Street Fighter III: Ryu Final

One of my best friends, Lebert "Teardrop" Jones, is a huge Street Fighter fan. He's addicted to the video games and movies and is starting to become addicted to the books. Most of the time when he comes over we'd duke it out playing a Street Fighter game. Now I'm not as good as he is but I'm able to get some hits in and a few times have defeated him. I love getting in his face about beating him with Dan, a character who everyone hates and call him a weakling yet he's my best fighter next to Sagat. But anywho, TD came over a week or so ago and gave me both volumes of SF: Ryu Final and asked me to review it so I thought, "Hey, what the heck? I like Street Fighter and like reading different things than the normal standard American comics." So I started reading and began to enjoy it a lot. I was actually really impressed. One reason being that the previous SF series Udon had released I felt left a lot of be desired. Now don't get me wrong. The previous series by Udon captured the characters right and the art was amazing, but I felt more could have been done with the story. The pacing was a bit too fast and there was no meat in the overall plot. But it was still enjoyable in its own way. The art alone was enough to buy the series each month... or whatever month they decided to release it.

Well, this time they give the reigns to Masahiko Nakahira who writes a great tale of a warrior, Ryu, who is in search of the "Power of the Soul" which will then help him to prepare himself to become a true martial artist. But before he could become a true martial artist he must first embark on a journey where he must defeat the true martial artist himself, Akuma - who in a way is a dark reflection of our protagonist. Through both volumes we embark alongside with Ryu and Oro, a hermit who randomly popped out of nowhere and puts Ryu through some torturous exercises and even getting him into trouble. Oro adds a great amount of humor into the story where you just laugh at what the character puts Ryu through. And Oro is just one colorful character among the other numerous characters that help Ryu discover something about himself. Hugo, a giant childish man puts Ryu through an exciting battle with a ending that catches you off guard, Yun and Yang, twins that are willing to challenge the great Ryu in order to test their strength which just leads to hilarity, Dudley, a polite boxer who helps Ryu become one with the Earth, trees, and the wind to help him achieve the ability and strength to form his "Killing Strike" that will eventually help him battle Akuma. And of course I must mention my man Sagat, an honorable fighter who has nothing but respect for Ryu after behind defeated and scarring him but still battle as if bitter enemies. Once the fighting ends, there's nothing but a smile and promises between the two. That is one thing I really enjoy about this book also. Each character is given a humanity to them that helps you get immersed into the character. Even Akuma gets his moments, for example when he and Ryu have a little banter before their final battle and they share a laugh. Once again at the end of their battle there's no contempt, just honorable respect.

Now the art is beautiful. Next to the good writing Nakahira's art helps the story really pop out. The fights are very clear and very breathtaking to watch. He takes advantage of panel placements to help emphasize impacts and the beauty of the specific moves being done, for example the way the Shoryuken (Dragon Punch) is displayed just has you in fascination as you just stare at the page looking at each moment when it's used. And man, some of the fights are just plain brutal! The fight between Ryu and Dudley is a particular favorite of mine as Dudley just send quick blow after blow and you just shake your head wondering how Ryu will get out of this one. There's a part where Ryu sends a harsh blow into his arm that causes his muscles to burst as blood just pops out of the arm. It's truly a sight to behold.


Reading this also help me get into more of a mindset for in case I want to really go for the 24 Comic Book Challenge. I was thinking of a story that incorporated martial arts and just seeing the fights in this book just fascinated me and got me pumped.We'll see if I go through with it, heh heh. Also reading this got me into the mindset to practice more in the SF games. It really inspires me the play the video games more and finally defeat my bastard rival, Teardrop Jones once and for all. Sure, I've had a few victories over him, but let me give you a bit of estimation on our battles. Think maybe 25-250. You can guess who the 25 is, haha! That's if I even got that much to begin with! Sheesh! But I will say, the battles where I do win are always a blast to watch. Heh heh. And I know he hates it when I defeat him with Dan, the weakest character in the game. But that just gives me some bragging rights, heh.

Oh, The Horror! #11: Uzumaki

Thanks a freakin' lot, Junji Ito! Now I'll never look at spirals the same again!

Months ago I was reading some stuff on Hine (my favorite writer who everyone should know by now!) and I saw he was into this horror manga called Uzumaki by Junji Ito. As many of you know and can tell I'm a horror fan and lately I've been trying to expand my horizons, from movies, art, etc etc. I've actually never read a horror manga and I looked up the main plot for Uzumaki and found it to be pretty weird, but something about it just stuck to me as for months I always had it in my mind to check out the story. I had asked a few people I know about it, most of them manga fans and they always told me no, they had not heard of it or read it. Finally I got to read the books. I started yesterday and the only thing that stopped me from reading was my friend coming over. This morning I woke up to catch TMNT but my cable service was messed up so I just went straight to Uzumaki and read the whole series. This thing basically consumed me! I just couldn't stop reading!

For those who don't know, uzumaki is the Japanese word for spiral. The story of this manga is about a small town in Japan called Kurôzu-cho that, well... gets haunted by spirals. At first it starts off as an obsession for some characters, that leads to some people being afraid of spirals, which leads to death... and... stuff. Heh, I don't know how to quite explain it. Throughout each chapter we follow around Kirie Goshima as she watches the horrific events happening in town. Her boyfriend's father is the first person we see who's obsessed with spirals. He won't eat anything that doesn't look like a spiral, he won't even bath in the tub without making the water move like a whirlpool. Eventually he kills himself by twirling his whole body into a spiral. And that in turn brings the rest of the town in a downward spiral. One person gets so frightened of spirals that she cuts off her fingerprints! Hell, some people even begin to turn into snails! Each chapter gets weirder and weirder and you've no idea how many times my mouth just opened itself in horror when I looked at a new page and there's been times that I've been so submerged into the story that I find myself jumping from an image on the next page. There is not one chapter that doesn't catch you off guard and surprise you. I had no idea whatsoever where this would take me. One of my favorite sequences was the Romeo and Juliet type story where the two lovers at the end twist their bodies then twist them together to be one and disappear from their warring family.

Eventually the town starts to go mad, as if it weren't already, but you'd have to see it for yourself in what I mean. While the first two volumes focused on a different character connecting to the spirals, volume three begins to show the whole town together in turmoil after a hurricane nearly destroys the town. No one can escape as they're constantly being brought back into the town and people begin to get rather desperate in their ways of living there. As I read through this I kept thinking how I would be affected by this town. How crazy would my own mind be driven. Now I wasn't really attached to much of the characters but the things that would happen to them just made me feel so sorry for them. This is seriously a horror story and the author is damn cruel to treat his characters this way, haha! And I laugh especially thinking about some of the crazy stuff happening because some of the stuff is in fact rather humorous. When I was telling my friend about the first six chapters yesterday I couldn't help from dying in laughter at each ending of the chapters.

Now, the ending is random. I understand it but don't at the same time. When everything gets explained, it seems a little out of nowhere but then again with the previous chapters... I mean, c'mon. It makes sense given the world it's in but at the same time there's no explanation within that explanation... okay, it's confusing the way I'm trying to say without spoiling it so you'd have to check it out for yourself. But yes, once again I will never look at a spiral the same again. That's true horror for ya! Check it out, its good fun. And from what I understand there was a movie made of this. That I may have to check out!