Why Asteria Sucks...

 

WE CAN DO IT!

 

MISC. MANGA, *Shuriken

Recalled as being one of the first real anime/manga-inspired American comic books, Shuriken was created by longtime independent artist Robbie Buyers. Originally released in 1985 by indie publishers Victory Productions, it was eventually partially collected by Blackthorne Publishing in a graphic novel, then continued in another series through Eternity Comics, and then as a short-lived follow-up by another creative team. Not being based on any specific Japanese title, Buyers claims his original inspirations were the earlier works of Osamu Tezuka and Leiji Matsumoto, even though his comic deals with modern day ninjas, which is unusual considering there weren't numerous anime or manga at the time that delved into the genre. Shuriken might have been more inspired by the deluge of ninja-themed movies that were common in the U.S.

Kyoko is a professional ninja employed by Morgan Enterprises, and uses the alias "Shuriken" when acting as a professional bodyguard. Kyoko's friend Jean is attacked by the masked ninja Eagle's Claw, who is really her brother Koji, and now working for the yakuza. Kyoko heads to Japan to help free Koji from the Japanese mafia, even though Koji kills another friend of hers and somehow accepts the excuse of him being "schizophrenic" for just previously committing murder. Shuriken then travels back to America to see about freeing herself for Morgan Enterprises' personal ninja clan known as The Organization. Morgan agrees to let her quit, although a little to easily as he sends his personal bodyguard Megumo to kill Kyoko's new boss as she tries to get a new career as a model. Kyoko manages to get Megumo to admit to the assassination, and then plans to get even with Morgan.

The next title in the series was Blade Of Shuriken by Eternity which took place after the original, while still taking off in a new direction for fresh reader where Kyoko gets a job working as the bodyguard for the corrupt mayor who is being targeted by the local mafia. Shuriken: Cold Steel takes place afterwards showing Kyoko getting into a more world-saving level of adventure. This also tied into Shuriken: Team-Up where Kyoko crossed over with other Eternity Comics characters, the comic itself was supposed to be a mini-series but only lasted one issue. This was followed up by new Shuriken series in the early 90s, except this time it was written by S.A. Bennett with art by Wes Abbott, and took a hard dive into its manga roots with a style similar to Masamune Shirow works like Ghost In The Shell.

Shuriken is an thrilling look at the early days of "Ameri-manga", which didn't take from usually sources at the time like mecha shows, and more from obscure Japanese titles like Cat's Eye. It might be tricky to be able to collect all the scattered issues as their not legit available digitally, even though your average modern day otaku might be satisfied with the first collected graphic novel for a look during Golden Age of american anime fans.

It's not Christmas until Mrs. Deagle gets shot out of her upstairs window.

R.I.P., Jeremy Bulloch (aka: The REAL Boba Fett)

ANI-MOVIES, *Klaus

As their first ever original animated movie, Netflix premiered this full-length feature exclusively on their streaming service. Directed by Sergio Pablos, who was a former animator for Disney, brought his skills to this talent to this production done by his own company, and his talents are highlighted as the main character's profile is a humanized replica of Dr. Doppler from Treasure Planet. Pablos' directorial debut resulted in one of the first original 2D animated movies since The Princess And The Frog, plus several awards including Netflix's first animated Oscar nomination.

Happening possibly sometime in the early 20th Century, Jesper is the son of the head of the postman academy, and his father hoped his son would eventually shake off his spoiled upbringing to take up the role of a hardworking postman. Jesper is then cast out to the far northern town of Smeerensburg to run a post office, and he has a year to mail 6,000 letters, otherwise he will be cut off. The vain postman soon realizes that his new dingy home is the residency of the longest running fued between two families. After realizing that none of the citizens have any mail to send to anyone, Jesper checks up on a lone woodcutter isolated on the northern part of the island, who is an intimidating large bearded man named Klaus that spends most of his spare time making birdhouses. But Jesper finds out that Klaus has an entire storehouse filled with toys he made, and the two of them eventually unite to help deliver toys to the lonely children of the town by sending letters away to Klaus. This begins a ripple effect where the childen start to play with each other, better behavior, wanting to attend school, and causing the older citizens to act more neighborly. All this positive attitude ruffles the feathers of the heads of each feuding family who decide to work together top stop Jesper and Klaus' racket. After eventuallty running out of the toys, Klaus recieves help from nearby Sami village to prepare for one big haul of toys in a plan Jesper came up with, to be delivered on Christmas Eve. What follows is Jesper having to decide whether or not he wants to finally reach his goal to win back his father's favor and leave, or to help Klaus bring peace to the town.

This was a very fresh take on the origins of Santa Claus, even though there have been hundreds done over the last century. Klaus stands out from the rest by having a story set far back, but successfully makes it appealing for modern audiences. The animation is breathtakingly gorgeous, mixing in with some CGI, but with a strong foothold in tradional 2D productions. Klaus has a definitive place in the library of holiday classics.