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Takakyuki Yamaguchi: An Eccentric Yet Underrated Manga Artist
By Yung Namahage • 5 years ago

As I've previously mentioned, action, sex & violence make an interesting combo, especially in the worlds of anime & manga. Today I'll be looking at another mangaka that provides a good mix of the two opposites. 


I'll start with his most famous work, known as Shigurui, or Death Frenzy, which started in 2003. Set in 17th century Japan, the story opens with a controversial tournament organised by the sadistic lord Tokugawa Tadanaga, wherein the participants are made to use real swords and fight to the death as opposed to using wooden swords and fighting to showcase their abilities. 


Taking part is the warrior Fujiki Gennosuke, who is revealed to have only one arm but makes up for it with sheer muscle. His opponent is Irako Seigen, who is blind and possesses a crippled foot, but takes a strange yet deadly stance against his enemy. As the two square off against each other, each accompanied by their respective female companions, the story jumps backward into their backstories, including how they met, how they received their wounds and the circumstances that led them to face each other in the present. 


I won't say much more about where the story goes from there, but Shigurui delves deep into the subjects of loyalty and honour, both of which were extremely important to samurai and even today permeate into Japan's culture. The art is wonderful and perfectly carries the grim world and its bloody fight scenes, and of course there's plenty of graphic nudity. Fans of similarly dark works like Berserk, Vagabond and Goblin Slayer would appreciate Shigurui. 


One of the coolest parts of Shigurui is its use of visual metaphors. Certain powerful characters are represented by mythological beings in some scenes. Although there are no supernatural elements or nonhuman monsters in the story, this decide is an awesome tool in showing just how fearsome a master of the sword can be, and the art that accompanies these scenes is simply stunning. 


Madhouse Studios released a 12 episode anime adaptation, which has great animation but only covers a portion of the 15 volume manga. The manga also contains Yamaguchi's best artwork, so I'd recommend reading over watching in this case. 


If this sounds too serious, let's look at one of Yamaguchi's older works. Kakugo no Susume, AKA Apocalypse Zero, began almost a decade before Shigurui. As such, the art style isn't nearly as refined, but the tone of the series couldn't be further from his later work. 


In a nutshell, Apocalypse Zero is a post-apocalyptic tokusatsu series that follows Kakugo, a schoolboy (because education is important even after the world has been ravaged by war and disaster) that uses his extensive martial arts training and a sentient power armour as he defeats the outlandish "tactical fiends" sent by his evil hermaphrodite brother. 


This is only the the beginning of the manga. You can only imagine how wild the story goes from there. Apocalypse Zero is just as violent as Shigurui, but filled with goofy humour and endearing side characters that give it a sense of hope that the latter is lacking. There's an OVA adaptation, but only 2 episodes exist since the series was cancelled for "unknown reasons", so you're better off reading this one too. 


So if you ever want a story containing samurai duels or penis monsters in the future, you know which artist to look up.