10/29/2004

Son Kei Suru

 

I am not sure if I had extended the bout between Yoruki and Joan for an undesired period of time… yeah, technically, their fight lasted more than three months! Gosh! It’s really time to end it. And there you have it: no one wins, or is there a winner after all? To all you kind readers who bothered to read the rant, I must stress that SKOOKUM! is NOT about high school bitching and high school fights between boys and girls. The main theme of SKOOKUM! is Voodoo and the combat to keep it at bay. It takes a while for the story to move to the climax, so I beg for your patience and do remember to vote whenever, the page you read satisfies you.

The heading that reads “son kei suru”, for the benefit for all ye non-Japanese speakers, means “respect” in Japanese. This page is really a page dedicated to the wildly famous anime/manga hit – Nartuo. Everyone in the UNC-CH anime club knows about Naruto! Zen, my long time friend, first introduced me to Naruto, and I have been hooked ever since! What compels me to respect the artist of Naruto is the very fact that he had very humble beginnings. He used to sketch simplistic drawing in class when the teacher is teaching, and the only form of respect he got was from his friends.

He later decided to take on a job as a manga artist. His first serialised manga ran was published by the renowned manga publisher Shonen Jump; however, the series soon died off as it was unpopular with the readers. Naruto, is really his second work, and initially it was a manga (like any other) that performed well, soon it became a runaway hit spawning its own long-running anime series, novels, guide books and a movie. Now even the people across the Pacific are raving about this work, it’s like ninjas are cool again. Of course, we must note that the artist takes a very different perspective on the ninja business; Naruto’s dressing itself attests to the difference we expect in most ninja based manga.

Yes, it is a standard success story we all like to read about, but the confessions of his humble beginnings were found in his manga, long before Naruto took the world by storm. It is something all struggling artists can identify with. Sometimes, I wonder if it better to be a reader than a creator?

I tried that once. For two years, I drew nothing, and lived a life of bliss soaking myself in the ocean of anime; life of a fan is a life of constant emersion in the world of your idol, nothing more. It was Zephyr Visuals (an all creative art studio formed by w’Note and Zen) that brought me back to that life I once knew. Right now, I am still a fan, and I am the owner of a world I have control in… but at the same time, I angst about development of story of characters, stress over dead lines, votes and stuff like that. Am I happier? In a way, yes. But what constitutes happiness? I don’t think I can answer that question, even Shakespeare, the Bard, do not have the exact answer.

What do you think?

P.S.: “Naruto” is really the name of a specially shaped fishcake commonly found in Ramen (Japanese noodles). I suspect that’s why Naruto likes ramen so much; he’s practically named after the tastiest ingredient in the noodle dish!

 

Wataru

 

Link of the month: