King of Thorn Vol. 1 - Review
January 31, 2008
Creator: Yuji Iwahara
Publisher: TokyoPop
Age Rating: Older Teen
Genre: Action
RRP: $9.99
Review by: Kristen
Date of review: 10/31/08
Kasumi and her sister, Shizuku, were infected with the Medusa virus, which slowly turns their victim to stone-and there is no cure! Hope for salvation rests in Kasumi and a select few who are put into a cryogenically frozen state until a cure is found. But Shizuku is left behind, and in the not too distant future, Kasumi awakens to find herself in an unfamiliar world with terrifying beings roaming the terrain.
Resolving to unlock the mysteries of the disease and the fate of her twin sister, Kasumi struggles to survive in this treacherous world!
Based upon the plot above, I expected an average manga thriller, perhaps with moe vibes based on the cover image. What I got was a pleasant surprise.
Kasumi wakes up after an untold amount of time in the cryo-lab, which is now covered in leafy vegetation. Almost immediately the pace is set-they are immediately attacked by several monstrosities. Others wake with her, including a suspicious tattooed man and a man who claims to be a senator. Those who escape the initial attack crawl through the remains of the building, looking for a way to survive.
The art style is very heavy-the lines are thick, and a lot of black ink is used when drawing in mountain sides and dark backgrounds. It really adds to the atmosphere of this work. The character designs are not meant to be attractive, but rather, realistic, and the main cast of survivors has a nice balance to it. The best pieces of art are the myriad of creatures the survivors must deal with, though they may not be the most imaginative. Dinosaurs have been done before.
The story and pacing are where this manga really excels. It builds up a nice sense of suspense, and the story moves at a pace that feels real, though this is agonizingly slow for those of you who are used to manga that shock you with a plot twist every few pages. Any information is revealed slowly, and in a way that does not over dramatize it, which is a nice change. The journey and trials the characters go through are relentless, and even as a reader it is easy to feel breathless and worn down along with the characters.
The characters themselves are somewhat less developed than the world they inhabit, however. The only ones that are truly memorable are Kasumi and the tattooed man, whose name is revealed near the end of the book. This makes it easy for a reader to empathize with the situation, to some degree, but you also care less about what happens to underdeveloped characters, as well. This manga is not emotional, or at least not yet. It relies more on action and thrills than weepy lamentation, though that could change with the next book.
I hope the quality keeps up with the next installment, and that something gets revealed. This book toes the line between realism and annoying slowness, and shows signs of succumbing to the “multi page action scene with no text” syndrome. However, as of now, it’s definitely a series starter to pick up, especially if you enjoy thriller manga.
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Final Score
B
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Randall Duk Kim to Play Dragonball’s Grandpa Gohan
January 31, 2008
Randall Duk Kim, the actor best known for playing The Keymaker in The Matrix Reloaded, announced on his website that he will play Gohan in Twentieth Century Fox’s live action adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga. Kim will also voice a character named Oogway in DreamWorks Animation’s Kung-Fu Panda computer-graphics film. Kim’s Gohan character raised the main character Goku (Justin Chatwin) in the manga, and is not to be confused with Goku’s more famous son of the same name.
In a separate development, the TV Guide magazine has interviewed actor James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) about his return to the Smallville television series as Brainiac and his anti-hero role of Lord Piccolo in the Dragon Ball movie. Marsters says, “I’ve been told I’m working for people who will just flay me alive if I give too much information, but what I can tell you is the character is green, bald, and has pointed ears. Heroic wouldn’t be the wrong term by the end, but it’s a long journey.”
In addition to Chatwin, Marsters, and Kim, the cast includes Emmy Rossum (The Phantom of the Opera film, The Day After Tomorrow) as Bulma, Eriko Tamura (Heroes) as Mai, Jamie Chung (The Real World) as Chi Chi, Joon Park (Speed Racer) as Yamcha, and Chow Yun-Fat (A Better Tomorrow, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End) as Master Roshi. Shooting has begun in Mexico City, and the studio is planning for an August 15 release
Ikuze! Gen-san Anime, PSP Game Announced
January 30, 2008
Japan’s Irem Software Engineering (R-Type, Steambot Chronicles) has announced on January 29 that its Gen-san game franchise will spawn Ikuze ! Gen San (Let’s Go! Gen-san), the first anime and psp game based on the hammer-wielding boy hero. The earlier Daik? Gen-san (Carpenter Gen-san) arcade and Super Nintendo Entertainment System games were adapted into English as Hammerin’ Harry in the Nineties. The anime version will not be broadcasted, but streamed for free on the GyaO ideo service in Japan starting March 24. Each of the 24 planned episodes is expected to be about nine minutes long. The PSP game, Ikuze! Gen-san: Y?yake Daiku Monogatari (Let’s Go! Gen-san: The Sunset Carpenter Story), will ship this spring. The Famitsu game news resource has posted a video of the announcement.
The slapstick comedy centers on Genz? Tamura, a 19-year-old third-generation construction worker in the working-class neighborhood of Beranme. When the Kuromoku Group urban developers threatens the neighborhood with Chainsaw Mika and Dynamite Dan, Tamura must save his town with his trusty hammer.
Kappei Yamaguchi (Case Closed/Detective Conan’s Shin’ichi Kudo, Death Note’s L) will voice the title character, while gravure photograph idol Azusa Yamamoto (Wa Wa Wa Wappi- chan’s Wappi-chan) will play Kanna Kirishima, his childhood friend and daughter of his boss. Yoshiaki Okumura (Bakkyuu HIT! Crash Bedaman will direct the anime based on the scripts edited by
Katsumi Hasegawa (Bakuten Shoot Beyblade G Revolution, Maze, Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight). Nippon Animation’s Nippon Animedia (Bedaman, Beyblade 2002) will animate the characters designed by
Sonomi Aramaki (key animator of Barefoot Gen 2, NieA 7).
Adult Swim to Run 52 More Episodes of Bleach
January 29, 2008
The North American anime distributor Viz Media has confirmed that the Adult Swim television network will run 52 more episodes of the Bleach supernatural fighting anime series. Adult Swim ran the first 52 episodes between 2006 and 2007, and its online schedule already confirmed that episode 53 would premiere in English on March 1. The next 52 episodes will complete the Soul Society Rescue story arc and, barring changes, launch the Bount story arcs that are unique to the anime version. (These Bount story arcs contain plotlines written specifically for the anime, as opposed to Kubotite’s original manga.) The 158th episode will air in Japan on Wednesday.
New Videocast - Perfect Blue
January 29, 2008
A review of the Perfect Blue done by Douglas. Enjoy and please comment.
Perfect Blue
Gonzo Animates Dream Theater’s “Forsaken” Music Video
January 28, 2008
The Japanese animation studio Gonzo and director Yasufumi Soejima (the unreleased Mardock Scramble project) have created a music video for the Dream Theater metal band’s song “Forsaken,” and the video will premiere on Headbanger’s Ball program in the United States on Saturday night. The video is already available on the Headbanger’s Blog on the MTV website. The video’s executive producer Joey Goubeaud of Amusement Park Media coordinated the efforts between Dream Theater and GONZO.
According to an question-and-answer session provided by the music video’s producers, the band based the song on Ivan Turgenev’s “Phantoms” short story about an enigmatic woman who haunts a man as he travels the world. However, instead of the 19th century setting of the short story, the band agreed with Soejima’s decision to place the music video in a future science-fiction setting. Soejima said the video’s male lead is an innocent man abandoned and jailed by an “inhumane world.” The female lead (who is described as “an apparition, a restless soul, an evil spirit, a sylphide, a vampire” or something else entirely in Turgenev’s story) is “an android that was made as the toy of [an] ancient regime.”
Soejima had previously worked with the American band Linkin Park, The Stranglers of England, and the Japanese musician Perfume. (Linkin Park created the “Breaking the Habit” music video with another Japanese animation firm, Studio 4c Notably, Jean Jacques Burnel of The Stranglers contributed several pieces to the soundtrack of GONZO’s Gankutsuou: The Count Of Monte Cristo an anime series for which Soejima was the digital director and textile designer. Soejima said he would like to do more music videos in the future.
W-Juliet’s Emura Launches Kyo mo Ashita mo Manga
January 25, 2008
Emura, the creator of the W-Juliet romance manga, will launch a new title called Ky? mo Ashita mo (Today and Tomorrow Too) in this year’s fifth issue (on sale on February 5) of Hakusensha’s biweekly Hana to Yume shojo manga magazine. The announcement was made in the magazine’s current, fourth issue (released on January 20). The comedy story centers on a girl who dreams of being a manga artist against the wishes of her family. So, the girl secretly works on her manga without her family’s knowledge. Viz Media published all 14 volumes of W-Juliet in North America. Emura is also drawing a W-Juliet II sequel in Hakusensha’s irregularly published Za Hana to Yume (The Hana to Yume) spinoff magazine.
Viz to Pitch Monster, Hunter X Hunter at TV Conference
January 24, 2008
Viz Media has unveiled the lineup it plans to offer to potential broadcasters at this year’s National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) conference, which opens on January 28 in Las Vegas. Viz will be bringing exhibiting a total of nine anime series at NATPE. Two of these, the 75-episode Monster and the 62-episode Hunter X Hunter are adaptations of manga titles that Viz publishes, but the anime themselves have not yet been officially confirmed for an American release. According to Viz’s profile on the conference website, the company holds dvd rights for both series (as well as all the other showcased titles except Deko Boko Friends..
The North American release of several of the other showcased series have been announced throughout 2007, but their DVDs have not yet shipped. These include Blue Dragon, Busou Renkin, Honey And Clover, and NANA. The final three shows that will be exhibited (Naruto, Bleach, and the children’s anime Deko Boko Friends) are all currently being broadcast on American cable/satellite channels Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Viz Media presented some of these titles at previous NATPE conferences.
Indonesian Child Dies After Reportedly Imitating Anime
January 22, 2008
Mutammimul Ula, a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) member of Indonesia’s parliament, has criticized the country’s broadcasting regulatory agency for being too lax after a boy allegedly strangled himself while imitating a character from the Naruto anime. Ula called on the agency, which is known as the Komisi Penyiaran Indonesia (KPI or Indonesian Broadcasting Commission), to be more strict in dealing with various television programs. He specifically named Naruto, saying that it “contains violence and caused a boy to take his own life.” He adds, “Many people still don’t realize that comics are not necessarily for children. That very much depends on the substance.”
The KPI’s mandate includes setting the rules for content of all programs on broadcast and cable television. However, it has been reduced in recent years to a consultative body.
New Live-Action Blood the Last Vampire Photos Leaked
January 22, 2008
The Chinese QxWar online forum is hosting photographs that were reportedly leaked from the sets of the live-action Blood: The Last Vampire film. (The linked site is image-intensive and contains potential spoilers for the plot of the film.) Director Chris Nahon (Empire of the Wolves) is directing this adaptation of Production I.G’s 2000 animated film. with Korean actress Giana Jun (My Sassy Girl’s female lead Jun Ji-Hyun) starring as Saya. Saya is apparently the last vampire on Earth who now hunts teropterids or vampire-like demons. The photographs include two other actresses in the film: Japan’s Koyuki (The Last Samurai’s Taka) and America’s Allison Miller.
