24 July 2014

More Iwaaki Goodness

As mentioned a few posts ago, Iwaaki's Snow Ridge, Sword Dance is now out. Much thanks go out to Illuminati-Manga for scanning, cleaning, typesetting and QC'ing. This 300-page volume is just two long oneshots joined together. Here's a short synopsis I wrote for illuminati-manga (my apologies beforehand if it sounds more pretentious than it needs to be):
The closing stages of Sengoku (Warring States) Japan. A setting commonly explored in Japanese manga through vivid scenes of gory battles, samurai, and feats of bravery, honour, and loyalty. Iwaaki Hitoshi dares to go against the popular grain by not focusing on the 3 famous unifiers, but by depicting stories of a society in transition. Rapidly changing cultural norms and class expectations pit the old versus the young, the war-weary versus the war-mongers, and the parochial versus the foward-thinking. The first story, "Snow Ridge," explores the changing role of samurai and provinces while the second story, "Sword Dance," deals with kendo's early evolution from warfare to art.
I personally preferred the first story, but both are quite good as Iwaaki nicely reinforces the themes of both stories consistently through the various character and plot conflicts.
In addition, last month's chapter of Historie is now finally out as well. The next chapter will come in August. I also included the untranslated the two page coverage of the upcoming live-action film of Iwaaki's Parasyte, just in case there's anyone interested and can read Japanese.

Download
Snow Ridge, Sword Dance:   Mega;   Sendspace
Historie c86:   Sendspace
Hox's Mega Manga Folder
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18 comments:

  1. Anonymous24 July 2014 at 09:12

    HISTORIEEEEE! Iwaaki <3

    Thanks Hox!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous24 July 2014 at 09:17

    thx so much Hox
    even though I looked at the raws as soon as they were available, it was small torture to wait for your work ;)

    have fun,

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous24 July 2014 at 13:21

    Wow, trying to pull my heartstrings I see.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous24 July 2014 at 17:38

    Thanks so much for the "Historie" manga c:

    ReplyDelete
  5. Doomroar24 July 2014 at 18:21

    Thanks so much for Historie, but Snow Ridge, Sword Dance has to take the cake this time Iwaaki never disappoints me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. r.a.b24 July 2014 at 19:49

    Thanks a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous24 July 2014 at 20:14

    Parasyte the live action movie?!?! Awesome!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hox25 July 2014 at 02:17

      Yeah, it's a two-parter. First half is coming this fall, second half in 2015. My expectations aren't high, but who knows?

      Delete
    2. Doomroar25 July 2014 at 08:58

      Well i sure hope they get to at least keep the commentary and not deviate too much, that is actually my favorite manga! (since i haven't finished The World is Mine).

      Delete
  8. Anonymous24 July 2014 at 21:05

    Wow! I bought that manga while in Japan hoping that someday I might be able to read it (still far from being able to read a manga of that level) since it was the only one of his that hadn't been translated yet. Anyway, thanks for all the work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hox25 July 2014 at 02:18

      Fuuko no Iru Mise is not yet fully translated so there's that as well.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous25 July 2014 at 00:19

    Thanks very much for Snow Ridge, Sword Dance. This is probably the best manga I've read in a long time. Snow Ridge has great depth like a well narrated history/legend but Sword Dance plucks at my heartstrings, simply beautiful!

    Thank you,

    ReplyDelete
  10. auriga25 July 2014 at 00:47

    Thanks! :D

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous25 July 2014 at 06:37

    Historie ch86 pg28, right text: "across horizons" appears twice.

    Man, that was a cool chapter.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous26 July 2014 at 05:15

    Arigato!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous26 July 2014 at 09:59

    Iwaaki is quite the fan of tragedy.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous18 December 2015 at 20:39

    Historie c86's link is dead. Please upload if possible. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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