading a book and farting. His son asks why they fart after eating persimmons, and the man answers "various reasons". Then the boy asks why his mother isn't there anymore. The end.

「精G」11 - ひさうちみちお
"Spirit G", #11, by Michio Hisauchi

8 pages. (Michio has a number of movies to his credit, but there's no bio info on him in the film databases. He's listed in the Japanese wiki as a manga artist, illustrator and essayist.) An old couple sit around and complain at each other. To be continued.

The back section is again "Rack Focus", #29, this time by CSP. It's nothing more than 2 pages of badly drawn porn, with a businessman and businesswoman seducing each other. Ignorable.

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Summary: Well, the idea of buying these two AX issues was to read them over and give them a fair try. Having done so, I have to say that I'm going to go back and continue focusing primarily on Garo. I hope that AX has a good run and picks up a few more readers now that the English anthology is out, by I'm not going to spend money on it. In this issue, Toranosuke, Osamu Shimizu, Takao Kawasaki and Rokudai Tanaka show promise, so these are the four that I'd recommend people to follow in the future, just in case.

AX - Alternative Manga, vol. 21

2010-10-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

For those of you that don't read my ThreeStepsOverJapan blog, I'm going to repeat my coverage of AX, vol. 21, here.

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AX, vol. 21
The Taro Okamoto Special, 2001
272 pages
933 yen

Okamoto (1911-1996) was a famed surrealist artist in the 50's and 60's. One of his sculptures was a central piece of the 1970 Osaka Expo, which also showed up in Twentieth Century Boys. Vol. 21 starts out with a small insert poster of Taro, a gag panel based on his "Tower of the Sun", a 2-page write-up on him, and an 8-page interview with Taro's partner, Toshiko Okamoto. There's 5 more pages of stuff dedicated to Taro, then the regular manga.

「双子のオヤジ」21 - しりあがり寿
"Old Man Twins", #21, by Kotobuki Shiriagari

6 pages. One of the old twins is reading the paper and noticing how the world is becoming stupid. To become dumber faster than anyone else, he hits his head on the wall. The other brother comes up and they have a race. After bashing their heads they can't remember each other's names any more.

「チェリーボーイズ」7 -古泉智浩
"Cherry Boys", #7, by Tomohiro Koizumi

24 pages. This is a continuation of an earlier story involving 4 guys - 1 in a neck brace who's spending his time in a bowling alley, and three friends out trying to fill up experiences for their "mission growing up" notebook. The three take turns spraying each other with mace, hitting themselves with a pipe and getting tasered. After trying road tricks with an inflatable traffic cop doll they encounter the guy in the neck brace out on the roads. They panic, drive too fast and almost slide off the road. With their car stalled, the one in the brace comes up and asks if they're ok. Since they hadn't talked to anyone else about their previous fight he's going to leave them alone.

「ツノ病」 - クリハラタカシ
"New Disease", by Takashi Kurihara

16 pages. A nonsense gag story about a young boy who is hit in the head by a spike. He goes to the doctor, who diagnoses him as having "horn disease". The horn now on his head will fade away on its own. Outside, he taps the horn with his hand and it rapidly elongates until hitting something. He's pulled along with it to a mirror Earth. Everything looks the same, and he even sees himself walking his dog. He gets tired and prepares to return home. But, when he touches the horn again, it accidentally runs into a bird. The horn disappears, trapping the surprised boy on the mirror Earth, and the bird flies away with a new horn on its head.

「マンホールの謎」 - 後藤友香
"Puzzle of the Manhole", by Yuka Gotou

34 pages. This is a fairly innocuous, poorly drawn adventure of Anita, a school girl who one day spies another girl burying fish along a river. Anita tries following the stranger, who disappears down a manhole ladder. Anita then encounters the stranger's older sister who has been living in the sewers, trying to track down and capture the fish mangler. Together with another friend at school, Anita and the sewer woman succeed in catching the fish mangler, who turns out to have escaped from a nearby hospital. End of story.

「メカ野良人」 - 花くまゆうさく
"Mecha Farmer", by Yuusaku Hamakuma

4 page gag strip by the creator of Tokyo Zombies. Afro man encounters a Kappa who tries to follow him. Afro has no need for old-era creatures and tries to shake the Kappa off. Suddenly, the Kappa is thrown through the air by mecha farmer (most notable for the strap-on that proceeds him everywhere). Afro wonders who made mecha-farmer - American soldiers or aliens. To be continued.

「ヨダレくんの尊い命」 - 本秀康
"Yodare-kun's Precious Life", by Yasu Motohide

4 page gag strip. Nonsense bit with a fat idiot kid named Yodare, who jumps from a roof thinking that his mecha mattress will fold out and save him. It doesn't. His girl friend tells him that his life is sacred so it's good he didn't die.

「ホーム・パーティ」 - 河井克夫+ムロフシカエ
"Home Party", by Katsuo Kawai and Kae Murofushi

8 pages. Youko is a young woman at a friend's party. She drinks too much and goes to the toilet to throw up. She then notices that there's salmon eggs floating in the toilet and it reminds her of her friend, Jun. The more she thinks of Jun, the sicker she gets and the more salmon eggs she vomits out. Eventually she realizes that the salmon eggs are tied to memories of Jun, and finally she remembers having killed him and sliced him up in the bathtub at home. She throws up one more time and forgets about Jun again.

「癒しの園」 - 村田千峰
"Healing Place", by Chiho Murata (?)

8 pages. This is kind of a shojo story with two women deciding to go to a public bath to help soothe the downhearted feelings one of them is suffering after being dumped by a boyfriend. After they're done, the one is feeling much better, and she runs into a nice man afterwards. The narration comments on how things work out when people live in apartments that don't have private baths.

「その医者…」 - 鷹羽正臣
"That Doctor", by Masaomi Takaha (?)

10 pages. Silly gag series about a doctor that has strange patients, where one of them has swallowed a gold fish. Nothing much resolved at the end.

「渋谷くるくる寿司」 - 松井雪子
"Shibuya Revolving Sushi", by Yukiko Matsui

20 pages. Ok, the artwork on this one is pretty high-grade, but the story is really hard to follow. Essentially, two young women living in a grotto that has syrup and dirty dishes showing up at strange times eventually make their way out to the surface world where they play in the flowers and encounter more plates, with a flashback to a counter at a revolving sushi restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo. Fair amount of topless nudity that is just slightly erotic, but not overly gratuitous.

「Bird book」 - 津川聡子
"Bird Book", by Satoko Tsugawa

5 pages. A girl reaches for a book on a shelf and starts to fall off her chair. The book turns into a bird, letting the girl catch it and then carrying her out for a flight around the house. Outside, a young man finds himself being pelted with letters falling from the book, and looks up to see the girl. The two fly off on the bird book together. I decided to scan all 4 pages of this one. The line art is really fine and it kind of doesn't scan well.

「ブルー・ギター」21 - 安斎肇
"Blue Guitar", #21, by Hajime Anzai

Just 4 pages of random pictures.

「釣り師の悩み」 - 西岡兄妹
"Angler's Anguish", by Kyoudai Nishioka

("Kyoudai" means "siblings". This is a brother-sister pair who have done both manga and picture books.)
22 pages. A young man goes out to the coast to fish, but it's too crowded. He comes back home, where the people disgust him. He eventually winds up at a water runoff ditch in town trying to catch whatever is in it.

「丸太の王エリクソン」 - 島田虎之介
"Log King Erickson", by Toranosuke Shimada

(Toranosuke won the 12th Tezuka Award for best newcomer for his "Traumerei". Otherwise, there's little information on him in English.)
20 pages. Two guys are out driving in the countryside and the driver drifts off in a daze. He semi-dreams about an alternate history of the U.S. where a viking helps create the country, with cameos by George Washington, Richard Nixon, Abraham Lincoln and JFK. The viking turns into a lumber jack, whose great skills lead to the U.S. as we know it now. Eventually the driver wakes up and they keep driving.

「探偵ハニー・サテン-2001-」 - 谷弘兒
"Detective Honey Satin, 2001", by Hiroji Tani

4 pages. This is a really well-drawn mini-story. A man comes into the office of Honey Satin, detective. He tells her that something important has been taken from him and he wants her to get it back. He'd been walking by an abandoned building and seen a beautiful naked woman lying on the ground inside. He went in to get a closer look and passed out. When he recovered, the woman said that she was punishing him for staring at her body so lewdly. He then lifts a patch over his left eye showing an empty socket. He asks Honey to get his eye back. Suddenly he notices her perfume and wonders where he'd encountered it before. He leaves and Honey pulls an eyeball out of her desk and kisses it.

「順風」6 三本美治
"Favorable Wind", #6, by Yoshiharu Mitsumoto

12 pages. Not much of a story. A guy decides to get away from his life and goes hitchhiking.

「オレの青春を聞けこの野郎!」東陽片岡
"That Guy Listened to the Springtime of My Youth", by Kataoka Touyou

4 pages. Two guys at a bar are talking about their favorite rock, including Pink Floyd and Grand Funk Railroad, and a third guy gets upset, being a fan of Japanese female singers. The two ignore him and keep talking.

「黒寿司十八番」番外篇9 根本敬
"Dark Sushi 18 - Extra Story 9", by Takashi Nemoto

(Nemoto first appeared in Garo in 1981 and was a regular after that. Considered to be an avant-garde artist.)
Basically 4 pages of strange images appearing above the head of someone lying in bed. Muddy and hard to make out individual details in any of the panels. The above panel is the best of the set.

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There's a good thirty pages of text and reviews as well. Some of the reviews are of etchi comics, a mention of the movie "Ghost World", and some discussions of music CDs and upcoming concerts. The last 2 pages are "Rack Focus", a montage of XXX film footage mashed up ala a National Lampoon magazine gag.

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Summary - There's really nothing here that stands out and says "read more of me!" "Honey Satin" isn't bad but it seems to be a one-shot. "Log King Erickson" shows some promise, and "Bird Book" is whimsical enough to do well in a children's picture book. Nothing that I'd want to spend money for to get the next issue of AX, though.

As with Garo, some of the artists here have made a name for themselves, and others never show up again. Some of the manga here would do all right in weekly Morning magazine or maybe monthly Afternoon.

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I guess I shouldn't be surprised at serendipity any more, either. There's a two page ad in this issue for a special manga exhibit at the Kawasaki City museum featuring Garo artists Kuniko Tsurita and Shouhei Kusonoki. The KCM has a good collection of past exhibit books, and that's where the "Shonen Sunday/Shonen Magazine DNA" exhibit had been held. It's about a 45-minute bike ride from my apartment, so I may try going there soon to see if they still have copies of this specific book.

Garo Feature #38

2010-10-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

For the May, '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Seiichi Hayashi's - Flower Poem
Satsu Hiroo's - Distant Memories

花の詩 (Flower Poem)

Another installment in the "Flower" series. Subtitled "花さく港" (Torn flower harbor). A woman living out in a fishing village with her young daughter has taken a lover from Tokyo. She hates Tokyo because all the men that come to the village give up and go back home eventually. But, he too decides to leave, and as he stands on the ship, the two of them hold a ribbon to show their bond with each other. The ship pulls out and the woman says "don't tear", but it does. The chapter ends with a song lyric about sad partings.

思えばとおく (Distant Memories)

This is a lyrical image piece that starts out with a young family - man, woman and a small child - playing in the woods in the snow in the winter. It switches to the man sitting on a cliff, thinking. From here, it's a collage of images of the man and woman, birds and flowers, metamorphosing from sea waves to clouds and back. In with all this are tight little blocks of text of various ruminations. The story ends with a bird looking forlornly from the cliff, and the family back in the woods.

Garo Feature #37

2010-09-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

For the Apr., '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Yuu Takita's - Tamanoi Neighborhood House

玉の井界隈○番地 (Tamanoi Neighborhood House)

Part of the Terajima Series.This is one of the Terajima stories, although Kiyoshi and his family don't really factor into it much. A street walker unsuccessfully tries to drum up business, then gives up for the night. As she's settling in her apartment, one of the customers runs up to say that one of the other girls is in pain.After a certain amount of dithering, the girl is taken to a doctor where she's diagnosed with a burst appendix. Very few of Kiyoshi's family understands what it means to have an appendix removed, and in an attempt to come to grips with this, Kiyoshi pretends to operate on Tama. Eventually, the story returns to the first street walker, who is in her room alone again, wishing that she had someone to take care of her.

Garo Feature #36

2010-09-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

For the Apr., '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Takao Takahashi's - Lingering Song
Shigeru Mizuki's - Kitaro Night Stories

長持唄考 (Lingering Song)

"唄" is "song", and "考" is "thoughts" or "report on". There's no direct translation in my dictionary for the two kanji combined. I'm using "Lingering Song" as a working title for the moment.

A middle aged man is walking through modern day Japan, looking at the fashionable young women out shopping and enjoying themselves. He suddenly flashes back to a court case where a woman is under trial. We then flash back to the events regarding the woman, and it looks like we've jumped back to old Edo (or at least to a very rural village that hadn't been modernized yet). The woman was at home, tending to her young daughter, when the rice kettle exploded and burned half the girl's face. This destroys the woman's sanity, but she spends the next few years caring for the girl. The girl grows up to be very cheerful, and at about age 7 or 9, happens upon a traditional Japanese wedding. The girl dreams of getting married, but the mother discovers her in the crowd and drags the girl out to a temple in the woods. As the woman works up her courage, the girl realizes that something's wrong and runs away. The mother chases after her and eventually kills the girl, supposedly as a way of saving her from the grief of becoming an unweddable adult. After the fact, the mother breaks down and cries over the girl's body. The scene switches to the modern court room, where the woman is also crying. The scene returns again to the man on the street, who is still looking at the people around him, and telling himself that he doesn't understand what the woman had been thinking.

鬼太郎夜話 (Kitaro Night Stories) #22

This is marked as the last chapter of the series. The duke sees Kitaro's hair and shoots at it. The hair escapes, but there's a trail of blood indicating that it's been hit. The duke finds the note the hair had written, but is more surprised that hair can write kanji than at the message telling them to leave the house. That night, as the duke is sleeping, the hair crawls down from the ceiling and suffocates him. It gets a knife and cuts the rope holding the fridge closed and lets Kitaro out. The hair then chases after Nezumi Otoko, who runs out into a field and collapses. When he recovers, Nezumi goes back into the house, where he finds Kitaro and his eyeball father taking a nice warm bath (the fridge had been very cold). Nezumi sees the dead duke (identified again as the werewolf) and is offended at overhearing Kitaro and his father joking that Nezumi may also have been killed. Nezumi enters the kitchen, and Kitaro reminds him that he'd been the one that initially tried to kill Kitaro. Nezumi excuses himself, saying that he'd just wanted to find a place to live. Kitaro leaves the house, saying that Nezumi can have this place. Nezumi asks where Kitaro is going, and the boy says "some place you don't know".

This is marked as the last chapter of the series. The duke sees Kitaro's hair and shoots at it. The hair escapes, but there's a trail of blood indicating that it's been hit. The duke finds the note the hair had written, but is more surprised that hair can write kanji than at the message telling them to leave the house. That night, as the duke is sleeping, the hair crawls down from the ceiling and suffocates him. It gets a knife and cuts the rope holding the fridge closed and lets Kitaro out. The hair then chases after Nezumi Otoko, who runs out into a field and collapses. When he recovers, Nezumi goes back into the house, where he finds Kitaro and his eyeball father taking a nice warm bath (the fridge had been very cold). Nezumi sees the dead duke (identified again as the werewolf) and is offended at overhearing Kitaro and his father joking that Nezumi may also have been killed. Nezumi enters the kitchen, and Kitaro reminds him that he'd been the one that initially tried to kill Kitaro. Nezumi excuses himself, saying that he'd just wanted to find a place to live. Kitaro leaves the house, saying that Nezumi can have this place. Nezumi asks where Kitaro is going, and the boy says "some place you don't know".

Garo Feature #35

2010-09-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

For the Mar., '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Haruo Koyama & Haruko Ri's - Oyuki
Kuniko Tsurita's - Sound

おゆき (Oyuki)

Oyuki is a young girl living alone outside one of the villages. When she comes into the village one day, asking if anyone knows about a baby that had been left at a shrine some years ago, the villagers call her the god of death and attack her to chase her out. One of the older villagers soon dies afterwards and they all say that this is obviously Oyuki's fault. She tries approaching another village and the same thing happens. Later, Oyuki sees a little girl playing with a ball along the seashore, and the ball gets caught by the waves. To protect the girl, Oyuki runs out into the water, but gets trapped by the undercurrent. The little girl's brother comes along and saves her. Next, some samurai enter the village and demand more rice for tribute to the local lord. The villagers have nothing left to give and some of them are killed as they protest. They see Oyuki watching from up in the hills and they blame her for all of this. They throw rocks at her and she falls from the hill and dies. The little girl's brother tried to stop the villagers, and he's the one that finds that Oyuki had been holding a note that implies that she was the abandoned child, and had originally just been a villager like them, but was cast out because of the actions of the samurai. The villagers turn on the samurai and chase them away. The scene changes. An old man is telling a young woman the story of what had happened at this spot a few hundred years ago. As the woman gets up to leave, she takes off her sunglasses, revealing a slightly older version of Oyuki.

音 (Sound)

A young man wakes up one morning to find himself without a body, and someone else sitting in his bed. The interloper drinks his best wine and eats his favorite rice crackers, and the main character yells that he's doing it wrong and corrects him. The interloper laughs that the main character has no hands for doing all this himself and then he goes outside. The main character stays in his room, unable to leave, surrounded by the ticking of his alarm clock.

AX

2010-09-10T14:46:00.001-07:00

I was surprised the other day to discover that the English weekly rag in Tokyo, Metropolis, actually had a feature article on something manga related. Now that Galbraith is gone, the Pop Life section went from being bi-weekly to non-existent. The Met never really did seem to like covering anime or manga, and a number of readers complained when Galbraith made Pop Life bi-weekly at the beginning, saying that they couldn't care less.

But now, the cover story is on the release of an English edition anthology of Ax magazine stories. If you know Garo magazine (and if you've visited this blog before, I'd like to hope that you at least know the name) then you know that it was the big "alternative" manga outlet in the 60's and 70's. It triggered the publication of COM, Osamu Tezuka's competing magazine, and ultimately led to the start of Ax. Garo and COM are now long gone, but Ax is still running. It doesn't have much of a print run, and I've never been able to find a place that carries it (not even Mandarake has back issues).

At best, the images reprinted in the Met article compare to the bottom of the barrel of what had been in Garo from the period that I've covered so far, and the review of the anthology fails to move me to buy a copy. There is an aesthetic to "manga" that non-Japanese just can not replicate, and that untrained Japanese artists miss more often than they hit. It's great that a publication like Ax exists, to give an outlet to artists that can't appear in the mainstream monthlies. But there's a reason why Ax's print run is so low.

What's really needed is an editor of Katsuichi Nagai's sensibilities, who can guide new artists into a vein that would resemble Garo Mark II. In the meantime, I'd just settle for D&Q releasing some Garo anthologies.

Garo Feature #34

2010-09-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

For the Feb., '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Maki Sasaki's - Sad Tree (?)
Ryouichi Ikegami's - Electric Artificial Arm

かなしいまっくす (Sad Tree (?))

More surrealism that doesn't really say anything. Interestingly, though, the last panel of this manga is a modified photo of a jazz trumpeter, which plays right into the next manga, by Ikegami.

電動式義手 (Electric Artificial Arm)

A young man with an artificial right arm is playing jazz trumpet in his room. His landlady comes in to complain that she doesn't like jazz. Although she can understand his situation, his playing trumpet from morning til night has been irritating the neighbors and affecting those that work nights or are trying to study for exams. The woman looks at the doorway where a pair of woman's shoes have been set next to the door, and she comments that she knows there's a girl hiding in the room. The landlady leaves, and her daughter, a university student, is shown standing behind the door. The girl opens the curtains and remarks how it's so strange, with the drapes closed, that you can't tell that there's a huge factory so close by spewing out clouds of pollution. She hates this place and wants to leave. Later, she goes to her own apartment, where her mother the landlady asks how her studies are going.

The boy goes into a flashback. He was an aspiring jazz player, a member of a good band. As he was crossing over a bridge, the driver of an oncoming car lost control and swerved right at him. The car stopped short, but he'd fallen over the railing onto the tracks of an oncoming train. A few months later, the driver confronts the boy, profusely apologizing for the accident, and mentioning that he's a design engineer for a prosthetics company and he wants the boy to be the first one to use their new artificial electronic arm. It'd be just like his own. The boy then practices using the arm for 2 years leading up to a big live performance of his band at a night club. The engineer has been given a personal invitation, but that day he spends his time drinking at a bar, unable to get his courage up. The engineer is convinced that the arm was a poor first attempt. That night, the boy goes into a rage, trashing the stage. The other members try to calm him down, but give up and return to their hotel. The boy staggers out into the middle of the street, where the engineer sees him as he drives up. The engineer apologizes again, saying that his claim that the arm would be good enough was just his way of assuaging his guilt. The boy claims that the arm is perfect, when it suddenly grabs the engineer by the throat under its own accord and starts choking him. The engineer wheezes out to cut the power, but it's too late.

At the end, the engineer is lying on the ground, the detached arm still squeezing tightly. The boy wanders over to the factory district where the girl finds him. Initially she's overjoyed to see him, but then notices his empty sleeve. The boy says that he'll go to the police, and then try to get a better arm. The girl looks at the factory in the background and says that it's too scary being here.

Garo Feature #33

2010-08-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

For the Jan., '69 issue, I'm highlighting:

Manabu Ohyama's - Accident
Tadao Tsuge's - Longing Melody

遭難 (Accident)

A blond westerner, presumably an American in Japan from the fighting in Vietnam, wakes up in some guy's car. He'd been out drinking the night before and had passed out. The driver had jacked the car and they're now having a joyride. The blond panics, wondering what will happen if they get caught. Soon after, they encounter a traffic stop, and the Japanese cop calls over his superior to help with the language barrier. The driver laughs and floors the pedal, tearing away from the stop. Suddenly, a bike rider pulls in front of the car, and the driver hits him before plowing into a tree. The blond exits the car, sees the accident victim struggling to get to his feet, takes the driver's gun and has a flashback. He was a greenhorn in a patrol in 'nam when they got ambushed. He was trapped out in the open and his buddies tried to reach him from their foxhole. A sniper above them in a tree picked off the rest of the patrol until some other soldiers arrived and took the sniper out. Back in the present, the blond shoots the cyclist 4 times in the chest. The driver recovers and the two of them run away from the scene.

懐かしのメロディ (Longing Melody)

This looks like another autobiographical tale with Yoshiharu's younger brother, Tadao, sitting at a bar while an old man reminisces about a friend of his, Sabu, back during the days of the university unrest. Sabu had lived in a rundown shack along with a prostitute. His only rule for her was that she not sleep with foreigners. At the time, some local punks were terrorizing the neighborhood, and Sabu took it on himself to chase them out. At one point, three of them gang up on him and beat him up pretty badly. Realizing that he couldn't take them on all at one time, Sabu disappeared. Rumor was it that he was slowly eliminating the punks one by one. Eventually, he does surface again, missing his right eye and looking much meaner. Unfortunately, he runs into the prostitute, who is in the company of an American serviceman. Sabu snaps and tries to kill the guy, while the girl yells that he has the wrong idea. A crowd gathers to watch the American get pummeled, then they start wondering if Sabu is really going to kill him. Finally, some police arrive and they catch the girl. She yells at Sabu to run and never come back. He bolts. Back in the bar, Tadao and the old man have gotten very drunk, and Tadao staggers off home. He turns back to ask if Sabu was ever seen after that and the old man says he doesn't know, but isn't it better this way? Tadao laughs and agrees with him, leaving the bar as the old man sits there looking pensive.

Garo Feature - Kamui Special Issue

2010-08-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

For the Jan, '67 issue, I'm highlighting:

Sampei Shirato's - Kamui-den

カムイ伝 (Kamui-den) #1

It is the year that our story is set in, and nature is in full bloom. In the mountains and along the streams, weasels eat mice, hawks eat weasels, birds knock seeds from the trees that are eaten by deer, and the deer get eaten by bears. One rabbit gets hit and killed by a stick thrown by Mountain Man (a big, hairy, dirty sasquatch-like guy with little vocal ability). Mountain Man holds up the dead rabbit and says "kamui" before shuffling off. In Hanamaki Village near the base of the hills, work proceeds on harvesting rice, when the village headman comes up looking for Danzuri, one of the villagers who's carrying in rice stalks for processing. The headman asks a small boy - Shousuke - where his father, Danzuri is. Danzuri is found and requested to represent the village for something coming up.

At the main castle, the feudal lord and a number of ranking samurai are riding horses in the courtyard, shooting arrows at dogs for archery practice. They kill the last of the dogs, and the lord orders a vassal, Yokome, to find more. He and the dog handler go into the seedier part of the village where the vagrants live, and the handler is forced to take his family's pet Akita back to the castle for the practice. Yokome notices an ugly-looking creature in a cage, and ignores the handler's protests. They bring the two animals with them. In the courtyard, the Akita just sits there obediently as the archers turn it into a pincushion. The handler cries silently, while the retainers complain that that was really boring. The lord demands that a brute with real fight in him be brought out. Yokome drags out the second animal, which turns out to be a grizzled, wounded wolf. When the first arrow flies at him, the wolf springs, killing several retainers before escaping back to the mountains. The feudal lord is shaken, not having wanted something with quite that much fight in them.

Danzuri is next seen running into the village, establishing Hanamki as the town with the fastest runner for another year in a row. To celebrate, the headsman invites all his friends and lower-level samurai to a banquet. Danzuri, being a mere villager is relegated to the stables, where a servant gives him and a couple other villagers a stack of rice cakes and a jug of sake. Shousuke protests this treatment, but this is just one more example of the kind of class-level behavior that he'll have to learn to live with. One topic of conversation that comes up between the villagers is that Danzuri had seen Kichibee hiding out in the woods, and the other two go silent. Shousuke asks what a Kichibee is, and his father tells him that there had been an insurrection against the samurai 3 years earlier, and Kichibee was its main leader - there's a death sentence on his head, and the villagers hope that he'll remain free.

In one of the samurai houses, Ikkaku is the head of a kendo dojo, where he teaches his sponsor's son, Ryounoshin, the art of sword fighting. At the end of one bout, Ikkaku tells the boy's father that Ryounoshin shows some promise. After the two leave, Ikkaku starts nursing the huge bruise on his ribs that the boy just gave him. Nearby, Shibutare goes to one samurai retainer and tells him that Kichibee has been spotted in the woods. Shibutare is a professional snitch, and this tale nets him a few coins. When he, and the retainer's messenger, leave the household gates, Yokome, who is spying nearby, figures that something is up. The feudal lord is told that Kichibee is still alive, and the order is issued to have him captured. The villagers are told to do the grunt work, but they don't try very hard. Yokome then suggests that the vagrants be enlisted to sweep of the woods. Kichibee is quickly hunted down and imprisoned. The villagers accuse the vagrants of being murderers.

At Ikkaku's dojo, there's a disturbance. A swordsman, Ukon Mizunazuki, is issuing a challenge to see if the dojos, which teach using wooden swords, can really compete against seasoned samurai with battle experience. Ikkaku accepts the challenge and gets thoroughly defeated. When Ukon goes outside, he's challenged by Yokome, who uses a chain and sickle attack. Ukon gets faked out by the chain, and the sickle bites deep into his right ankle. As Yokome drags him in on the chain for the finishing blow, Ukon cuts off his own foot and escapes, screaming in pain.

Finally, out in the mountains, life goes on, with the various animals preying on each other. With one exception. An old wolf lies in a cave, waiting for his arrow wounds to heal. Days pass, and when he can move again, he starts taking out deer with one bite to the neck, and eats only the best parts, leaving the rest of the carcass to the scavengers. He climbs up a hill and calls out to his old pack, which soon gathers up. Winter comes, then turns to Spring. The day of Kichibee's execution arrives and the villagers press up against the barricades to watch in protest. The vagrants are ordered to raise up the wooden cross that Kichibee is tied to, and they're the ones that have to run spears through the man's body to kill him. During this, Kichibee remains silent. Afterward, one of the vagrants that had been handling the spears, Yasuke, sits in the storeroom, thinking that Kichibee had been a great man. Yokome finds him and orders him out. As Yasuke returns home, he's pelted by rocks by villagers that call him a killer. Back at the vagrant village, Yasuke is told to hurry, his wife has just given birth to a son. The man stands there with the infant in his hands, wondering what this world needs with one more vagrant. While, up in the mountains, a female wolf has given birth to a new litter, including one rare white pup.

Garo Feature #32

2010-08-15T19:29:00.001-07:00

For the Dec., '68 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shinji Nagashima's - Furuyanomori
Tadao Tsuge's - Vincent Van Gogh on the Hill

ふるやのもり (Furuyanomori)

(#3 in the Folktale Series.) A rather clumsy ninja rushes to a farm where he's been hired to protect the family's horse from a wolf. Said wolf then approaches and enters the house and crouches next to the horse, ready to attack. The family consists of an old woman, her husband and a young boy. The boy asks his grandmother what the world's scariest thing is, and she answers "a ninja", which gets the ninja very excited. The grandfather agrees that ninjas are scary, but what about wolves? The ninja goes into a panic at the idea of a wolf being near by, and the wolf becomes very happy. The grandmother agrees that wolves are also scary, but what about "Furuyanomori"? (furuya is an old house or cabin, and "mori" is a forest, so the impression is something that lives in a old cabin in the woods). At this everyone in the house gets shivers and agrees that furuyanomori are scary. Just then, some water leaks through the roof onto everyone's necks and they all go yelling "furuyanomori, furuyanomori". The ninja falls from his perch and lands on the wolf, who goes screaming out of the house thinking that the furuyanomori has caught him. The wolf tears into the woods, knocking the ninja off into a hollow tree. Deeper in the woods, the wolf encounters a baboon and some other animals and warns them of the approaching threat. The baboon promises to protect them all and they go to the tree where the "furuyanomori" was last seen. The baboon lowers its long tail into the hollow of the tree, just as the ninja recovers from his concussion. He grabs the tail and tries to climb out. The baboon panics and tries to bolt, ripping his tail off. The narrator then explains that this is why, to this day, Japanese baboons have short tails, and that their faces and buttocks have turned bright red out of shame. Finally, back at the house, the boy starts asking "grandma, what's the world's..."

丘の上でヴィンセント。ヴァン。ゴッホは (Vincent Van Gogh on the Hill)

A part-time factory worker/university student spends his days at work, and his nights learning to paint just like Van Gogh. He talks to the reader about Van Gogh's life, and wonders what had happened to make him paint so many self-portraits. A co-worker drops by with some grilled chicken and sake and they revel through the night, leaving the worker exhausted the next day. This is the time of the U.S. war in Vietnam, student unrest in Japan, and union strikes. The factory is trying to keep the workers happy, but it's not working. The artist buys some grilled chicken to share with his friend, but then discovers his friend in the company of two university students that are planning on trying to rescue another student demonstrator that had been arrested earlier. The friend decides to go with the other two, and the artist returns back home to his paintings.

Garo, first 10 years exhibit.

2010-08-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

There was an exhibit on the first 10 years of Garo magazine held in New York a couple of months ago. I was hoping that someone that had attended it would make a mention of it here, but that hasn't happened. Fortunately I did find a review of the exhibit at the Drawn and Quarterly blog site. Check it out.

Garo Feature #31

2010-08-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

For the November, '68 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shinji Nagashima's - Old Monkey-Crab Days
Seiichi Hayashi's - Rose Crest
Yuu Takita's - A Woman's World

さるかに昔 (Old Monkey-Crab Days)

Long ago there was a crab scuttling along the beach, doing his daily chores. One day, he found a persimmon seed, so he planted it, and tended it until years later it had grown tall and borne its first fruit. Unfortunately, the tree's trunk was too slippery for the crab to climb it, so he asked a passing monkey to go up into the tree and toss down one of the persimmons. The monkey instead decided to eat all of the fruit itself, telling the crab to make do with the discarded pits. The crab pleaded with the monkey for just one fruit, and in disgust the monkey hurled a persimmon at him, killing the crab. However, a hundred tiny crabs came to life from the now empty shell, and they grow up to carry on the old one's work. Eventually, the monkey kills another one of them and they decide to get revenge. On their way to the monkey's house, they pick up allies, including a thorny seed, a cow patty, a large pot and a bee. Working together they ambush the monkey and then crush him under the pot. The survivors live happily ever after.

It looks like Shinji has forgone his "Shinji Gekiga Collection" to start up a new series retelling various old folk tales. This is #2 in his new "Dansan" series.

花の紋章 (Rose Crest) #2

Seiichi is departing from his bizarre satirical works involving gorillas, frogs and wizards and moving into the realm of gangsters. Two young boys have decided to sneak out to a shack on the outskirts of town, where a woman is rumored to be sleeping with some guy, and they can watch through the windows. The guy is a famed gangster, who spends most of his time beating up punks and reminiscing about a beautiful woman, while the narrative text is drawn to look like an overblown movie poster, or the lyrics of an enka song.

彼女の世界 (A Woman's World)

A secretary sitting at her desk, powdering her nose, sees a discount coupon for a department store fly by the window and land on the ledge outside. She goes out on the ledge to pick it up when her boss happens by and thinks that she's been having a bad love life and is about to jump. The fire department, the police and ambulances are called. Crowds gather to watch, with a few guys taking advantage of the situation to look up women's dresses. She falls. Her boss is next seen watching TV and laughing. She wakes up at her desk, takes the coupon out of her purse and tears it up before returning to powdering her nose.

TSOJ Garo Index update

2010-08-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's time to update the Garo index for the manga titles and artists that I have read issues for. My version of the index is getting pretty impressive, if I do say so myself, even though it only covers a three year span (July '66 - June '69).

We've got some big names here, with the latest being the creator of "Sampei the Fisherman". Check it out and let me know if you find any errors.

Garo Feature #27

2010-08-01T19:46:00.001-07:00

For the August, '68 issue, I'm highlighting:

Yoshiko Naono's - Experiment
Susumu Katsumata's - Katsumata's Creation Collection

実験 (Experiment)

A group of young adults are led to a reinforced room and one of them locks the group inside, saying that he'll be back to let them out in 200 hours. Initially, the group thinks that they'll be able to do this easily. But the sink in the room only supplies sludge, and the group quickly runs out of food and water. They all crack and get on each other's nerves after a while. No one has a watch and they lose track of time. Then, they hear some sounds coming in from one wall and yell to be let out. On the other side of the wall, the one with the door key is happily listening to loud music in a bar.

勝又進作品集 (Katsumata's Creation Collection) #26

3- and 4-panel gag strips. It's time to show off a little more of Katsumata's works.

On finding Garo

2010-07-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

It's not exactly easy, trying to find old Garo magazine back issues. While some collectors may be trying to sell individual issues from the auction sites, the prices they're asking will be pretty high. So far, the only store that I've found that carries back issues at all reliably is Mandarake. There are three Mandarake locations in Tokyo - the Complex in Akihabara, the sprawling set of shops in the Broadway department building in Nakano, and the huge basement store in Shibuya. There are another 4 or 5 shops scattered around the rest of Japan, but they're expensive to visit from Tokyo, and the stores don't have a policy of shipping requests between cities (that I can tell).

The Akihabara shop has the biggest selection of Garo issues, but there are holes. Also, they only put out one copy of each issue on the shelves at a time. If someone else is buying Garo at the same time you are, there's going to be a fight over who gets what. The Nakano shop has maybe 1/3 of what Akihabara has, and Shibuya has maybe 20 issues total (compare that to the 12 issues x roughly 30 years that were actually published).

A couple of weeks ago, I went to each of the shops in Tokyo, and I asked the clerks if they had more copies of the issues I was missing on a back shelf somewhere, and was told "no, what we have is what's out on the floor right now" at each place. Given that the magazine's not in circulation any more, it's not like the store can just order up more copies when they want. If a specific number is out of stock, you have to wait until a collector decides to sell off their magazines to Mandarake before you can find the number you want. On the other hand, there was something I'd noticed before, and I wanted to try an experiment.

The Japanese store clerks hate having shelves that look messy. And Mandarake has a huge warehouse somewhere that holds the vast number of used books they buy back every day. So, I started buying up 3 and 4 issues every time I visited, which left large gaps on the shelf over a couple of weeks. Finally, it worked - someone somewhere got fed up with the way the shelf looked and a good 30 issues of the magazine magically appeared to plug up all the holes. I was able to get two of the issues I was missing this way. Unfortunately, I'm still missing 5 issues in the range I'm buying in right now, but with luck I may be able to find those eventually.

Why go on about this? Well, a little while ago, there was an exhibit at some museum in New York showing the first 10 years of Garo (if anyone went to that exhibit please let me know), and the guy that put it together had made the statement that it's really easy to buy Garo issues - just place an order online through the Mandarake website. The problem with that claim is that doing a search on Garo doesn't bring up many hits, and you're buying the magazine from a specific store, not from the warehouse. If a store only has one copy of a specific issue on the shelves, you're in competition with people like me for it. So, bottom line is that it's not all that easy to get Garo after all. If you really like a specific Garo artist, then contact Mandarake and buy compilation volumes of that artist's work directly.

Garo Feature #26

2010-07-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

For the July, '68 issue, I'm highlighting:

Tamehiro Tashiro's - Indian Treasure
Takako Harada's - The Petite Pooch

インドの宝 (Indian Treasure)

The creator of "Mysterious Ball" and "Space Event" is back. A man out drifting on the ocean on a raft encounters a guy from India stranded on an island. The Indian jumps on the raft, and eats half of the guy's food. The guy has a map to a great Indian treasure, which the Indian tries to take. At some point, the Indian talks the guy into diving into the ocean with him, and the guy discovers that the treasure is actually the sunrise as seen from under the water.

The Petit プチ (The Petite Pooch)

A young girl finds a stray puppy and takes it to school, where the other kids fall in love with it but the teacher objects to having pets in class. She brings it home, and her mother drop kicks it out of the house, making the girl hate her mother. The puppy disappears for a while. Eventually, she finds it again, but when she approaches, it runs away. As she chases after it, the puppy slowly starts treating this all as a game. The girl keeps talking about how she loves the dog. But then it runs into the street and gets hit by a car. The girl hates the dog for bleeding on her hands, which then marks the point where she turns into a grown-up.

Garo Feature #24

2010-07-18T19:17:00.001-07:00

For the June, '68 issue, I'm highlighting:

Seiichi Hayashi's - Red Dragonfly
Yoshiharu Tsuge's - Ben-san of Honyara Grotto

赤とんぼ (Red Dragonfly)

This is another semi-surreal story from Seiichi. In this one, a young boy lives with his mother, catching dragonflies and getting his fingers scrapped up, with her largely ignoring him. At one point, it looks like the boy's grandfather has dropped by, and they play soldiers for a while. But, the boy sees the old man along with his mother, and she's crying. In the last panel, the boy encounters the shadowy old man (we never see his face) and there's just the sound effect of a gun shot.

ほんやら洞のべんさん (Ben-san of Honyara Grotto)

Tsuge is continuing his travels, and comes to a remote hostel out in the snow-covered mountains of Honyara Grotto. The owner of the hut, Ben, hasn't had lodgers in years and doesn't know what to do with this unannounced customer. Tsuge talks him into sharing what little food there is, then breaking out some futons to sleep on. The next morning, they go out on the ice to fish, but instead of using the net to catch some river fish, Tsuge just stands with his eyes closed and listening to the sounds around him. Ben prepares to go into town to get supplies until Tsuge says that he's not staying any longer - he just wanted to drop by and see the area for the night. Neither of them has much ambition in life at the moment, although Tsuge does state that he's working as an artist. However, when asked to draw something, he can't.

They go out to do some night fishing and a small girl suddenly shows up. Turns out that Ben is her father, and that Ben and his wife have separated. The girl is part of a children's group out to sing songs in the winter night to attract swallows for the coming spring. Ben and Tsuge catch a large carp that's worth a few hundred dollars on the market, and Ben takes it farther up the hill to a different pond to swim in. Unfortunately, they waste too much time and when they get to the pond the fish is frozen like a rock. Back in the cabin, Tsuge asks if a fish like that tastes like it's worth a few hundred dollars. Ben remains silent and curls away from the plate the fish is on.

Garo Feature #23

2010-07-13T00:41:00.000-07:00

For the May, '68 issue, I'm highlighting:

Yuu Takita's - Island Solitude
Shouhei Kusunoki's - Special News
Hideshi Hino's - Mud Dolls

孤独の島 (Island Solitude)

A shipwrecked castaway daydreams about escaping the island he shares with his wife and 4 babies.

臨時ニュース (Special News)

Shouhei has forgone the Edo era again, trying for his second story set in the 1960's. This one is well-drawn, but kind of pointless. A girl, her father, her younger brother and their dog live at home. The girl gets hit by a car and injures her arm, but it gets better. The father encounters the driver of the car and his boss, and accepts the settlement. The boy gets into a fight with another kid and hits him in the head with a rock, but the victim comes out of the altercation ok. (The other kid is actually the son of the car driver, who tells his boy to quit crying and fight harder next time.) At the end, the dog growls at someone that seems to be a bad guy and that's it. Nothing is resolved or changed.

どろ人形 (Mud Dolls)

A group of disabled children living in the shadows of some factory smokestacks create a statue out of mud and then beat it down with sticks as a symbolic retribution against the adults that built the factories that spew out the black ash that has stolen away their eyes, mouths and ears. Unfortunately, the ritual fails to work this time too, as the factories remain standing. At the end, they watch the beautiful sunset through the smog.

Garo Feature #22

2010-07-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

For the Apr., '68 issue, I'm highlighting:

Yoshiharu Tsuge's - Korean floor heater cabin
Maki Sasaki's - Ballad of Anri and Annu

オンドル小屋 (Korean floor heater cabin)

This is another of the stories that had been included in Tsuge's "Neji-shiki" collection I reviewed a while back. The author goes out to a mountainside onsen to relax in the hot spring waters. Unfortunately, 3 delinquents show up and act like jerks, ruining his trip.

アンリとアンヌのバラード (Ballad of Anri and Annu)

A man and a woman working in a strange prison climb up to the surrounding wall. They take turns telling their stories, in alternating pages. The guy was an artist that arrived in town and fell in love with a beautiful woman. The woman lived with an older man, and the artist ended up sneaking into their house in the middle of the night to continue the affair, but the old man woke up and shot him, thinking that the artist was a jewel thief there to rob him. The artist then died in the resulting hail of gunfire and went to hell. The prison girl, on the other hand, became homeless when her mother died. She tried making a living selling matches, but at a time of cheap cigarette lighters no one was buying. In the midst of the ongoing Christmas celebrations, the girl decided to use her matches to keep herself warm, by setting fire to houses around town. The townspeople caught her and burned her at the stake as punishment, and she also made the trip to hell. Back in the prison in hell, the two prisoners decide to ask kami-sama to save them and take them to a place that's more comfortable.

Ryouichi Ikegami

2010-06-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

Mr. Alchemy commented, on my entry for Garo #42, that Ryouichi Ikegami's fans (Mai, the Psychic Girl and Crying Freeman) wouldn't recognize Ryouichi's early works. Something that I'd also remarked on back when I saw his debut work, "Crime of Awareness". I figured that I have enough of a catalog for him that it'd be worth showing the evolution of Ryouichi Ikegami from September, 1966, to February, 1968.

Crime of Awareness, 12 pages, issue 25, the debut work. You can see the full story by clicking on the image. The influence of Tezuka's style is pretty blatant, and is similar to that of other artists who copied Tezuka early on, such as Shotaro Ishinomori and Yoshiharu Tsuge.

Summer, 20 pages, issue 36. A big jump in style in only 11 months. "Summer" is more of a psychological horror story, and the character designs have taken on a more realistic, less cartoony look. The lines are thinner and there's less use of heavy blocks of black.

Globe, 18 pages, issue 37. We're starting to see more refinements in the character designs, but they're still not quite at Ryuichi's stylistic level yet. "Globe" is another psychological study, this time about a young boy who may have a small-scale version of the actual planet Earth in a cage, or it may all just be the fevered dreams of a boy trapped in a coma.

Game Preserve, 24 pages, issue 39. We're getting a little closer to the Crying Freeman style now.

3-sided Mirror Flirtation, 18 pages, issue 40. A little bit of a regression in character design, as he tries his hand at Alfred Hitchcock-style humor.

Fuutarou, starting with issue 42. Fuutaro marks his first attempt at serializing a gritty slice-of-life manga for Garo. We can see a lot of growth in his designs in only 17 months. But he's gone back to a thicker, bolder line, and it makes the facial details look blocky and clumsy when the character is drawn at a distance.

This is as much as I have of his works from Garo at this point, seeing that I've only bought Garo up to issue #44. If/when I get enough material to continue this overview, I'll add it at a later date.

Garo Feature #21

2010-06-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

For the Mar., '68 issue, I'm highlighting:

Akira Ogawa's - Adolescent Gravesite
Shigeru Mizuki's - Kitaro Night Stories

青春の墓 (Adolescent Gravesite)

Akira is finally back with a short-one shot. A high school boy is involved in a love triangle between two other friends. The one male friend reads a script the boy has written and thinks that it's going to be a hit, and the girl both of them like could be the star of the show. The rival then announces that he and the girl may get married soon. Some time later, the girl arrives at the boy's house to announce that the rival fell ill quickly and has died. The boy runs over to the rival's house, and sees the script in the rival's room, and ends up modifying it to put himself in the role opposite the girl in the play. Time goes by and everything seems to be going according to the boy's plans, until the girl commits suicide and leaves a note saying that she just couldn't live without her true love to support her. The boy's spirit is crushed and he says goodbye to his innocence.

鬼太郎夜話 (Kitaro Night Stories) #10

The fake Kitaro (FK) finds himself in a boggy hell. The real Kitaro jumped into the river after them, but he can't swim and passersby have to help pull him to shore. He did manage to get Neko Musume away from FK, but she died anyway. Kitaro's father offers to go to hell to try to get the demon vest back from FK, and is flattened by a car while standing in the middle of a street. FK initially thinks that hell is pretty neat, lacking other people, a need to go to school or having to work. But, he does eventually get hungry, then discovers that the fish in the bog are all just skeletons. Kitaro's father (AKA: Otosan) shows up and declares that the lack of food is one side of hell - if FK doesn't leave, he'll waste away and turn into a mummy after 100 hours. They start looking for the tunnel entrance into hell proper, which then takes them to a house where Neko Musume's spirit has taken up residence. FK panics and runs away, getting lost in hell's vast reaches, the absence of other people suddenly making him very lonely.

Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Black Blizzard

2010-06-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

Yoshihiro Tatsumi is probably well-known to those of you here that follow Garo, as being one of the main proponents of the gekiga (realism manga) movement that led to the formation of Garo magazine. The western newspapers in Japan have picked up on the release of Black Blizzard by Drawn and Quarterly, with both the Japan Times and Daily Yomiuri running reviews of it. I'm just mentioning this here in case you want to check them out.

(From the D&Q site, for review purposes only.)

Note that the English wiki doesn't list many of Tatsumi's titles. The Japanese wiki is more complete, but of course it's in Japanese...

Garo Feature #20

2010-06-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

For the Feb., '68 issue, I'm highlighting:

Yoshiharu Tsuge's - Futamata Keikoku
Ryouichi Ikegami's - Vagrant

二岐溪谷 (Futamata Keikoku)

(Futamata is a place name in Hokkaido.) The main character, who probably really is Tsuge himself, has arrived at Futamata, a remote hot spa resort located in some hills next to a river. The character buys some bananas and checks out a stream where he discovers that the elusive fish there enjoy eating banana peals. He races back to the resort to get some fishing line, but the owners have everything packed up for closing the resort for the season. The traveler returns to the stream, but the bananas are also gone. He takes a soak in the onsen and encounters the monkey that's been causing mischief at the spa for a while now. That night, there's a huge storm and the monkey gets trapped on some branches in the middle of the raging stream. The monkey's cries keep the traveler awake at night. The next morning, the storm is over and the monkey's nowhere to be seen.

風太郎 (Vagrant) #1

Fuutarou, a young, one-eyed boy, arrives in a seedy district in Osaka in search of his father. A pair of drifters takes him to a construction site where a man matching the father's description is up wandering along the scaffolding of the building. Fuutarou climbs up as well, but slips. The other man makes a grab to save the boy, but falls and lands on the ground several stories below. The man is taken to the hospital, where the doctor says he'll be ok, but they've got concerns over who'll pay for the costs. Fuutarou realized that the man wasn't his father, based on the shape of the guy's hand, and he disappears to keep looking. However, he leaves some money behind, which the two drifters use to pay the other guy's bills.

From the artist of Crying Freeman. This is the start of a short serialized story.

Garo Feature #19

2010-06-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

For the Jan., '68 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shouhei Kusunoki's - Red Water, Second Half
Yuu Takita's - The Long Road
Shinji Nagashima's - Small World

赤水, 後篇 (Red Water, Second Half)

The older brother staggers back home and tries to recover from the embarrassment of having been thrown out of the drinking party. A little later, he has a thought and goes into a cave in the hills where the rich boy's would-be betrothed is hiding. She's been there for several days and greedily wolfs down the onigiri he brings with. He leaves again, but when he returns with more food stumbles on another soldier who's also found the cave and is attempting to rape the girl. The brother kills the soldier with a rock. At the same time, the rich boy is paraded out in front of some of the peasants to show off his riding skills. The little brother is impressed, but dismayed at seeing how the rider mistreats the horse with his spurs, drawing blood from the horse's sides. The rich one gives the horse to the little brother, who then races it around the village. He finally reaches the temple at the top of a hill, where he discovers the bodies of his brother and the girl, hanging by their necks by ropes from the ceiling. It's not clear what happened, but it may have been a punishment killing rather than a lover's suicide. The temple priests are shocked, as well as being put in a bind since the rich family is scheduled to come to the temple soon to pray for their son's victory in war. They haul the bodies out down a back path as the new procession arrives. The little brother is so enraged over what happened that he takes the horse out to a river and kills it with a bamboo spear. He then stands in the middle of the river, catching fish with his bare hands, and the growing plume in the river around him causes the boy to comment on the "red water".

長い道 (The Long Road)

A disheveled samurai is told to clean up his act, so he has his wife shave him and gets a new set of clothes. But, his meal ticket at the castle ends and he finds himself out of work and unable to pay the new bills. When he reports this to his wife, she tells him to cheer up because life is still full of possibilities. She orders two bowls of expensive tempura soba and after the couple is done eating she reveals her plan - to pack up all their belongings and run out on the bills.

ちいさいな世界 (Small World)

In this wordless short, #6 in Shinji's gekiga collection, a small boy out playing with his dog dashes across the street, where a careless driver hits and kills the dog before driving off heedlessly. The boy is heartbroken, but makes friends with a girl who has a doll. Again, the children run across the street in front of a truck, with the doll on the boy's trike looking like a girl pedaling in the street. The driver swerves into a lamp post as the children ignore him.

Katsuichi Nagai Art Gallery

2010-06-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

I guess I might as well mention this here (it's been listed on my Anime Museums and Galleries knol for close to a year). Katsuichi Nagai was the editor for Garo magazine, and a museum dedicated to his work was opened up in Miyage city, in the Fureai ESP Shiogane building near the train station. It's a little far for me to visit casually, so I'll have to wait until the opportunity presents itself. But, if you're going to be in Japan, and you want to learn more about Garo, this is the place to go to.

Unfortunately, the website for the museum is in Japanese only, but it does have pictures at look at if you want them.

Garo Feature #18

2010-06-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

For the Dec., '67 issue, I'm highlighting:

Yoshiharu Tsuge's - Nishibu Tamura Incident
Shouhei Kusunoki's - Red Water, First Half
Shigeru Mizuki's - Japan's Gods

西部田村事件 (Nishibu Tamura Incident)

A fisherman (probably the same one as in Red Flower) is out in the countryside looking for a new fishing spot when an excited villager runs up and says that an inmate - arguably violently insane - at a nearby hospital has escaped. A number of other villagers show up to find the escapee, with one of them claiming to have seen someone in a gown climbing up in the trees. After discovering that the trees are too hard to climb, the townspeople give up and leave. The fisherman discovers the inmate, who leads him to a glade where fish swim around in seep holes. The guy accidentally steps in one of the holes, and the fish trapped under his foot swims around, tickling him. The fisherman goes into town for help and the inmate is eventually extracted and returned to the hospital. The fisherman looks at the trapped fish then releases it into the river.

赤水, 前篇 (Red Water, First Half)

This is a tale of four people - 2 brothers, a girl and an upper class boy being groomed as a soldier in the Great War. The younger of the two brothers is supposed to be helping tend the rice in the paddies, but instead is spending his time with the upper class boy as a way to get closer to the other boy's horse. During this time, the upper class boy is mistreating the farmboy mercilessly with a form of military training. The rich one's family has decided to marry him to the prettiest girl in the village, which is why she disappears. The older brother tries to explain to the younger one that the horses are being used for war, but it doesn't take. One night, the rich family throws a party to celebrate the chosen one's selection to the officer's ranks, and during the drinking session afterwards, the older brother gets sick and the other soldiers throw him out into the rain.

日本のカミサマたち (Japan's Gods)

Another short commentary by Shigeru. This time, he's describing Japan's new gods, such as that for freeways and yacht fishing.

Reading the Era of Garo

2010-06-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Roberto for bringing this to my attention. This is a video overview of Garo magazine, entitled "Garo no Jidai wo Yomu" (Reading the Era of Garo). Originally uploaded in August, 2009. It's broken up into 5 parts.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

If you want to learn more about Garo. It is in Japanese without English subtitles, but you can fastforward to the parts that you think are the most interesting.

Garo Feature #17

2010-05-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

For the Nov., '67 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shinji Nagashima's - Prohibited Games
Seiichi Hayashi's - Aguma, his son, and the uneaten spirit

禁じられた遊 (Prohibited Games)

#5 in the Shinji Gekiga series. A young boy and girl are out playing in the woods when they find a dog that's been killed by a car. They take the body deeper into the woods and bury it with a marker saying "below here is a dog". When they look up, they can see the sea of graves surrounding them, marking a variety of other creatures. The boy initially stated that now they have the full set, but he corrects himself, saying that they're missing one more - human. The two children are last seen running into a neighboring city.

アグマと息子と食えない魂 (Aguma, his son, and the uneaten spirit)

A wizard dies and goes to hell where the devil Aguma and his son are waiting to eat tainted spirits. The wizard doesn't think he belongs in hell, and Aguma tends to agree. The boy demon is outraged at his father's behavior and demands to know what's going on. After the wizard returns to the cycle of reincarnation, Aguma answers that the human wasn't plump enough yet. Wait for him to come back a few more times and he'll be tastier.

Garo Feature #16

2010-05-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

For the Oct., '67 issue, I'm highlighting:

Shouhei Kusunoki's - Kuki, the sequel
Yoshiharu Tsuge's - Red Flower

茎, 2 (Kuki, the sequel)

This is a continuation of the story from the last issue, which I literally translated as "Stalk". Shouhei has put hiragana alongside the kanji, which I'll use here - "Kuki". The silk painter from the first story is getting older, and watches as her friends all quit their jobs to get married and settle down. She starts dating the fighter, but when he jokes about her giving up her own job to be a kept woman, she stalks out of the room in a huff. Later, the fighter is walking alongside another woman when he sees the painter. He tries calling out to her, but she doesn't hear him. Her boss is talking about firing her, because there's always this possibility that she may get married some day. Meanwhile, the painter is walking by a shop when two dogs go running out, surprising her and causing the bolt of cloth she's carrying to unfurl in the middle of the street. The design on the cloth looks very pretty.

紅い花 (Red Flower)

A young man goes out to a remote village to do some fishing. He stops at a shop run by a small girl who talks him out of some money for snacks. She then recommends her friend, a small boy, as a guide to a good fishing hole. The customer agrees to this, and the boy takes him out into the hills. Along the way, they pass a big clump of red flowers, but there's no explanation for why the flowers are there. The guys gets to the fishing hole, and the boy heads back, only to discover the girl squatting in the middle of the river. She seems to be emitting red flowers. She returns to the shop, where she's feeling extremely weak. Finally, the boy carries her out into the hills as the fisherman returns, spotting them off in the distance.

Garo Feature #15

2010-05-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

For the Sept, 1967, issue, I'm highlighting two stories: Shigeru Mizuki's "Lazy Musashi" and Kuniko Tsurita's "(Sumomo's Family) After That". Click on the image to go to the media fire album.

Famed swordsman Musashi is lying around and picking his nose, trying to decide what to do with himself. He tries his hand at woodcarving, then settles down to writing his treatise, the "Book of 5 Rings". Nothing really deep here, just a little glimpse at a historical figure, Mizuki-style

Supposedly written by Ateharu Tsugi (宛春つぎ), this is actually a parody work by Kuniko Tsurita, building on Yoshiharu Tsuge's earlier story, "Sumomo's Family". The hero returns to the home of Sumomo's family 3 months after having left it, finding that the four of them are exactly as he'd last seen them. However, they've moved down to the first floor, the second having been taken over by a strange woman with really slender eyes. The hero takes up residence in the closet under the stairs and is woken up at night by the woman's overly loud stereo playing. She looks really emaciated, but when he tries offering her some bread she ignores him. A few days go by and she sells the stereo to two guys and uses the money to buy a huge amount of food. Again, time passes and along with the new silence there's a new stench. At some point, she'd died while eating the food. Sumomo and the hero bury her under a rock and the hero takes over her room on the second floor of the rundown shack, where he still lives today.

Garo Feature #14

2010-05-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

For the Aug, 1967, issue, I'm highlighting two stories: Yuu Takita' "Fair Play" and Yoshiharu Tsuge's "Mountain Pass Dog". Click on the image to go to the media fire album.

Two samurai are in love with the same woman, but the one is willing to let the other marry her. In the middle of the night, the chivalrous one is visited by the girl and she professes her love for him. He struggles to keep from hugging her and she leaves. The next day he learns that she'd died that night and had visited both men at the same time. They conclude that what they'd both talked to was a ghost of some kind. The next night, the girl visits the chivalrous one again and this time, while not coming right out and admitting it, he decides that he's willing to take his chances with her. But she's left by this point. He finds her hair comb, and when it looks like she's returned for it, he cries out in anguish because now all he's left with is her empty kimono and a leaf (leaves were used by kitsune - foxes - to shapechange).

An old man finds an old stray dog and cares for it for a while, then it disappears. Some time later, he's out hiking in the hills and on a whim visits a remote inn, where he discovers the dog living out on its own again, but having been given a different name.

Garo Feature #13

2010-05-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

For the July, 1967, issue, I'm highlighting two stories: Shouhei Kusunoki's "The Thief and the Stick" and Kuniko Tsurita's "Jinroku". Click on the image to go to the media fire album.

A young boy living in a large household gets up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and when he comes back to the room finds the family tied up and being threatened by a robber demanding the house's treasures. The boy finds a club and wonders how hard to hit the robber, not wanting to inconvenience the family with having to answer questions about a corpse. But, when the robber enters the room he's hiding in, he just lightly taps the guy on the head, resulting in his getting beaten up, the treasures stolen, and the family kicking him out of the house in disgust. The head of the family then goes to a local headsman and explains what happened. Later, the boy, looking for a new home, sees a crowd standing around the robber's dead body. He keeps moving, commenting on the scariness of his former employer.

Jinroku is a stylish, happy-go-lucky guy who had gone out to grab a roll of toilet paper from some public toilet for his penniless friends to use. On entering the train, he trips, and the roll of toilet paper stops at the feet of a young woman and he's embarrassed at having to pick it up. At the apartment, he shows off a small turtle he's carrying around in his pocket. Later, the friends go out drinking and they talk about the meaning of life. One of the guys thinks that there is no meaning, and when he returns home later, gets drunk and leaves the gas on. Jinroku drops by to get the turtle he'd forgotten and finds the apartment filled with gas. He rescues his friend, and discovers that the turtle is dead. He takes the bottle of whiskey from his friend, gives the guy a warning, and leaves. Unfortunately, Jinroku finishes off the whiskey, gets despondent, and drunkenly stumbles in front of a speeding car. 16 pages. (Note: "Jinroku" translates to "blockhead".)

Garo Feature #12

2010-04-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

For the June, 1967, issue, I'm highlighting one story: Shinji Nagashima's "Life". Click on the image to go to the media fire album.

A mother wolf and two cubs are out walking through the heavy snow one winter. Conditions are harsh and one of the cubs dies. They find a human hunter living in a cabin and the mother attacks him to get food for the other cub to eat. There's a fight, and the wolf rips off the guy's forearm while the hunter cuts off one of the wolf's ears. Years go by and the cub has survived, having enough pups to start a new pack. The mother wolf is now old and grizzled and has the respect of the new pack. After killing a deer, there's a gun shot and the rest of the pack scatters. The old one stands her ground and faces off against the hunter, who now has a sword blade attached to his stump. They fight again and this time the wolf dies. The hunter takes the body back to the cabin, while her daughter follows behind out of curiosity. The hunter places the body on the ground across from the fire pit and sits down just as time catches up to the both of them. The young wolf watches on as the cabin and its occupants turn to dust and are blown off into the wind. 40 pages.

War - Part 3

2010-04-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

Page 18
第三語偏食
Chapter 3, Unbalanced Diet

Panel 1
バイバイ
Bye-bye!

Panel 2
ただいま
I'm home.

Panel 3
まあだいぶいいじゃないの
Well, you did good this time.

フフフ。。。
heh heh...

Panel 4
ハハハ。。。ヒロシいいぞいいぞ
Hahaha... Good kid, Hiroshi.

それがジロウのほうは。。。
But, as for Jirou...

Panel 5
ハハハハまあいいさこの次はがんばれよ
Hahaha, it's ok. Just try harder next time.

Panel 6
そうだ。あしたの日曜は動物園でもいくか
Alright, how about we go to the zoo tomorrow?

エッほんとう
Eh, really?

ワーイ
Yay!

Panel 7
がらがら
knock knock

Page 19
Panel 1
まあいつもつもほんとうにすみません
Ah, thank you again.

クンクン
sniff sniff

Panel 2
おとなりからオサシミいただいたのよ
The neighbors gave us some sashimi...

オオッいいセンだ
Hey, that's great!

ハアハア
pant, pant

Panel 4
ご主人が千葉へ行ったんですって。。。
She said her husband had gone to Chiba...

Panel 5
とれたてのを買ってきたのでとてもイキがいいんですって。。。あなたも一つどう？
He bought it just-caught so they say it's really fresh. Would you like one?

いらん
Naw.

Panel 6
いきがいいのよ
It's very tender.

バッカッおれが生ものがきらいなのは知ってるだろう
Don't be silly. You know I hate raw meat.

Panel 7
おまえたちおあがえり
You guys can have mine.

ウヒッまってました！
Yay, dig in!

Panel 8
ゴー

Panel 9
(Sign: 上野動物園: Ueno Zoo)

こらっはしるところぶぞ
Hey, if you run you'll trip.

Panel 10
バオーッ
trumpet

Page 20
Panel 1
アオーッ！
roar

ジロウよしなったらみっともないよ
Jirou, you're embarrassing us.

Panel 2
カチ
Click

Panel 3
ゴリラだゴリラだ
Gorillas!

ハハハ
Hahaha

Panel 4
オオーン
roar

Panel 5
バリバリ
crunch crunch

Panel 6
すすげえや。。。
Wow...

肉をなまでくってらあ
It's eating the meat raw.

Panel 7
さあいくぞ
Ok, let's go.

ちょ、ちょっと
But...

Panel 8
ワーッ！
Waoh!

キャーッ！
Shriek!

Page 21
Panel 1
さてそろそろ昼だな。。。何を食おうか
Well, it's almost lunch... What do you want to eat?

スシ!
Sushi!

おいらも
Me too.

Panel 2
(sign : 寿司: Sushi)

Panel 3
トロ！
Toro (Fatty tuna)!

ヒモ
Himo (the stringy part of a shellfish)

Panel 4
だんなは？
And you sir?

そうだなアナゴでももらうか。。。
Well, how about something like eel...

Panel 5
ヒロシおまえはなにになるんだ
Hiroshi, what do you want to become?

お医者
A doctor.

Panel 6
そうかならうんと勉強しなけりゃな
Is that so. You'll have to study a lot.

ウン！
Yes!

Panel 7
もう一本。。。
One more...

トロをつづけて
Another toro.

ヒモにタコにゲソ
Himo, octopus, squid.

Panel 8
ジロウおまえは。。。
Jirou, how about you...

おいら宇宙飛行士かな。。。
An astronaut maybe...

モリモリモシャモシャ
munch munch

Panel 9
ハハハいいぞいいぞ
Hahaha That's great!

でも車にようからなおれ。。。
But, when I'm in a car... (implied: But, I get car sick...)

Page 22
Panel 1
ハハハハハ

Panel 2
どうですだんなも油っこいとこを一つやったら
Well sir, how about a toro for you too. (note: aburakkoi is "full of fat", similar to aburapoi, and implies an extra fatty fatty tuna.)

Panel 3
八ッハハハ
Hahaha

Panel 4
アッ！
Ah!

父ちゃんそれトロだよ！
Dad, that's tuna!

Panel 5
エッ！
Eh!

Panel 6
ウウッウッ
Erggg

Panel 7
ゲッゲッ
gag gag

Panel 8
ゲーッ
gahh

Panel 9
アッ！
Ah!

Panel 10
キキッ！
screech

Panel 11
ドン！
Thud

Page 23
Panel 1
アッ！父ちゃん
Ah, Dad!

Panel 2
ウ。。。ン
uh.... nn

Panel 3
ウウ。。。ッ

Panel 4
そうだおれはなおとき。。。
That's right, that's when...

Panel 6
ドドドド
thud thud thud

Panel 7
ギイーン
vweee

Panel 8
ダッダッダッ
thump thump thump

Page 24
Panel 1
バカーン
Ba-whump

Panel 3
ダッダッダッ
thump thump thump

Panel 4
くそっ！
Shit!

ガガッ
brappp

Panel 5
ボッ
thunk

Page 25
Panel 3
島は、敵の爆弾と機銃掃射に、大地は砕け、石は熔け、動物はおろか草一本のこらぬ焦土と化した。
The enemy's bombs and machine gun fire scorched the island, crushing the boulders, wiping out the animals and not leaving a blade of grass standing.

Page 26
Panel 2
ウウッ！

Panel 3
助かったのはおれだけか。。。
I'm the only one who made it?...

Panel 4
おい竹村
Hey, Takemura!

おっ石田おまえも生きてたか
Oh, Ishida, you survived too?

Panel 5
おれたちだけか。。。
Just us two...?

Panel 6
いやこの島にのこったいき物が二人だけなのだ
No, there's nothing left alive on this island but us two.

一本の草も。。。あるのは石と、焼けのこりの木だけ
Not even a weed... Just rock and charred tree stumps.

Page 27
Panel 1
ギラギラ
glare

Panel 3
だめだないもない
No good. There's nothing here.

Panel 5
アッピョ
Ah. jump

Panel 8
ちきしょう！
Damn it!

Panel 9
カッ
chop

Page 28
Panel 3
ガリガリ
chew chew

Panel 4
ペッペッ
spit spit

Panel 5
だめだ
It's no use.

Panel 7
ウウ。。。腹がへった
Uhhh... I'm starving...

Panel 9
オッ！
Oh!

おっ竹村こい山猫
Ah, Takemura, come here! I got a wildcat!

Panel 10
ありがたい
I owe you.

ガシガシ
gnaw gnaw

モシャモシャ
chew chew

Page 29
Panel 1
おいまてっ！あとはとっておくんだ
Hey, wait! Save some for later.

Panel 3
クワックワッ！クワッ！
Caw, caw, caw

Panel 4
ちきしょうおれに羽があったら。。。
Damn, if only I had wings...

鉄砲はうてんし。。。。
Or guns to shoot...

Panel 5
三日目か
It's been 3 days...

死にたくない
I don't want to die...

Panel 6
生きて帰りたい。。。
I want to go back home...

だがこのままいけば飢死にだ
But at this rate, we'll starve.

Panel 7
おい石田！
Hey, Ishida!

フラフラ
stagger

Page 30
Panel 2
だめだちきしょう
Damn, they're useless.

Panel 3
だめだみんなくさっちまった。。。
They've all gone bad...

おいどうしたんだ
Hey, what's wrong.

Panel 4
石田ま、まさかきさまこの間の肉は。。。
Ishida, no way, you had this meat all this time...

Panel 5
でわほかに食い物があるっていうのか！ここに
What, you think we have anything else to eat here?

し、しかし。。。
bu, but...

Panel 6
太陽は無情に飢えた二人を焼き。。。日はすぎていった。
The sun mercilessly burned down on the starving two, until...

Page 31
Panel 1
おっ！石田おまえ
Hey, Ishida, you...

Panel 2
エイ！
Ey!

きさま！
You bastard!

Panel 3
ハハハおれは死にたくない
Hahaha. I don't want to die.

Panel 4
イヤーッ！
Yah--!

ウワッ
Wah!

Panel 5
くそっ！
Shit!

きさまは鬼だ！
You're the devil!

Panel 6
ワッ！
Wah!

Panel 7
ゴロン
tumble

Panel 8
ドス
thwunk

Panel 9
石田！
Ishida!

Page 32
Panel 2
ハエだもうすぐ腐ってしまう
Flies. He'll rot soon.

Panel 3
くっさったらもう。。。
If he goes bad...

Panel 10
だめだ！
I can't do it!

Panel 11
ウワ-ッお、おれにはく、くえない
Uwah, I, I can't eat him!

Panel 12
ヒュウヒュウ
whoooo

Page 33
Panel 1
フラフラ

Panel 4
足跡。。。
Foot prints...

Panel 6
ウウ。。。
uwww...

Panel 7
水、水。。。
Water, water...

Panel 9
キャーッ
Kya!

Page 34
Panel 3
ヒヒヒ
Hee hee hee

おれは死なないぞ
I'm not going to die.

Panel 4
おれは日本へかえるんだ
I'm returning to Japan.

Panel 5
ダダ
Blam blam

Panel 7
ニッポンヘイ
Japanese, right.

マチガイナイ
No mistake.

Page 35
Panel 1
マダイキテル
He's still alive.

タスカレ
Let's take him back.

Panel 2
ウウ。。。
Uhhhh...

Panel 3
ウ。。。ン
Uhh...gh

Panel 5
父ちゃん！
Dad!

父ちゃん！
Daddy.

Panel 6
ヒロシジロウ。。。
Hiroshi, Jirou...

父ちゃん！
Dad!

Panel 7
大丈夫ちょっと頭をうっただけです
You're ok. Just a bang to the head.

Panel 8
よかった
Great.

ハハハ父ちゃんは死ねないよねおれたちや母ちゃんがいるもんな
Hahaha. Daddy can't die. You got us and mom waiting for you.

Panel 9
ウンそうだそうだともおまえたちがいるからな
Yes. Yes, because I have you all.

くるし
Oww.

Page 36
Panel 2
いってらっしゃい
Have a good day!

Panel 4
バイバイ
Bye bye!

1963年3月完 (ボーイズライフ掲載)
March 1963. End. (Boys Life Publication)

War - Part 2

2010-04-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

第二語時限バクダン
Chapter 2, Delay-Action Bomb

Panel 5
ロンドン
London

Page 12
Panel 2
ドドドド
bam bam bam

Panel 3
ダ！ダ！ダ！ダ！
whup whup whup

Panel 4
ダ！ダ！ダ！ダ！
whup whup whup

Panel 5
ドドド
ka-whump

Panel 13
Panel 1
ウワーッ！
Aughhh!

母ちゃ-ん！
Mommy!

Panel 5
空襲は去っただが恐怖は去らなかった。。。
The air raid is over, but the fear remains...

Page 14
Panel 1
町の各所に投下された時限バクダンのために市民は強制退去を命じられた。
Because of the delayed-fuse bombs being dropped everywhere, the people are ordered to be evacuated from their towns.

Panel 2
ブーッ！
voom

Panel 3
作業班着したたちにバクダンの分解作業が開発された
The demolitions brew is then brought into dismantle the bombs.

Panel 4
とのむぞ気をつけてくれ!
Good luck and be careful!

OK!
OK!

Panel 5
いいか
Ready?

ウム。。。
Well...

Panel 6
こいつだ爆発したら。。。
She's touchy...

Panel 7
しずかに。。。
Be gentle...

Panel 8
もう少しだ。。。

この信管をはずせば。。。
If we disconnect this fuse...

Page 15
Panel 1
カラ
Clatter

Panel 2
グラ
roll

ウッ！
Uhh!

Panel 3
ウワワ。。。
Wah...

Panel 4
ドン！ゴロン！
whump! clang!

Panel 6
しんじられん。。。
I don't believe it...

Panel 9
砂だ。。。
It's sand...

サラサラ
fsshhh

Page 16
Panel 1
ハッハハハ。。。
hahaha

ハハハハこんなバカなことが。。。
Hahaha, that's ridiculous!...

Panel 3
その頃とおく海をこえたヨーロッパ本土の東チェコスロバキアにおいて。。。
Meanwhile, on the European mainland, in eastern Czechoslovakia...

Panel 5
この者たちは、わがドイツ軍の作戦行動に対し重大な妨害を行なった。よって犯罪人として死刑に処す。
For the crime of opposing the German war effort, these people are hereby sentenced to death.

Page 17
Panel 1
奴らがこれだけおこるところをみれば。。。
If they're going to act this angry...

だいぶ効果があったようだな。フフフ。。。
They're certainly playing it up well...

Panel 2
ガガガガガ
bam bam bam bam

Panel 3
爆弾の中に砂を入れ、ドイツ軍の作戦を妨害したチェコの労働者が処刑されたのは、1942年第二次大戦がもっとも激烈をきわめていたときことである
During WWII, the Germans executed Czech blue collar workers in 1942 for the so-called crime of defusing bombs filled with sand.

War - Part 1

2010-04-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know that I said I wasn't going to be translating any more manga for a while for Nihon-go Hunter, because I wanted to focus my efforts on writing up the summaries and commentary for as many of the Garo issues as I could. However, two things have come together to make me change my mind. First, there was a very specific request for me to take on Sampei Shirato's "War". Second, I finished processing the Garo issues up to Dec. 1967, which gives me 18 months of manga in the bag, and completes my first full year of issues (i.e. - all of 1967). On top of this, I've written a visual basic script to automate the process of creating the HTML pages for the Garo issue index and artist details pages, which promises to speed up all future work. So I sat down and spent a day typing up the Japanese dialog and then translating it. It's kind of a rough translation, and it's not word for word (just a warning to any translation purists out there). But, hopefully it'll be good enough to help promote Sampei's manga to those of you not familiar with it.

I'm only running the script here (it's long enough that I'll break it up over 2-3 days). If someone wants to take the scanned pages and photoshop in the text, just make sure to include my name in the credits and a link back to this blog. Thanks.

Page 1

戦争 - War
その恐怖の記録 - Record of that Terror
白土三平 - Sampei Shirato

第一語金髪のジェシカ - Chapter 1, Blonde Jessica

余は、男も女も、子どもも、ポーランド生まれの、ポーランド語を話すすべての者に、慈悲も、あわれみもなく、死をもたらすであろう。それが余にとって、生けるために必要な土地を得るただ一つの道などだ。
1939年アドルフ。ヒットラー
I will not show pity or compassion to any man, woman or child born in Poland or who speaks Polish. I will kill them all. That is the path I've chosen to obtain that land. Adolph Hitler, 1939.

Page 2
Panel 3
バババババ
budabuda

Panel 6
ガガガガガ
bam bam bam

Page 3
Panel 1
アアーッ！
Ahhhh!

ウワッ！
uwah!

Panel 2
く、くそっ！
Damn!

Panel 3
ガガガガ
bam bam bam

Panel 4
ウワーッ！
Ugh!

Panel 5
ドサ！
splash

Panel 6
ポール！ジェシカ。。。
Paul! Jessica...

Panel 7
パパ！
Papa!

Panel 9
シキ
Spin

Panel 10
ガガガ
bam bam bam

Page 4
Panel 4
ボコ
slip

Panel 5
八ッ！
Hah!

Panel 7
オイ！よくさがせ！
Hey, search well!

まだそのへんにかくれてるかもしれん。。。
There may still be others hiding.

Page 5
Panel 3
いないようだな。。。
Looks like no one here...

ウム。。。。。
Jah...

Panel 4
オイ！ウイシキー
Hey, whisky!

よこせ！
Throw it over!

Panel 7
チッ！
Keh!

Panel 9
ガチガチ
chatter chatter

Page 6
Panel 2
オッ！
Oh!

Panel 3
ハハハこんなとこにいやがったか
Got one here, eh?

Panel 5
ハハハハ
ha ha ha

Panel 7
ガガガガ
bam bam bam

Panel 8
ゲッ！
geh!

Panel 9
アッ！
Ah!

なんだ！
What!

Page 7
Panel 1
ドタドタ
tramp tramp

Panel 3
クルト！
Kurt!

ちくしょうポルチザンンめ！
Those damn partisans!

Panel 4
だめだ！
Too late!

胸のど真ん中をやられている！
Straight through the chest!

Panel 6
とってい的にさがせ！
Spread out!

まだそのへんにいるはずだ
They're still here.

Panel 8
1945 年
Year 1945

Page 8
Panel 1
連合軍およびソ連軍は全戦線をしめた。
The Soviet part of the Allied Forces have breached the front lines.

Panel 2
ガガーン
ka-whump

Panel 3
ドドドド
rumble

Panel 4
同年1月。。。ポーランドはソ連軍とポーランド。パルチザンの連合軍によって解放された
January of that year... Soviet and Polish partisan forces liberated Poland.

Panel 5
ワーワーワーワー
crowd noises

Panel 6
スパシーボ
Spasibo (Russian for "thank you")

タワーリシチタワーリシチ
Tovarishichi Tovarishichi (Russian for "business partner", and maybe "friend").

Panel 7
ボリス手紙だ
Boris, letter.

Page 9
Panel 1
子供からか。。。
From your kid?

ミーシカからだ
It's from Mishka.

Panel 3
もう戦争も終ったすぐ帰るよ早くあいたいなあ。。。
The war's over, I'll go back home soon. I want to see them now...

Panel 4
カラ！
clatter

Panel 5
オッ！金髪だ！
Oh, blond hair!

ジェシカだよ
That's Jessica.

Panel 6
おいでキャラメル上げよう
Come out, I'll give you caramels.

Panel 8
おまち
Wait!

ジェシカ！
Jessica!

Page 10
Panel 3
おまち！
Wait!

Panel 5
どうしたの？しんぱいない
What's wrong? Don't worry.

Panel 6
そらおかしだよ
Look, candy.

Panel 8
ハハハハどうしたんだでておいで
Hahaha. It's ok, come on out.

Page 11
Panel 1
ウッ！
Uww!

ガーン
blam

Garo Feature #11

2010-04-18T18:38:00.001-07:00

For the May, 1967, issue, I'm highlighting one story: Kenji Nanba's "Battlefield, part 1". Click on the image to go to the media fire album.

It's the middle of WW II, and a group of American soldiers are killing time between attacks. A greenhorn has just been transferred into the unit, and the group introduces themselves. Then the fighting starts and one by one the unit gets picked off as they also whittle down the German enemy. They radio for tank support, but there's only one tank in the area that can be rerouted to them. A tank does arrive, but it's one of the German's. That tank does get eliminated, and at the end, only the new kid is left standing as, finally, the American tank makes its appearance. 23 pages.

Garo Feature #10

2010-04-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

For the Apr., 1967, issue, I'm highlighting three stories: Kuniko Tsurita's "Struggle", Tashiro Tamehiro's "Mysterious Ball" and Yuu Takita's "Foot Soldier". Click on the image to go to the media fire album.

After reading Garo issue #40 (month 13, year 1968), Kuniko Tsurita has a romantic dream of ninja life in a Kamui-like setting and wakes up disappointed by reality. She challenges the readers to join her in bringing back ninja style to the present day, but some of the other Garo writers try to stop her from shirking her duties. She goes out to fight crime, discovers that it's too much work, then returns home where her editor berates her for trying to reuse an earlier story ("Nonsense"). 10 pages.

A large, strange black ball arrives and disgorges a stream of mice. Self-explanatory. 8 pages.

A lowly foot soldier has been selected to commit seppuku. His superior promises to pay three hundred gold coins to his family in return for doing this duty. Initially the soldier likes the idea of getting that much cash, but it doesn't help that he himself won't see it. Turns out that a group of higher-class samurai have heard about hari kiri and they want to see how it's done as a form of rehearsal. The soldier tries to beg his way out of it but to no avail. On the appointed day the other samurai arrive, he cuts himself open, and the others walk away saying, "yup, that's pretty much what I thought it'd be like, he didn't do it very well though". The soldier dies.

Garo Feature #9

2010-04-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

For the Mar., 1967, issue, I'm highlighting three short stories: Tsuge's "All-Night Wake", Shouhei Kusunoki's "Armor" and Shigeru Mizuki's "Betobeto-san". Click on the image to go to the media fire album.

By Yoshiharu Tsuge (つげ義春), 10 pages. Three delinquents out walking in the countryside demand to be allowed to stay in a house overnight. The owner says "no", adding that her son has just passed away and she's holding a wake for him for the night. His ghost will be really scary. The three push their way inside and end up being put in the son's room. They play with the corpse during the night, and finally the next day head out back on the road again, complaining that the woman lied - it wasn't scary at all.

Next we have a short 9-page story from Shouhei Kusunoki (楠勝平). A samurai out fighting enemy troops sees an old man sitting and listening in a field. Later, the samurai decides that he needs his armor repaired and goes to find a good armorer. The place he settles on is owned by the old man, who says that he can hear the sounds coming from the armor. In the next battle, the samurai discovers that he, too, can hear the cries of the armor. So much so in fact that it drives him and his horse crazy.

A low-level yakuza is sent out to investigate a haunted house owned by his boss. Another underling hasn't come back from the house yet. The guy goes up into the hills, finds the house, and sees his friend's shoes at the door. A zombie rushes into the room and he shoots it. As the corpse collapses, it explains that he's really the missing yakuza, and that the monster -
betobeto-san - is a centuries-old fungus that survives by switching hosts. The yakuza looks down at the fungus growing on his hands (from when he opened the door) and falls over.

Garo Feature #8

2010-03-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

For the Feb., 1967, issue, I'm highlighting two short stories: Kuniko Tsurita's "Anti" and Shouhei Kusunoki's "Brawl". Click on the image to go to the media fire album.

A young film maker out in the mountains stumbles across a climber who's fallen and needs help getting back up on the trail. Later, the film maker shows his movie to some other film students, but only one remains awake through it. At the end, the one asks what trick the film maker used to create such a realistic-looking death scene.

A young man sets out to work as a fish hawker. He sits down to talk to a colleague who at some point starts sulking for some reason. Unable to get the guy to explain the problem, the hero loses his temper and they start brawling to the delight of bystanders. During this time, the sidebar caption says "He really doesn't want to fight". When the brawl goes on long enough, the townspeople break it up, and he returns home. His wife asks what happened to him, and instead of simply answering, he snaps at her and starts another quarrel. At the end, the baby is bawling, the wife is upset and the hero is really confused. The sidebar narration continues - "He didn't want to fight, but he did anyway". 12 pages.

Garo Feature #7

2010-03-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

For the Jan., 1967, issue, I'm highlighting several shorter stories. I've got Aozora's Diary, Tono-sama and the Rough Taste, and two by Shigeru Mizuki - Sand-Throwing Woman and Silverfish. Click on the image to go to the media fire album.

Mitsuo Fujizawa (藤沢光男) has another 4-page gag. This time, a kid meets up with his friends to show off a new watch that his relative gave him as a souvenir of his travels. It's a magic watch that makes food show up at meal times. The kids gorge themselves, then it looks like the watch has stopped working. Actually, it's just preparing to catch up on all the school work that the kids have to complete, crushing them under a mountain of textbooks.

A local lord is suffering from a wound to the stomach and is ordered to not drink liquids for a couple days. His retainers have to protect him for his own good. When he finally can drink, the water tastes amazing. Later, he tries to recapture that taste, but can't. He tries different sources of water, drinking while lying down, and so on. Finally, he goes so far to reconstruct the previous situation and to cut his stomach open. He pushes his luck one too many times and ends up killing himself. By Shouhei Kusunoki (楠勝平).

An unattractive man tracks down Sunakake Baba (Sand-throwing Old Hag) to ask her to make him handsome. She gives him a foul potion that does the trick and says that the price is for him to return to her in 1 year. A year later, the man is a famous film actor, and when the old woman shows up at his dressing room he has his bouncer throw her out. However, while filming a love scene soon after, the actor's head disappears. In desperation, he returns to her hovel, only to be given an uglier face than before.

A salaryman finds himself out in the boonies with a weird old co-worker. The co-worker collects insects, one of which is a silverfish that can make people more suave. The guy swallows it and with his new-found power works his way to the top of the corporate ladder. But, the insect eventually works its way out of the guy's body and he returns to normal. He takes over the office that the other guy had, and tries talking a new arrival into eating the insect himself.

Garo Feature #6

2010-03-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

I'm back. Sorry about the wait.

For the Dec., 1966, issue, I've decided to highlight Sanpei Shirato's 36-page three-part short "War". This one originally appeared in Shonen Gaho in March, 1963. Click on the image to go to the media fire album.

In the first part, the German army overtakes a Polish village and shoots everyone related to the resistance. A young girl tries to escape and falls into a hole in the snow, next to a pistol dropped by one of the victims. A German soldier spies her, and she instinctively shoots him in the chest. He lands on her, collapsing the hole so that no one else sees her. Later, the Russian army liberates the town, and a Russian soldier tries to befriend her, only to be shot in the chest before she runs away again.

In part 2, the German air force drops bombs on a village, and one of the bombs fails to go off. A demolitions team is brought into defuse it, but they bobble the ordinance and it falls over. They discover that it's filled with sand. When the German army invades the town later, the villagers are convinced that the soldiers are running low on ammo, and don't put up a fight when lined up in front of the firing squad. The narrator informs us that the Germans used this trick to make it easier to take over villages.

In the last part, a Japanese husband at home is talking to his wife and children over dinner. We learn that he can't eat raw meat for some reason. The next day, he and his two sons go out to visit a zoo, and they stop at a sushi restaurant for a quick meal. The father isn't paying attention and pops a piece of sushi in his mouth. Realizing what he'd done, he runs out to the street to throw up and is hit by a car. He flashes back to when he was a soldier during WW II on an island when the Americans bombed it. Only he and one fellow soldier survived the air raid, but there's nothing to eat on the island and they start to starve to death. The friend gets desperate and attacks the father, but is killed himself in the fighting. The father tries to eat the friend raw and can't bring himself to do it. He stumbles away, only to discover an emaciated woman hiding in a house. The scene skips to where the father now has a full belly, but he walks into an American patrol sweeping the island and he gets shot before being taken prisoner. He then wakes up in the hospital with his wife and kids. He pretends to be happy but is now riddled with guilt over his recovered memories.

Garo feature #5

2010-02-21T17:06:00.000-08:00

This time, I'm featuring Kuniko Tsurita's "Onna" and Shouhei Kusunoki's "Izakaya". Click on the picture to go to the scans album to view the pages directly. From the November, 1966, #27 issue of Garo.

Click here for the Onna story. This one's self-explanatory.

Click here for the Izakaya story. An Edo-era workman at an izakaya wonders why a police detective has entered the bar. After dismissing speculation as to which of the other unsavory customers is the suspect, the workman remembers an incident where he and his partner had laughed at the son of a samurai who had been thrown from his horse into the mud. He becomes convinced that the son of the samurai had seen him and filed a complaint.

Garo feature #4

2010-02-14T16:49:00.001-08:00

This time I present Shigeo Masai's "Demon Phone", and Shouhei Kusunoki's "Famous Sword". Click on the picture to go to the scans album to view the pages directly. Both stories are from the October, 1966, #26 issue of Garo.

Click here for the Demon Phone story.

Click here for the Famous Sword story.

Garo feature #3

2010-02-07T14:58:00.000-08:00

Here we have Yoshiharu Tsuge's "The Boy and the Old Book", and Ryouichi Ikegami's "Crime of Awareness". Click on the picture to go to the scans album to view the pages directly. Both stories are from the September, 1966, #25 issue of Garo.

Click here for the The Boy and the Old Book story. A young boy desperately wants to buy a specific book, but he doesn't have the 1000 yen for it. One day, while leafing through it, a 1000 yen bill falls out, and he guiltily runs home with the money. But, the next day, another kid outbids him and gets the book for 1500 yen. Eventually, the boy figures that the money had been left in the book by the previous owner and tracks down the new book's owner to turn the money over. Only to discover the truth behind the bill and the book. This story is by Yoshiharu Tsuge the creator of "Daiba Electroplating Company", which I'd translated here earlier.

Click here for the Crime of Awareness story. This is a very early short from the artist for "Crying Freeman" and "Mai the Pyschic Girl", although you can't tell from the art style here. A greedy old man on a cruise ship panics when the ship runs into a freighter and begins to sink, and he can't find his son in among the screaming masses. A young girl grabs him and he kicks himself free to continue his search. Later, he's reunited with his boy, by a man that had saved the kid during his fruitless search for his own daughter.

Garo features #2

2010-01-31T17:05:00.000-08:00

Next, we have a ninja strip from "Aozora's Diary" by Mitsuo Fujizawa, and a cameo gag short by Shigeru Mizuki called "5 Yen Coin". Click on the picture to go to the scans album to view the pages directly. Both stories are from the August, 1966, #24 issue of Garo.

Click here for the Aozora's Diary story.

Click here for the 5 Yen Coin story.

Garo features, #1

2010-01-24T17:35:00.000-08:00

I apologize to those of you who have been following Nihongo Hunter for the Japanese translation notes. I'm getting a little too busy to keep up my previous schedule, with one new translated page a day, and I haven't found anything that I want to tackle next. Instead, I'm going to be reviewing monthly issues of the old Garo magazine spanning from 1966 to 1970 on my ThreeStepsOverJapan blog, and I'll feature here one or two stories from each issue that I like. So, this blog is going to a weekly update, maybe every Monday or Friday (I haven't decided yet).

If you want to translate the stories yourself, feel free. And if you'd like comments on your work, post a reply here with it.

To start things off, we have a wordless strip called "Koma" ("Panel") by Tatsuji Namiki, and a horror short by Shigeru Mizuki called "10,000 Person Man". Click on the picture to go to the scans album to view the pages directly. Both stories are from the July, 1966, #23 issue of Garo.

Click here for the 10,000 Person Man story. A monster in the shape of a house, living deep in the woods, eats people. The more it eats, the more it evolves, going from a simple cabin to a hot spring spa, etc.

Click here for the Koma story. This one is self-explanatory.

Daiba, Index

2010-01-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

Here's the index for Yoshiharu Tsuge's "Daiba Electroplating Company" short story, from the "Neji Shiki" collection. It was first published in the April, 1973 issue of Garo.

The full scans album is here.

Intro and Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24

Daiba, Page 24

2010-01-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

This is the text for page 24.

Panel 1
ゴトンゴトン
ba-thump, ba-thump

Panel 2
チーッチーッ
screech, screech

The End.

Daiba, Page 23

2010-01-21T17:00:00.001-08:00

This is the text for page 23.

Panel 1
三好さんは?
Mr. Miyoshi?

おまえなにもわかっちゃいないんだね
You really don't know, do you.

Panel 2
二人逃げたんだよ。二人で
They left. Both of them.

Panel 3
だからお前はもう工場にこなくていいんだよ
Therefore, it'd be better if you left the shop, too.

.....................

Daiba, Page 22

2010-01-20T18:41:00.000-08:00

This is the text for page 22.

Panel 1
おれもう足治ったんだ
Look, my leg's all better.

Panel 2
オカミさんも三好さんも出かけているらしいよ
I guess Mrs. Okami and Mr. Miyoshi are out now.

Panel 3
おおまえ一人でなにやってんだ
You, what are you alone here for?

?

Panel 4
オカミさんはおとち夜逃げしたんだよ。おまえ。。。
Mrs. Okami skipped out last night. You...

Technically, he doesn't really say that it happened last night, but if I just say "she skipped out", the sentence feels incomplete. We need to say when. And, since Yoshi is just now wondering why they're not in yet today, we have to assume that they split the night before.

Also, the old man thinks that Yoshi was in on the scam.

夜逃げ?。。。
Skipped out?...

Panel 5
たいそうな借金があったそうじゃねえか。工場だってとっくに人手に渡っていたんだとよ
Looks that way. She has lots of debts, right? And the factory is owned by someone else.

Daiba, Page 21

2010-01-19T16:26:00.000-08:00

This is the text for page 21.

Panel 1
ゴトンゴトン
ba-thump, ba-thump

Panel 2
おかしいな?
That's strange.

Panel 3
オカミさんも三好さんもどこへ行ってんだろ。もう昼じゃねえか。
Did Mrs. Okami and Mr. Miyoshi go somewhere? It's almost noon.

Panel 4
あれ義ぼうじゃねえか
Ah, if it isn't Yoshi.

あおじさん久しぶり
Oh, it's been a while, sir.

English really doesn't handle titles well like Japanese does. Calling the senbei seller "uncle" would sound strange, and Yoshi is actually being polite. It's better to use "sir".

One thing about "hisashiburi" is that there's no real sense of how much time has passed. It kind of feels like a week went by and the boy's foot has healed, but it's just as likely that the two adults skipped the night after getting the loan money and then it would have been less than 24 hours since Yoshi last saw the old man. Tsuge doesn't tell us how long it's been, so it's better to just leave this vague.

Daiba, Page 20

2010-01-18T15:57:00.000-08:00

This is the text for page 20.

Panel 2
ゴトンゴトン
ba-thump, ba-thump

Daiba, Page 19

2010-01-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

This is the text for page 19.

Panel 1
よけいな心配するんじゃねえや
Don't worry needlessly about it.

センベイ屋のおじさんがお金貸してくれたから大丈夫
It's ok. The senbei baker is loaning us some money.

Panel 2
一週間も休めばよくなるだろう
Rest, and you'll be healed in a week.

Panel 3
おおれ平気だよ
I, I'm fine now!

Panel 4
おれ休まなくとも平気だよ
I don't need rest, I'm fine now!

Panel 5
無理すんなよそんな大ヤケドで働けるかよ
Don't push yourself. You think you can work like that?

"muri sunna" is "don't over do it". "sonna oo-kenga de" is "with a severe injury like that". I ran out of room in the word balloon, so I just implied the severity of the wound in "like that?"

Panel 6
おれ休みたくねえんだ。家にいたくねえんだ
I don' wanna rest. I don' wanna stay inside.

He's starting to act like a petulant child, so I'm using "don' wanna" baby speak.

Panel 7
三好さん治るまでこの部屋におかせてくれよ
Mr. Miyoshi, until I'm better, you can stay here.

無理いうんじゃねえよ
Don't be silly.

Daiba, Page 18

2010-01-16T13:52:00.000-08:00

This is the text for page 18.

Panel 1
どうしたのよこの子は?
Child, are you ok?

Literally, this is "what's wrong, this child", but the "this child" is actually directed at the boy, making "child, what's wrong?" Basically, it has the sense of "are you ok?", which is the more common English response in this kind of situation. So that's what I went with.

Panel 2
ズボンがぼろぼろだわ
His pants are a mess.

Panel 3
硫酸が長靴の中に入ったんじゃ。たまんねえな
The acid got inside his boot. I feel for him.

"tamen nee" is essentially "I can't stand it". Meaning that the old guy is empathizing with the boy's pain, and he dislikes the fact that the boy is going through this. "I feel for him" may be the closest English equivalent.

Panel 4
オカミさん硫酸どうしよう
Mrs. Okami, what about the acid?

Daiba, Page 17

2010-01-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

This is the text for page 17.

Panel 1
一升じゃしようがないよ一升
No choice but a 1-shou size.

Panel 2
ドン
bump

Panel 3
ガチン
crack

Panel 4
アッ
Ah-!

Daiba, Page 16

2010-01-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

This is the text for page 16.

Panel 1
サビを落としてから磨くからな義ぼう硫酸の中にほうりこんで来てくれ
If it's rusty, don't polish it. Just throw it in some sulfuric acid.

sabi o otoshite kara = if it's become rusty.

OK

Panel 2
いそがしくなってきたぞ
I've just gotten busy.

Panel 3
だけどここんとこ真鍮ものばかりやってたから硫酸使ってねんだ
But, with all this brass, we don't have enough acid.

Panel 4
じゃ一カメ買ってこい
Well, buy a bottle and come back.

There are three ways this could go. Miyoshi could be asking Okami to go buy the acid; he could be volunteering to do it himself, or he could be telling the boy to go. The "katte koi" is "buy and come back here", indicating that he's talking to the boy.

"ichi kame" is an old-style measurement, where a "kame" was a pottery jar, so "one jar". Since the boy is shown in the next page bringing an "ichi shou" container back on his bike and it looks like a sake bottle, I just went with "buy a bottle".

Panel 5
三好さんいまちょっと。。。あたしね
Mr. Miyoshi, it's, well... I...

Okami is a penny pincher but she doesn't want to directly come out and say it. So, she spends a lot of time stuttering helplessly here.

そうか。。。おれも文なしだな
I see, I don't have a cent either.

A "mon" is an old type of coin no longer in use. Basically, the guy's saying that he's broke.

二升もあれば水でうすめてなんとかなるよ
If they have a 2-shou size, I'll get that and just add water.

"-shou" was also an old unit of measure, which is still sometimes used for sake bottles. The boy's saying that they'll go with a smaller size but it'll still be the same strength. Then they'll dilute it to get the volume needed for the amount of work they've got.

Daiba, Page 15

2010-01-13T15:26:00.000-08:00

This is the text for page 15.

Panel 1
これ? ピストルの弾みたいだな
This? It looks like a pistol bullet.

Panel 2
散弾だよ。バク弾の中にごっそりつめこんどくんだ
It's shot. They're packed into bombs to increase the damage.

The second sentence is a little vague to me, so I ended up rewording it a bit to make the purpose of the shot clearer.

Panel 3
アメちゃんの仕事だからな金払いはいいぜ
It's work from the Yanks, so the pay will be good.

"Ame-chan" is a slightly derogatory word meaning "America". I used "yanks" in this case to show that he's being less polite than if he had said "it's work from America".

Panel 4
やっぱり下請けなの
Figures, piecework then.

しかたねえだろ
Can't be helped.

Panel 5
この板のくぼみに乗せてな
Place one in this board.

Panel 6
ちょいとバフに当てると回転するだろう
Just give it a quick buff.

チー
squeal

Panel 7
これで磨けているんだ。一日五千個は磨かないと日当にならんぞ
With this, it's polished. You can do 5000 in one day.

Daiba, Page 14

2010-01-12T16:37:00.000-08:00

This is the text for page 14.

Panel 1
そりゃな研磨だけよりメッキをやったほうがもうかるけどな。だけど設備だけあってもニッケル板やクロム板が無いんじゃ話にならねえや
It's true plating pays better than polishing. But unless you have some nickel or chrome, it's not worth discussing.

ban (板) is "sheet". So, "sheet of nickel or sheet of chrome". I dropped sheet because the amount of the metal is question is not explained. It's easier to just say "some nickel".

"hanashi ni naranee" is a masculine form of "hanashi ni naranai", or "it's not worth talking about."

Panel 2
オカミさん金に困って売っちゃったんだってさ
Mrs. Okami is worried about the money, but we could still sell it.

いまニッケル買おうと思ったら目の玉とびでるぞ
If you tried buying nickel now, your eyes would pop out of your head.

That is, the price of nickel would surprise you.

Panel 3
朝鮮戦争が始まってなニッケル不足なんだとよ
Now with the Korean war, nickel's gotten scarce.

頑張ってさニッケル買おうよ
I'll try it anyway!

Gambatte sa = I'll do my best, or I'll try hard
nikkeru kaou yo = nickel buy

Rather than try to work with something like "We'll try our hardest and buy it", I just implied that they would do their best and emphasized it with the exclamation mark.

Panel 4
まあそのうちにみてろよ
Well, one of these days, anyway.

Panel 5
三好さん新しい仕事とどいたわよ
Mr. Yoyoshi, we received new work.

Daiba, Page 13

2010-01-11T17:04:00.001-08:00

This is the text for page 13.

Panel 1
いいだろこの部屋おれが使いたかったんだ
This room's ok, right? It used to be mine.

Panel 2
ここおれが直しておいたんだぜ
I fixed this place up.

Panel 3
三好さんこれからは磨きだけじゃなくメッキもやろうね
Mr. Miyoshi, from now, we'll not just do polishing, we'll do plating too.

まあな
Yeah, well...

The "maa na" is an ambivalent response meaning that the guy's not convinced. That's why I used the equivalent "yeah, well..."

Panel 4
タンクだって発電機だってあるんだからよ
Because we've got the tank, and the generator.

Daiba, Page 12

2010-01-10T16:51:00.000-08:00

This is the text for page 12.
Panel 1
四歩五歩
Four, five...

Panel 2
八歩九歩
Eight, nine...

Panel 3
すげえや三好さん
That's great, Mr Miyoshi!

Panel 4
へっへへへへ
Heh, heh heh.

Panel 5
三好さんもと予科練で体操やっていたんだってよ
Mr. Miyoshi says he used to do gymnastics.

どうりで
No wonder!