Thread for discussion of works by the manga author Kohji Kumeta as well as discussion of the author himself. His works include:
Most popular works:
Katte ni Kaizou - Started out as a strange and gross comedy with some love comedy aspects, evolved into a mix of cruel and sarcastic dark humor, parody, obscurity, violence, and social deconstruction. Surrounded by much rumors and controversy about the publisher's treatment of the work.
Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei - Currently running in Shounen Magazine! The very negative comedy of a very depressed teacher who attempts suicide constantly and his 32(!!) troubled students.
Other works:
Root Paradise - Cabaret club love comedy?
Nangoku Ice Hockey Bu - Ice hockey comedy which slowly became penis joke comedy.
Taiyo no Senshi Poka Poka - involves mecha, digging, fighting, world domination, and many other aspects.
Sodatte Darling - Uninteresting love comedy, funny only to his fans because it goes against his negative attitude to write this lovey dovey and painfully normal manga.
Recomended reading:
English:
Niko-niko.net's Kaizou page
http://www.niko-niko.net/kaizou/
Basic introduction of early Kaizou.
No sword blog entry on end of Kaizou (no spoilers)
http://no-sword.jp/oldarchives-e/2004/09/at-one-time-he-claimed-that-title-in.html
Japanese:
Websunday mangaka backstage
http://websunday.net/backstage/kumeta.html
Kumeta's online journal from when he was still working on Kaizou.
Kumeta Kohji vs Akamatsu
http://www1.odn.ne.jp/cjt24200/yamada/text/m/index2.html
A record of all the times Katte ni Kaizou poked fun at Love Hina or other works of Akamatsu's, and also includes the responses Akamatsu made in his blog.
The reason Kaizou ended:
http://lineocean.com/archives/200407241041.php
Discusses the rumor of why Kaizou was forced to end, and why this ending also forced Midori no Hibi to end early.
Yamakamu's blog
http://www1.odn.ne.jp/cjt24200/yamada/
Not soley Kumeta related, but by the author of the Kumeta vs Akamatsu page. He regularly blogs on developments in his comics with interesting information.
Hayate no Gotoku
http://websunday.net/rensai/set_hayate.html
Manga by Kumeta's former assistant which is enjoying popularity.
Zetsubou-sensei sold out
http://www.akibablog.net/archives/2005/09/1_12.html
First volume of Zetsubou-sensei on sale in Akiba and has sold out at several stores.
First chapter of nangoku ice hockey bu:
http://websunday.net/museum/no07/no07in.html
Free trial chapter from websunday.net. Please note this is an early work and not very good.
First chapter of Sodatte Darling:
http://websunday.net/museum/no18/no18in.html
Free trial chapter, again not a good representation of his modern humor.
I wonder if anyone else here is reading Zetsubou-sensei? I'm really enjoying it, I can't wait to see how it evolves. I wonder if the characters will do complete 180s and change entirely like they did in Kaizou, or if it will follow a different pattern. My favorite is Zetsubou-sensei himself and Maria Tarou.
I hope Magazine treats Kumeta well, but I think they got into this deal knowing his sense of humor. I've heard Magazine's readers are usually a little older then Sunday's, so that's a good thing too, although many of the readers are there for Negima, hopefully they have a good sense to still enjoy Zetsubou-sensei. I also loled at Maeda-kun's continued appearances.
I've read what was translated of Katte ni Kaizou, and it was... weird. Sometime very funny, sometime just too over-the-top, and overall very hard to get a grip on.
I really have no idea if I liked it or not.
Volume 2 on sale
http://www.akibablog.net/archives/2005/12/2_8.html
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WGFHLSKP
I've uped some raw chapters for anyone interested.
>>6
Raw of zetsubou-sensei, that is.
「三巻まで続きましたね 先生！」
http://www.akibablog.net/archives/2006/03/3_9.html
Anime version confirmed, staff is same as Pani Poni Dash, Negima!?, ect!
Zetsubou-sensei wouldn't make a good anime :(
Dunno if anyone looks at this still,
But could someone post a basic Eng. rundown of why Kaizou got canned? My Japanese isn't good enough yet for me to really figure out what exactly was being said.
>>9
So can we assume the story will be raped?
>>12
It's an anime adaption of a manga. It's a given that it'll be nowhere near as good as the original.
>>14
Anime is nice and all, but I have a hard time enjoying an adaption over the original. It doesn't mean the anime is going to be complete shit. Usually it's just mildly disappointing.
I guess that would happen when you really love a manga and it gets adapted. But I've also had it where an anime adaptation wins me over. I mean Akira was a neat manga, but the one film adaptation dominates that franchise. Sure, it only covers a fraction of the stuff that was covered in the manga series, but for me, it's IS Akira. I think when most people think of Akira they think of the film.
I thought Chobits converted rather well to anime too. There's plenty of exceptions to that overstated rule.
The anime just came out, and I have to say they did a pretty great job bringing the manga to life. Granted it's only one episode so far, but for right now it looks like it'll be good.
>>18
Yes I also thought the anime was a good adaptation!
The added fanservice was funny with Maeda-kun's face used to cover things up. (Maeda-kun is the assistant of Kumeta, always drawn in bad situations)
>>11
Bit late of a reply, but there were lots of rumors surrounding Kaizou's cancellation. The main one was that the president of Sunday didn't think it fit in with the wholesome/kid friendly image of Sunday's popular series like Conan, Inu Yasha, Gash, ect.
However, it was still somewhat popular, and the fanbook sold unexpectedly well, as well as the expensive limited edition Chitan dolls sold out quickly from the sunday website. Still, it was canceled, ending in the same volume that Midori no Hibi ended. The rumor is that it was forced to end on the same issue so that the increase in sales could be said to be because of Midori no Hibi and not Kaizou, so Kaizou would not look popular. Also, popular actress Ueta Aya was on the cover to also make that issue have another reason for popularity.
That's my understanding of the rumors anyway.
If things are covered up then the fan service could still use some work.
So' it's possible to get a tranlation of Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei manga in the net?
Wow! Thanks a lot, really : D
Katte ni Kaizo is his ACTUAL work. Specially what was between tankoubons 10-20.
Before those, the series were just maturing, and after that he had no more interesting ideas for the chapters.
And what is Katte ni Kaizo between tankoubons 10-20? A sociological lobotomy treating themes that usually no one ever care about, but are daily surrounding everyone.
A very subtle and humble dark sociological black comedy that is gonna change the way you see things.