Vagabond

Tastes evolve. When you were a kid you loved flashy, weirdly animated and often simplistic cartoons or shows. The good guys were always good and the bad guys were always beaten.

When you grow up you tend to re-evaluate the current situation. Maybe you see layers of complexities in the stuff you thought was simple or simply find something that blows you away. In that vein, I admit to have read and watched many a morose anime series and read many a manga from the former.

That is until I read Takehiko Inoue's 'Vagabond'.

Takehiko is known widely amongst the western world for his iconic manga about basketball called 'Slam dunk'. I've read that too, but this is miles and miles above the fantasy world of Shonen manga. This is a masterpiece in itself.

The manga deals with a re-telling of the life of Miyamoto Mushashi loosely based on the novel by Eiji Yoshikawa. While the novel is an epic work spanning at least 6 books detailing Mushashi's rise as a swordsman in the midst of Japan's feuding lords, the manga deals with it in a more personable manner, making it easier for the reader to get into the mind of someone we can only imagine.

Miyamoto Mushashi, inventor of the Hyoho Niten-ichi ryu style of kenjutsu, was a 16th century swordsman in Japan. At a very early age he showed skill with a sword others could only dream of. Stories of a boy from the country who bested students and masters from reputed schools of swordsmanship with a wooden sword made him grow into a living legend. A man who was and is considered the archetype of a samurai in many a mind.

But how did he reach this pinnacle? How did he become the Mushashi? That is where Takehiko Inoue's work provides an interesting insight.

Takehiko's work and basis of Mushashi's life is grim and dark. In the manga Shinmen Takezo, Mushashi's birth name, is a boy castigated by villagers as being a demon child after he assaults and kills a swordsman who issues a challenge to the townsfolk. His violent and angry ways fuelled by his cold hearted and anarchic father, Takezo leaves the village aged 17 to fight in the war between the Tokugawa and the Toyotomi families for control of Japan. Along with Takezo goes his boisterous and reasonably untalented friend Matahachi who wants nothing more than to prove he is a man and Takezo's equal. Their lives run parallel to each other in the manga and are beautifully inverse in their odd relationship as friends.

The Mushashi in the manga is a beast. A demon forged by the sole purpose of being "invincible under the sun". He fights mercilessly, kills without remorse or hesitation and lives a destructive life. The manga portrays this in a most graphic sense, so be warned it's not pretty or nice. Reading a little into the manga, the reader is able to recognize Takezo/Mushashi's reasoning behind his way. We realise his motives for being this way as a justification of his existence.

When he isn't drawing his sword against a foe, Takezo is a quiet youth. Forever in his thoughts, polite and righteous Takezo deals with his day to day interactions in a humane way. He is almost portrayed as being more animal than human in thought, surviving on instinct. It is later that he, through his interactions and reflections realises what he is doing and has done all his life. He understands the concept of karma and his hand in creating a "cycle of death and desperation".

While my understanding and portrayal of the manga may seem complicated, the language and method used by Takehiko Inoue is simple and straightforward making it one of the most easily read manga I have ever come across.

What really shines through is the artwork. Characters are realistic. The odd rare super-deformed heads and anime conventions of emoticons are present, usually for comic effect, but they are unnoticable in the sheer work in making the character's feel believable. The picture I put up with this post is one of the examples of how the manga is drawn. Takehiko uses both pen and brush in liberal doses to create a fluid, almost Sumi-e form of expression. The swordfights are brutal affairs, dealt within a few panels - No acrobatics - No special moves - No superhyperpowered laser beams. All players are human, with human limits. The 'good guy' or the main character suffers real injuries that take a believable time to heal.

All this serves to negate the suspension of belief for this manga. Quite the opposite that by showing these characters who are so strong yet so fallible, Takehiko defies most anime and manga conventions. To anyone who thinks comics are unreadable things, I would recommend Vagabond.

You can read Vagabond here. It is marked mature for its graphic content.

The death of a grasshopper.

He was a legend in his own right and it took my brain a few seconds to register him as the star of the hit TV series, Kung Fu, when he appeared on screen as Bill in Kill Bill.

Anyone in the world who recants into fancy kung fu stances or praises the Buddha in the style of (many) a martial arts flick upon hearing the word 'Grasshopper' wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

I am, of course, talking about David Carradine whose recent death is at once sudden and controversial.

His role in Kung Fu was a masterful piece of wooden acting and the story was ham-fisted in its approach but the concept was pure gold. Kwai Chang Caine, an orphaned Sino-American child is raised by in the Shaolin temple by the blind master Po and trained in the arts of Kung fu. Master Po is killed by the Emperor's nephew and the child, now a man, layeth the smack down on the nephew.

Implicated of murdering a relative of the emperor, Kwai Chang flees to the wild wild west where he wanders the frontier lands searching for his half brother, Danny. Along the series Kwai Chang comes to the aid of the downtrodden using his art to, yet again, lay down the law.

Why is this a good series? Well, the story wasn't stellar but the piece by piece episodes in themselves were well written and executed in a very graceful pace. Then there was the Aesop-like moral fibre in them - Kwai Chang's moral compass as a Shaolin monk prevents him from ignoring the people's plights yet he knows every move he makes somehow makes him easier to track down.

Finally, there's the martial arts aspect. It's not flashy or showy. People do not jump around with no respect to gravity. Ripping someone's heart out is not possible without scalpels, a degree in surgery and a strong stomach. The martial arts in the series are real and believable. Caine is not untouchable, just really really good at dodging. He prefers to choose practicality over pomp, tire his opponent out and end him with a swift, precise strike.

The show also used flashbacks to Caine's past in the temple as a device to understand the morals and motives of the character, fleshing out his being. Many of the teachings instilled into Caine by his masters are taken from Taoist and Zen teachings giving the show a touch of authenticity.

There are reasons for this which are more realistic than artsy. The show's concept, originally proffered by Bruce Lee in a different format, called for an actor of Asian origin who knew kung fu (ironically, Bruce Lee himself wanted the role of Caine). Studio heads at the time thought that an American audience would not identify with an Asian man being the lead of a primetime series and did not go ahead with Lee's idea.

When Lee left for Hong Kong to make 'The Big Boss', network executives picked up the concept and decided to cast an 'Asian-looking American' for the role. Carradine, with his one ninth Cherokee ancestry, fit the bill for the serene and poetic Kwai Chang Caine.

Of course, Carradine knew no martial arts and wasn't really trained in it for the purposes of the series. He held some credo as a dancer as well as being athletic and lithe. Going by what a Karate master at the time said that 'the only qualification that was needed to be trained in the martial arts was that you had to know how to dance' Carradine was perfect for the role.

Regardless, the show was a massive hit. It was a vehicle for many an Asian star in the US as many gained employment as actors depicting Caine's pursuers. It even starred Brandon Lee, ironically as the son of Caine, a role his biological father might have played.

David Carradine's death on June 4th 2009 was saddening. More so because of the circumstances surrounding his death than his age. He was found in his hotel room near Bangkok, dead by what forensics claim to have been 'autoerotic asphyxation'.

Even more saddening is the fact that the Carradine family lawyer, Mike Geragos, alleged on Larry King Live that Carradine was assassinated by "groups working in the martial-arts underworld." and that he did not want to go into "conspiracy theories" marshaling the FBI to Bangkok at the family's behest.

A man is dead. Best not to talk ill of one who is no longer with us, for even as we can surely see, we do not look.

I leave you with an clip from arguably the best scene in Kung Fu. Featuring a flashback of Kwai Chang's young days at the temple in which master Po gives him the iconic nickname of grasshopper.