Fist of the North Star manga artist to revisit samurai friend of Maeda Keiji

This year’s 46th issue of Shinchosha’s Weekly Comic Bunch magazine has announced on Friday that Fist of the North Star artist Tetsuo Hara is launching a spinoff to his Hana no Keiji -Kumo no Kanata ni- manga about the historical samurai figure Maeda Keiji. The new Gifū Dōdō Naoe Kanetsugu -Maeda Keiji Tsuki-Gatari- series will begin in the magazine on November 7. According to Hara’s comments in the current Weekly Comic Bunch issue, he feels that he didn’t delve far enough into the life of Maeda’s close friend, the samurai Naoe Kanetsugu, when he drew Keiji from 1990 to 1993. A four-installment Keiji short story that focuses on Maeda and Naoe’s first meeting is already running in the magazine.

Hara and his writer Mio Aso loosely based their samurai stories on a novel written by Keiichiro Ryu. The defunct North American manga publisher Gutsoon! Entertainment published portions of the original Keiji manga in its Monthly Raijin Comics magazine.

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I have finally gotten round to uploading the first volume of the Naruto manga.  This is definitely something that shouldn’t be missed.  All manga’s are free for you to view, and I hope you enjoy reading them.

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Light Yagami is at the head of his class, and he is bored with nothing to do. However, that all changes when he finds the Death Note notebook, that allows him to control the rogue Death God Ryuk; simply by writing down the name of the person he wants dead. Light can kill anyone with the swift movement of a pen, and without getting caught. He starts his killing spree by killing off all the world’s most dangerous criminals. However the police do not take kindly to this, after all, murder is murder, and try to hunt him out. When detective ‘L’ goes after Light, the result is a battle of wits!

Death note is possibly the most interesting and intriguing manga’s that I have read in recent years. Death Note is a surprisingly gripping and original tale that brings around a philosophical view about morality. Is it still classed as evil to kill, if those you are killing are dangerous criminals.

Death Note’s first volume sets up the complicated storyline with ease and immediately gets to work developing the lead character, Light. Light’s character is clearly developed to be the general ‘average above-average’ Japanese student; listless, bored, cynical and smug, which are hardly the qualities of a hero, and I suppose to call him a ‘hero’ would be disingenuous.

Light’s immediate goal is to use the Death Note to kill the world’s most violent criminals. This series of events triggers a massive police investigation and a global fascination with who’s killing the criminals, as it is deemed impossible for over 50 criminals to simply keel over and die from a heart attack. Being an egotistical kid already, it’s not long before all the mentions in the new go straight to Light’s head and he starts talking about building a world where everyone lives in peace, away from the dangers of criminal behaviour. While almost anyone would at least think to use the Death Note in the same way as Light, the thing is that Light do not take a sympathetic approach to his new found power, in fact, it could be said that the notebook instantly corrupts his ideals. However, such behaviour is also very believable. It’s this kind of realistic character development that’s a big part of what makes the manga, Death Note, so compelling.

Death Note’s biggest draw are the morality questions it raises about what “murder” actually is. If you’re given the power to kill anyone, anywhere, anytime and nobody would know that it was you, who would you take down? Would you be able to kill anyone in the first place? What if you’re killing criminals, is it still murder? Whose life is worth saving, and whose isn’t? While it doesn’t answer any of these questions, the fact that it raises them at all is fairly uncommon for a Shonen Jump manga and should fascinate anyone looking for something a little deeper than the average young adult title.

The only problem that I feel that this series may face is that it doesn’t seem like they can really stretch this story out forever. By the end of the first volume it’s become a deadly game of cat-and-mouse between Light and mysterious super-detective L who’s hot on his trail, and the two spend most of the last half of the volume second-guessing and outsmarting one another. If this pattern continues, it’s easy to see how the entire premise would get tiresome pretty quick. For now, though, Death Note remains a solid, gripping and extremely likable title.

All of these manga’s will be available for you to download from the ‘Manga’ page on this site, so please go and check it out. They can also be viewed from here as well.

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I have uploaded the second issue in the first volume of the awesome manga, Death Note. I hope you enjoy it. I certainly am enjoying re-reading these manga’s.

Tags: Anime, Anime, death note, free anime, free death note, free download, free manga, japanese anime, Manga

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I have just finished uploading volume 1 of the Death Note manga, part 1.  I have the full collection of these so I am hoping to be able to upload more of them later in the week.

These manga’s are completely free.  If there is any series you would like specifically, then please email or comment me and I will see what I can do.

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After a little bit of site maintenance which required me to take down my manga uploads, they have no been re-uploaded, and are bigger and better than ever before.

Go ahead and take a look at our free manga’s, which, suprisingly enough can be found on the Manga page of this site. Currently there is only one up, but I am hoping to upload another tomorrow, for the world to see.

Please also note, that some of the manga’s available contain adult material and should not be viewed by minors.

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Yesterday I wrote about my serious disliking of the Dragonball GT series, and I mentioned how I actually like the original Dragonball series written by Akira Toriyama.

Well I have decided to discuss that today, and go into the story a bit for those who are unaware of this series. Dragonball follows the story of Goku, a young boy with a tail (from the legend of the Monkey King) who encounters friends, foes and unusual beings along his journey.

The Dragonball interested me because I got to see how it all began, how everyone met, became friends, rivals and even lovers in some cases. It was nice to have a bit of back history to the characters I had spent so much of my life watching.

I found that the adult humour in the Dragonball series was just right - the kind where children jsut think it’s funny without truly understanding the joke. And the personalities were perfect, Goku did actually act and have the mannerisms of a child, as well as the lack of knowledge that a child has…I suppose that innocence that we all lose as we grow.

Also, I can’t even name a saga with which I was disappointed. I loved the Red Ribbon saga, and it was brilliant because I had seen the Cell Saga in Dragonball Z and it provided me with the history of hatred between the characters…just truly awesome.

To me, the fact that this series was such a hit with me, simply emphasises how much GT lost by not having the input of the original creator. It is a shame as the GT series did have much potential, but failed to deliver…such a pity.

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I have been a fan of the Dragonball series for many years, in fact, I believe I was probably about 13 when first watched the Dragonball Z Saiyan Saga, and that’s going backI nearly ten years ago now. It had only just aired in the UK when I started watching it, and for years to come, I was in awe of this awesome cartoon.

I remember having to wait months for a new saga to either begin, or for the saga to continue (I think the Freiza saga lasted about a year and a half 0_0). I also remember when they announced that Dragonball and GT would finally be coming to the UK screens. It was an amazing time for me.

Now, I will leave the subject of Dragonball for another day, and I am going to focus on the ‘travesty’ that was Dragonball GT. Now I know that my statement may make others hate me, but please, allow me to continue.

You see, I loved the fact that everyone had grown up, it was a new chapter in the Dragonball universe. However, as the series progressed, I became more and more withdrawn from the series. Mainly, this was because the characters had actually changed. And this is no simple matter of character development, it actually stems from the lack of interaction in the creation progress of Akira Toriyama, and his input was seriously missed.

You see, the main issue I had was the fact that Vegeta had changed so much (and undoubtedly this made emphasised even more in the poorly dubbed American version) and he was no longer the anti-hero that I had grown up with and loved. Instead, he was just old, and flat…as in his whole character was just two dimensional, lacking in any personality.

There was also the issues with the Saga’s that were very hit or miss, and many of which (Babidi) suffered for the length of the saga being too long, and some, (Super 17 Saga) suffered for being too short. I mean, they could have done so much more with the 17 Saga and the re-introduction of a key character that had been missing in action since the Cell Saga in Dragonball Z.

Overall I was a little disheartened from the whole Dragonball GT series, the awful “Let’s keep Goku as a kid” theme which added nothing to the plot, story or entertainment, as well as the poor choice of saga’s such as the black star dragonball’s etc. It was like watching someone flog a dead horse, and in the end I simply stopped watching. And that’s me, the person who spent all her pocket money on DBZ merchandise from the age of thirteen. I was so down heartened that I even contemplated boycotting watching the Dragonball saga.

Now, don’t get me wrong as there are some good points to the Dragonball GT series, such as the really cool new super Saiyan levels, which I am sure many will agree are awesome, and the fact that we are shown how much stronger Goku really is than any of the other Z heroes (many of which are absent from the series), and the fact that Vegeta only manages to increase his Saiyan power through the use of technology.

But this is a series that should only be watching in small doses, as over exposure to such drivel that exists in the majority of this series may cause internal damage to the individual. I am currently re-watching the series to see if it does have any truly redeeming features…I must add, I am at the Super 17 Saga, and so far…it does not. But don’t let me put you off; if you love Dragonball and Dragonball GT, it’s definitely worth completing the series.

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I have been working all day on this, and have finally uploaded the first volume of the popular hentai manga, Bondage Fairies. This is a graphic manga, and should not be viewed by minors. To find this, please visit the new Manga page of my site. This is where I will be uploading all the manga that I have purchase over the years for you to have a look at.

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Well, it’s been a long time coming, but I have finally managed to finish this awesome game. Now, don’t get me wrong, as with many released games, this has its flaws, but to be honest, there aren’t many that I can think of. To begin with, we are taken to the extraordinary world of Eternal Sonata, full of beauty, and introduced to our characters and the first inclings of a story.

Now, as I have mentioned previously, this game is beautiful…not in the same way as Bioshock is, where you dont know where the cutscene ends and where the games begin, but in an "oh my God, I think I may cry" kind of way. Not only are the characters textured to look truly as though you are watching an anime, but they are in there is all their HD glory, with cell shading to boot, however, the jaw droppingly gorgeous scenery is the thing that impressed me the most. Now i’m an animator and a concept artist, but these are possibly the most impressive thig I have ever seen in my life.

But a game can’t rely on graphics alone, and this one surely doesn’t. When I initiated my first battle, and was introduced to this weird ‘real-time’ and turn-based battle system, I couldn’t help but look back at Final Fantasy XII and think that this wasn’t going to be fun (don’t get me wrong, I love FFXII, but why mess with perfection?" however, I was pleasantly suprised. The game relies on you moving around the enemies and attacking, however the best thing is, that depending on the lighting you are in whilst commencing your attack, the attack chages. For example, if in the light and you use a special ability, you may heal yourself and your party, but when in dark you unleash a ridiculously powerful magick attack.

Then there is the engrossing story, and the weird, yet interesting pieces of history, real history we are told about the character Chopin…and in fact the actual guy. I actually watched all these scenes simply as found them compelling, and I guess it developed the character in the game too…interesting style, not even one that would work with most games, and it barely works with this, but somehow I believe it has succeeded in achieving its goal.

Now for the bad parts…what were they? Probably the worst thing about this game is the near to last level…its jsut too long. In fact, it was so long I gave up after a while and decided to play Lost Odyssey instead…hence why I have only just completed the game now. But don’t let this bother you, the only reason i quit was because I had to go to work and couldn’t play for 2 hours in one row. And the proof is that I actually went back to play it ^_^ - it’s a positive thing. But thats about the only negative thing I can actually think to say about this game, other than, for me, a hardcore RPG gamer, it was a tad easy in places, but I didn’t care.

In fact, I cant even complain about the voice acting, as in actual fact it was good…even had the person who voiced Izzy in Digimon doing one of the characters. So if you have some money spare, I suggest you try and pick this game up, a lot of places are selling this for around £25 now, which is a bargain for such an awesome game!

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