Chinggis and Philip

Well, I (Happyscans is blameless) took a break last month, but here's this month's release of Chinggis Khan. Only 2 more volumes to go, so we'll probably finish it off by Christmas. If you've read Ratchnevsky's Genghis Khan, His Life and Legacy as I've recommended before, you'll find the sequence of events from Jamuka's election as Gurkhan to the campaigns against Tartars, Merkits, and Naimans in the Secret History of Mongols (which Yokoyama follows) pretty interesting. I get the feeling that a possible reason for the skewed order may be to make the anti-mongol/Kereit alliance look more like aggressors without a proper casus belli. In any case, I liked how Yokoyama gave more detail on Jamuka's actions and whereabouts. Makes it a lot easier to follow than the Secret History.

New Historie is also out, hurray! I've never heard of the shorter sarissa thing in any account for the Battle of Chaeronea, so if that's a thing that Iwaaki himself came up with, I'd have to say it's a pretty cool addition as I think the battle makes even more sense that way. Also, if you're interested at all in Greek hoplite warfare, A Storm of Spears by Christopher Matthew is a MUST. READ. It'll be interesting to see how military historians in the coming years will either adopt or argue against Matthews' exhaustive arguments. My bet is on the decline of literal othismos and overarm-supporters once the older generation of academics retire. V.D. Hanson can get rekt for all I care.

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Chinggis Khan v3:   Mega;   Sendspace
Historie c88:   Sendspace
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Maneater/Tetsunagi Oni (half done)

I was planning to do more frequent and regular releases, but my life schedule is forcing me to do short bursts of releases instead. So here's chapter 6-11 of Maneater, which finishes up Maneater but only marks the half-way point of the re-released edition of Tetsunagi-Oni which includes both Maneater and Testunagi-Oni for a ~380 page volume as I mentioned before. Although I'm doing this oneshot collection more of as a showcase of Takahashi's art style since many of its stories, although amusing if you like black humour, aren't particularly impressive, there are a few chapters that I like the more I read them. In Maneater, even though I think the titular chapter "Maneater" will no doubt be most people's favourite, the above-pictured "Who's Being Hanged" is the real silent creeper for me due to its possible implications, whether intended by Takahashi or not.

In the second-half, Testunagi-Oni, I have a feeling either Takahashi himself or his usual readers responded most favourably to the titular chapter "Tetsunagi-Oni," hence the collection's title, but "My Father's Face" is by far more chilling for its social commentary. You'll see what I mean when I get to it.

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Maneater:   Sendspace

66.666666666666666666666666666666666%

I bring you a batch release of chapters 258-265, which finishes off volume 40 meaning....... I'm now 66.666666infinity6666% done with Sangokushi! It's pretty incredible to think I've now done 40 Sangokushi volumes, which is already longer than most manga series. If I don't pick up any more new projects and keep up a pace of about 1.5 volumes/month (definitely doable), I'll actually be able to wrap this series up by the end of next year. That all depends on if I can resist the temptation of picking up a whole bunch of shorter projects, but I'll try my best to give a good final spurt on the final third of this journey since I'd hate it if life handed me the short stick and I had to die with this regret hanging over my mind.

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Sangokushi v40:   Mega;   Mediafire;   Sendspace
For all previous Sangokushi volumes:   Mega;   Mediafire

Chaeronea at last!

I wasn't expecting to see Chaeronea so soon (I was thinking maybe 2 more chapters before the battle) but thank god we're finally here!

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Historie c87:   Sendspace

Battles at Han River

Chapter 257 marks the end of this volume. It's straight-off to the 40s now! (once I get the new Historie chapter out)

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Sangokushi v39:   Sendspace;   Mega;   Mediafire
Sangokushi c257:   Sendspace
For all previous Sangokushi volumes:   Mega;   Mediafire

Sangokushi v39 (last updated Sept. 6)

I originally planned to finish this volume by the end of August, but I guess I'm now starting this volume at the end of August. Oh well. I'll be doing v39-40 before I get the 3rd volume of Chinggis Khan out, so enjoy Shu's Hanzhong campaign.

In the novel, there's only mention of Huang Zhong shooting an arrow as an underhanded way of drawing Xiahou Yuan into attacking. So by having both sides shoot, we do see some Shu-bias.

Flashes of Changban.

It's rather odd to see Xu Huang act so impatiently, since he's always been the cool-headed general until now who had to restrain others like Cao Hong. I suppose he was too eager to make up for his failure at attacking Zhao Zilong's camps in the previous chapter.

The Brewitt-Taylor translation says Kongming used a "bomb" as a signal. Fire arrow's probably the more believable method for communication at night.

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Sangokushi c251:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c252:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c253:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c254-255:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c256:   Sendspace

Chinggis Khan Volume 2

Happyscans and I bring you the second of five volumes in Yokoyama's Chinggis Khan! If you've read the Secret Histories, then you might find Yokoyama's slight changes to the tale interesting. I won't touch them on it now as I'll save that for the end. In any case, enjoy Temuchin's ongoing tribulations!

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Chinggis Khan v2:   Mega;   Sendspace
Hox's Mega Manga Folder

Takahashi Yousuke's Maneater (last updated Sept. 13)

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.

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Maneater c01:   Sendspace
Maneater c02-03:   Sendspace
Maneater c04-05:   Sendspace

Some Thoughts About Webtoons and Panelling

The dominant players in the Korean webtoon market: Naver (left) and Daum (right)

This time for my Some Thoughts series, I'll take a break a from the usual post about a specific work or author and instead talk generally about a medium known as webtoons, or as I like to call them, "mobile comics." For those of you who've never heard of webtoons, they're basically Korean webcomics. The language barrier has kept much of it closed off from Westerners, like how manga used to be back in the 80s, but I've noted they've begun to gain some fans overseas through fan-translations of works like Tower of God, Noblesse, or Annarasumanara. Now, you might be thinking, "Well, that's hardly a distinct medium. It's just the term Koreans use for webcomics, which itself is a sub-medium of comics." And yes, that is true, but there's an aspect in this "sub-medium" that makes them distinct to most Western webcomics, which I've already alluded to in my first sentence.

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.

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Snow Ridge, Sword Dance:   Mega;   Sendspace
Historie c86:   Sendspace
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