| "Laika 37" by Akira (2006-06-09) |
6/09 - I'll start working on the page after I wake up tomorrow morning.
6/10 - I finished rought sketch + dialogs while I watch England vs Paraguay. There will be a lot of sleepless nights in Japan for weeks from yesterday.
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Koukoku no Shugosha
I bought three volumes of "
Koukoku no Shugosha (Imperial Guards)" today and I truely enjoyed reading them. This manga is published at "
Ultra Jump" along with Oh! Great's "
Tenjo Tenge", Hirohiko Araki's "
Steel Ball Run", and
Kishiro Yukito's "Gunnm Last Order". At
the official website, you can view a "digest movie" by clicking on the first menu button. Second menu button is a "character introduction page" and the third is "reference page". This manga was nominated at
2006 Japanese Media Arts Prize for best story manga along with "Genshi-ken" and "Nodame Cantabile". No wonder manga was so good.
Manga is based on a novel with a same title. Story is set on a fantasy world (which is very similar to 1900's Japan) where mystical creatured like dragons and sabre tigers exist. Story begins when a country of small islands "Koukoku" (model Japan) was attacked/invaded by a far superior "Teikoku" (model Russia). Japan tried to counter-attack but there was no match. Japanese army was severely crushed by Russian army and were forced to retreat to a main island. In order to buy time for a defeated army of 18,000 men to retreat (12,000 died alrady), 800 men of Sabre Tiger unit was ordered to face against advancing 40,000 men of Russian army.
If you love "Legend of Galactic Heros", you might enjoy this manga. Most of superiors are stupid. Enemies are smarter, beautiful, and stronger. The battles are all losing battles... etc. Main character, Naoe Shinjo, is humane, at the same time, is extremely cold. He'll do inhumane things (like burn villages) if it can save people's life. He knows he's a hypocrite and he hates himself for it too... Story is getting really intense. I can't wait for the next volume to come out...
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