What is your favorite manga from Yoshihiro Takahashi?

[18Gingasoldier]

Like the topic says, what manga from YT is your favorite? I really like GNG, GDW, and Kacchu no Senshi Gamu, but if I had to choose... GDW gets eliminated, because I just can't decide between GNG and KnSG!
We have different opinions, but that's fine.

What I like of Ginga Nagareboshi Gin (My Opinion):

Protagonists: Gin is brave, loyal, and doesn't hesitates for a moment. Maybe I'm wrong. Most of the characters have depth, like Smith, Riki, Ben and Hyena, for example. But Sniper... only wants Ohu for... what?

Me: Sniper, what was the reason before you died of wanting Ohu?
Sniper: 'Cause I...
Me: What was that? :studmuffinplz:
Sniper: I don't know! It's not my fault! Yoshihiro wrote me like this!! :cryplz:
Me: :srslyplz:

Setting: Setting around Japan, good! Also liked that they traveled to other Japanese islands to get other dogs. It's different from the other YT mangas 'cause with the exception of GDW, they travel around Japan to recruit dogs.
Story: "Recruit dogs in around 3 months". Hmmm... a good story... but there's nothing I have to say.


What I like of Kacchu no Senshi Gamu (My opinion):

Protagonists: Like GNG, most of them have depth, like Gamu, Hayabusa, Rando, Ryuugen, and Belmont. Good development.
Setting: It is not in many places, of what I remember at the beginning, but after Gennosuke and Ryuugen's deaths, it expanded a little bit and that's what I like. I wouldn't read a story that takes place the entire time in a house.
Story: Great story, actually. What makes it a bit disappointed is that we could only see Gama's real form in two chapters, and other things, like only having to do with ninjas. But everything else... :iloveitplz:

[M-92 Mantis]

Ginga Densetsu Weed is my favorite story out of all of Yoshi's work. Ginga Densetsu Weed still holds up, even the Anime, which I know so many people say is awful, but that's only because of the terrible animation and the low budget when they realized they had to squeeze a ton of volumes into two or three episodes. The main thing I love about GDW, though, is the characters, who I found were way more developed than GNG's mentality of "gotta catch 'em all" of the strongest dogs Ohu was recruiting, and then immediately forget them because there's another super amazing dog to find. I'm not saying GDW DOESN'T do that, because it certainly does, but the characters were still valuable and had personalities and I was able to connect to them better than GNG. I also love it because of Weed, who I love way more than Gin because of his more friendly and compassionate attitude instead of being as harsh and rather arrogant as his dad. Whether or not you like Gin more than Weed, it was at least a nice contrast in behavior; just because Weed had the misfortune to be drawn as a clone of his dad (which I don't agree with, I can easily tell the difference, unlike Weed and Sirius), he still HAS character and development, and that's all that should matter. All in all, I loved the pacing of the story (I've read only bits and pieces of the manga so I'm not sure about its pacing yet), definitely the characters, the decrease of the incredibly stilted "true man/soldier/warrior with the strength of one thousand bears" stuff, and a larger cast that all stuck together and made you feel a real sense of brothers-in-arms.

Kacchuu no Senshi Gamu is almost tied to Ginga Densetsu Weed, but that's only because of its uncanny style of Yoshi actually seeming to give a fuck about backstory, and basing this entire tale on the one dramatic change that led to the Kagerou's fall and Gama's tyranny: the death of Honou. Whether he knows it or not, Yoshi made the glimpses of the ganins' backstories and history tie the whole theme together quite well, to let us know what the heck is going on, and to show that all the ganin are in some way connected, whether they kept strong and followed Gamu after his mother died, or if she was the only thing keeping her clan from going down the dark road to Gama, like Belmont and Hayabusa. The story itself gets rather dull when it focuses more on Oda Nobunaga and samurai history, even if I do love studying it, but I guess it also helps you think that, because of the lack of ganin in all the other villages Gamu and Rando visit, the ganin are truly almost extinct, and the only ones left are following Gama. For me, what makes this story great despite its short life span is the backstory, not the characters or setting themselves, because unfortunately not much development is given to Kusakage or Shiba during their run with Gamu. KnSG inspires a whole lot of ideas of what happened in the past, WHY exactly Honou died, how all the characters were united once, and how the mighty ganin, once presumably in the thousands, fell to only three. To me, this story is very different from Yoshi's other ones, and I love it for not following down the same exact path as his others seem to do.

[18Gingasoldier]

It's fine if we have different opinions I knew some would not agree to others, but that's why the 6 stories are in my poll, I know they'll have a different opinion

[Kit]

I still need to post a spiel on why I love Shiroi Senshi Yamato, here... I will do that, soon, when I have more time. I enjoy reading about everyone's different opinions!

[Kausza]

I discovered GNG first, I'm most familiar with it and enjoy the art style much more than the others, which is why it's my favorite. I like GDW as well, but to a lesser degree (probably because it came after and I watched it after) although I think the villains are more believable in GDW (and unlike Akakabuto, have varying degrees of "goodness")

It's also nostalgia and Gin favoritism 8)

The rest I haven't read for one reason or another--KNSG is too fantastic, not into the art style for BnF and GDR. I'm not sure how I feel about SSY though, and I even own the series.

[The Tiger of Kai]

Did I seriously never see this topic? Meh...!

Anyway, it should be plainly obvious which story my favorite is... I mean, really...! =P

No, no, in all seriousness, I love Kacchû no Senshi Gamu the most for a number of reasons.

With Belmont being my absolute favorite character out of any other character Yoshihiro has ever made, it's easy for me to say that the characters in the story absolutely capture my heart. The betrayal that Belmont must have been feeling when he was allowed to stay in the village with the Kagerou, but as an outcast, to be challenged by his one and only friend, Gamu... that's a lot to take on.

As short as Bel's appearance was, the depth between their friendship was deep and for the most part fleshed out as much as it could be in the chapters he was in. I see myself in Bel; living with only a few friends and in the past feeling like I was an outcast among my class. Bel's character is a tragic one, and I've grown really attached to him over the years since discovering this story. I love him, and it's a shame his and Gamu's friendship ended the way it did. You can see the sheer regret on Gamu's face after sticking his sword in Bel's skull.

I feel like the characters in Kacchû no Senshi Gamu are much more three-dimensional than a lot of those in Ginga Nagareboshi Gin. And it's probably the only chunk of Yoshihiro's works that a female warrior truly gets to shine.

Kacchû no Senshi Gamu is your typical story of good versus evil, with armor-wearing ninja dogs jumping from page to page wielding swords (okay, so it's not that typical).

It's set in my favorite historical time period, the Sengoku era, where warlords from all over the country were at war to bring peace to the land. I enjoy many different stories and games that retell this time period from a different perspective — Sengoku Musou (Samurai Warriors) and Sengoku BASARA being two of the big ones — and this perspective just happens to be from the eyes of a boy and his dog.

The flaunting of swords and manly words of wisdom weren't totally out of character for this era; most warlords in the time period respected one another for many reasons, and Rando, Gamu, and their clan is no different. Honor after defeat was a harsh lesson to learn in this era — where death can grab hold of anyone at anytime — and corruption was equally as powerful (as shown in the personas of Gama and Belmont), but gaining that honor back is the best gift one can receive (as referenced by Hayabusa after his great confrontation with Gamu).

I think I could write an essay on why I love this story so much, but to spare room, I won't. I covered most of what I think are the main points of why Gamu remains to this day my favorite of Yoshihiro's stories. I don't think that's going to change for a long time.

[Flame]

You and me both, Kai I found this thread just now.

My favorite story of Yoshihiro is Byakuren no Fangu.

Byakuren no Fangu I like because well I love Zero first of all and I loves wolves, but more serious. I like how he made it with a wolf in the dog fights. Everyone here knows about the Japanese dog fights and most of them are Tosa's, they are a good breed to use for this kind of stuff. Tosa's are well built and large. I like how he made it a wolf and not just an Akita or Kishu as those breeds are a bit over used in my opinion. Don't get me wrong I love the breeds, but they just seem to show up too often even though they are quite a popular breed in Japan and the US has quite a few as well. A wolf in the dog fights just interests me really.

Ginga Densetsu Weed
I also love this story of Yoshihiro, even though I really don't like Weed(Fandom please don't kill for saying that). I don't really like Weed, but I enjoy the arcs he's in and the fights. The Hougen arc was very nice. Hougen has to be one of the best villains I've met. He is cruel, heartless, and cold. He is also intelligent which makes him a bigger threat then one of those villains that are just flat out insane and leave a disappointed feeling when the final battle ends. I also enjoy the Russian Army Arc. It was very tragic though, but it was the Russian German shepherds that I liked. Each character seems to at least play some important part unlike a lot of other manga and anime do. Naruto comes to mind first with characters like that. The story seems to have good plots and arcs and doesn't seem to drag things out too long. The only thing I don't really like is Weed as I've stated before and the change of character's colors so often. Tesshin my favorite character was originally a reddish-brown like the rest of the Kouga dogs, but now he's a light grey to almost black. Overall the story is very nice and I like the message it sends out to the readers as well.

[M-92 Mantis]

I agree about using a wolf in a dog fighting tournament. I thought it was a neat idea since I agree with the Akitas and Tosas, while the most efficient in Japanese dog fights, can get repetitive to keep seeing over and over.

And I understand why people don't like Weed, especially if they've seen GNG first. I saw GDW before I knew about GNG, so I got more suited to the new understanding of the change through dying for honor/throwing away your life and being avoidant of killing your enemies. I'm a person who usually doesn't agree with second chances, so I'm not entirely sure why I like Weed as much as I do. I don't get the whole 'I'm tossing away my life instead of living longer to try and fix the problem' so I liked how Weed was appalled by it. I'm never going to say that Weed didn't piss me off sometimes. But like Kai pointed out, one of the reasons people like flawed characters because it's more believable, and usually when Yoshi makes his characters do unlikable things he tries justifying or even ignoring it, so Weed making the wrong choice would backfire, sometimes, like with Jerome (even though I hate Jerome). I just like the idea that you don't have to lead an army with strength and perfection, which is the impression I always get from Gin. But yes, because the stories are so different, I understand why a lot of people don't like Weed.

While we're also all here doing discussions, I might as well mention what I like about other stories that come to mind, even if they're not my favorite.

Ginga Densetsu Riki, while very short and not too memorable to me, was repetitive and a breath of fresh air at the same time.

I liked how Riki at first was NOT a perfect puppy. The 'mama's boy/whininess' is kinda over-exaggerated with him since it doesn't show all the time, but it's definitely there, and I thought Riki growing up with his mom and losing her, WITHOUT her dying a pointless death, was touching, because his whole journey started through training his body to run far enough so he could try visiting her every day. To me, that's unusually sweet of Yoshi to even mention, that Riki, for his first three-four years of life, had both of his parents alive and well and was able to visit with them and lead a happy childhood until Akakabuto killed his father.

I used to also really hate Shiro because sometimes he sounded really blunt and rude, but when re-reading it to make character bios, I thought he was stern, but had a good heart. I usually don't ever see that in Ginga fathers, no matter how important or minor of characters they were, so Shiro, while even using the "don't cry, you're a man" shtick, was kind enough to give Riki reasons to toughen himself in order to live for his mother and to defend himself, instead of just because life sucks and he needs to grow a pair.

[Flame]

Truthfully I'm not a huge fan of Ginga Densetsu Riki. I just liked how Yoshihiro gave us info on the famous character's past, but I can't say I entirely enjoyed the story itself. It was quite touching with Riki and his mother, but I felt it was to repetitive as well.

I did see GNG first before GDW which was pure luck for me. I do understand fully about the honor dying thing though. I will say that I did enjoy GDW more then I did GNG. I like the feel of the story and the occasional tear jerkers it would give me, John's death is one example. I really did like the series, but I felt Weed was a little to soft for my liking. I also felt that he was a bit of a whiner too. While I enjoyed it I still enjoy Gin more then Weed, not that Gin is still my very favorite character either.

[Kit]

Okay, my turn!

The simplest way to sum up why I like Shiroi Senshi Yamato is because it's so crazy that it's brilliant. Yamato fights almost every animal under the sun, and yet somehow it works to make an interesting and charming story, rather than a jumbled mess. While I do like Byakuren no Fang, I felt it was a little too linear, in that we are just shown dialogue and dog fights. Yamato's growing fame and bloodline cause him to get sucked into many quirky adventures - some happy or fun, some heartwrenching and sad.

SPOILER: Click to show

SPOILERS: I think my favorite example is mid-way through the series, when Yamato and his puppy companion Musashi get kidnapped by a breed fanatic and taken on a ship. When they are finally able to escape, they find they must jump off into the unforgiving ocean, where Yamato ends up having to fend off a school of sharks. SHARKS. When it is over, Yamato merely smiles and imagines Ryou's beaming face telling him "good boy." A real tribute to his humble nature. They are luckily rescued and taken to shore, where they continue their arduous journey back to Ryou, meeting many people along the way and influencing their lives in some way. It's a real "Lassie" cliche, but it works because the story is balancing the journey out with all the action of the dog fights. END SPOILERS

There are no honor or manhood speeches (that I've seen while skimming it). There is no glorified father - in fact, quite the opposite. Fubuki's fame and strength led his owner to fear him and turn on him at the first opportunity, where the Akita was dubbed with the stigma of a man-eater and a demon. Yamato had to work to rise above his father's alleged shame, rather than being given unwarrented privileges from the greatness of his sire, as we tend to see in a lot of Yoshi's other works.

---

Everyone said all I would say about my second favorite, Kacchuu no Senshi Gamu.

---

While Weed is not really my favorite story, he is one of my favorite characters, so I may as well put my view on him out there. I don't find him too soft or whiny or any of the allegations I've heard in reference to him. I think he was a child raised by a single mother, sheltered and knowing nothing about the world (he was 6 months old, remember). Suddenly he was taken from all that and thrust into his unprepared role as leader of an army, something he was pressured into by the dogs of Ohu simply because of who his father is, and he is expected to go to war, never having killed in his life. Yes, he can be naive in the face of the real world, but wouldn't you be, if you were in his position? No normal little boy wants to kill anyone, or see his friends kill anyone.

That's all I really have to say on the matter... Thanks for sticking around to read all that crap.

....



AW YEAH!

[kek]

Sept 28, 2013 14:17:41 GMT -7 M-92 Mantis said:

Ginga Densetsu Weed is my favorite story out of all of Yoshi's work. Ginga Densetsu Weed still holds up, even the Anime, which I know so many people say is awful, but that's only because of the terrible animation and the low budget when they realized they had to squeeze a ton of volumes into two or three episodes. The main thing I love about GDW, though, is the characters, who I found were way more developed than GNG's mentality of "gotta catch 'em all" of the strongest dogs Ohu was recruiting, and then immediately forget them because there's another super amazing dog to find. I'm not saying GDW DOESN'T do that, because it certainly does, but the characters were still valuable and had personalities and I was able to connect to them better than GNG. I also love it because of Weed, who I love way more than Gin because of his more friendly and compassionate attitude instead of being as harsh and rather arrogant as his dad. Whether or not you like Gin more than Weed, it was at least a nice contrast in behavior; just because Weed had the misfortune to be drawn as a clone of his dad (which I don't agree with, I can easily tell the difference, unlike Weed and Sirius), he still HAS character and development, and that's all that should matter. All in all, I loved the pacing of the story (I've read only bits and pieces of the manga so I'm not sure about its pacing yet), definitely the characters, the decrease of the incredibly stilted "true man/soldier/warrior with the strength of one thousand bears" stuff, and a larger cast that all stuck together and made you feel a real sense of brothers-in-arms.

You summarized exactly why GDW is also my favorite of Yoshi's stories. I find the character development improved tenfold compared to GNG.
I admit that the second half of the Russian dog arc ( the long fight in the gorge), and the Hybrid arc are a bit tiring though.

[kaiarmydog]

I really can't choose! but I definitely wouldn't be GDW I just annoyed me so much!

[Durango]

I voted for GNG since that's what started it all for me. When I first saw the anime I was completely sold and it became one of my favorites instantly, a status it has maintained through all these years. The music, the animation, the characters, the violence, everything just hits my liking in that anime! For years I was really angry that I couldn't read the manga so when I finally got my hands on it I was thrilled. I need to mention that I don't like the manga as much as the anime and there are couple reasons for that:

1. Some of the movements on page made me go “???” because I simply couldn't understand how the dog was supposed to be moving in the panel. Movement in general is something that is easier to understand on screen (you don't say!) and GNG specially feels to me as something that needs to be on screen.
   
2. I really tried. I really really tried and wanted to like the wolf arc, but I was instead just left going blah over it. I liked it at first but then the whole thing went way over my little head with the sudden mystical stuff, and I just didn't care any longer. I probably had my expectations way too high from tidbit pictures seen before reading the story, since I was expecting to be left cursing the anime for not including the wolf arc.

Even if I am more fan of anime GNG, the manga version is still my favorite from this list since everything before the wolf arc gets a big thumbs down from me. Granted I have not read WEED further than the first three volumes yet, and the same applies to Shiroi Senshi Yamato(finally, all thanks to the awesome translation team here). Either of those could take the title of my fave Yoshi manga once I'll be able to read them both to the end. Byakuren no Fangu could also take the title if it happens to be really amazing but I don't know anything about that manga yet.

I liked the first volume of KnSG but not enough to even consider that as my favorite, so I doubt the second one would change anything. The representation of the time period is great and like The Tiger of Kai said, the manly thing was in tune with the time they were in, and so it wasn't bothersome (like it sometimes is during some other Yoshi stories), but I just don't like Gamu himself all that much.

Blaa blaa blaa, I've babbled excessively already so I'll end this with the statement that if Ginga Densetsu Akame keeps the feel it had in two first chapters then that story will surely become my favorite Yoshi story.