Hokusai to Hara: Ukiyo-e to Anime

Looking back…

Anton: I came to study woodblock prints and thought I’d do my research in a museum. But one contact led to another and I ended up doing line drawing work at a manga publisher. Suddenly all those hours studying contours and negative space became unexpectedly useful. 
Arisa: Are ukiyo-e and manga different completely art forms? 
Anton: Different tools, same family resemblance. Ukiyo-e artists had to communicate movement, emotion, weather, personality, all with line. Manga inherited that confidence in line. Selecting which lines matter and leaving the rest out. 
Arisa: So manga is a descendant of ukiyo-e? 
Anton: I’d say so. There’s sequential storytelling, expressive faces, stylised motion, dramatic composition. Even the economy of line. Manga modernised it.
Arisa: So where does anime fit? If ukiyo-e becomes manga… does manga become anime? 
Anton: Often, yes. Anime takes manga’s drawn language and adds movement, sound, rhythm, timing. But there’s another interesting loop: sometimes anime reaches back into older Japanese art traditions. 

Hara Keiichi: Miss Hokusai

Arisa: Any recommendations? 
Anton: Well, the anime film Miss Hokusai. It takes the world and artwork of ukiyo-e artist Hokusai Katsushika telling the story through anime. Set in Tokyo’s Edo era. Feels modern and historical at the same time. Director was Hara Keiichi.
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Voice-over
Manga and anime are not for everyone. There have always been fans and detractors. But there’s something about the economy of lines in a woodblock print, a manga page, or animation frames, when lines express the essence of the story.

March Comes in Like a Lion

Sakura wonders at the naming of the manga…

Hiroshi: Not random, I read that Umino knew the English expression, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” Like the weather is rough at the start of March and gentler by the end.

Sakura: But in Japanese it’s Sangatsu no Lion, “The Lion of March,” so the English title adds something.

Hiroshi: Early March, cold and stormy, yes, then gradually gets spring-like, so the “lion” part is the rough beginning and the “lamb” part is the milder ending.

Sakura: What I love is how it reflects Rei’s emotional arc: he starts off like that stormy March lion, isolated, depressed, then slowly moves toward something gentler and warmer as he finds connection.

Hiroshi: There’s also the shogi angle; the Lion King tournament, and shogi rankings culminate in March, so professionals “become lions” in that month.

Sakura: Plus the town names: the Kawamoto sisters live in Sangatsu-chou—literally “March Town”—which makes March not just a time but also a place that changes Rei’s life.

Hiroshi: Wow, yes, makes the title feel like a double metaphor: March as the harsh season of his inner life, and March Town as the environment whose warmth helps him move out of that winter. 

Sakura: And then the English idiom suggests that even if your life comes roaring in like a lion, it can still “go out” more gently, which really suits a coming‑of‑age story.

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Voice-over

So naming the manga spins a web of nuances—season, place, tournament, and the stormy kid who, little by little, finds his own spring.

Spy Family in the Onsen Manga Room

Late back...

Ken: Sorry. I dropped by the hot spring after work - needed a reset.

Louise: Fall asleep in the bath again?

Ken: Ha! No, but I felt so relaxed that I stopped by the manga library and guess what I found - Spy x Family!

Louise: Oh, good one! Did you start from the beginning or just grab a random?

Ken: Yeah. Random. One of the Eden Academy arcs. That family is seriously something else.

Louise: And not just the spy stuff. The way Loid balances saving the world and pretending to be a normal dad is hilarious. And Yor? A gentle wife who also happens to be an assassin? What a mix!

Ken: I think what caught me off guard most was Anya—she’s this cute, innocent-looking kid, but the fact that she’s secretly telepathic and keeps misinterpreting everything Loid and Yor do? Absolute gold.

Louise: And her obsession with peanuts. I think she’s the heart of the story - her reactions make everything twice as funny.

Ken: Yeah, I didn’t expect it to be this quirky. One moment, it’s action-espionage, next, it’s Loid panicking about parent-teacher conferences.

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Voice-over
Recommended way to end an onsen soak by flipping pages in a manga. 

LINE Sticker Sheep Manga

A new direction for LINE?

Myrrhy Christmas, Frank.

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Voice-over

Could LINE become an alternative coauthored interactive manga?

What are the possibilities for authorship?

What are the possibilities for readership?

Send your own designed LINE sticker greeting.

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Marx Test

Test writing time for teachers comes around. 
Mark: What’s your method? 
Joseph: Go to Wikipedia, choose a topic, read the outline, get the gist, frame 6 or 8 questions beginning with the classic wh5.
Mark: The classic wh5?
Joseph: What happened? Who did it? Where did it occur? When? And Why? Then reread the article. After that, write one paragraph for each question. Piece of cake.
Mark: So I have to write a passage. What’s a good topic?
Joseph: They’re business students. An economist.
Mark: Keynes?
Joseph: Done. Two years ago.
Mark: Soros?
Joseph: Three years ago.
Mark: Drucker?
Joseph: Last year. How about Marx? He’s due for an airing.
Mark: Marx. You suggest I write about Marx?
Joseph: You’re a Marxist. Said so yourself. Your own admission.
Mark: Something from Das Kapital?
Joseph: Perhaps CliffsNotes, the manga edition?
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Voice-over
Restating ideas, recycling essays, regurgitating answers. No wonder education has problems with plagiarism. Not only are students getting answers from the internet. Teachers are grabbing tests from the internet. But if you’re a long dead economist whose theories have been a little tarnished, you may not be too choosy who dusts you off. Going along with Marx's thoughts on "private property," a Marx test may be borrowed from here. 

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