XPost: rec.arts.anime.misc, rec.arts.anime.misc   
   From: kenmlin@aol.com   
      
   I acquired Vol. 9 and 10 of the English manga and somehow Vol. 10 repeated   
   the content of Vol. 9 so all I got was a different cover.  This was   
   published by Last Gasp Press if anyone had a similar experience.   
      
   The story was supposed to continue beyond that as the main character moved   
   to Tokyo to become an artist.  However, the creator developed vision problem   
   and had to retire.   
      
   The manga had that "thick eyebrow" look that was common in that era and I   
   also wonder  they changed the style so much for the animation.   
      
   I was shocked by this manga's frankness.  It never portrayed Japan as a   
   victim but rather, as the bully and the instigator that got what was coming.   
   I still don't think U.S. should have dropped the bombs on mostly civilian   
   areas, however.   
      
   "Bobbie Sellers"  wrote in message news:lol25j$l58$1@dont-email.me...   
      
   This is probably not new information so forgive me if I repeat things   
   you already know about.   
      
   I had never seen the anime movie of this story.  I have read and   
   re-read the manga whenever I feel able to tolerate the pain.   
   Yesterday searching for something else I the web I ran across   
   a URL which permitted downloading the story and today I viewed it   
   watching in shifts.   
   It is as much a tear-jerker as the manga but unlike the manga   
   this ends not long after the introduction of Ryouta and the death of   
   Tomoko.   I find the character designs are cartoonified and cutified   
   in a way you might expect to see in the 1980s when this movie was   
   released.  Gen comes off looking more like Sluggo from Nancy and Sluggo   
   of the old Fritzi Ritz comic that we read back in WW II in the   
   Hearst San Francisco Examiner and which was available in comic books   
   later.   
   Some of the dates about Japan's entry into the Pacific War   
   seem off.   
   The incidents in the manga with the neighborhood leader are   
   left out as are much of the stories of Gen's trips to try and find food.   
      
   If you have a strong stomach I advise you to complete your anime   
   experience with this show.  If you can bear further pain take a look at   
   Grave of the Fireflies but don't try to watch a double bill of these   
   shows without a couple of big boxes of facial tissues.   
      
   But I would advise you to read the whole 10 volume set of Barefoot Gen   
   aka Gen of Hiroshima aka Hadashi no Gen which is a much more cheerful   
   story in the long run.   
   If you think the manga exaggerates then try the non-fiction   
   book, "Last Train from Hiroshima".  The textual description of this   
   catastrophic bombing is worse than what is shown in the anime or   
   manga, while including details that the author of Gen somehow missed.   
      
   That last train from Hiroshima ran to Nagasaki and so the   
   people fleeing from one horrific bombing found themselves present at   
   another one.  One of the horrors of the whole thing is that it could   
   have been worse as the Hiroshima bomb malfunctioned and release only   
   a portion of the force the builders intended.  The Nagasaki bomb was   
   not on target.   
      
   But forget my quibbles and watch the anime and read the manga.   
      
   bliss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)