Showing posts with label manga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manga. Show all posts

Friday 10 February 2012

Yuki Kaori

Angel Sanctuary by Yuki Kaori was one of the first scanlations my sister and I read, back in the days when manga were still not yet widely published in English. Its themes of heaven and hell, corrupt angels and ambiguous demons were gripping. The biggest draw for me though, was the dark gothic drawing style.






Angel Sanctuary is definitely one of the classics, but my favourite by Yuki-san is Count Cain, and Godchild, a series set in Victorian England about an aristocrat with an interest in poisons, who for some reason is always embroiled in murder mysteries and also happens to have a really dark family secret. How much more Gothic can you get? Oh yes, by referencing lots of creepy nursery rhymes and fairytales...






I'm sure it's no surprise that her catalog of work also includes stories about vampires, fairies, and possessed puppets.

Yuki-san, along with Chobits by CLAMP and Yazawa Ai's work, introduced me to the various Lolita styles. It definitely fed my partiality to full skirts, lace and ruffles...

Friday 15 April 2011

CLAMP

Ah. The manga royalty that is CLAMP, the female quartet with an extensive back catalogue of internationally popular manga series, most of which have also been made into anime.

I first knew of them via the candy floss of classic shoujo manga Cardcaptor Sakura and fell in love with their artwork.


Cardcaptor Sakura

Their earlier series, like RG Veda, Magic Knight Rayearth and X/1999, were beautifully ornate, but rather dark and claustrophobic in style.


X/1999

CLOVER, on the other hand, the cyber punk love story with its distinctive use of negative space, had me hooked and pining for an ending after it went on indefinite hiatus.


CLOVER

I also liked their seinen series Chobits, about a mysterious android with free will and human emotions. I loved the costume design and soft colours they used. It really showcased CLAMP's wonderful grasp of the Goth Loli fashion style and indulged in lace and petticoats whilst pondering over existential angst.


Chobits

My favourites though have to be Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and xxxHolic. The epic plots are complex - Tsubasa finished at 28 volumes and xxxHolic at 19...


Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles

...suffice to say that the two series are about fate and destiny, parallel and alternate universes and are distinct in style and story but have a strong common overriding arch. The CLAMP team had a field day intersecting story lines, space-time travelling and crossing over characters from all their previous works left, right and centre.


xxxHolic

CLAMP have also done many novel illustrations and original character designs, including those for the anime series Code Geass.


Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

And I'm very excited about their newest series, Gate 7, mainly because of this:
"Between our conscious, waking world and the subconscious state of slumber, there is a thinly veiled plane of lucid dreaming. While the conscious state belongs to individuals, the hidden plane of dreams is one shared by all human minds, past, present, and future..."

Gate 7

What I love about CLAMP is that not only are both their colour and black and white work incredibly beautiful, their stories are interesting, which ultimately is what drives good manga. Long may they reign!

Official site (Japanese) CLAMP-net

Friday 7 January 2011

Yazawa Ai


Two of my favourite manga are Paradise Love and Nana, stories by the amazing Yazawa Ai-san. Drawn in her distinctive Gothic Lolita style, they are both tales about love, friendship and dreams.

 

Paradise Kiss is heaven for the fashion lover. The story follows an ordinary girl who becomes muse and model to an eccentric group of college students as they set up their own clothing label. If Yazawa-san was a designer...!


Nana is a tale of two young women with the same name who meet on a train to Tokyo. They become best friends and go through the trials of following their dreams in the big city together.


As one of the girls is a member of an up and coming band, there's plenty of music and passion, and some Vivienne Westwood thrown in for good measure too.


Nana has spawned an anime series and live action movies, with music written for them by big name J-rock and J-pop singers, some in character no less!

Anna Tsuchiya as Nana Oosaki of Blast (L) and Olivia Lufkin as Reira of Trapnest (R)

Sadly, the story remains unfinished as Yazawa-san has been ill and Nana is on hold...

Both the Paradise Kiss and Nana manga series are available in English, licensed by Tokyopop and Viz Media respectively.

Manga images © Yazawa Ai

Sunday 28 November 2010

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

Ah. The anime of my childhood. I loved it. I loved the idea of strong girl soldiers fighting to defend the earth, loved their friendship, loved the story.


A story of reincarnated planetary warriors who could transform into powerful intergalactic fighters, with time travel and story references to astrology and Greek and Roman mythology, was great escapism.


The music of Sailor Moon was a great obsession for me. It still is. The score and songs are so iconic. I downloaded everything I could from sites dedicated to it and learnt to play some on the piano. Back when Napster was still used for free mp3 download, I found so many obscure pieces on there. Sailor Moon music played a huge part in leading me to anime music, and to J-Pop and J-Rock.


And then there was Naoko Takeuchi-san's original manga work and colour artbooks that she did for the series. I scoured everywhere to get my hands on the Cantonese version of the manga. The artbooks are now all out of print and surface on ebay now and again selling for hundreds of dollars.


Word has it that the anime is being re-aired in Japan and other places. Here's to another generation of girls (and boys!) who'll become fans of the ai no senshi.

Artbook images from Mangastyle © Takeuchi Naoko ~*~