#Kevin Yamagata

[concord-and-cliches]

yeah i started reading naoki urasawa's body of work to an almost obsessive degree. what of it.

[littler0b1n]

My brother recently taught me how to color in manga panels and so this is what I’ve been doing for the past 2 days. The trick is to use layer styles! Especially multiply. First panel is from Billy Bat and the next 3 are from Monster and Erased speaking of which…

Manga spoilers for Erased and Monster underneath cut!!

[pseudepigraphon]

kevin & kevin

[mariagalleriax]

Naoki Urasawa after writing the world's softest, most sweetest men on the planet: I now present to you the gift of long suffering

Enjoy it.

[saturnjartt]

[Day 8 - Kevin Yamagata]

Reposted from my instagram! Which Naoki Urasawa character should we draw next?

[i-lived-bitch-beatdown]

Good Time Zone to you all! It's Friday morning over here, which puts us about halfway through the Sudden Death round :) There are currently 222 responses! I thought I'd give an update on the bottom five and top five right now :)

Bottom Five

5 - Tora Olafsdotter - 7 Responses

4 - Rea - Also 7 Responses

3 - Player - ALSO 7 Responses

2 - Kevin Yamagata -... it's also 7 Responses

1 - Jugglus Juggler - 5 Responses

Top Five

5 - Link - 99 Responses

4 - Tumblr - 111 Responses

3 - Aang - 119 Responses

2 - Jesus - 129 Responses

1 - Coelacanth - 137 Responses

[maurinnn]

[stopaskingmetocreateanaccount]

[being forced to witness the past, present, and future all at once] erm, what the scallop guys

[monokkuro]

[vitos-ordination-song]

[itzrafee]

A thing on Uran and Helena in Pluto

Okay a short little thing on Pluto. Uran and Helena are my absolute favourite characters in Pluto. Urasawa has always had amazing side characters, from Mr. Rosso in Monster to Lee Harvey Oswald and Jackie in Billy Bat to God in 20th Century Boys, but very few have tied off the emotional ends of the story like Uran and Helena.

Maybe I'm projecting here but much like myself I feel like Urasawa is absolutely obsessed with Frankenstein. And he recognizes the influence Frankenstein has on Dr. Umataro Tenma. Or at the very least, the similarities between the two. And so when he made the protagonist of one of his most popular works Monster, Dr Kenzo Tenma, he solidified that connection. Kenzo Tenma calls back to Victor Frankenstein needing to end his creation while also calling back to Japan's other famous Tenma, thus making the connection explicit. Another throughline between the three of them is that all three are father figures to their creations and have obligations to their children, though all three have varying levels of success with them.

I've only read what I like to call Urasawa's "Core Four", conspiracy minded thrillers that are essentially road trips featuring usually two main protagonists that we see the world through, Monster, 20th Century Boys, Pluto and Billy Bat. Though I still haven't caught up to Asadora and that could still possibly fit this mold, Urasawa's Core Four share a lot of themes and ideas. One of the most important being the responsibility for one's creations, whether it was Kenji Endo and the Book of Prophecy or Kevin Yamagata and Billy Bat or Dr. Kenzo Tenma and Johan, all of his protagonists could arguably be seen as someone with the need to take up the responsibility of their creations. So where do the protagonists of Pluto fit in there? That's where Uran and Helena come in.

But first, we should take a look at Pluto's themes. While I could be wrong, at a cursory glance, I feel like the general consensus towards it's themes is that it's about hatred. I don't really think that's what it is as I feel like Urasawa is more trying to show us what it is to be human and what it is to be alive. And in that, he has a hidden protagonist in Pluto. Someone who's influence snakes through the plot and isn't seen much, but without who the story's themes would remain incomplete. Pluto tackles what it is to be alive through many things, such as memory, sadness, grief, hatred, love and parenthood. But none of that works without the realization by Tenma of his own mistakes. And Uran and Helena bookend these revelations and are absolutley key to understanding that.

In my favourite chapter of the series, Chapter 37, Uran goes from person to person as she finds a way to deal with her grief and eventually comes across Tobio's grave, Tenma having left recently. It's an absolutely beautiful chapter that shows Uran's humanity and Urasawa's love for sharing these kind and soft moments. But it also sheds a light on Tenma as Uran realizes someone who was grieving has just left. Without saying much at all we realize that Tenma has finally realized his mistakes. In the process of grieving one son, he lost the other. While remembering Tobio, he let Atom go. His grief towards Tobio is clear in the following chapter, Chapter 38. All of the things he wanted Atom to be; Tobio come back to life, Tobio's ghost punishing him, Atom rejected. And Tenma could only see that rejection, and not what he had, another son.

Uran shows us very clearly what Pluto, the story, is. It's a chapter in their lives. And we've come into a story nearing the end for Tenma. And it's through the humanity of two absolutely amazing characters in their own right, Uran and Helena, that we are able to so fully understand Tenma. Despite being robots, these two characters are the most alive of everyone. They love fully and freely and are catalysts of change. Uran's vibrant and full of life in a way that really sticks out. And Helena has such depth that it's evident in every scene she's in. She's not pointed out to be made by any famous scientist so all the life she has is her own. These two represent the life of robot's more than any other characters in the series.

So it's that much more poignant when Helena finally breaks down after putting on such a strong front of everybody. Grief intersects and she brings out Tenma's sadness as well. They've both been putting up such strong fronts that it's heartbreaking to see them collapse. It completes Tenma's growth and strikes a heartbreaking contrast between the two. Tenma became the way he is through the loss of his son whereas Helena doesn't even get to remember her own loss. It makes you wonder if the grief for her and Geischt's child compounds her sorrow too.

Without these two and their grief, a large part of Pluto becomes inaccessible. Pluto is largely about death so when two characters come in who've never had a hand in the grim work of taking life, you see the world through a lens that's absolutely crucial in order to fully connect with all of the character's and their situations. Death and Grief has scarred the characters in Pluto. Time and time again they've chosen the worst path. They've chosen revenge and hatred. But Uran and Helena are different. Without them, the story is incomplete. They provide an alternative. They provide the path towards healing.

im sorry for this one:

[best-thriller-animanga-tourney]

Summaries:

GITS: In the not so distant future, mankind has advanced to a state where complete body transplants from flesh to machine is possible. This allows for great increases in both physical and cybernetic prowess and blurring the lines between the two worlds. However, criminals can also make full use of such technology, leading to new and sometimes, very dangerous crimes. In response to such innovative new methods, the Japanese Government has established Section 9, an independently operating police unit which deals with such highly sensitive crimes.

Led by Daisuke Aramaki and Motoko Kusanagi, Section 9 deals with such crimes over the entire social spectrum, usually with success. However, when faced with a new A level hacker nicknamed “The Laughing Man”, the team is thrown into a dangerous cat and mouse game, following the hacker’s trail as it leaves its mark on Japan.

Billy Bat: The story is set in 1949 and follows Japanese-American comic book artist Kevin Yamagata as he draws the popular detective series "Billy Bat" for "Marble Comics." When he learns he may have unconsciously copied the character from an image he saw while serving in occupied Japan, he returns to Japan to get permission to use Billy Bat from its original creator. Upon arriving there, however, he becomes embroiled in a web of murder, cover-ups, and prophecy that all leads back to Billy Bat.

It is soon evident, however, that the truth of Billy Bat's nature is far larger than Kevin could ever guess, spanning millennia and across the world.

[mariagalleriax]

I know Kevin Yamagata isn't a real guy but I love how he flew across the globe over a mere inkling of the possibility of his manga being stolen from another creator just so he could ask permission. Meanwhile the fucking techbros are pissed that anyone has the audacity to put a glaze on their art so it doesn't get fed to their lazy ass AI generator

[nabipenda-blog]

BOOKS I READ IN JANUARY.

1. Perks of being a wallflower - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.

We follow Charlie in highschool as he writes letters to a friend about his life and experiences.

This book is very short thus a quick read and is written in epistolary format and is very slice of life. We just see Charlie through his days in Highschool.

What I loved about this book is our main protagonist who is socially awkward but still very relatable. I also loved the other characters like his friends and family. I loved the music references and currently working on adding them to my playlist.

Highly recommend

2. Apothecary diaries light novel vol 1 and manga vol 1,2 and 3- 🌟🌟🌟🌟.25 ( average rating).

Set in ancient Asia, we follow Maomao as she is kidnapped and sold to the royal palace as a servant girl. She quickly gains attention of the higher-ups as an apothecary after solving a mystery involving the king's infant children.

I am actually a sucker for period pieces and this scratched an itch I had and was very satisfied. Loved Maomao and Jinshi's relationship as they helped each other solving this mysteries in the rear palace.

The light novel vol 1 is a combination of the manga volumes 1,2,3 and 4.

The anime is currently airing and I have just started watching it and so excited to experience this story more.

3. Komi can't communicate vol 1 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.

Komi is a beautiful girl who is admired by everyone for her looks but is socially awkward and has social anxiety to the point where she cannot talk to anyone. We follow her as she joins highschool and meets Tadano who is a very regular student and helps her make 100 friends.

This manga was such a breath of fresh air for me. I loved Komi and her budding friendship with Tadano and the journey she is undertaking to make 100 friends. We meet a few of the friends she makes along the way and all are interesting characters.

This is a slice of life comedy with lessons about friendship and life in general.

4. Billy bat vol 1 - 🌟🌟🌟.75.

Kevin Yamagata is a mangaka who writes a manga called Billy bat but soon he realizes that he might be copying an image from Japan that he saw while working in the military. This forces him to go back to Japan to look for the original creator and while there he realizes that this is a conspiracy bigger than what he could imagine.

I started reading this manga because I wanted to get into Urasawa's work and this one intrigued me because it was about art and I enjoy media that explore art. This manga does expand into conspiracies of it's own as we see Billy bat as an entity on its own. It also takes real life major world events in history and incoporates them into the story.

5. The murder of Roger Ackroyd- 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.

This is a Hercule Poirot murder mystery. We follow Hercule Poirot as he is tasked with investigating the murder of a good friend.

It is so hard to give a proper synopsis of this book because of spoilers but I loved this book. It is a very typical murder mystery but the twist and how it was revealed was so shocking that I saw this book in a whole new light.

This is not my first Agatha Christie book and it will not be my last.

6. Heartstopper vol 2 - 🌟🌟🌟🌟.

We follow schoolmates Nick and Charlie who become friends after they meet in a class. This is a love story between two boys from different backgrounds.

Vol 2 begins immediately after vol 1 and in this one we see Nick coming to terms with his sexual identity and the blossoming love between him and Charlie.