It's a rarity when you find artists who can grab your attention in an instant even as you're skimming through different manga. Takahashi Yousuke is definitely that sort of artist for me. Although he's an old-timer who made his debut all the way back in '77, I only found about him relatively recently, after hearing that he's adored by (and influenced) guys like Fujita Kazuhiro and Hirano Kouta. And man, no wonder why. His line-work is really something. There's something so seductive about the curves made out by his pen. Same sort of quality that drew me to Hellsing's art. I'll try to do a more in-depth analysis of his artwork in my next some thoughts post, so I'll stop gushing about him for now.
I'm working off the raws of his oneshot collection titled Tetsunagi Oni, but it's actually a reprint-edition which includes both
Maneater ('97) and
Tetsunagi Oni ('00), which are both oneshot collections. I'll be splitting it for the release so it'll be less confusing for the people who manage scanlation databases. Some of the stories are regrettably "flat" but I want to try and raise more interest in his art. Plus, I realized I've been doing only historical stuff as of late so I thought it'd be a good project to do while doing more Chinggis (v2 coming shortly) and Sangokushi (resuming this week). Release pace will be 1~2 chapters per week. There's 23 chapters in total for this 380-page 2 volume.
P S. His earlier art is actually more experimental in line-work, but I'm a fan of both his old and new styles.
Download:
Maneater c01: Sendspace
Maneater c02-03: Sendspace
Maneater c04-05: Sendspace
Could you possibly go for Gakkou Kaidan? It reminds me of the similiarly absurd Kizutsuki Yasui Seishun, but is a longer work and has a more vector-like style.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind but it's 15 volumes. I already have in mind which long-projects I'm going to be working on for at least a decade so I'm really only open to suggestions for short projects.
ReplyDeleteI'll keep that in mind then for my next request. I don't mind you going for two oneshot collections, so thanks a lot for picking those up.
DeleteNot only Gakkou Kaidan, but Mononoke Soushi was started and abandoned too, a long with Yosuke no Kimyou na Sekai and another one of his works, the point is that it seems that people find the guy, start working on his stuff, and then they die, the project is abandoned, so now we have a bunch of started series that stop half way.
ReplyDeleteThis could be quite a thing, to finally see his work fully translated, even if is a oneshot.
Is Yosuke no Kimyou na Sekai the one where the little girl sees giant monsters, is in a sketchy art style, and pretty much everything goes horribly for her that got 2 chapters scanlated? I forgot about that.
DeleteBy which I mean this (I don't see any DDLs anywhere):
Deletehttp://manga.animea.net/yosuke-no-kimyou-na-sekai-chapter-1.html
Yeah that one looked so promising, and yet no idea why it was abandoned.
DeleteHm. I'm not sure if that's actually it. I downloaded the raws, and they look nothing alike. I haven't downloaded v1 yet, though, so we'll see.
DeleteThank you very much, Hox! Your word choices are really good.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much.
ReplyDeleteAhh, I forgot about this artist. Thanks. Love the linework. I've only read The Time Milk Wound the Spring, which was great. That was a 1980 oneshot, right? Do you know if he did any other oneshots? I'd hate for them to fall into obscurity.
ReplyDeleteYeah, he's done a ton of oneshots. Most raws of his works that I can find are simply anthologies of his oneshots, like this one I'm working on right now. I'll move on to his earlier stuff sometime after I work my way through these two.
DeleteI'm wondering if Milk (傷つきやすい青春) was reprinted into an anthology. Can you tell? I've only been able to find a few potentially-useful links so far. I'm mainly interested in whether he has some wayward oneshots that haven't been collected yet.
Deletehttp://atoaziwarui.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-1047.html
http://yousuke.mysterious.jp/yousuketyosakulist.html
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AB%98%E6%A9%8B%E8%91%89%E4%BB%8B
Searched using the wrong moon, so that first link is probably useless.
Deleteミルクがねじを回す時
After searching correctly, it seems that it was collected into his Strange World series (ミルクがねじを回す時 (ヨウスケの奇妙な世界 (9))), so there probably aren't that many wayward oneshots. Sorry for the multiple comments (you can delete them to make it less cluttered if you want).
DeleteThanks for working on TY. Do you have a to-do list for his stuff currently? Wondering what'll come after these two.
ReplyDeleteDo you know anything about the recent releases (that appear to be either anthologies or reprints)?
ReplyDeleteFor example, ISBN 4257724250 vs 4257915110
I'm guessing they're 2-in-1 deals.
Yeah, you guessed right. They're 2-in-1 deals, just like the Tetsunagi Oni reprint edition raws I'm working with right now, which combine Man Eater and Tetsunagi Oni.
DeleteHi, chapter 2-3 link is gone. Could you please refresh? Thanks so much.
ReplyDeleteYes, but it's just a blog entry about a guy who had the chance to meet both of them at Kyoto, not that the mangaka were hanging out together. Not sure how aware the two are of each other's style and stories.
ReplyDelete