May
31
Kuniyoshi exhibition
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Kuniyoshi exhibition of 19th century Japanese prints, Royal Academy, London.
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/kuniyoshi/
It’s a truism that Japanese prints were a precursor of modern manga. In fact these prints do not look much like modern manga at all. Modern manga designs are drawn at high speed and are meant to be assimilated in a few seconds as the reader stands on a crowded train or suchlike. The most striking thing about the Kuniyoshi prints, particularly those of warriors, is the riot of finely drawn detail they contain. So much so that one can stand before a print for a minute or more just trying to take in what one is looking at. Are there three figures there? No, four..five!
It is surprising to learn that the prints were made under conditions of severe censorship imposed by the Shogunate. At various times pictures of warriors later than 1570 were banned (politically sensitive), as were pictures of ladies of the evening (immoral), and kabuki actors (morally unsound). Much ingenuity was expended in getting around these regulations. The prints of bijin (beautiful women) are easier to comprehend, as are the scenes of pleasure-boats and suchlike. Faces are stylised, but in a different way to that commonly seen in modern manga, where the faces, and particularly the eyes, reflect the influence of 20th-century American cartoons.
However there are features in common that one can point to to that link the prints with modern manga (and anime). The prints have writing on them – sometimes quite a lot of text. Subjects and treatments appear that are repeated in modern manga. There’s a print in the exhibition of some comic octopi – see the opening credits of “Natsu no Arashi” or the print of a horrible spider attacking from above (reminiscent of many a horror anime) and the print of a fight on a rooftop – reminiscent of more than one anime (including Urusai Yatsura, IIRC).
I found the exhibition very worthwhile, and having spent all that money to travel there and get in, I also bought the catalogue, which has all the prints and a lot of explanatory text.
May
31
Shingetsutan Tsukihime
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I pulled this off the shelf at random to watch again. It’s a 12-episode TV series from 2003, later made available in the US by Geneon, and there is also a related movie (or OVA) series “Kara no Kyoukai” from 2007.
While some old series turn out not to have stood the test of time, this series seems even better on second viewing than I remembered. The orphaned Shiki returns to live with what remains of his family, but finds that unpleasant and frightening events are happening around him. Shiki is not quite what he seems, or even who we thought he was, and the same applies to several other characters, that is, they’re not quite human.
In particular Shiki becomes involved with the white vampire Arcued, who insists that Shiki killed her and chopped her into 17 pieces. Indeed Shiki has a strange ability to see “lines” and when he cuts along these lines with his knife, things fall apart.
Shiki is put under severe stress. His schoolmates note a change in him, but obviously he can’t tell them the truth. He is terrified by the situations Arcueid leads him into, and in his new home he has to resort to sneaking out at night to meet Arcueid and evade the watchful eyes of his beautiful but severe sister, Akiha. The growing relationship between Arcueid and Shiki is well-handled, and the dialog, delivered by some fine voice-actors , makes this unlikely relationship the more believable. For once, it’s played as a straight drama, with little or no attempt to over-egg it or inject humour.
The least succesful characters are the ordinary school students, who appear sketchily defined and irritating.