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Shūzō Noguchi Launches Kickstarter to Conclude The Records of Genshu Manga

Manga creator and anime producer Shūzō Noguchi and Awesome Japan launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the conclusion and translation of Noguchi's The Records of Genshu (Edo Genshū Mitateroku) manga on Monday.

The Kickstarter campaign is attempting to raise US$3,000 by May 27. Some of the pledge rewards include a PDF of the manga, a signed hand-dawn or digitally drawn portrait of the backer (available in increasingly higher levels of detail) as drawn by Noguchi, and the opportunity to appear in the manga as a character. If the campaign raises US$10,000, Awesome Japan will print physical copies as backer rewards.

The Kickstarter campaign describes the manga's story:

It is the Temmei era of Edo Japan (1781~1789). A time of seemingly never ending famine and natural disasters. A time when even the sympathies of man were naught but ruin and the very soul of human nature was in doubt. During this Edo, a string of murders involving crooked merchants brought rise to the name “Hanya the Street Slayer.” A chance happening of events led Genshu to be blamed as the murderer after picking up the Hanya mask the killer was named for. In the fall of heavy rain, Genshu learns the surprising identity of the true killer.

Noguchi studied under Kazuo Koike (Lone Wolf and Cub) and is currently a professor at the Art and Design College at Osaka Seikei University. He was working as staff on Takehiko Inoue's Slam Dunk manga when he began drawing The Records of Genshu, but could not conclude it due to sustaining a hand injury that left him unable to draw for some time.

Awesome Japan is also collaborating with director Kenji Itoso's studio KENJI STUDIO on a Kickstarter campaign for their Coluboccoro fantasy film, which met its goal last week.