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Shigurui: Death Frenzy

One of the most fascinating period manga in recent years is finally coming to the small screen. It has been announced that Takayuki Yamaguchi's samurai epic Shigurui (based on a novel by Norio Nanjô) will be adapted as an anime series by Studio Madhouse. The series, to be directed by Hirotsugu Hamazaki (of TEXHNOLYZE fame), is scheduled to start airing in July on the Japanese channel WOWOW.

Quote:

"Shigurui" is ostensibly based on the first chapter of Nanjo Norio's novel "Suruga-jou Gozen Jiai", but it's been so expanded and re-written that most folks tend to agree that the manga has become something else entirely.

The series starts in the 6th year of Kan'ei. Tired of the Suruga martial arts tournaments and eager to see some blood, Dainagon Tokugawa Tadanaka orders his men to host a sword dual to the death for his enjoyment. The lucky contestants turn out to be one-armed Fujiki Gennosuke and his blind opponent Irako Seigen.

Just as the match is about to get underway, the story rewinds several years to show just who these characters are and how they got their grievous wounds. We learn that Gennosuke was one of the major figures in the Kogan-ryuu school of fencing and that Seigen attempted to defeat the Kogan-ryuu students before eventually joining the school as a pupil himself. Talented Seigen becomes a favored student of Kogan himself (a genius swordsman, but dangerously senile), even surpassing loyal Gennosuke in terms of respect and status. Without giving away too much, Seigen and Kogan have a brutal falling out and Seigen is expelled from the dojo. Seigen and Kogan become mortal enemies, and each have fairly understandable reasons for wanting to see the other dead.

The story is compelling, with intriguing characters and dramatic events, but it's the art that really stands out with this series. This series is graphic, with stomach-churning anatomic detail. It's bloodier than "Koroshiya Ichi" (the basis of Miike's infamous "Ichi the Killer" movie). Unlike "Koroshiya Ichi" the gore isn't really gratuitous per se, and it's not "all blood, all the time"; "Shigurui" just doesn't pull any punches when it comes to showing what happens when motivated killers swing extremely sharp blades into soft, pink human bodies. It's not for all readers, though, and the first few pages of volume 1 will allow you to determine whether or not its for you.

http://forums.samurai-archives.com/v...?p=12063#12063

Manga covers:

Spoiler for Graphic images:

An ongoing scanlation of the manga may be found here:
http://kotonoha.monkey-pirate.com/on...ries/shigurui/

Oops, forgot to add a picture of the announcement:
http://xs413.xs.to/xs413/07114/shigu...me1.jpg.xs.jpg

Looks artistically interesting, but those covers really disturb me. I wonder if the anime character designs will be able to retain that level of detail.

Can somebody put those manga covers into a spoiler tag? Skinned alive humans are not the most pleasant of sights.

They are animating Shigurui? On TV?
Even for WOWOW, I don't see how o_O
That's gotta be the most disturbing manga serialized right now.

Then again, I thought the same when they announced Elfen Lied.

What's with the author's need to show the muscles and tissues below the skin? Looks pretty stupid to me >.>

But then again, I haven't read the manga, so I'm judging based solely on the covers.

I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully it'll be as violent and gory.

Bellow are some sample pages from volume 1 that I posted in another forum, in case you're interested. The samples are very graphic and gory, so only click on the spoiler tag if you think you're suited for it, it may even be disturbing.

Spoiler for volume 1 sample pages:

In addition to the name of the director, Hirotsugu Hamazaki (of TEXHNOLYZE fame), two more staff members have been announced:

Series Composition/Screenplay: Seishi Minakami
(He co-wrote the screenplay of Paprika together with Satoshi Kon; his other works include Yomigaeru Sora -Rescue Wings-, Asatte no houkou, Paranoia Agent, Alien 9 and Boogiepop Phantom.)
Character Design: Masanori Shino
(Black Lagoon [both seasons], Gungrave, Crest of the Stars)

Obviously, Madhouse is committed to round up the crème de la crème to work on this project. :)

Can't wait to see this manga realized in anime.
Had read the first 2 volumes of the manga & the contents are just as gross as the manga covers implied.
Someone mentioned n compared between Elfen Lied n Shigurui above. Elfen Lied is more about hack n slash of human limbs; meanwhile Shigurui is more about hacking all those internal parts of human body & lots of disgusted memorable moments such as

Spoiler:

(in other words...more disgusting n disturbing).

^ Well, sex between males may seem disgusting and disturbing to you (and to me as well), but it's not as universally disgusting as cold-blooded gutting people to death. If you let me say it, that comment about sex between men was a bit... you know, too rash and discriminative.

Well, unlike Elfen Lied the violence and barbarity in Shigurui don't serve only as shock value. You could say they are an integral part of the world the author is depicting. Or what do you think what happens when someone swings a razor-sharp blade into your stomach, that candies would come out? As pointed out in the story description, Shigurui is uncompromising and pulls no punches when it comes to showing the violence that exists in the world of samurai. If anything, this manga is _too_ realistic.

As for your comments about sex between men, it's interesting to know that homosexuality was not only tolerated within the samurai class, it was encouraged. It wasn't uncommon for the samurai to go to male prostitutes as depicted in a scene at the beginning of the second volume.

Wow... I am getting hyped up after reading the descriptions in addition to these partial manga scans. Though it may seems extremely unsuitable for many, I love the gore and blood :p However, as it is aired in public on television, I don't think they will be able to include that scene where someone demonstrated the effect of a duel. Likewise, slashing nipples off and sexual intercourse... would easily violate the broadcasting code, no?

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Originally Posted by Nomad Soul (Post 875663)

Good way of putting it. The extreme violence is part of the story and adds to the detail and atmosphere of the series, it's not just to make something disturbing. I can't wait to see how this turns out and Hirotsugu Hamazaki is directing so I expect it to be a trip.

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Originally Posted by GriS (Post 953052)

I don't see how they could get around the violence. The brutality is really at the heart of the story. Not to mention it's bascially on every other page.

Anyone seen the PV http://www.wowow.co.jp/anime/shiguru..._promo_500.asx
I can't seem to watch it. Is it the same as the TAF trailer (which didn't show anything).
If someone could upload it to youtube, that would be nice.

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Originally Posted by Haohmaru (Post 979829)

It's the same, it just shows some japanese text and then a manga cover at the end: i.e. nothing.

Official site is updated with anime screenshot http://www.wowow.co.jp/anime/shigurui/

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Originally Posted by Haohmaru (Post 984558)

Official site is updated with anime screenshot http://www.wowow.co.jp/anime/shigurui/

The picture looks pretty good, but I hope they don't make it look too clean and CG-like.

Trailer for Shigurui: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9qbHYYlAJ...elated&search=

Looks amazingly good... excellent rendition of the manga art. Downloading episode 1 right now, let's see how they manage the action.

Spoiler for Opinions: