A Western take on Manga, Anime, and Manhwa

 Vagabond

Upon the River

Created:Eiji Yoshikawa

Written:Takehiko Inoue

Sep/3/1998 - May/21/2015

One of the panels drawn within Vagabond this has to be one of the best of all of them. Here Miyamoto Musashi the main character of Vagabond stands in the river which he swore with the antagonist of the story to become "Undefeated Under Heaven" and it is upon returning to the sight of were the bond had been made that he looks back upon his travels and what those have meant for him.

The artists efforts with applying detail to the tiniest of tree and bush here is what first grabs my attention as they cover up the entirety of the panel. Yet it is around Miyamoto Musashi that there is a clear space as if he stands out so much to the world in which he used to live he has thus formed his own bubble around himself. The river also serves as a great focal point to show how far apart he is to the world around him as it further separates him from the natural aspects in which he used to live.

If i were to have this piece i would likely have it set up in its own individual scene or with a dark room surrounding it and a single spotlight on the piece as it does best as it would do best as a single focal point within a room.

I enjoy Vagabond artwork as it usually keeps to a realistic style with high levels of detail. And while the series as a whole is shorter than most others it is in that high level of detail that the story of redemption Zen wishes to portray through the story. This realism is thrown off sometimes by the talking bubbles but the artist is normally really good with placement and they usually release a separate book or some of their best panels in the back of each of their books. Doing that has made showing the amazing art that goes into the Vagabond series much easier and it lets the artist show their skill in a way that most other manga don’t allow for.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Edward Elric- Bacon 2018 Kyoto Japan

Based on the work Fullmetal Alchemist

Written:Hiromu Arakawa

illustrated:Hiromu Arakawa

July/12/2001- June/11/2010

    The wings serving an important symbol within the piece and strongly enhance both who the character is and what they are trying to do within the story. They remind me of the wings of an angle though I seen comparison to the wings of Icarus made as well. The community that does draw fanart of the character Edward Elric has mixed thoughts on the wings as a whole with how often they depict the character with them, in scene with them, or some type of wing around him. I think that connection to the wings of Icarus isn't as strong here as they are caring him away from the skulls that lace the bottom of the pillar and are stretching out closer and closer to him representing those he lost along the way. They remind me of the wings of an angle as he is bringing the light and hope of the nation to the people within it as he is trying to prevent all of there deaths, thus performing the likes of a miracle.

    Another important symbol within the piece is the stone wall that he and the pillars are sitting upon. It may seem not draw attention as much as it does to people who know the story which is why I rank it as the second most important part of the piece when telling the story of the character. The wall upon which he is resting is the remnants of an old kingdom and upon it rests both a map and a alchemical circle(i.e.. magic within the world) showing how the whole of that kingdom was both killed and absorbed into energy. It is upon finding that circle that the grand evils true goal is clearly revealed to Edward and as such the scale of the conflict he has to end becomes clear. When he does find that wall Edward breaks and feels the whole of every life within the country he lives fall upon his shoulders suddenly and without warning. Thus using the wall as the background which he is resting upon an letting hints of what on it pushes further weight upon the shoulders of the Edward in the piece.

If i were to own this piece i think it would need to be in the center of honor with some similar pieces of fan work. It is a little hard to say were a good place would be for it as it is digital artwork but it is a medium which i think needs a way to put pieces into the physical world. I think companies like Displate would be a good way to get digital art into the real world as printing digital images onto metal keeps up that shine and color levels you get with digital artwork while keeping it modern enough to be considered viable in the current world of technology.

This piece is fan art based on the series Fullmetal Alchemist and is one of my favorite pieces of art that has to do with the series. Edward Elric the main character of the series is a loud and rambuchous character and there is always movement, always some action taking place within the character. Yet the stories that are told within the series are some of the most heart breaking and cry worthy of any show series that i have consumed. That somberness that is often pushed passed and sometimes missed in the show as the people funding the project wanted to keep it up with the Shonen Jump brand, that being of a Saturday morning comic panel happy go lucky style, and it definitely causes some damage to the messaging within the show at times. This art as it is made by a very talented artist that is not connected with the show is able to capture that somber tone that i wish the show had been able to harness more often.

Youjo Senki

Here I wish to focus on a part of this style of art that I haven't the whole time and that is the product that most of the world sees. That being the animations. Sure its nice to appreciate the art within the pages of the story but for most series that wish to include elements like fighting, music, cooking, and many more movement and sound based activities that the modern world allows us to display within art.

                                                            Saga of Tanya the Evil: Movie

                                                            Spliced together last fight

Writter:Carlo Zen

Illustrated head: Chika Toko

April/26/2016- April/23/2025(current)

The show thrives on using a style of combat that can best be found in airplanes and bringing it to a much smaller scale in maneuvering. Thus it allows for a shifting battle field under the opponents and lets the destruction the two combatants leave in their wake to feel more wide spread. It makes use of 3-d designs within the fight to aloow for quicker movements when the characters need another level of speed then when a character is pulled into focus the switch into animation feels clean.

The sound design is the second most important part of the piece as the crisp sounds of the gunfire mixed in with the elements happening around the characters pulls the scenes together. I especially love the wind up of the larger magical attacks that occur as they add a weight that many shows miss with there energy attacks. 

Color wise the explosions are what the teams focused on the most having developed many of the magical attack elements already. Yet the popping explosions shine out nicely along the russia city scape and allow it to keep those attacks feeling strong throught the fight.

Personally my enjoyment of the show as a whole is centered around these epeic fights that Tanya has. With the fight in the movies though the teams designing the coreography for the fight and the teams animatinging them did an amazing job and it still remains as one of my favorite comabt sequences currently

Youjo Senki is a series of a more niche following than Vagabond as it falls under the reincarnated into another world story element that had gotten really popular and flooded with content ever since the release of Sword Art Online. The reincarnation aspect plays a key role in the story telling and the main character acts as an active mouthpiece for the author to talk about topics that interest them in the WWI time period that it is set in. Youjo Senki is set in a WWI world where there is magic, the magic seems to follow a more scientific and algorithmic usage by most throughout the story so while it isn’t the classical magical world it still makes great use of the magic itself for major art pieces especially in the anime.

Legend of the Northern Blade

    The series Legend of the Northern Blade or LNB as many tag it falls under the style that is known as Manhwa, were as every single title that I have shown before this in comic form would be known as Manga. The difference starts out in country of origin first with Manhwa being based out of South Korea and Manga being based out of Japan. Now if this was a blog based on the differences the two artistic styles it would take much more research and time then I'm giving it now. The main differences though come from these three main factors, color design, line work, flow. Color design is one of the most prominent as Manhwa is a much newer style and has been mostly based in the digital world and thus has let most artist using the style use a level of color that wasn't there to artist who had to get there works physically made by printing companies. Line work is mostly prominently scene in character design as were in Manga you have very round and small lines there that emphasis curves and child like characters. Manhwa focuses on sharper and a much more thick use of lines. this lets them make characters looks much older, allows for a different way for them to move, and has also let characters be much more unique facially. Finally we come to flow, that can range from the way in which combat flows thought the pages to how conversations between characters will occur between panels. Manga often gives distinct moments within fights like your taking a picture of what characters are doing, while Manhwa will use colors shifting over a scene to show a character moving at lighting speed across the pages into there next punch.

Near the end of Part 3

November/10/2014- November/24/2024

Author Hae-Min

While artistically not as impressive if compared panel to panel of works like Vagabond it's one of the most popular Manhwa due to its use of color throughout the series. In any and every scene the use of color connecting the characters to both who they are as a person be it strong and in your face with reds to a more subtle background character with greens the series makes it clear just who a character is will fight like and why they fight in such a way with that color. It is one of the strong points of Manhwa and i think the series as a whole make great use of that individualized color at least among the stronger or main characters that it stands strong individually in color use. Character design is another important feature within the series and I think it's truly impressive just how separate each character is in the series by use of hairstyle alone. Let alone the artists' usage of clothing for many of the characters while they make use of dull clothing on their characters it is so that within the fighting panels you are able to more easily read the characters movements throughout the fight.

Bibliography

Blanche-EYE. “Mary vs Tanya, Final Battle | Youjo Senki Movie - 00.” YouTube, 5 Aug. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR8ljyiK5zU . Accessed 24 Apr. 2025.

“Edward Elric.” Bacon ., 2025, heav_on.artstation.com/projects/8JBqw . Accessed 24 Apr. 2025.

GRAND VIEW RESEARCH. “Anime Market Size, Share, Growth | Industry Trends Report, 2019-2025.” Grandviewresearch.com, 2019, www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/anime-market. 

Home. “Legend of the Northern Blade Wallpapers - Wallpaper Cave.” Wallpapercave.com, 2025, wallpapercave.com/legend-of-the-northern-blade-wallpapers#google_vignette . Accessed 24 Apr. 2025.

Joaovictormmoliveira. “Manga Vagabond.” Pinterest, Feb. 2025, in.pinterest.com/pin/1078964023316471021/. Accessed 24 Apr. 2025.

“Vagabond: Beautiful Lessons in Takehiko Inoue’s Manga.” The-Artifice.com, 20 June 2023, the-artifice.com/vagabond-manga/ .

Warren. “Pray for Mercy! Tanya versus Mary | Youjo Senki.” YouTube, 29 Aug. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1gYVQ6_SI4 . Accessed 24 Apr. 2025.