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Wednesday, Dec 30, 2009 - 00:30 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

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我怒


(Reference image: www.imanhua.com - Mirror)


There were a few things I had planned to do during the holidays, but as often is the case, they have fallen by the wayside. One of those things was to crank out a pictorial summary of the 武神 series - it's a shame that, to the best of my knowledge, it has never gotten (fan)subbed into English unlike many Japanese manga titles, likely since these titles get an airing in translated anthologies like Shonen Jump.

Even after zipping up my Football Manager savegames, I doubt I can find time for that with all my other obligations, and will therefore settle for a few sketches of my favourite character, as usual. As can be observed, I attempted to shift the perspective somewhat, but ended up with a mish-mash that was not exactly what I had in mind. Much more practice required, but it's a change from the usual head-on drawings. Will probably draw a grid as reference as the first step the next time I try this.


[Click to view full image, 1024 x 768]
(Reference image: www.imanhua.com - Mirror)


This here is an attempt to capture the essential quality of the character, which in the original Chinese would be:

狂: (adj) - crazy, mad, unrestrained, violent, wild

but which, as with many expressions, loses something in the translation.

The faults in the sketch are certainly many, chief among them being the lack of volume, with there probably being too much white and too little/weak shading, and uncontrolled dotting in the hair region where the pencil came down too hard. Lack of training in anatomy also shows up in the musculature, which as with most things one is unsure of, one deals with vaguely and without detail, for an overall less-than-convincing effect.

On the plot of the series itself, part of the appeal is that the personalities involved are mostly flawed, and even the best of them are at times downright callous.

克豹 (lit. Overcoming-Panther. It sounds silly when translated, I know), depicted above, is no exception (spoiler warning). Kind-hearted to a fault as a child, the death of his master led to the customary hunt for vengeance, terminated with a self-learnt technique which would have made Kenshiro proud (complete with kickass name: 屠神無悔, lit. Slaughter-God-Without-Regret, where the "god" refers to the class of humans known as "martial gods" - the general population figuring that if they could rip metal armour apart with their bare hands, they could call themselves whatever they damn well want).

That incident released his natural "Heart of Beast", a battle attitude that grants a bestial wildness and mercilessness (other "martial gods" are mostly none too kind, and could probably be described as pale imitations), and which got him into a whole lot of trouble - his newfound strength allowed him to raise an empire in a year, but it was exceeded by his sheer arrogance, as he got it on with several of his courtesans in front of the entire United Nations of that era, and the First among martial gods. And survived, which might be the more impressive feat.

I'll leave his story hanging, and those interested might read the full 300 issues of that series; but before that, it would be best to peruse the 144 issues of 海虎 (lit. Tiger-Shark), which came before (about 5000 years before) and provides the backstory. The high point of the art comes in 武神凤凰, a 138-issue side story, and sad to say the series appears to be in its death throes as the illustrations appear to have lost their edginess, and maybe more fatally, the characters have lost their distinctiveness, especially in terms of body shape and, dare i say it, soul.

On the hamster front, Mr. Ham has been thanked for his assistance during the examination period (the professors were great too, actually bothering to look over one's work if submitted early), which he rather rudely responded to by kicking sand into my face. No matter, he was further rewarded with a move to the balcony (more fresh air), and now has a wastepaper basket located right beneath his cage door just in case he manages to get it open again. Hooray for elegant solutions!

And just when I thought that the SAF had forgotten me, I got wind that my first ICT will be in the coming July. Ssss.



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