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This Week in Anime - Shigeru Mizuki




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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1502
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2023 8:41 pm Reply with quote
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The man was passionate, but he also described himself as spending his life "half-asleep," wryly contrasting his more laid-back work ethic with Tezuka's all-nighters. Tezuka, notably, died at age 60, while Mizuki was active into his 93rd year. There's value in taking it easy.

Enough value that Mizuki wrote a whole mini-comic about that exact contrast, to the point of throwing Shotaro Ishinomori in there too.
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Fluwm



Joined: 28 Jul 2009
Posts: 890
PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2023 8:41 am Reply with quote
This kind of thing is precisely why TWIA is my favorite feature on ANN. Shigeru Mizuki is someone I'm not sure id ever heard of before, but if i had, i probably would have dismissed their work out of hand simply because... I just don't care for horror. But now that I know all that context? It makes me want to check it out. And I'll definitely be starting with Onward To Our Noble Deaths (already ordered a copy!) -- really glad you took the time to highlight it,

And it occurs to me that most of the post-war Japanese media I've consumed about the War has been more metaphorical than the more literal or semi-autobiographical nature here (EG Kurosawa).

The point about Mizuki's work generally nit being well-known outside of Japan, sadly, is a familiar one. If one of my all-tome favorite manga artists is stuck in a similar position (Adachi Mitsuru!), surely I owe it to myself to read Mizuki's stuff, too, right?
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2023 12:47 pm Reply with quote
The Kitarou Tanjou movie opened last week in Japan. I have heard nothing about whether we will be able to see it legally in the US.

Another version of Kitarou's origin story appeared as the 2007 noitaminA series, Hakaba Kitarou ("Graveyard Kitarou"). It hews more closely to Mizuki's original manga and has a stronger emphasis on the horror aspects. Mizuki and his wife appear at one point in the story.

Episode 20 of the 2018 version of GeGeGe no Kitarou is an anime-original piece by the writers at Toei that draws on Mizuki's experiences in New Guinea. It ranks at the top of my list as the best single episode by any show that year as it pointedly indicts the Japanese educational system for whitewashing the country's role in WWII.

Mizuki's home town, Sakaiminato, constructed some 100 stone statues depicting his works and characters.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1023598-d1508907-Reviews-The_Mizuki_Shigeru_Road-Sakaiminato_Tottori_Prefecture_Chugoku.html



The 2018 series riffs on this fact when Mana visits Sakaiminato and encounters a demon that turns people into stone statues. I had no idea of this reference the first time I watched the show.
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