Comike78 – The Man in the High Castle

Now with the Tokyo coverage completed as of this week (mere two months past I returned home ^_~) it’s back to basics as I’ve said..or sorts of. Again, today’s write-up is dedicated on Doujinshi spotlight from start to end, but to be honest it’s the focus that makes me feel quite nostalgic this time around. Not because it relates for once to the (highly) neglected Anime side of Japan’s Doujin spheres but more importantly the animator in charge actually relates to the roots of what or whom it’s to be thanked (financially speaking blamed though ^^) I’ve been caught by the Doujin craze oh-so-many moons ago. Hence, how about a short intro which this maestro certainly does not require but I seriously love to get some of this done for him.

Animator, Illustrator and also Manga-ka. In short Nobuteru Yuki is a multitalent widely reknown amongst the Anime scene for more than a decade now. Especially during the late 90′s Yuuki-sensei’s involvement was associated with big scale projects such as (nowadays considered classics) Tenkuu no Escaflowne TV and movie, Anime adaptions in the course of CLAMP golden age like Gekijouban X (despite the decision to leave it up to director legend Rintaro to condense the complex and still unfinished work within a 90min. theatrical feature is argueable, I’d say it still ranges amongst the utmost best CLAMP Anime portings from a visual stance) or the infamous long-time considered lost treasure CLOVER image/music clip and also there’s absolutely no way around classics such as Lodoss Tou Senki (OVA) and Gekijouban Five Star Stories when providing a short break down on belongs of Nobuteru Yuki history. As if not occupied enough with his Anime works, Yuki-sensei also tried himself at other formats such as been the case with Vaelber Saga – an original Fantasy themed Manga series which he launched back in August 1988 (!) with the 3rd Tankoubon published back in 2003 at rather slow ratio (8 years inbetween the release of the previous volume!).
Also on Doujinshi terms Nobuteru Yuki is a longtime established force amongst the Animator-Kei in these fields with Takai Shiro no Otoko (The Man in the High Castle) as main Circle he participates on large scale events like Comike.

• NOBUTERU YUKI SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HERLOCK OUTSIDE LEGEND Layout Gashuu
Release: 2010/08/15
252 pages (all b/w)

-Content sample shot No.1
-Content sample shot No.2
-Content sample shot No.3
-Content sample shot No.4

Endless Odyssey actually describes best how this wait for the day a release like this would be brought up by Takai Shiro no Otoko (or The Man in the High Castle) felt. As some of you might know (or not) yours truly used to foster a pretty deep addiction towards the works of legendary Manga-ka Matsumoto Leiji. In fact, I can blame it on that liking of mine plus the fabulous Lodoss Tou Senki OVA (specifically not including Five Star Stories there since due to the various complications that made this film receive a home video – DVD – release *much* latter) that turned me into an appreciator and soon afterwards loyal follower (read: fanboy) of this Animator in the first place. Nobuteru Yuki (btw. strictly going by self-romanization here as well, in case you wonder) apparently is also a fan of Matsumoto works, as he often noted during interviews it was especially the work of the unforgettable Komatsubara Kazuo (who’s been in charge of art for Uchuu Kaizoku Captain Herlock amongst *so* many other great classics of Japanese Anime history) which motivated him to become an Animator in the first place. Besides, also on Doujinshi relations the Matsumoto theme crossed coverage of Takai Shiro no Otoko publications, though conducted on very teasing, little and cruel manners, when Nobuteru Yuki included some (partwise also work related) absolutely beautiful sketches and rough artworks of Maetel & Co. within his famous ANVIL trilogy. As far as I’m concerned that aspect coevally raised desire for Yuki-sensei to one day work on a major Anime project based on Matsumoto’s work ever since. Hence you can imagine the joy once Madhouse (one if not due to Lodoss *the* favorite Studio of mine by the time on top!) announced SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HERLOCK Endless Odyssey Outside Legend – a 13 episode OVA which brought back the orignal series’ director Rintaro to present us his vision of a continuation (as expressed prior to each episode) while Nobuteru Yuki was given task as visual mastermind in charge! Despite some odds and flaws along (as much as I love Rintaro as director I’m still of the opinion that his style suits projects best where he’s given much time to execute what is up his mind) this OVA series was one of those dreams come true as far as I’m concerned. Furthermore Endless Odyssey also brought up expectations that sooner or latter it would receive same Takai Shiro no Otoko treatment as pretty much every other Nobuteru Yuki involving project thus far (from Lodoss up to Paradise Kiss). “Latter” was in fact the case here, as it took Yuki-sensei five years, but this year in summer the space pirate finally met The Man in the High Castle!
NOBUTERU YUKI SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HERLOCK OUTSIDE LEGEND Layout Gashuu represents therefore not only the latest publication by Nobuteru Yuki’s Doujinshi Circle, but moreover a quite memorable one on top on several aspects, which I’d like to elaborate a bit more within the upcoming paragraphs of today’s write-up. Kept in pitch-black like the space itself with merely some Matsumoto Meters (松本メーター often randomly placed gauges/dials designs that are *very* distinctive for Matsumoto works hence refered to as such by fans) used for the background to this publication’s sleeve cover artwork while in the middle the representative skull is printed on (in different texture). Starting elements that make this Takai Shiro no Otoko Doujinshi come along pretty impressive whilst underneath this sleeve a Herlock facial sketch in slightly blurred fashion (as previously featured on Yuki-sensei’s blog during the C78 updates) presents the book’s actual cover artwork. Taking a first look inside this Doujinshi that is brimful of content spreading over more than 250 pages in total, in the beginning we’ve got a short section that appears to be intended as sort of an introduction. While also througoutly kept monochrome, it leaves such impression due to the different page frame color (a brown tint) and also the content alongside these starting eight pages. Dedicated on the promotional side of Endless Odyssey rough art such as from the wonderful DVD release Promo Poster (which I actually got ahold of back then) featuring the cool pose of Herlock sitting on a rock with Tori-san on his shoulders and the Jolly Roger in the background amongst other Herlock sketches Yuki-sensei did in the heat of the project’s pre-release phase (tiny sketches for the CM and ads announcing this OVA series) are collected therein. Another major spotlight this starting section is comprised of goes towards DVD cover art itself. Contrary to most other content within OUTSIDE LEGEND Layout Gashuu this part explores the early stage a bit more, as it starts out by a collage page where the Circle mastermind presents the first drafts for the 13 Volumes this OVA series consists of. These are not only kept rather sketchy in nature, but more importantly they are different from the final versions as gracing the individual volumes out of the series (which, yeah, I imported each DVD Volume back then as well ^^). Of course, these differences between drafts and finalized version tend to vary, while some just ended up differently arranged (i.e. draft for Volume 2 cover art was Shizuka and Daiba Hakase and the follow-up featured Nana and Tadashi while this was flipped around for the finalized Volume cover artworks), or with some posing alternations and changes (such as the final volume draft-wise features Tochirou alone with big fat grin on his face showing the V-sign with both hands or the Arcadia in full frontal mode contrary to the side perspective this ship is shown on the 6th VOYAGE cover), a few were completely of different nature back during this early stage (Vol. 12 had no Noo / Doc’s as artwork, rather than something that is *very* sketchy and appears to be the space anomality of importancy later during the series, while the Cosmo Dragoon cover art was not included at all). Follow-up content to the drafts are the finalized cover art rough sketches (moreso monochrome artworks) with some portrayed in full-page size glory (Herlock, Shizuka and Daiba Hakase, Miime) while other share half a page. After some more Herlock close-up sketches once past the awesome backside illustration of the space pirate walking-off, this signalizes the start for the main content to OUTSIDE LEGEND Layout Gashuu. If I’d comment on each and every piece of Nobuteru Yuki art alongside these more than 240 pages left, I could dedicate “a few lengthy” entries to accomplish that. Hence it’s best for me (and those patient enough to read through my entries to begin with) to leave some comments on several aspects which stood out most glorious to me within this wonderful Doujinshi. Of course everything starts right at the first episode and people who’re trusted to the source material know that this means lovely Kei Yuki in all her naked glory whilst taking a bath and moreso hoping out of the bathtub due to the alarm siren sounds. This opening scene much to the joy of Kei fans is featured as beginning cut collection herein as well, spreading over four pages in total and I’d say that’s about every single cut that rushed sequence involves ^^ That said, despite brimful of content reaching from the beginning to the very final episode of Endless Odyssey, Nobuteru Yuki chose on selected scenes for each episode which he collected through this Takai Shiro no Otoko publication. It does not mean that all of the OVA is covered in its entirety, as that would at least require another if not a couple of more Volumes to go for (which I’m desperately hoping for though). Also those scenes at which OUTSIDE LEGEND Layout Gashuu provides highly detailed cut collection are througout dedicated on the characters, so if you’re looking for fancy sketches of ships, mechanics and weaponry as shown during this OVA, you won’t find anything (except the one aforementioned Arcadia cover art draft) of that nature herein! Reason for that probably relates to that Yuki-sensei after all was in charge of character design, hence the mechnical porperties of Endless Odyssey were not handled by him in the first place. I for one did not mind that aspect at all, given to me it’s all about the characters to begin with, hence the portrayal in their rough sketch versions for each of the selected scenes was utmost pleasing. Especially those trusted with the talent in charge would know how utmost detailed and complex Nobuteru Yuki is crafting his art (often to such extend it sure was a pain for colorists and animation staff to fully visualize his designs), hence the all b/w monochrome aspect of this book is absolutely not minded either and in fact is the utmost best way for the talent to provide inisghts on the scene creation and its art. As far as I’m concerned rather priceless moments reflected and coevally explored upon OUTSIDE LEGEND Layout Gashuu originate from Kei scenes like the moment she returned to Arcadia (“Tadaima” – that beautiful face of hers with that gentle look upon was among the most memorable moments during the first half of Endless Odyssey while the rough art close-up on Kei’s face for the cut inherits the same power I’d say) or the way she teased Tadashi early on in episode 5 (“Ara yada, Obasan mitai janai” *so* cute!!) up to the serious trouble times moment this girl went through in the later half of the OVA (full page glory artwork of tied-up Kei *nuff said!*). Even though this Arcadia crew member receives lots of coverage within this Takai Shiro no Otoko release, a decent part of the content is also spent on others, while naturally Herlock still gets the lion’s share of content (one of my favorites there is the scene during episode 2 when Herlock looks down at Onizuka prior to the “duel”). Irita (also the childhood flashback included), Tadashi, Tochirou, Yattaran, Mayu (!), Doc Zero and cute little Mii-kun and basically each and every appearing character is given at least some focus as Nobuteru Yuki reflects and goes through the 13 Voyages Endless Odyssey consists of. The vibrant manners coupled with high details of this talent is so perfectly showcased herein, it’s hard for me to describe the beauty and energy OUTSIDE LEGEND Layout Gashuu comes along with. Well, actually it made me go back re-watching the whole series in one go, which I haven’t done in ages (the change disc each episode aspect of the Japanese release always been a bit troublesome for viewing sessions of the series ^^). Doing so I can also note that even though some of the artworks as featured within this Doujinshi were part of the bonus material the jp DVD release contained (i.e. Settei later on), the quality and sharpness of the printed material is a gazilion tims better than the partwise quite blurred (self skipping forward) sketches as included for DVD extra sake thereon. On the nitpicky side of my “review” here, I must drop the note that some scenes I hoped for to be given equal of detailed coverage where either completely missed out (Tochirou action in the final) or not represented in the amount I hoped for to see (Iseki no Joou, first Herlock VS. Irita scene flashback came to mind). Given the content amount in total of this book, before finding flaw with that though it brings me back to the previously noted sentiment that it would require at least a second installment of such Takai Shiro no Otoko publication to feature a complete coverage of this 13 episode OVA after all. Before heading into conclusion, OUTSIDE LEGEND Layout Gashuu comes up with an additional section prior to the lengthy Atogaki (postscript) by the talent in charge. Promo/drafts as intro, layout/cuts sketches for the full series as main part while the conclusion rounds up this release with a short but essential kept Settei section. Herein each and every character out of the large cast that appeared on this Endless Odyssey receive coverage, some more extensive (Herlock for example receives 2 pages in the beginning plus later in space suit from a certain flashback scene) some less (Onizuka, Yakuza, Osake no Hitobito – the bar folks at Hakidame).
In the end, there’s little else left for me to say other than I fell in love with this project and visual mastermind in charge all over again and as cheesy as that may, no certainly, sounds I felt it was quite the sign that the first time for me attending Comike in person this summer, Takai Shiro no Otoko came up with *the* Doujin plans I waited for over five years now. Much as Yuki-sensei notes during the final credits page himself, given that there’s no other option released inbetween like a Mook or Artbook for this project, NOBUTERU YUKI SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HERLOCK OUTSIDE LEGEND Layout Gashuu represents the best alternative for such. No, that’s actually a big understatement, as I consider this collection an absolute must for every fan and appreciator of things concerning Nobuteru Yuki, Leiji Matsumoto and/or Uchuu Kaizoku Captain Herlock. One of the most precious Comike78 released acquisitions I wholeheartly recommend also if you’re not into the particular project its dedicated on.

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