Friday, 19 March 2021

Three Newbies Authors to Look Out For

 Hamayan 

He has a published a total of three works. His first two works both one-shot did not stand out but it did show off his particular quirks of more subdued story telling with a focus on reflective themes. However, his artwork still needed work especially his backgrounds but most importantly his art style had an identity of its own. 

His short series ' The Human' would show great improvement over his previous two one-shots. It did not take too long as it came only around half a year after but his art had taken a step up but it still had its own distinct style.

THE HUMAN by Hamayan

The storytelling most importantly had also improved to match the art. Hamayan's two previous work had simple stories, one featuring a boy who does not realise his talent for long jump and the other featuring a bullied boy who tries to awaken the inner potation of the mind. 'The Human' is a blend of the two in many ways but with a more refined story and a set theme. To highlight it without spoilers, the story explores issues such as surrounding sportsmanship but it is about the humanity of the athletes in a world where the olympics has allowed performance enhancement drugs and body modification. I believe his ability to write a smooth and reflective narrative whilst subverting expectations perhaps,  might mean he is wasted in shonen magazines. 

Arai Shuntarou 

Another author who emerged from Next Champion. However, Arai Shuntarou is a lot more experimental with his works. He has published many one-shots and had two short series in champion. In all cases they were vastly different in setting, theme and mood. This great range in story telling is one of his greatest assets.

One thing that all one-shots had was a high shock factor. His sketch- like art is great for shaping at shaping the mood and all his one-shots were incredibly immersive, it drew you in with the magnetism that the blend of his art and storytelling have. 

Ishumeriumu by Arai Shuntarou

That leads me of into the next topic nicely. His storytelling is rather smooth and in all his works there is little direct narrative to guide the reader. This might leave readers confused especially in shonen magazine but he can successfully through his presentation and script direct the story effectively. However, this is probably one of the reasons i see his future in seinen magazine and not in shonen ones. 


Sacco


Unna Bohan by Sacco

There is less information on Sacco out there and unlike the previous two his debut was only last year by winning Shogakukan newbie award. His one-shot was published in  Big Comics Superior and then online for people to read. So unlike, the previous two whose works are not available outside of their magazines, you can freely read his one-shot which I highly recommend. 


The one-shot has a very clear direction and theme it explores. The story has a clever initial set up but it then it goes of to a fantastical place where pre birth babies are left at the care of young angels. These angels take care of the children until they are taken to be born but they are warned against getting too attached. The main character in this story does not heed this warning and grows attached to the baby he is caring for. This gives rise to many anxieties and worries for the angel over the fate of the baby when it inevitably is born, in regards to whether its family will be loving or if it will not be loved. Through this set up it explores many questions on regards to why we are born in the place we are born with a touch of christianity. 

The art has this christian artistic style that goes along with the religious yet fantastical setting. In addition, the art is also naturally rather expressive with the worries darkening the usual brightness of the world, it actively reflects the the mood of the story as it progresses. Sacco is one author to look out for in seinen magazines. 

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