#naoko kawano

[picturebookshelf]

Avatar the Last Airbender: The Promise - Part One (2012)

Story: Gene Luen Yang -- Art: Chifuyu Sasaki & Naoko Kawano (Gurihiru)

#avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla #the promise #aang #avatar aang #appareil #toph #sokka #zuko #gene luen yang #Chifuyu Sasaki #Naoko Kawano #gurihiru #graphic novels #children's graphic novels #children's comics #comics #children's books #kidlit #kid books #children's literature #2010s #10s

[doyourememberrocknrollradio]

Shonen Knife - "Jump into the New World"

#women's history month #shonen knife #naoko yamano #atsuko yamano #risa kawano

[rockandrollpicsandthings]

Shonen Knife onstage Darlinghurst, Sydney, 2017

Ritsuko Taneda, Risa Kawano and Naoko Yamano ©pic Alec Smart

[daggerzine]

Shonen Knife- Our Best Place (Good Charamel Records)

This Japanese institution, who have been at it since the early 80's, are back with another full length and they sound completely rejuvenated! They have always brought the FUN and this new batch of songs is no different and very easy to get sucked into.

Led by guitarist Naoko Yamano  (joined by her bassist sister Atsuko and drummer Risa Kawano) the band charges through 10 songs in just over 30 minutes and most of the cuts on Our Best Place are as good as anything these ladies have ever done.

First song "MUJINTO Rock" blasts out of the gate Ramones-style (the Bruddahs were always a big influence on the music of Shonen Knife) while "Nice Day" goes for a more jangly, 60''s vibe. "Vamos Taquitos" is an ebullient charged blast and "Spicy Veggie Curry" takes the guitars off of "Blitzkrieg Bop" (at least the opening chords) and goes off into Shonen Knife territory. Oh and if "Girl's Rock" doesn't get you dancing in the aisles (or your house) then nothing will. They save the Pilot cover of "Just A Smile" for last and when it's all over you'll realize that Shonen Knife has made yet another fantastic record and doing it 40 plus years on is pretty remarkable. Do not miss!

  www.goodcharamel.com

www.shonenknife.bandcamp.com 

[greensparty]

Album Reviews: Shonen Knife / Inhaler

This week I got to review not one but two eagerly awaited albums:

Shonen Knife Our Best Place

Since forming in 1981, Osaka, Japan’s Shonen Knife have been tearing it up in their corner of the punk sandbox. A band that can draw equal comparisons to both The Ramones and the 1960s girl groups. What a testament it is that they’ve been doing their own thing for over four decades. Since I began this blog, one of the cool things I’ve gotten to do is cover some of the band’s recent activity: their 2016 concert the day after the U.S. presidential election, my 2017 interview with the band’s singer/guitarist Noako Yamano, my review of their 2018 DVD Shonen Knife ALIVE in Osaka! (which the band actually retweeted on Twitter!), and my review of the band’s 2019 album Sweet Candy Power. The band’s first album since the pandemic Our Best Place is being released this week on Good Charamel Records.

album cover

There’s a timelessness to this new album that is kind of comforting in a way. It could’ve been released in the mid-90s after their album Rock Animals (one of my favorites of theirs) or sometime in the 00s. They have a punk edge, but serious pop tendencies, much like The Ramones and a lot like Nirvana, who sung the praises of Shonen Knife and toured with them. Bands that have fun sing-along sounds intermixed with the energy of punk and do it really really well are few and far between as you need to master both. Shonen Knife is definitely one of the masters and all hail them for still doing it into their late 50s and 60s. The band is still continuing their songs about food on tracks like “Spicy Veggie Curry” and “Afternoon Tea”, but then you have song like “Better” which is one of their finest pop moments. All hail Shonen Knife!

Atsuko Yamano, Naoko Yamano, and Risa Kawano

For info on Our Best Place: http://www.shonenknife.net/

3.5 out of 5 stars

Inhaler Cuts & Bruises

Dublin, Ireland alt-rock quartet Inhaler have been on my radar for a few years now. I named the band’s song “Falling In” my #6 Song of 2020. The band’s debut It Won’t Always Be Like This was impressive. I named it my #9 Album of 2021. Before the sophomore album was even announced they began dropping some singles and just last week I named “These are the Days” my #4 Song of 2022. Now the band’s second album Cuts & Bruises is being released this week on Polydor.

album cover

I’m going to address the elephant in the room with Inhaler right away just to get it out of the way: singer / guitarist Elijah Hewson is the son of Bono. I bring this up because that is what a lot of the attention for the band has been about. Any child of a much-loved musician has had to live up to their parent’s musicianship, just ask Julian Lennon, Jakob Dylan, or Jason Bonham, all of whom are great musicians on their own, but had to live up to their legendary parents, which set the bar so unrealistically high. But here is the secret with Inhaler: they actually are a really great band! I listened to this new album Cuts & Bruises and specifically tried to not compare this to U2 in any way, shape or form, because that’s just unfair to the entire band to say “you need to live up to U2′s discography”. 

Jenkinson, Keating, Hewson and McMahon

There is a real grandiosity to this music. It’s like they are performing songs they already know are going to play well in an arena or a stadium, but the entire band - not just Hewson but also bassist Robert Keating, drummer Ryan McMahon, and guitarist Josh Jenkinson are a tight unit. These songs are melodic and infectious. The band just keeps getting better and better with each album and song! Here’s to the first great album of 2023!

For info on Inhaler: https://www.inhaler.band/

4.5 out of 5 stars

#album review #shonen knife #music nerd #punk #inhaler #alt rock #album reviews

[dswcp]

Happy (?) Clone Wars Friday!

Here is Gurihiru’s illustration for the word “stress.” The saddest part of this picture, for me, is that we see Padme comforting Anakin through his stress, but there is no acknowledgment of her own stress. While she has a more cheerful personality, by the end of the movie her stress breaks her down as well. I think that Padme’s love toward Anakin and Naboo is real, but I also think that Padme shields her true feelings behind smiles and a nurturing presence as a way to cope or even distract herself from her own pain. I think she has always had doubts and worries about the Republic, and she hides those fears behind a fragile front that we now would call “toxic positivity.”

The movies make Anakin’s repression clear, but you sort of have to read Padme’s between the lines. Many of her scenes were lost in the edit, and there was clearly never an intention to center her emotions anyway. But that doesn’t stop me from centering them!

“English-Japanese Dictionary for Jedi Knights,” entry for “Stress.” 2015. Illustrators: Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano, aka Gurihiru.

#star wars #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #anidala #revenge of the sith #the clone wars #sw prequels #illustration #chifuyu sasaki #naoko kawano #gurihiru #2015 #coruscant #anidala penthouse #pure jedi content #non-force users #jedi x non-force user #dramatic lighting #so sad!!! #star wars family #star wars otp #so pretty!!! #beautiful gown #so cute!!! #they're in trouble #non-violence #height difference

[neuviemeart]

Power Pack #2 - Dark Marvel variant by Gurihiru

#Gurihiru #Power Pack #Chifuyu Sasaki #Naoko Kawano #Dark #Marvel #comics

[dccomicsnews]

Review: Superman Smashes the Klan (Collected Edition)

Review: Superman Smashes the Klan

  [Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Gene Luen Yang

Artist: Gurihiru

Letterer: Janice Chiang

  Reviewer: Tony Farina

    Summary

The year is 1946, and the Lee family has moved from Metropolis’ Chinatown to the center of the bustling city. While Dr. Lee is greeted warmly in his new position at the Metropolis Health Department, his two kids,…

View On WordPress

#Chifuyu Sasaki #DC Comics #DC comics news #Gene Luen Yang #Gurihiru #Janice Chiang #Jimmy Olsen #lois lane #Naoko Kawano #superman #Superman Smashes The Klan

[ofleafstructure]

Gurihiru

#Gurihiru #Chifuyu Sasaki #Naoko Kawano #Gwenpool #Marvel Comics #Comics #Art #Illustration

[comicweek]

There are a lot of comics out there, but some just stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we look at what makes “Unstoppable Wasp” live up to the name as the series is back for another round and expands on the promise of its initial eight issue run.

Who Is This By?

“The Unstoppable Wasp” continues to be written by  Jeremy Whitley (“Princeless- Raven: The Pirate Princess” aka @princelesscomic now with art by the duo of Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano who form Gurihiru  (various “Avatar: The Last Aribender” comics and “Gwenpool”) aka

What’s It All About?

In a continuation from the first “Unstoppable Wasp” series in 2017, the book follows Nadia van Dyne and her fellow agents of G.I.R.L.: Taina Miranda, Alexis Miranda, Priya Aggarwal, Ying, and Priscilla Lashayla “Shay” Smith, on their continuing adventures. Currently they are in a somewhat one-sided feud with a new A.I.M. and putting together a G.I.R.L.(Genius In Action Research Labs) Expo.

What Makes It So Great?

“Wasp” doesn’t feel like anything else Marvel is currently publishing. “Wasp” with the Agents of G.I.R.L. reads like some fusion of shojo manga with magical (science) girls and Super Sentai. The Agents of G.I.R.L. are a diverse group of women with their own scientific specialties trying to make things better. Point to the other Marvel, or DC, books where that is the hook? Do they do superhero-y things? Sure, the main action sequence of the first issue involves them stopping an A.I.M. robbery. But we also get long sequences dedicated to Nadia and Janet going out for a night on the town and seeing a prowrestling event. The book has Nadia and her growth at the center of the book, but at the core it’s a book about sisterhood and friendships.

There are general similarities between it and other team books like “Champions” or “West Coast Avengers,” and other female centered books like “All-New Wolverine”/“X-23,” but those titles all feel entrenched in the superhero mold as they deal with heroic legacies and meta level events. Nadia is herself a legacy character, but Whitley’s treatment of Hank Pym and Janet’s shadow is decidedly more on the personal, familial, level. Recent issues are dealing with Hank’s bipoloar disorder and that Nadia might have that as well. That is the kind of subject matter you wouldn’t really find in those other books. Whitley and the art teams have dealt with the cultural legacy of Hank Pym with deft hands, reminding me of how the team behind both “Avatar” series dealt with heavy subjects. Whitley’s script and Gurihiru art also do a good job of drawing a distinction between “action” and “violence,” much in the way the Ant-Man film series dose.

In an era where Marvel rather license away it’s IP to another publisher to create Young Adult/Middle Reader content and fails to have the patience for the growing importance of book trade, “Unstoppable Wasp” is this hidden spearhead to a generation of new readers. I love Laura Kinney, her recent titles are excellent, and the kind I don’t really want to give my young niece yet. Meanwhile, I happily gifted her and her brother, both the initial “Wasp” trades and that’s a series that climaxes in a empathetic discussion about the effects of domestic violence and mental health.

As is the case in “Raven the Pirate Princess” writer Jeremy Whitley shows skill at writing and juggling an ensemble book. Nadia is the star of the book, but it wouldn’t be the same if her fellow Agents of G.I.R.L. weren’t as delightfully characterized. The romance between Shay and Ying running throughout both series is one of the most wholesome and positive things in comics, further documented in this post here by @ayellowbirds . Or the sibling relationship between Taina and Alexis Miranda. Whitley has a way of giving everyone not just a moment in a panel, but pages, that slowly build up until you have this vibrant cast of women.

If the phrase “Magical Science Girls” doesn’t get you to pull this book, maybe comparing it to Geoff Johns run on “Justice Society of America” – not to be confused with his run on “JSA” – will. Both series are ultimately about family, giving them potent emotional anchors as things get delightfully melodramatic. Whitley, like Johns, balances a large cast of awesome female characters in 20 page chunks that both work well as individual episodes and a serialized narrative. If you want good long running narratives with a strong supporting cast that could easily fill several special issues, read “Wasp.”

I wouldn’t consider myself a fashionable person, I like monocolor Dickies T-shirts and cargo shorts. Yet, the costume design by Gurihiru makes me appreciate fashion. The art by Gurihiru in general is a key to the current series success. They give this book a manga inspired look, much in the same way that way of cartooning inspired Johanna the Mad’s work in “Fence.” Chifuyu Sasaki line work when mixed with Naoko Kawano punched in vibrant colors gives “Wasp” a look that you don’t really see at Marvel besides the work they do. Page designs are often expansive and lively without being hard to read. This is partly how the art team is able to connote the difference between action and violence. Action tends to be shown and measured by tracking it across space. Violence is all about the aftermath of quick, largely unseen, action.

While the series return is due to sales in the book market, the book as some nice back matter for those who buy it single issue. Mainly an interview an issue with a different female scientist.

Read Full Article @ MultiversityComics.com

#nadia van dyne comics #dont miss this #comic suggestions #marvel comics #marvel suggestions #unstoppable wasp #the unstoppable wasp #nadia van dyne #janet van dyne #jeremy whitley #Gurihiru #Chifuyu Sasaki #Naoko Kawano #Taina Miranda #Alexis Miranda #Priya Aggarwal #Ying #Priscilla Lashayla “Shay” Smith #Agents of GIRL #thoughts

[walkyriesetamazones]

Gwenpool, The Unbelievable #25 - Art and cover by Gurihiru (Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano)

Gwen Stacy

#Gurihiru #Chifuyu Sasaki #Naoko Kawano #Gwenpool #Gwen Stacy #Marvel #comics

[bad-comic-art]

who's someone that a lot of people dislike that you like?

honestly I’m terrible with remembering artists names but maybe like Ramon Villalobos or Kevin Maguire I know people have issues with but I still dig em, one I remember though is Gurihiru, I’m not saying a ton of people hate them but whenever I post something from them on WILC I see a few people in the tags complaining about the art, but personally I love em, such clean cute looking art, which is kinda funny because it seems most critiques are that it’s too simple or too cutsie and juvenile 

it’s absolutely perfect for comics aimed at younger readers and is a million times better than that Marvel Super-Hero big head shit

also I’m not sure if a ton of people know this but Gurihiru is actually an art team! it’s two Japanese women, Naoko Kawano and Chifuyu Sasaki who originally trained to be Mangaka but where encouraged to try out American comic books

I really love their work on like Unbelievable Gwenpool and Unstoppable Wasp and their Power Pack stuff, I really hope they do more series in the future! 

#Anonymous

[literaryeagle]

I'm seeing a lot of people on my Tumblr dashboard who could use a bit of cheering up, so here's another Venom plushie post! This time, I'm talking about the Gurihiru Venom plush by Sekiguchi. As some of you may have guessed by the name, the design of this toy is based on an illustration by Gurihiru. And for those of you who don't recognize the name, Gurihiru is an artist team that consists of two Japanese women, Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano. They've illustrated a number of American comics, including The Unbelievable Gwenpool and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The design of this toy is fantastic! Just look at those muscular arms, and that majestic tongue! Also, this Venom's main color is dark purple instead of black, which makes it unique among the Venom plushies in my collection. (But I love them all, of course!) Another interesting feature of this plushie is that it has fully-formed hands. In other words, this is a great opportunity to imagine Eddie holding hands with his darling...

Wow, the power of their love is creating rainbows again. ;)

I hope you enjoyed this. I will be back next week with another Venom plushie post, so stay tuned!

#Venom #Symbrock #Veddie #other merchandise

[softgrungeprophet]

Okay, I’ve decided I don’t want my Official Writing Blog ™ to get bogged down by negative posts or negative reviews, or things I’m not ssssuuuuuper feeling strong on (of which this piece is both), so...

I’m gonna put this post I made about my qualms with Eddie’s line from issue #10 about being white (and thus privileged)... right here:

----------------------

This post contains spoilers for the plot of the current Venom series (Cates/Stegman), as well as Web of Venom: Carnage Born (Cates/Beyruth).

----------------------

I was going to write a long post about my criticisms of the current Venom run, written by Donny Cates, and how I feel the story and pacing fall short.

It turns out, it's difficult to do that when you have a problem with almost every aspect of a story.

So I wrote this post instead, which is much shorter and less about why it feels disconnected as a Venom comic, and more about an underlying problem in the comics industry.

In issue #10 of Venom (Cates/Stegman), Eddie Brock mentions that he benefits from white privilege—"I was young, white, and the son of a rich and powerful man in the community... what do you think happened?"

(Context: as of Venom (2018) issue #10, Eddie's backstory has been retconned so that he killed a child in a drunk driving incident as a teenager.)

For the purposes of practicality and honesty, we will treat this as not just white privilege, but the privilege specifically of a white male.

On the surface this comes off as an innocuous little aside, a neat explanation rooted in truth; and for Eddie Brock to say it doesn't seem entirely out of place. It's not incorrect; it's not even entirely out of character despite Eddie's tendency, historically, to shift blame onto others... but it immediately dug under my skin to bother me in a way I could not place—until, of course, I realized...

To include such a line in a comic which has so far only featured the phantasm of a female character, retconned out of existence into some kind of specter of Eddie Brock's delusions...

To include such a line in a comic which has so far included two characters of color; one of whom is Miles Morales and thus untouchable by the narrative in any meaningful way...

Well, there's a certain irony, there.

(The other character of color in question is Rex Strickland, an old African-American man and a veteran. Rex is actually a pretty interesting character, but in the end... he dies. Not just that, it turns out he had actually died long ago and this Rex, this singular black character other than Miles, is in fact not even a human being. So the original Rex was already dead, and this Klyntar facsimile of Rex is now also dead.)

So, thus far our track record is: One female character mentioned only so she can be erased from existence, and two black characters, both male, one of whom Cates managed to shelve not once but twice without even bringing him back from the dead first.

Not to mention the Web of Venom: Carnage Born (Cates/Beyruth) tie-in, in which Tanis Nieves, a prominent female medical professional and host to the Scorn symbiote...

Wait for it...

She dies.

I don't know about you, but that doesn't sit right with me.

But look, this line about his white privilege! Isn't this so perceptive? In this story focusing on the masculine agony of this blue eyed, white man and his... blue eyed white brother-or-son... and his abusive white male father... and the antics of... another white man... (The Maker) Not to mention Cletus Kasady's prominence as, supposedly, an upcoming villain (yet another white man). Oh and Knull, while not technically human, sure looks like a white man to me.

Hmmm...

Perceptive...

From a white male author, on a book made in an industry heavily dominated by white male authors—in a series which, if I go off the top of my head, has not had a female creative lead working on a main-series comic in roughly twenty-five years (Ann Nocenti, of The Madness (1994) infamy)...

I'll hazard a guess based on common sense and the history of the comics industry and say that there aren't many more creatives of color working on main-series Venom comics, either. That the majority of Venom writers, pencillers, and inkers, have probably been white men, with a few exceptions here and there for creators like Larry Hama. But the thing about race is that, even more than gender, you cannot tell by looking and you cannot tell by names. So I'm not going to pretend as if I really, truly know.

Let me rewind a little bit.

There has not been a single female author working on a main Venom series in over two full decades, and if my suspicions are right, it's been around the same amount of time since an author of color penned a main-series Venom comic as well (that being Larry Hama, in the mid-90's).

In this context, the single line about Eddie's privilege as the white son of a wealthy white man, in a single issue of a run with disappointing representation compared to the fairly diverse series of the previous, oh... six years?

It doesn't do a lot for me.  

But of course, even those diverse series fall short in that they still lack women and people of color in the writers' seats, the artists' seats... in the seats calling the shots.

As much as I enjoyed 2016's Carnage (Conway/Perkins) I do find it telling that the only characters to die were characters of color, and while I enjoyed Venom: Space Knight (Thompson/Olivetti) a great deal, I do believe that Robbie Thompson is doing the bare minimum in his writing—he is one of the few male authors I feel does really well, but even then... That should be normal, and expected, and does not change the overwhelmingly white, male history of Venom creators.

There are side stories with much more varied creators; spin-offs and tie-ins that are either considered non-canonical or are often unrelated to the main series at all... They can be fantastic. They can do amazing things. But I find it telling that this is where the female authors, the authors of color, the queer authors, are so often relegated.

It is only here where we find occasional drift, toward creators who are often otherwise excluded—writers such as Nnedi Okorafor and Saladin Ahmed, artist duo Gurihiru (Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano)...

It is sparse. It reminds me that many of us are not welcome in this space. Never in the serious, important series. Always in the comics for children, the side-stories, the alternate universes.

Is this Donny Cates' fault? Something he has control over?

No, of course not.

Could he use his privilege to uplift others? To offer one of his multiple seats to someone else?

Perhaps.

Regardless, the result is that Cates' line, spoken through Eddie as his vessel, comes across as tone-deaf and insincere at best, considering his own privileges in a series so dominated by others just like him, and considering his poor track record with female characters, characters of color, and a textually queer relationship.

  You can read more of my writing on aforementioned writing blog, including my piece on the stellar artwork of Venom (2018) #9: link

Have a nice day!

#nadia reads venom #arghwrites

[dswcp]

It’s Clone Wars Friday. Even in the very first battle, the Clone Wars tore families apart.

“English-Japanese Dictionary for Jedi Knights,” entry for “Helmet.” 2015. Illustrators: Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano, aka Gurihiru.

#star wars #boba fett #jango fett #the clone wars #attack of the clones #geonosis #reek #sw prequels #illustration #gurihiru #chifuyu sasaki #naoko kawano #2015 #clone #clone wars friday #star wars family #non-force users #star wars kids #bounty hunters #helmet #so sad!!! #kamino #star wars animals

[neuviemeart]

Spider-Man/Venom: Double Trouble #3 - Art and cover by Gurihiru

#Gurihiru #Chifuyu Sasaki #Naoko Kawano #Spider-Man #Venom #squirrels #Marvel #comics #cat