Afro Samurai and Hip-Hop Manga

[Mulboyne]

"Afro Samurai" and "Blokhedz"
BostonGlobe: Hip-hop hits the comic books, after Japan's manga
Of course this was going to happen. With hip-hop driving the sales of clothes, cars, food and music, it was only a matter of time before it set its sights on a new frontier: comics - or, more specifically, manga, the Japanese-style comic books that have become a multimillion dollar industry in the United States. This East-meets-West merging of two of pop culture's hottest exports represents a fledgling genre that some people think will become huge...There's Blokhedz, a supernatural tale about Blak and his magic microphone that's illustrated by twin brothers Mike and Mark Davis. Ahmed Hoke's @Large, based in Los Angeles, is filled with graffiti artists, MCs and other characters who drink 40s and smoke joints. Hip-hop manga from Japan includes Ikebukuro West Gate Park [what the?], Worst, and the critically acclaimed Tokyo Tribes, by manga star Santa Inoue...The genre is so hot that Afro Samurai, a black character sporting samurai garb and a huge 'fro created by the Japanese artist Takashi "Bob" Okazaki, is already generating a huge buzz in the comics world. Hip-hop comics may seem fresh, but they represent an exchange between black and Asian culture that goes back decades.

[Mulboyne]

Comingsoon: Jackson Aboard Live Action Samurai

Samuel L. Jackson is attached to topline and co-produce a live-action feature to be adapted from the Japanese comic franchise Afro Samurai, created by Takashi Okazaki.

Variety says the film is a joint production of Japanese animation studio GDH K.K. Gonzo, Fuji TV and Mosaic Media in Los Angeles. Jackson is already signed to lend his voice to an animated Afro Samurai TV series set to premiere on Spike TV next year.

Afro Samurai is the tale of a black samurai futuristic, yet feudal Japan who is on a mission to avenge the wrongful death of his father. Jackson stars as "Afro," a warrior who travels a solitary path encountering a myriad of enemies, friends and challenges beyond imagination.

Production of the film is set to begin in 2006, with a U.S. release targeted for 2007.

[Taro Toporific]

'Afro Samurai' to debut on American TV screens
The Daily Yomiuri, Feb. 20, 2006
Japan's own "Afro Samurai" is set to hit the small screen in the United States as an animated series, to be followed up by a feature film starring Samuel L. Jackson. Comic book aficionados in Japan, though, may be scratching their heads as they have likely never heard of this manga export.
Though in Japan "Afro Samurai" only appeared in a self-published magazine...originally carried in Nononhow, a self-financed magazine put together in 1998 by Okazaki and his friends during their time at art school of which fewer than 100 copies were published....
...Jackson's involvement served as momentum for the project, which has since found a home at major U.S. cable television network SpikeTV, and is scheduled to debut around November....more...

[Taro Toporific]

revenge-kuma.jpg

Killer teddy bears are now taking revenge on Afro Samurai.

"Starting where the original Afro Samurai story left off, follow the path of Kuma on his quest for bloody revenge as he hunts down Afro to make him pay for the death for all those he loved."

Kuma-vs-Afro.jpg

facebook.com/AfroSamuraiGame

[Samurai_Jerk]

What Black Anime Fans Can Teach Us About Race in America

In 2009, Soulja Boy tweeted this fact: "I'm a fan of Anime ^_^." A year later, he dropped the track "Anime," referring to the Japanese cartoons so beloved by American geeks, with lyrics like: "anime, drop pants; anime, wrist and chains; anime, and everything; anime." It's a bit jarring, the casual throwing-together of bling and nerd culture: "Pikachu diamonds, anime floskas."

Anime blogs and forums heralded the rapper's otaku-coming-out as the end of American anime fandom, usually thought of as the domain of white geeks. At the same time, diehard Soulja Boy fans were wondering when swag and anime fell into bed with one another. The critics were overcome by cognitive dissonance.

Soulja Boy, for his part, didn't acknowledge crossing any invisible boundaries. "Bitch, I look like Goku," he said, referring to the popular anime Dragonball Z's protagonist, a fair-skinned, spiky-haired fighter.

Actually, Soulja Boy doesn't look much like Goku. In fact, the only black character in Dragonball Z was a puffy-lipped slave named Mr. Popo (later recolored blue for American television). But at the height of Dragonball Z's popularity, black fans breathed life into "black Goku," using Photoshop to darken the anime character's skin and proliferating his likeness throughout the internet.

sailormoonpie.jpg

[Coligny]

Lateesha Moon I suppose...