So, this is a little bit of a news and announcement, and then a semi-review.
Why is it a semi-review?
Because I'm not sure I'm ready to commit to reviewing this thing totally.
So it's like a preview, more than a review.
So I'll just read right here.
So well, the thumbnail tells it all.
It's Kamuro, or yeah, Kamuro, apparently Kazuno Kamuro in Japanese.
It's a manga being simultaneous released on Viz's manga platform, as well as in Japan,
I guess through Viz as well.
And I decided to check it out because I'm very much in the fantasy mind of things.
I like a lot of fantasy.
I think before this came up, I found it on Twitter actually.
I was just scrolling through and I saw this thing and the image drew me in.
Great cover, art.
It's this interesting looking fellow with a dragon hand, with a dragon behind him and
a cool sword.
And there's a big mountain and that stopped me.
Oh, interesting.
What is this?
And I saw that it was from Akira Hamakawa and I thought, I think I know that name as,
and then it said, oh yeah, the creator of the Legend of Zelda manga.
So besides Shotaro Ishinomori, I believe Akira Hamakawa, which is a duo, it's a pair of ladies
who write under the pen name or write and draw under the pen name of Akira Hamakawa.
They've done all of the Legend of Zelda adaptations.
Again, aside from Shotaro Ishinomori's A Link to the Past, which was published in Nintendo
Power.
I think it was commissioned by Nintendo of America, if I'm remembering correctly.
Hold on.
Oh, yeah.
Okay, so it doesn't say that.
I think it was commissioned by the Nintendo company in America, for America specifically,
and Shotaro Ishinomori, creator of Cyborg-009, Android Kikai, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai,
which later became Power Rangers, and Gilgamesh, as well as some other stuff.
He which like, you know, Shin Kamen Rider or Shin Master Rider was recently released
in 2023, and it's getting a Blu-ray release now.
And it's one of the Shin trilogy that Hideaki Anno is doing, which is Shin Ultraman, Shin
Master Rider, Shin Godzilla, and I guess, technically Shin Evangelion, his own stuff.
He did his own rebuild of those things, which is another story for another time.
But anyway, so Ishinomori is a classic mangaka.
And he has a distinction of having this one Zelda manga published, and then Akira Himekawa,
this creative couple here, creative duo, has done the rest of the adaptations of The Legend
of Zelda.
And I read part of Link to the Past.
I've been married about 15 years.
I found it on my anniversary room, or on our honeymoon.
We were in a bookstore, and I saw it and grabbed it and read it, and the art was fantastic.
I didn't know much of the story, and I didn't necessarily like how the story translated.
However, I wanted to buy more of the manga just for the artwork, because it's really
beautiful.
And it has a very classic feel to it.
It has a very timeless feel to it.
I think the art direction of Legend of Zelda is very timeless and very classic anyway.
And I think that these mangaka captured that really well.
And I think that they translated that very well into their own work.
And I want to read a little bit about it from Anime News Network, and then I want to talk
about the manga.
I read the first half, I guess, the 19th, October 19th, both halves of the first chapter
released.
I don't know why they're doing a point one and point two, or point one and, or I don't
know why it's like a half and a half.
It was a little bit long, maybe that's why.
Maybe they want to do the shorter as a weekly release or monthly release or whatever the
schedule is going to be, but let's find out together as I read this.
As I read this.
So Viz Media releases Akira Himekawa's Kamuro manga simultaneously in English.
Fantasy manga was first announced in 2017, which is crazy.
Viz Manga announced on Saturday at New York Comic Con that it is releasing manga artist
duo Akira Himekawa's long planned Kamuro, Kazeno Kamuro manga simultaneously in English.
Viz Media is streaming a video of the manga duo introducing the manga as well as a manga
trailer.
I watched it.
It's very cute.
Very cute, very fun.
You can watch it yourself.
I will link to this in the show notes on MJMunoz.com.
So the first two installments of the manga are available for free on Viz Manga service
and app due chapters released on the first and third Thursday of every month.
So twice a month.
In Japan, the manga launched on Shogaku-Kan's Sunday Webri service on Sunday.
Viz Media described the manga.
Oh, so yeah, it was Saturday night for me, but it would have been Sunday for them in
Japan.
Viz Media describes the manga thus, before humans claimed their place in history, the
skybound paradise of Hino-Aruchi was ruled by demi beings, creatures that appeared half
human half beast.
The realm flourishes under the tenuous peace maintained by the demi dragons of Ryujinkyo
until prophecy predicts the dawn of a new era shrouded in uncertainty.
With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, will the birth of Kamuna, the first
human child bring disaster or salvation?
Himekawa had revealed the manga and anime expo in July 2017.
Wow, that's a long time ago.
They stated at the time they were returning to their roots to draw fantasy stories more
influenced by Asian history and mythology.
The duo are known for their manga adaptations of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda games, including
the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, which I believe just wrapped recently and they will
be producing no more of it because it's done.
I believe that's true.
It was multiple volumes, right?
It's 11 volumes and that came out, oh, April of 2023.
For some reason I thought it was more recent than that.
Whatever.
That's fine.
So I went ahead and checked this out and it is very Asian influenced, I think, in the
design.
But I also saw a lot of things that reminded me of Dark Crystal and it felt very much like
it's a high fantasy story because like J.R.O.
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, all his legendarium stories,
it tells the story from a certain point of view.
It tells the story of the beginning of the world from the beginning of the world.
The Silmarillion starts with the Inalien... no, starts with this song.
Wait, is that what it's called?
Anyway, whatever.
It starts with this song of creation that is being sung by Illuvatar, which is God in
Tolkien's mythology, as well as his helpers.
The Inalien I think is what they're called, the collective term, because there's the male
gender name, the female gender name is the collective name, which is probably just the
male because that's how a lot of languages work.
But the story starts with creation and this story starts with the hand of God comes down
and stirs the world and it starts this chaotic but beautiful thing and it's powerful and
that's the beginning of the world.
Then there's this great dragon that emerges and she goes into the heavens and, well, it's
interesting, it says two things.
Something goes down and then something goes up and the thing that ascends up is this dragon
and she goes around the heavens and sheds these scales and these scales become the elements
of creation, I believe is what it is.
There's this concept of prana and pulse and everything with a pulse is living and if the
pulse disappears, the thing dies.
And basically there's this cleric or priest, this dragon guy, and he ends up calling for
a council of eight at the end of the first half and I think the eight are the eight demi
beings.
So I think, well, we see dragon, we see bird, we see deer, we see wolf.
I believe there's a leopard or cheetah, it's a cat, some sort of cat, so that's five.
I would think there's probably three other species that are representative of these eight
different species that were spawned from, I think I said deer, that were spawned from
the dragon somehow.
Or maybe there were other spirits that came out as well that we didn't know about yet
from the legend.
But it's very cool because it's saying that our world is tens of millions of years old
and that before our world that we live in today existed, there was this world that existed
before then.
You know, beautiful utopia and by the name of, oh, Hino-Oruchi.
So Hino-Oruchi existed before our world and I made a thumbnail for this already because
I was so excited about it and I think I called it something like a beautiful dying world
because you see this beautiful, you see this abstract image of the dragon as she's rising,
this dragon goddess I would say, sort of, as she's rising and facilitating this creation.
You know, under God, which I think it's interesting that it's like it's a monotheistic telling
or it's a monotheistic like worldview religion kind of deal, but there's these other mythical
elements like in between as kind of intermediary type things.
But I don't think she's really, I mean, I don't know, is she an actual goddess?
Because there's like a priest, like a holy man who goes to her and talks to her.
She's of the dragon kind and he goes to her and talks to her about something and she's
the one who gives him this prophecy that you have to look for a sign.
Don't miss the sign.
This world is dying.
I only have a few scales left on my tail is what she says and when they're gone, that's
it.
This world will die and you have to look for the sign and he says like, can we save the
world?
I don't know, you know, and obviously spoilers, we still exist here and if we exist in this
world from Hino Arucchi, then it would make sense that in the story it does happen.
It does work out.
So this boy, Kamuna, who lives, the boy who lives, this boy Kamuna who lives, you know,
he I'm assuming is going to be our hero who's going to somehow save the world.
He's going to somehow set the world in such a way that it can persist, that it can exist.
And it'll be interesting to see as this great dragon is dying, what exactly happens.
But I'm really like the art is absolutely beautiful.
I think it'll make furries very happy because there's all these Demi beings like this cute
little dragon girl who's selling something at a market and her grandfather comes up to
her and scolds her like she's going to be a fan favorite.
I think this bird guy looks amazing.
There's like a cattle guy.
Oh, I forgot the cattle.
So that's that was number six.
I think so.
And anyway, there's two others I don't quite know what race they are.
And anyway, it's really cool.
It's like it's this awesome, beautiful fantasy world with these amazing fantasy creatures.
We see a wolf lady, I think a little hard to tell the sexes on people on these Demi
beings a little bit.
And there's like a baby trying to be stolen by either an ape or another wolf.
I can't quite tell because it's like a little blurry little fast.
The guy's like dark with bright eyes.
He's like in silhouette with these like glaring white evil eyes.
And she like rescues the baby from him.
But then she like sees Ryu Jin-kyo and it looks like she's going to go there after she
rests a little bit after killing these guys who had like taken her baby or taken some
wolf cub.
And yeah, like I have no idea where the story's going, but it feels so full of potential.
Like I said, it's this beautiful world that's dying and it's really interesting.
One of the cool things is there's this guy who I think it's the bird guy or a bird guy.
He's like from the bird nation and he's checking things out and he's like, oh, this really
is a utopian.
It's so beautiful and it's so amazing.
It's so peaceful.
And then we cut to this wolf lady running and they've got her baby and she fights them
and kills them.
Some other stuff happens too.
Oh, also we cut to the priest, the priest getting this prophecy and you know, things
don't look good.
And by the way, it's interesting.
This priest looks like one of the bad guys, I believe from dark crystal, which was really
interesting.
I don't know what they're called.
I've honestly never seen the movie, the dark crystal, but it feels like something I should
have seen and I was deprived of as a kid.
But I saw Never Ending Story and I love that style of like that 80s gritty, I don't know
what else to call it.
Like that 80s gritty, dark, magical stuff, practical puppets, gremlins, things like that,
which I mentioned earlier.
So anyway, he looks like, I have no idea what they're called, but he looks like one of the
bad guys.
Like honestly, there's the good guys who have these softer fleshy faces and hair.
And then these bad guys who are like vultures or lizards of some sort that have like beaks
on them.
The dragon in this, the dragon priest, there's this great shot that I have on the thumbnail.
It looks very much, oh, you know, I'll have my, yeah, okay.
Anyway, look at the thumbnail, look at the website for a glimpse of the art and I'll
also have links there so you can see the characters.
But he looks kind of like a blend of those things, a blend of those creatures.
And I think it's really beautiful.
It's really clever and it's really well done and it feels nostalgic.
It feels ancient and yet it's brand new.
And I really like that.
And I think kudos to the team.
Akira, let me see, Hamakawa is doing a great job with this and I'm excited to see the next
chapter.
I don't know if this is something I will continue to cover.
I'm always in search of good stories, classic stories.
I feel like this is going to be like really clean.
I feel like it's just going to be like an epic fantasy and it'll be like very family
friendly.
That's what I feel like right now.
I think there'll be high adventure and I think it'll be beautiful and I think it'll be really
interesting.
So I'll check out the next one and do a review of that, which will be released, I guess, under
Fortress Fiction.
I might release it under this other thing that I have, this other podcast feed that
I have specifically for comics, which is called Swinging Through Comics.
I might release it there.
We'll see for sure at another date at a later time.
But for now, thank you for your time and attention.
I encourage you to check out this manga.
It looks really cool and I'm really excited for the epic fantasy storytelling that we're
going to get with this.