This is one of the most violent mangas I know. A first quick reading might lead one to think that Shamo is just a praise to hatred and non-morality. Or an exposition of horrors to untertain a thirsty audience. I think that Shamo is none of that. To me it is a masterpiece.
First, this manga has two huge forces; it benefits from the narrative and drawing assets of the manga.
Mangakas are incredibly prolific, so they have time to dwell on the characters and the story. It also allows them to expand their creativity and to utterly dedicate to the beauty of the drawings. I am crazy about those pages that stun me by their power, I can stare at them for a few minutes just to dissect every features. In Shamo some of them are as wonderful as etchings (old japanese paintings). In addition, I think that the lack of colours just increase the touch and the impact of the sketches. It looks pure and genuine. A bit like the old movies, once you are used to it, it brings an other atmosphere. Shamo’s drawing is precise and rich in details (great city landscapes). It has clean moves, and a capacity to modify the speed of the action (especially during fights, where there are tremendous accelerating phases). It is sometimes mysterious, rough and very dark.
What also makes Shamo so special is that it manages to pass through the great usual manga stories steps but succeeds in avoiding its hazards. Thus the story has great elements like the training phase, the huge big fight, or the evolution of the main character’s personnality… But it keeps its exceptionnal style (though the last episodes tend to lose this originality)!
Eventually, beneath the dingy lifes, the terrible fights, the murders and other horrors, there are some strong witful messages. The “redemption” of Ryo (the main character) through the discipline of Martial Arts, and his non-hypocrisy. He does not hide from the atrocities he commited and he still stand in front of the crowd to achieve his goals. Shamo also conveys some criticizes of our society, such as the excesses of the show industry (Ryo can be seen as a gladiator who fights until death) and our lack of challenges/risks.
An amazingly gifted writer, a deep personnality and a disconcerting attitude. Add a bit of mystery, some mondanities and some kind of a destiny and you have one of the greatest history of the 20th Century!
This is a quick post about my favourite French bands of the moment.
Some kind of a hip-hop, funk, jazz and soul. Kind of hard to define actually. The groove is awesome, the lyrics are beautiful/funny and the mix is perfect.
A soft voice tinted with sugar and velvet, a smooth jazz guitar, a good beat and a lot of creativity. What could you ask more?
Everyone says he is the French Ben Harper or John Butler. Well I do not think so. He does not have their technicity or their commitment. But he has the same guts, the passion, the poetry and the amazing simplicity. Yes, the genuine simplicity, a pure sound and an unmodified voice. The ability to play great basic riffs or easy chords but to put all his musicality and his feelings into it. His bassist and drummer are also worth a carefull earing.
And I can tell you that this sound weighs a lot. I do not know what you think about this little abstract but it completely turned me on. The singer has one of the highest and softest voice I know. The groove is smooth and the chorus dances in my head.
It’s not that I especially love to listen to Motörhead. I do not feel an unstoppable urge to shout my insatiable anger towards the world. But I must say that those guys rock!
They’ve been on the show for so long. Through thick and thin they overcame. They have always been considered outcast. Maybe beacause they have the fans that get tattooed “Motörhead” or “Lemmy” all over the face. Yet, they endured longer than most of the bands.
About Lemmy, from what I’ve heard he is medically dead since 2003. Actually he read that he was dead in the news a couple times… I guess one should start worrying a bit when you drink two bottles of Jack and smoke two packs of Lucky everyday. Lemmy seems to think that the doctors should not worry so much about his little habits.
Lemmy actually seems to think a lot of things, particularly the kind of things one should avoid saying when they are supposed to respect a contract. Lemmy often says what he thinks…
Like me you might find the two pimples on his left cheek incredibly repulsive. Again Lemmy is full of surprises: he is featured in the June 2006 issue of Maxim magazine as one of the top 10 “Living Legends of Sex”. He acknowledges: “I never said 2,000 (women). I said 1,000. It’s probably 1,200 or so now”. I do not know much about Lemmy beauty standards, but the figure is still… I’d rather not qualify it… (still got a romantic image to protect).
You could find a lot of adjectives to qualify Motörhead and his bassist/singer. Probably picking up more pejorative than ameliorative ones. Yet when I think of it, I cannot restrain from uttering one and only one…
Before giving you links to the finest pearltrees I want to take some time to explain to you what is this web’s UFO.
Pearltrees is hard to define because it offers an incredible amount of possibilities. Let’s say that it is at the same time an amazing tool and a community.
First pearltrees enables you to become an editor of the web. Through a simple click you can record your web navigation. This navigation is turned into a beautiful (yes beautiful!) organizable map where each webpage is represented by a pearl. And the connections between those pearls have the shape of trees… Do you get the name now?
You can use that for your bookmarks and boring office stuff but you’d rather use to expose your own web.That’s actually the whole idea! If you want to express your personnality (musical tastes, poetry… All sort of passions, hobbies….) to share your knowledge (teachers, students…) or you web knowledge (who said geeks?) then you will love pearltrees.
What’s more, you can discover all the pearltrees made by the members of the community. You can easily find people who share your interests, discuss with them, send them pearls. Explore the whole map and find an unknown web.
I could talk about the possibilities for a long time but I think you already have enough information for a first visit.
I just need to say that if like me you spend a lot of time on the internet looking for someting interesting, entertaining, new then pearltrees will give you materials and promote your own discoveries!
Here comes the terrible, the dreadful, the magnificent, the fearless… Afro Samurai! Check this huge mane, the lousy cigarette (which seems to be filled with more than tobacco), the fleeting headband and the katana. Awesome! :p If I insist on the way this character looks, it’s because this is the main appeal of the anime. The characters’ design is amazing and the fights are incredible. About the plot, the only thing I could dwell on is the useless quest of the headband number 1. The absurd and devastating quest to become the strongest.
Apart from that they are just a bunch of freaks who spend their time killing people over a cool hip hop music. Once I have understood that and admitted that this anime was stupid. I was fully able to just love it! My point is that such animes are just about entertaining and nothing else. I often hear people despising them in a haughty way. I find their reaction silly. I think most of our cultural consumption is about pure and basic entertaining. Well Afro Samurai is a masterpiece of entertaining!
For those who think that news anchors are depressed by the sad news they talk about… If only they could miss the countdown, I am sure their audience would be soaring!
By the way I got this video through this great blog.
