The Legend Of Kamui

By (author) Shirato Sanpei
Short description/annotation:
The iconic series that launched the alt-manga bible GARO becomes available in English for the very first time.
Description:
The iconic series that launched the alt-manga bible GARO becomes available in English for the very first time. At long last, manga titan Shirato Sanpei''s groundbreaking epic makes its way into English. Celebrated as a watershed of both the Japanese counterculture and dramatic, longform storytelling in manga, The Legend of Kamui serves up clashing swords and class struggle to create a timeless political allegory set in feudal Japan. This ten-volume series is a must-have for fans of samurai and ninja manga and anime, and of other giants of postwar manga like Tezuka Osamu, Mizuki Shigeru, Tsuge Yoshiharu, and Lone Wolf and Cub''s Kojima Goseki. It''s the 17th century in Japan. Child outcast Kamui lives on the fringes of a miserably stratified society. Fueled by pure grit, rage, and a dash of cunning, his only way out is to take up the mantle of ninja. Follow scrappy peasants, cold-blooded ninja, and disgraced and exalted warriors as they navigate the unforgiving hardships of a violent yet hopeful age. With its vivid and critical attention to social injustice and environmental issues against a backdrop of heart-pounding action and romance, this multilayered gekiga drama not only redefined ninja and samurai fantasy, it also offers astonishing parallels with the modern day. Originally serialised between 1964 and 1971 in the legendary alt-manga magazine GARO, The Legend of Kamui is translated by social historian and decorated academic Richard Rubinger.
Review quote:
An adventure story with adult content and themes, [The Legend of Kamui] can be seen as the work that forced manga and anime to ''grow up.'''' Nichi Bei News. ''Legend of Kamui follows the young boys of farmers and ninja, and describes structures of a hierarchical society and resistance to discrimination in detail.'' The Asahi Shimbun.
Biographical note:
Shirato Sanpei was born in Tokyo in 1932. His father, Okamoto T?ki, was an oil painter whose artistic endeavors exposed the young Sanpei to a variety of perspectives. Okamoto notably trained Kurosawa Akira before the latter became a filmmaker. After a seven-year stint as a Kamishibai artist, Shirato would begin working in the kashi-hon manga market in 1957. By 1963, he scripted an animated television series, Kaze no Fujimaru, that was Miyazaki Hayao s first project. The following year, The Legend of Kamui debuted in the pages of Garo, now best known as a launching pad for other revered manga talents like Mizuki Shigeru and Tsuge Yoshiharu.