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Jura bites the Frost Demon |
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A while ago, Andrew Sudomerski and I got into a discussion about tokusatsu-related manga adaptations, and we ended up collaborating on a translation project for the manga adaptation of Orochi, the 8-Headed Dragon (the video release title in the USA) or Yamato Takeru (1994), its Japanese title, and the title by which the film is more widely known today by fans. The film is something of a curiosity, a movie that had a massive media push—a strategy that included a concurrent anime adaptation (which was not produced by Toho but which had the same theme song) as well as this manga adaptation (the anime apparently was originally planned as an adaptation of the manga).
I was a little worried about taking on the task of translating Yamato Takeru the manga as the thing is an uncommonly long work as far as movie adaptations go—like the recent Great Yokai War: Guardians adaptation, the Yamato Takeru comic is split across multiple volumes. It’s around 400 pages long all-told, which is a far more daunting translation prospect (length-wise) than most Godzilla manga pieces (which can range anywhere from ten to several hundred pages). Still, I went ahead and took on the task, and found the process quite enjoyable, as well as overall surprisingly easy (comparatively speaking). Much of the enjoyment of the project, though, comes from the surprising content of the manga itself—while nominally based on the 1994 film of the same name, and featuring characters and some story beats that vaguely follow the movie, the manga is wildly divergent from the screenplay to the point that they might as well be completely separate adaptations of the classic Japanese myths. Judging from the first volume at least, the manga version is even crazier than the movie, with fast-paced, almost non-stop action brimming with childish wonder—plus a surprising taste for tragedy.
The story goes that this evil god of darkness Tsukuyomi fought a great battle with the goddess of light for the fate of the entire universe. Tsukuyomi won that battle, and so began subjugating everything to his vision of all-consuming darkness and silence. However, a hope remains to fight against Tsukuyomi and return light to the universe—centered around a young man of strength living on a floating island in space. His name is… Yamato Takeru.
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The hideous Orochi-spawn Beekon, using its "stone rays" from its mouth tendrils |
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This version of our hero dwells with talking animals and practices his battle prowess with his dinosaurian best buddy, Jura. But when the Elder (a tiny old man, basically a fairy-ish version of Yoda) presents Yamato with a magic sword and armor, soon a hideous monster descends on Takeru’s floating island, and his precious animal friends become possessed by evil. Tsukuyomi has made his move, and now it is up to our hero to fight back! As Takeru begins his journey to defeat evil and darkness from the universe, he encounters a mysterious young woman named Oto Tachibana and takes up his sword against one monster and opponent after the next. Miss Tachibana has secrets of her own, and Takeru must face a pair of powerful oni brothers, more crazy monsters, and a water god in the ensuing chapters—all while leveling up his own strength and trying to come to terms with the mighty powers of his magatama stone/deus ex machina rock.
Anyone who has seen the 1994 film will immediately recognize that the manga version is vastly different from the above description. While both the film and the manga feature a main Yamato Takeru character, and both also feature Oto Tachibana and a god of darkness called Tsukuyomi, outside of these bare essentials, much of the actual content of the story has been changed. In the movie, Yamato Takeru is one of several sons of a king—a king who wants to have him murdered due to evil prophecies around him. As a consequence, the king sends him on deadly missions in hopes of killing him off. Movie Oto Tachibana helps Takeru as if they are a loving couple, and Tsukuyomi is initially trapped in a flying crystal contraption (maybe left over from Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla) for a large part of the film. In the manga, there is no king, Takeru has no brothers, and he isn’t sent on a series of missions to be killed. He rescues Oto Tachibana early on, but Oto is not so clearly heroic as in the movie—she has some dark secrets that make her more interesting than her movie counterpart. Tsukuyomi is also far more intimidating in the manga compared to the film—whereas in the movie, he is kind of an equivalent to a General Zod figure trapped in the Phantom Zone from Superman II and seen as an oncoming threat to humanity, in the manga Tsukuyomi has already won over the entire universe and has endless minions and the power to lay waste to… EVERYTHING. As much as I adore Hiroshi Abe as Tsukuyomi in the movie, and as cool and threatening as Abe can be with his emotionless mien, manga Tsukuyomi could torch movie Tsukuyomi with a flick of his little finger.
My favorite change from the movie, at least on the level of sheer enjoyment, might be the addition of Jura the theropod dino/best buddy to Yamato Takeru. Jura follows Yamato through his trials, providing back-up and reptilian adorability—plus a few grunting roars of encouragement. He is the Disney sidekick on steroids. Maybe he was included as a nod to the enormous success of Rex: A Dinosaur Story from the previous year.
I mentioned above that the manga version has a strong taste of tragedy in it, though to go into why would mean SPOILERS. Suffice it to say, Tsukuyomi is a manipulative son of a gun who is more than willing to use Yamato Takeru’s friends and acquaintances against him and put him in VERY difficult circumstances. For example, at one point in the story, as Yamato is traveling across the universe, he finds an old fellow on a particular planet selling snacks. Pretty soon the snack-salesman, as well as many other locals, are transformed into an army of fishy monster mutants, and Yamato is forced to battle them to the death—despite his overwhelming desire to protect people, not hurt them. There are several twists like this, each time twisting at the heartstrings, and bringing a steel-edge to the story.
Let’s look quick at Kenji Takuya’s art, as I have a few thoughts about how he puts together his images and panel sequences. I previously reviewed Takuya’s adaptation of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (which was a much more conventional retelling of that film), and my general feelings about his rendering of Yamato Takeru on the page are pretty similar to how I felt about that comic. Takuya uses a somewhat simple style for his human characters, and his monsters are sketched out with greater overall detail in Gamera. Here in Yamato Takeru, the monsters didn’t feel quite as detailed by comparison, with Jura doodled in a comical style—but even the more “serious” heel monsters don’t have the same level of verisimilitude that his Gamera beasts possessed. Perhaps he was working with a different set of assistants this time, or maybe he was tied down with instructions to follow the suit designs with more fidelity on Gamera—the monsters that appear in the first volume of Yamato Takeru don’t stick too close to their filmic counterparts, and even Yamata no Orochi (when he makes his appearances) does not seem slavishly faithful to the immense and impressive puppet costume from the film (the manga version, for example, has heads that sport an array of spikes—and one head that has webbed ears, which none of the heads in the movie possessed).
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Correction: There is one giant Kaishin Muba-esque creature, but the gillmen in question are its brainwashed servants |
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The other monsters that appear in the first half of the manga include various mutants (such as a shapeshifting and talkative monster called Beekon) and ghouls, though they do not appear to be direct adaptations of, say, Kaishin Muba or Kumasogami. Instead, while we get water-dwelling monsters that seem inspired by Kaishin Muba, there are tons of them, not one, and they are bipedal, human shaped, gillman-types. And the other beasties that appear in the manga seem at best only tangentially related to the movie critters—the nation of Kumaso does not even appear, let alone a lava-dwelling, transmogrifying god-creature. On the other side of the coin, we have a great white bird that appears in the manga which I am pretty sure is Amano Shiratori—but unlike the mech/Zord from the movie, Shiratori in the manga looks like an organic bird with feathers. Overall, Yamato Takeru the manga strikes a lighter, goofier tone with cartoonish characters and beasties that might feature well within a DragonBall manga—which is appropriate given that DragonBall, too, is a pseudo-sci-fi retelling of a classic Asian mythological story.
I do have one nit to pick in regards to the art, though— the panel layouts. Occasionally I had a bit of a hard time figuring out which panel came next due to Takuya’s loose, dynamic panel setups—one might call his panel progressions sometimes rather lazy. The panels felt slapped together to me sometimes, which (along with the overwhelming focus on action and battle) can create a real chaotic feel on the page. The fights aren’t complicated, though, so it’s not like I was ever genuinely confused, given that who wins often boils down to who powers up the most through arbitrary means. As a further contributor to the confusion, though, quite a number of times I wasn’t perfectly certain who was speaking some of the lines. Takuya doesn’t always attach clear tails to his word balloons, and I was more sensitive to this aspect of the story than usual given that I was translating the whole thing and so had to identify the speakers for the script. The general impression I had was that the book was a bit on the sloppy side.
Still, I like Yamato Takeru the manga quite a bit, and after revisiting the movie version, the manga comes across as even more fun. The movie of Yamato Takeru has a simple, bare-bones progression with characters that can feel a bit wooden as they charge through their adventure. Takuya infuses his version with more heart and humor, and more genuine intrigue—even if the dialogue is often overly simplistic and repetitive. This here manga (at least based on the first volume) is a hidden gem, a dramatic zag away from the movie, with its own unique style and feel quite separate from the movie. Those looking for a straightforward film adaptation will be confused by this release, but for those open to creative interpretations and a genuine sense of fun, the manga delivers with a heart for adventure and fantasy (though that magatama saves the day a few too many times and doesn’t provide the beastly transformation like in the movie). If you can track down a copy, pick it up—it’s worth a read for fun fantasy fans.
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| Tsukuyomi and Orochi, rulers of the universe of darkness |
Addendum from Andrew Sudomerski
I have to give major thanks to Nick for the translation effort, first and foremost. Without him, this book would mostly be lost among the Western world. It's been a blast uncovering this particularly obscure piece of Yamato Takeru media, and I eagerly await for more context behind the insanity of Volume 2.
I do want to make an important notice, as Nick's review went over, that aside from Beekon (ビーコン) and Jura (ジュラ), the other "new" monsters aren't given any official designation. No information was found for the manga, and unfortunately Takaya passed away back in 2016. I personally speculate the "Frost Demon" is a purposeful inverse of the movie's Kumasogami (switching the theme from fire/lava to ice), and then the demon fish beast a loose adaptation of Kaishin Muba, but that's just my two cents. The named provided for these unnamed monsters are holdovers unless further information is acquired.
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