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Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Pineapple Army




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prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2333
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:16 am Reply with quote
Man, when I looked at the picture on the top right preview of the article, I thought to myself "Ghostbusters?"
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Akcoll99



Joined: 28 Feb 2011
Posts: 221
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:05 am Reply with quote
I found a copy of the trade for this sitting on a dusty bookshelf in the back corner of a comic book store a couple years ago and snatched it up. I hadn't realized before I found it that Urasawa had been brought over to the U.S. so long ago. It's ashame PA didn't catch on. I agree about its flaws, but I still enjoyed it and would love it if Viz gave it another go now that Urasawa HAS finally broken through to American readers...
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xScar



Joined: 20 Dec 2006
Posts: 288
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:06 am Reply with quote
Eh! I had no idea this had ever been published in English! Definitely about to go find a copy.

Does anyone happen to know if all the stories in the single issues were collected in the single volume version?

Even if it's lackluster, in both presentation (being a few stories out of the whole series) and story in general, it's still extremely interesting to see Urasawa's progression in the manga world.

Really hate that there would not be enough sales for a company to put all his works out -- or at least Master Keaton and Billy Bat It really surprises me that no one has got Billy Bat yet, since it could easily be sold to anyone who like Pluto, Monster, or 20CB. Maybe once it finishes up. Master Keaton, especially now that it's started back up, could pull Black Jack-type fans ;S
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skafreak51



Joined: 13 Feb 2009
Posts: 211
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:47 am Reply with quote
Oh wow. I'm a huge Urasawa fan, I always looked at the Pineapple Army color pictures in the Urasawa artbook I have, but I never ever knew it got translated.

I'm at Book-Off and other manga-esc stores all the time and have never ever seen it...

Time to go on a quest.
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:52 am Reply with quote
skafreak51 wrote:
I'm at Book-Off and other manga-esc stores all the time and have never ever seen it...

Time to go on a quest.

Remember Urasawa didn't write it. That might help. But it's also old and didn't have the staying power of other Urasawa-affiliated projects (like Yawara!; it seems everyone knows Yawara! in Japan).

I have a few issues of the singles Viz released for this that I picked up in a give-away box at a nerd's night out. It's definitely weak Urasawa, particularly in the art department. Master Keaton and Yawara!, both of which I partly own in Japanese and wish would be translated into English, are already vast improvements in drawing style. You can really tell in Pineapple Army that he had no professional training and was just imitating someone else's art (which he apparently is really good at, having done Tezuka-style sketches in early concepts of Pluto).
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Snomaster1
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Joined: 31 Aug 2011
Posts: 2793
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:16 pm Reply with quote
This is an interesting manga,but it seems to be a bit flawed. Like the character in the manga,most Vietnam veterans aren't crazed lunatics. Most came home to America and lived peaceful lives. Raising families,things like that. But,it is interesting that there was a Japanese-American character that was the lead in this. I once saw the manga "Cipher" and it did reasonably well and it too was from the eighties.
It's a shame that Urasawa didn't do this on his own. I think it would have done better.
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Joe Carpenter



Joined: 29 Oct 2011
Posts: 503
PostPosted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 2:59 am Reply with quote
I love Urasawa's art style, it screams "Japanese" without being stereotypical "anime/manga style" you know what I mean?

also, I can't think of Pineapples without thinking of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgYEualAq-8
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Adonisus



Joined: 08 May 2010
Posts: 20
PostPosted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:13 pm Reply with quote
Actually, Urasawa was mega popular long before Monster or 20th Century Boys.

Pineapple Army was actually a side project from his main, solo serial: YAWARA!, which was a HUGE seller during its serialization and made Urasawa a superstar.
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xScar



Joined: 20 Dec 2006
Posts: 288
PostPosted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 11:57 am Reply with quote
Adonisus wrote:
Actually, Urasawa was mega popular long before Monster or 20th Century Boys.

Pineapple Army was actually a side project from his main, solo serial: YAWARA!, which was a HUGE seller during its serialization and made Urasawa a superstar.

Yes, but the popularity discussed in this column is about his popularity in America.

While Yawara definitely put him in the spot light in Japan, it's nothing we'll ever see over here in America Sad AnimEigo tried with the anime, but it flopped.

Jason talks about Yawara's popularity in Japan:
Quote:
It led the way to Urasawa's future hit manga, like Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl, a sports manga that ran from 1989 to 1993 and was made into a live action movie and an anime.
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