|
For me, the most striking thing about Hanokage's work is that you can see a very, very consistently upward progression of quality when going through it in release order. The first adaption was obviously not as great as it could've been, likely through less fault of Hanokage, but even in the art, it feels very amateur-esc. There's no easy flow to the composition, there is less visual depth, and the characters felt less fleshed out, visually, than I normally would've liked. The Different Story spin-off trult improved on these aspects of the art and the subsequent Rebellion manga adaption was actually unique and visually creative enough to inspire me to recommend it to those who saw the film. That scene when Homura is literally cutting the panel you're reading in two demonstrates a powerful symbolic analogy to the weird, emotionally breaking atmosphere of the film. The Wrath Arc, too, demonstrated a lot of artistic expertise in its direction.
I also own Hanokage's Fire Emblem Awakening doujinshi, which was released during The Different Story's run, as well as the short comics in a few of the anthology volumes around the same time, and they definitely fit in that gap of progression. I'm going to read this manga on its own merits. Something tells me that Hanokage would be good at writing an original story from scratch.
|