Hot damn are paper “Sugoroku” game board sheets just the coolest! The 300 year old board game akin to Chutes and Ladders (“Snakes and Ladders” for you Europeans), is aimed at adults and children alike, is a New Year’s tradition in … Continued
The Samurai, starting in 1964, may have been Japan’s first shinobi export to the English-speaking world, but that phenom was contained strictly to Australia. So for the rest of us, the first ninja we saw on any screen were flanking … Continued
Dateline: Hollywood, CA — 9-14-2014 It’s not often I talk ninja cartoons with college educators, but today was the exception. Jonathan M. Hall, a Japanese film scholar from Pomona College screened three episodes of Shirato Sanpei shinobi TV treasures at the … Continued
The question of the ‘Ninja-To’…. Did it exist or not? Is it tradition, lore, or Hollywood? Healthcare in the U.S. and the Kennedy assassination have been debated less. I didn’t fully realize how much of a sticking point in the martial … Continued
I probably need a real Shirato Sanpei fan here. These scans are from a 1967 manga I scored in a lot, one of which was described only as “Wolf Boy.” I was hoping for some Wolf Boy Ken tie in, … Continued
The highly regarded alt-manga blog Same Hat! Same Hat! has some photos up of the amazing GARO exhibition at the Center for Book Arts in NYC. I haven’t studied up much on GARO, but it seems to me (from a … Continued
The 2000s was a strange decade for martial arts and martial arts cinema. Unlike the Bruce Lee-inspired kung-fu 70’s, the Sho Kosugi-driven ninja 80’s or the VanDamme-inspired kickboxing 90’s, the 00s didn’t have a definitive iconic star nor a decade-dominating … Continued
GARO was an eccentric, cutting edge alternative to traditional 60’s manga, and had an effect on a generation of readers akin to what Heavy Metal did for us in the U.S. in the 80’s. It’s backbone was Shirato Sanpei’s re-imagined … Continued