Japan has a rich tradition of taking Western ideas, giving them a little twist and a liberal portion of extra weird. They say “well… OK Westerners, you’ve done a pretty good job, but we do it like this… ta dah!” And it often makes for some interesting viewing, sometimes confusing viewing, but always interesting.
Four of the Star Wars films have so far been converted to manga by Japanese company Tokypop: the original trilogy and Episode I.
Although manga Star Wars comic books were made by Japanese people and predominantly for Japanese people, they copied their artwork as a mirror-image so that the book could be read from left to right to fit in with Western styles.
The manga comics aren’t the first cartoon takes on Star Wars of course, there have been plenty of pretty low-grade (by most accounts) imitations and “adaptations” but it seems that these manga versions have hit the spot. Here’s a couple of Amazon reviews:
Best Star Wars Comics Money Can Buy.
I’m not one of those fans that preaches the unfailing superiority of Japanese manga. Nor do I decry the often exaggerated facial expressions and unfamiliar art style. I simply appreciate good comics, and this is good comics.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Hisao Tamaki made the best comic adaptation of a movie the US and Japan has ever seen.
This is a truly wonderful adaptation. I love the style, and the whole thing is just so good you won’t care that you’ve already seen the movie.
Remember when Star Wars was actually fun? When the merchandising didn’t overshadow the actual movie? When Colonel Sanders didn’t wield a lightsaber? If not, read the manga version — and you will.
So they’ve done something right I guess. Buy it for Christmas here. Here’s a few examples from the bowels of manga Star Wars (click to enlarge):
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