Sunday, November 14, 2004
When you thought they'd never be licensed... (Jo Jo manga and Slam Dunk anime)
Two interesting licenses as of late (well, there's been a bunch, but these two I'm most familiar with). ListerX has word that Viz has licensed Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure, which is backed up by this Amazon page.
Jo Jo is one of the longer manga series around, split into various sub-series, all by the same author. It starts off in victorian times, and goes all the way up to the 21st century, following various members of a family. As far as I know, this is generally a fighting show, with many characters having "stands" which are like invisible entities with special powers. Various contemporary series like Shaman King were obviously strongly influenced by Jo Jo. It would seem that the big draws are his art style, which is unlike most manga (though it has some feelings of Berserk, Fist of the North Star, Burne Hogarth, and some of the over-the-top fashion of something like Aeon Flux). Take a look at some of his artwork.
Another draw would be the inventiveness of the powers of various characters. I've seen mention that many manga creators when running out of ideas of super-powers for their characters will just go to Jo Jo for inspiration. One person described the battles as more of a "rock, paper, scissors" situation where someone has specific powers that are very strong, but weak in other areas, much like american superheros. Someone else has called this a "glam version of Fist of the North Star".
Combining all of that with the various time periods, lots of settings in various places in europe like Italy, and at least 75 volumes of GNs makes for quite the series. Here is a FAQ, though beware of spoilers. I those images linked above from this Italian site. Here's an american site with plot overviews, gallery of the cover art, etc....
----
Geneon has also announced a partnership with Toei Animation, which includes the Slam Dunk anime. Remember when sports titles were untouchable as far as licenses went? I've read a bit of the Slam Dunk manga, and it is a lot of fun. This is definitely one of the names that always comes up when one talks of sports anime/manga, and a pretty long series.
Jo Jo is one of the longer manga series around, split into various sub-series, all by the same author. It starts off in victorian times, and goes all the way up to the 21st century, following various members of a family. As far as I know, this is generally a fighting show, with many characters having "stands" which are like invisible entities with special powers. Various contemporary series like Shaman King were obviously strongly influenced by Jo Jo. It would seem that the big draws are his art style, which is unlike most manga (though it has some feelings of Berserk, Fist of the North Star, Burne Hogarth, and some of the over-the-top fashion of something like Aeon Flux). Take a look at some of his artwork.
Another draw would be the inventiveness of the powers of various characters. I've seen mention that many manga creators when running out of ideas of super-powers for their characters will just go to Jo Jo for inspiration. One person described the battles as more of a "rock, paper, scissors" situation where someone has specific powers that are very strong, but weak in other areas, much like american superheros. Someone else has called this a "glam version of Fist of the North Star".
Combining all of that with the various time periods, lots of settings in various places in europe like Italy, and at least 75 volumes of GNs makes for quite the series. Here is a FAQ, though beware of spoilers. I those images linked above from this Italian site. Here's an american site with plot overviews, gallery of the cover art, etc....
----
Geneon has also announced a partnership with Toei Animation, which includes the Slam Dunk anime. Remember when sports titles were untouchable as far as licenses went? I've read a bit of the Slam Dunk manga, and it is a lot of fun. This is definitely one of the names that always comes up when one talks of sports anime/manga, and a pretty long series.
