Thursday, March 28, 2013
Don Dracula Meets the Werewolf
I'm not sure what the actual title of this Don Dracula story translates into (help?) but damn it's an awesome manga classic. Visually there are too many exceptional moments to even try to list, as master Tezuka pulls out all the stops, mixing cute and gory / realistic and cartoony / sexy and sweet / hilarious and horrific in a way that will seriously make your head spin-- from the brilliant opening beach party gone wrong sequence, to the full on awesomeness of the monster battle (Don Dracula even disguises himself as a mummy in this one!) Unlike my previous DD post (click HERE), I just left everything as it originally appears in my collection for this post-- just remember to read RIGHT to LEFT!
wow - that was really cool! i understood generally what was going on but not everything - like that little teeny kid in the teeny coffin with the bone-mobile thing. ??
ReplyDeleteand i dig Don Dracula's kitty curtains on his house boat!
the same panel as the bone mobile on page 174, the woman actually has Tezuka in her hand! This sequence might be a flashback
ReplyDeleteoh wow yeah. that makes sense.
ReplyDeletei was actually hoping that Don Dracula and the hot werewolf chick would get together in the end.
This is brilliant. What a slick werewolf--and so highly effective! I love the pit full of bodies. I wrote a story one time where the people tried to defeat their wolf-man using too much hot sauce in the bait. I guess it's something hard-wired into our evolutionary memory; muy picante must be some kind of age-old kneejerk monster repellant.
ReplyDelete>i was actually hoping that Don Dracula and the hot werewolf chick would get together in the end.
ReplyDeleteI kind of get the feeling that maybe at one time previous they were an item. Plus, he bites her at the end, and without translation those of us who can't read Japanese are left to ponder if it was the death bite, or the vampirism club bite. And then of course it all ends with that plane crash panel-- arghh! What happens?!!
>must be some kind of age-old kneejerk monster repellant.
Haha, yeah... it's also like when they play music to soothe the savage beast. Maybe it temporarily works, but then someone throws on some Motorhead.
Are we sure that's not Chocula's mother? Evidence:
ReplyDeleteBoth Dracula and the werewolf seems to know each other when Chocula was a baby, and it obviously makes sense she's the mother.
She has surprising news for Chocula, and Chocula seems to embrace her after that.
Also, it seems the transformation to wolf isn't something she wants, and she wouldn't hurt Chocula otherwise.
The way Dracula acts, the werewolf and him seem to have a history.
Don't think she's dead, as she's talking off panel long after the bite.
That plane crash, that's a mystery. Did Dracula tell Chocula her mother died in a plane crash? Only to find out it was a lie? And I suspect American Airlines wasn't too happy about the product placement!
I know a person from South Korea, from Malaysia, and China, but no Japanese! So close to a translation!
That's what I was thinking in my comment above, that Drac and the wolf chick have had a history together, and yes possibly a baby. It's all speculation until someone learns some damn Japanese!
ReplyDeleteThe female werewolf is Chocula's mother and is called Carmilla.
ReplyDelete