Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths
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is a
one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...
manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
written and illustrated by
Shigeru Mizuki was a Japanese manga artist and historian, best known for his manga series ''GeGeGe no Kitarō''. Born in a hospital in Osaka and raised in the city of Sakaiminato, Tottori, he later moved to Chōfu, Tokyo where he remained until his death. ...
. In it, Mizuki describes his experiences as a soldier participating in the
New Guinea campaign The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. During the initial phase in early 1942, the Empire of Japan invaded the Australian-administered Mandated Territory of New Guinea (23 Jan ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. He portrays the final weeks of his infantry service as the soldiers were instructed to die for their country to avoid the dishonor of survival. The manga was first published in
Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...
magazine ''
Shūkan Gendai is a general-interest weekly magazine published in Tokyo, Japan. History and profile ''Shūkan Gendai'' was started in 1959. The magazine has its headquarters in Tokyo. It is published by Kodansha, the largest publishing house in Japan, which co ...
'' in 1973, based on Mizuki's work of 1970. After being translated and published by
Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, ...
in 2011, ''Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths'' has been well received by English-speaking critics. It also received awards in France and in the United States, and was adapted into a
television drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms t ...
in 2007 by Japanese broadcaster
NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...
.


Overview

Shigeru Mizuki was a Japanese manga artist and historian, best known for his manga series ''GeGeGe no Kitarō''. Born in a hospital in Osaka and raised in the city of Sakaiminato, Tottori, he later moved to Chōfu, Tokyo where he remained until his death. ...
is a Japanese manga artist who is best known for his ''
yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word is composed of the kanji for "attractive; calamity" and "apparition; mystery; suspicious." are also referred to as , or . Despite often being translated as suc ...
'' (Japanese folklore monsters)-themed manga, especially ''
GeGeGe no Kitarō , originally known as , is a Japanese manga series created in 1960 by Shigeru Mizuki. It is best known for its popularization of the folklore creatures known as ''yōkai'', a class of spirit-monster which all of the main characters ...
''. Mizuki enjoyed writing about the monsters' histories, which a local woman related to him; however in 1942, at the age of 21, Mizuki was drafted into the
Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
. He was sent to
Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about 600 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in ...
, a city on
New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...
island in
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
, where his comrades died and Mizuki lost his left arm. Based on these experiences, Mizuki wrote ''Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths'', containing "90 percent fact". Fictionalizing himself as private Maruyama, Mizuki tells the story by combining drawings with photographs.


Release

Shigeru Mizuki wrote and illustrated ''Sōin Gyokusai Seyo!'', which was first published in the August 1973 issue of ''
Shūkan Gendai is a general-interest weekly magazine published in Tokyo, Japan. History and profile ''Shūkan Gendai'' was started in 1959. The magazine has its headquarters in Tokyo. It is published by Kodansha, the largest publishing house in Japan, which co ...
''. In the same year, Kodansha released it in ''
tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...
'' format with the subtitle . In July 1985,
Holp Shuppan is a publishing company headquartered in Misaki-cho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of GAIA Holdings Corporation. , the company has published children’s books and sold reference works. The name is an acronym for "Home Library Production" ...
published the work, and Kodansha re-released it on June 15, 1995.
Ohzora Publishing , also known as Ohzora Shuppan is a josei manga, ''josei'' manga publisher in Japan, founded in 1990. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, it publishes Japanese manga, manga magazines and comic anthologies. The company is headed by . Kitawaki also ran ...
released the manga on August 9, 2007, as , and on July 30, 2010, as . It was released under the ''
konbini A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
'' comic format by
Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...
on August 11, 2007, and on August 16, 2008. At the 2010
San Diego Comic-Con International San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...
, comic book publisher
Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, ...
announced it had acquired the manga's publishing rights and would release it in North America under the title ''Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths''. The company released the manga in May 2011; it was the first manga by Mizuki published in English. The Drawn & Quarterly edition was 368 pages and had an introduction written by manga commentator
Frederik L. Schodt Frederik L. Schodt (born January 22, 1950) is an American translator, interpreter and writer. Biography Schodt's father was in the US foreign service, and he grew up in Norway, Australia, and Japan. The family first went to Japan in 1965 wh ...
, as well as an interview with Mizuki. The publisher chose the work because they thought it was "an excellent introduction" to Mizuki's work, and because "readers have knowledge of and thus can relate to on a certain level".


Reception and legacy

''Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths'' has been critically acclaimed. At the 2009
Angoulême International Comics Festival The Angoulême International Comics Festival (french: Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after Lu ...
, the manga won the Prize for Inheritance. In 2012, it was nominated for a
Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that were ...
in the Best American Edition of Foreign Material category. It was selected for the
Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...
in the categories Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia and Best Reality-Based Work, winning the former at the Comic-Con. According to a compilation by Deb Aoki of
About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...
, ''Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths'' was considered the best new manga of 2011 because it was included in 18 critics lists of best comics/graphic novels. Aoki said the manga is "dense with details, and filled with pathos, humor and horror". '' Paste''s Garrett Martin wrote that the "realistic depictions of normal men trapped in a horrible situation" makes ''Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths'' "brutally honest". Brigid Alverson of MTV Geek said, "this is not an easy story to read, but its historical importance and the lessons it holds for the future are undeniable". Noel Murray writing in ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' said the manga's artwork is "detailed, often beautiful illustrations of small Pacific islands with characters rendered far less elaborately". Karen Green of
Comixology Iconology Inc., d/b/a ComiXology (styled comiXology), is a cloud-based digital distribution platform for comics owned by Amazon, with over 200 million comic downloads . It offers a selection of more than 100,000 comic books, graphic novels, and ...
wrote that the "story is so human and its message so powerful" and that is a good book to eliminate the preconceptions American may have of the Japanese Army that are frequently propagated by Hollywood. Among others, ''
Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...
'', Dan Kois and Glen Weldon of
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,
Comic Book Resources ''Comic Book Resources'', also known by the initialism CBR, is a website dedicated to the coverage of comic book–related news and discussion. History Comic Book Resources was founded by Jonah Weiland in 1995 as a development of the Kingdom Co ...
, Ed Sizemore of Manga Worth Reading, and ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'' included it on their lists of best comic books of 2011. Further, in 2014, Joe Gross of the ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' qualified it as the 46th "Best Non-Superhero Graphic Novel" of all time.
David Maine David Maine (born November 28, 1963) is an American novelist. Personal life David Maine was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and grew up in Farmington, Connecticut. He attended Oberlin College (1981–1985) and the University of Arizona (1988–1 ...
wrote for ''
PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
'' that "there is little here to criticize. Perhaps some of the transitions are a bit abrupt, ndmaybe some of the characterization could be sharper." Similarly, Sean Michael Robinson of ''
The Comics Journal ''The Comics Journal'', often abbreviated ''TCJ'', is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing re ...
'' said ''Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths'' for its theme "as well as its many strengths and virtues, it is a very difficult book to criticize". Robinson's critics was that it has "loosely characterized" characters and that its art "can also be a stumbling block". He said the art is "problematic", is "the hand-off—when characters suddenly leap modes, bouncy and expressive one moment, and photo-rendered and flat the next".
Tom Spurgeon Thomas Martin Spurgeon (December 16, 1968 – November 13, 2019) was an American writer, historian, critic, and editor in the field of comics, notable for his five-year run as editor of ''The Comics Journal'' and his blog ''The Comics Reporter''. ...
, writing for ''The Comics Reporter'', said he had difficulty "in not being able to easily track which soldiers are which at any one point in the book".


Television adaptation

On August 12, 2007,
NHK General TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK G, is the main television service of NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster. Its programming includes news, drama, quiz/variety shows, music, sports, anime, and specials which compete directly with the output of its ...
broadcast , a Japanese television drama based on ''Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths''. It was written by Takuya Nishioka and produced by Tsuyoshi Yanagawa, and starred
Teruyuki Kagawa is a Japanese actor, kabuki actor and boxing commentator. Biography Born in 1965, his parents are the kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke III and the cinema actress Yuko Hama. His grandmother is the film actress Sanae Takasugi. In the Kabuki world ...
as Shigeru Mizuki. On July 16, 2008,
Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...
released the drama in DVD format. The
Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The ag ...
awarded it the Excellence Prize for a television drama during the National Arts Festival. The drama was awarded the Excellence Prize for television program at the 45th Galaxy Awards by the Japan Council for Better Television and Radio. At the 34th Hoso Bunka Foundation Awards, ''Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths'' won the awards for Best Television Drama, Best Actor (Kagawa), and Best Production (Yanagawa).


Cast

*
Teruyuki Kagawa is a Japanese actor, kabuki actor and boxing commentator. Biography Born in 1965, his parents are the kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke III and the cinema actress Yuko Hama. His grandmother is the film actress Sanae Takasugi. In the Kabuki world ...
as Shigeru Mizuki/Maruyama *
Tomoko Tabata is a Japanese actress. She won the best supporting actress award from the Mainichi in 2004 for ''The Hidden Blade'' and ''Blood and Bones'', and the best actress award at the Mainichi Film Awards for ''The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky'' in 2012. ...
as Nunoe *
Sansei Shiomi is a Japanese actor. Career Born in Kyoto Prefecture, Shiomi went to Doshisha University. He joined the theater troupe En in 1978 and soon also began appearing in film and television, mostly as a character actor. He won a Japan Movie Critics Aw ...
as Honda *
Kyūsaku Shimada is a Japanese actor. History Shimada was originally part of the Tokyo Grand Guignol Theater group, formed by artist Norimizu Ameya. He stayed with the group until its dissolution in 1986. One of the productions the group undertook was an adaptat ...
as Ishiyama *
Takaaki Enoki is a Japanese actor and artist from Isa District, Kagoshima. He is known for his role as private detective Mitsuhiko Asami in the ''Asami Mitsuhiko Series''. He attended Musashino Art University but left before graduating and joined the Shiki The ...
as Kido *Yukiya Kitamura as Akasaki *
Renji Ishibashi , born is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 15th Hochi Film Award for '' Rōnin-gai''. Filmography Film Television Video game * '' Yakuza: Dead Souls'' - Oyassan References External links * Renji Ishib ...
as a company commander *Hiroshi Kanbe as Kayama *
Haruhiko Jō is a Japanese actor, theatre director and voice actor currently affiliated with Engekikurabu Za. Filmography Television drama *'' Yoshitsune'' (2005) *''Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths'' (2007) (The chief of staff) Theatre *'' Rudolf'' (2008 ...
as the chief of staff *
Tetsurō Sagawa was a Japanese actor and voice actor from Tateyama, Chiba. He was a graduate of Waseda University. Filmography Film *'' Dai Ninjutsu Eiga: Watari'' (Nagato Fujibayashi) *''Fūrinkazan'' ( Nobutomo Akiyama) *'' Onmitsu Dōshin Ōedo Sōsamō'' ...
as the brigadier *
Atsushi Miyauchi is a Japanese actor and voice actor. He is the best known dubbing roles as Bruce Banner / Hulk (played by Mark Ruffalo) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Filmography Film * ''MUSASHI'' (1996) (Miyamoto Musashi) * ''Samurai Resurrection'' (2003) ...
as Mizumoto *
Masako Nozawa is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator. Throughout her life, she has been affiliated with Production Baobab, 81 Produce and self-owned Office Nozawa; she is also affiliated with Aoni Production. Her late husband, Masaaki Tsukada, was ...
as Kitarō (voice) *
Isamu Tanonaka was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator from Taitō, Tokyo. He was best known for voicing Medama Oyaji in nearly every adaptation of Shigeru Mizuki's '' GeGeGe no Kitarō'' made during his lifetime. Career During his life he had been atta ...
as Medama Oyaji (voice) *
Chikao Ōtsuka was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator. He was most known for the roles of Captain Hook (''Peter Pan no Bōken & Disney's Peter Pan''), Dick Dastardly (''Wacky Races'' & ''Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines''), Goemon Ishikaw ...
as Nezumi Otoko (voice)


Notes


References


External links

*{{ann, manga, 1332 1973 manga Anti-war books Autobiographical anime and manga Comics set during World War II Drawn & Quarterly titles Gekiga Kodansha manga NHK original programming Oceania in fiction One-shot manga Shigeru Mizuki War in anime and manga