Ginga Doujinshi x2

Let's take a closer look at the two Ginga doujinshi I bought in Japan. I'm aware that it is frowned upon to make scanlations of fan mangas and that's why I'm only showing a few pictures that showcases the drawing style and humor of these comics respectively (I hope).

I can't read Japanese, so I'm completely clueless to what is actually being said in these comics. I just like to look at the drawings.

Let's take a look at the black and white covered first. I fell in love with the cover the minute I saw it. It's so cute! I paid 1650 yen for it, which is about 13€. It was printed in 2001 and is 42 pages long. According to the (un)reliable Google Translate app I have on my phone, the name of this comic is "ice attack"  or "dance of water" was also briefly suggested. I'm inclined to believe that "ice attack" is the correct one. I checked the old fashioned way, from my Finnish-Japanese dictionary and the first kanji is definitely the one for "ice", and you know, there are snowflakes on the cover too, which just confirms it.

When I saw the cover, my mind immediately jumped to this moment in the official manga (Vol 10.)

Ben's and Cross' puppies are born and as Chibi/Tesshin is watching the newborns nurse, he starts to crave milk, but Akame tells him not to drink, he will teach Chibi how to hunt instead. And the two leave the pack briefly.

So based on the cover I assumed this was going to be a story about Akame teaching Chibi to hunt or other life lessons. I shouldn’t have made assumptions like that, because of course I was wrong! 

The majority of it takes place in the Ginga Densetsu Weed era. There doesn’t seem to be an overarching story here, just a selection of self contained mini stories, a few gag comics, some text heavy pages with illustrations and then some text heavy comics where the author’s self insert character is talking about the Ginga series (I’m guessing).

I have absolutely no idea what the text heavy pages or the “author’s comment” comics are about,so I don’t have much to say about them, because 99% of it is unfortunately lost on me. But every page has at least one Ginga character present in the illustrations, which is why I’m deducting they are either discussing the character or events related to the character. Or just generally fangirling over the character in question.

Out of the 42 pages, only 19 pages of the comics are without the author insert character. 

The first few pages are about Hougen. Next is eight pages about Ken and Jerome. A single page of Kurotora and his nephews. A single page about Tesshin. A single page with Kurojaki and Wilson. Lastly, five pages of Tesshin.

With the exception of the Ken & Jerome story and the last Tesshin story,  which are serious/somber in tone, the rest are humorous in nature, or I interpreted them as so.

I like the art here. The characters are all recognizable. The art has a bit of sketchy feel to it, but consistent, which I like. It helps the characters pop out by making the pages look less sterile, because the backgrounds are used to the very minimum.

I guess my personal favorite page would be the one about Kurotora and his nephews. I always found it frustrating that Takahashi never gave a proper answer to what exactly happened to Chutora in the original manga. I never knew before this that I wanted to see more of Kurotora raising his nephews.

"St. Helena Ginga Special"

Printed in 2006, 98 pages long divided into five chapters.Cost 4950 yen, about 38€

I’m glad this comic had such a bold red cover that caught my eye, I might have missed it otherwise when I walked by the glass cabinet it was in.

This is all humor as far as I can tell. No overarching story, just various scenarios of different lengths. Some are only one page long and others four pages.

About the art inside. The characters are really expressive and recognizable (except the Iga dogs in some panels). I’m having a real hard time figuring out if this comic is done by one or more persons. The art is really inconsistent, which would hint that maybe multiple people worked on it. Then again, the art style doesn’t differentiate enough from chapter to chapter that I would find it hard to believe for one person to have done it. Then again (again) if everybody is doing their best impression of the same art style, it’s natural there would be only minor differences if everybody has the same level of skills. I have to call it inconclusive, I can’t figure this out.

Anyway, here and there are some inconsistencies in how the faces are drawn, but the worst offenders are how the dog’s bodies contort. I don’t mean the way they do sometimes for comedic effect. Sometimes they just are really blocky and stiff while other times they are completely fine, as far as I expect from a dog drawn in Takahashi’s style. It doesn’t take away from the humor, but sometimes the inconsistencies were a bit distracting.

This was pure comic from start to finish, no walls of text. There was a short author’s comment at the beginning of each chapter. I bet those would have clued me in (about this being one person's project or not), if I knew how to read Japanese.

Also, this was also pure Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, no characters from the sequel. What really surprised me was the appearance of a few of the wolf characters from the infamous GNG wolf-saga, which usually get completely forgotten.

It would be unfair to try picking a favorite out of these two, they both have their pros and cons. I’m happy that I found them and now can have them as a part of my Ginga collection. <3

Ginga Custom pt. 12

Not related to the post in any way, but happy April Fools' day! :D

pictures shamelessly copied from the Ginga wiki pages

Sasuke time! The little Shiba dog from Ginga Densetsu Weed series. I guess you could say that Sasuke is special in a way, because unlike the other characters I've painted, there actually is an official figure of him. (As I'm writing this, I realize that's not actually true a, both Riki and John have official figures made of them. I just completely blanked out about that fact.)

don't know where that stain came from  (right f. leg)

All my other custom dogs have been flea market foundlings, but this one I actually bought brand new, specifically with the intent that I was going to paint it into Sasuke. I'm probably not lying if I say that this figure sat on my desk for two years before I finally decided to get it over with and just finish it. I don't know what killed my motivation with this one. The main thing I hate about it is the head shape. It's not round enough. And the snout was somewhat misshapen too. As I was painting the tip of the nose, it was difficult to get it to look right, more trouble than I've had with any of the previous figures. Or maybe my "skills" have gone just a bit rusty.

I had a hard time deciding which reference to follow, his anime look or manga look. And now the end result doesn't look like either of them. I was also confused over those two black dot above his eyes. In the anime it's just some shadings, but in the manga they do sometimes look more like distinctive markings. You could say the same about those black stripes under his eyes too (in the manga images). I did give the figure the two black dots at first, but later painted over them, because I didn't get them to look right. The official Sasuke figure doesn't have any black markings on the face either, so maybe it's okay that I left them out.

I also wasn't sure if I should give him a collar or not. Again, in the anime, it's absent, but in the manga he has one. With my tape method, the collar is simple and fairly quick enough to make, so why not? I made him a collar. I then had to decide which color it should be, blue or black? I don't think (not that I have paid attention to it really) there's any consistency in the manga for when it's blue or black, it just seems to be random. The official Sasuke figure has a blue collar though..... I was going to compromise and paint it very dark blue, but since I already had the black paint on my palette anyhow, and I hadn't used any blue until this point, so I decided to save that tiny speck of blue paint for some other time.

What do I think of the final result? I hate it.

I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

The main reason I do not like it is because I know I rushed it. I was sick and tired of seeing his base painted ass sitting on my desk for so long. I had to finish it to be able to move forward. I always get mentally stuck and unable to start new projects if I have too many old ones on the back of my mind. I'm glad this is over now. Fingers crossed that I'll do better next time!

Hyena, Sasuke and Jerome

Ginga Custom pt.8

The first customs of 2016! Wohoo! And it's a double! This time, my victims are Batto and Hyena!

(Please right click the images and open in a new tab for a larger view.)

I specifically looked for a Labrador retriever figure for painting Batto. Hyena on the other hand was very much so an unplanned custom. I bought a small bag full of toys at a flea market and there was a couple of Dalmatian dogs I didn't really plan on using for anything. While I was waiting for the paint on Batto to dry, I took a closer look at one of the Dalmatians and tried to think of a character it would be suitable for. Hyena for some reason was the only floppy eared dog with a collar I could think of at the moment. So that's how he came to be!

The first coat on Hyena turned out a little bit too greenish and Batto was too blue and the color was not dark enough. I repainted both of them twice, which didn't turn out to be such a good decision regarding Batto. I'm sad to say, that Batto is the first one out of my customs, that I'm not happy about the end result. I used black paint for the markings around Batto's eyes at first, but the black didn't stand out at all and just faded in with the rest of the coat. So I tried a few things to make it work before giving up and deciding to use dark blue instead and even that doesn't look very good. Batto's scars were also a real pain in the butt to paint. Looking at reference pictures now, I realize I didn't give Hyena brown eyes! Another failure!

Ginga Custom pt.7

Has it really been 5 months since my last Ginga custom? Well, anyway, my poll for the next character to paint got zero votes, so that wasn't very helpful. Apparently it took me five months to decide on my own, which one out of the three I'd paint. In the end Heuler (or Hoiler, whatever you like to call him)  won, because of Henry the 3rd's nonexistent screentime, Buruge's inconsistent ear length and mainly because the last figure I painted happened to be Jerome. He and Heuler belong in the same group so it kinda made more sense. If I ever manage to get a hold on a similar Coonhound figures, I'll paint the two leftouts as well.

Please right click the images and open in a new tab for a larger view.

Starting point

Work in progress

Comparison

More...

Together with Jerome

Ginga background character celebration

A while ago, I took the time to re-watch both Ginga Nagareboshi Gin and Ginga Densetsu Weed series with the focus on finding some background characters with interesting designs, (although, some minor, named characters also slipped in...) because why not? I purposely left out any single colored dogs without any noticeable markings, 'cause such dogs are usually cannon fodder in the series anyway. Probably just the nostalgia taking over again, but I think GNG wins in this "better looking background characters" regard as well.

Ginga Nagareboshi Gin

Please right click and open in a new tab for a larger view.

Ginga Densetsu Weed

And as a bonus, I also compiled all the images where the collie with the elusive name appears.  :D

Question

So I have this following dog figure that I was planning on painting next for my Ginga customs, but I can't decide who it should be!

After watching both series again, these six dogs caught my attention:

Karasu, Luke, Henry III, Batto, Buruge and Heuler.

When I was putting together the previous images, I really got to take a good look at all six of them side by side and I managed to narrow it down to three. I discarded Karasu and Luke pretty quickly because the first time we see them, is also the last time they are ever mentioned again. Arguably, this holds true for Henry as well, but after his brief introduction, he was at least kept as a background character for a while (and I happen to find his appearance memorable). Batto was eliminated purely based on his (supposed) breed. So now the remaining ones would be: Henry III, Buruge and Heuler.

While watching GNG, I noticed these two dogs, who I think comes closest to matching the dog figure's breed appearance wise, but since they are just some random, nameless, background dogs, they are not taken in for a count. The dog in the smaller picture was running beside Gin in that one scene, in that one episode. I recall it might be the episode where they meet the Kai brothers, but I'm not sure. The dog in the bigger pictures was fighting Akakabuto along with the others in Cross' flashback.

Who do you think it should be? Please take a moment to vote, using the poll on the top, right side of the page!