Sunday, May 18, 2008

DANCE! KREMLIN PALACE! by SHINTARO KAGO (PROLOGUE)

It's that time again... Time for a new Shintaro Kago manga! This time out, the Kago action is being brought to you by Rizzah at Wanted: Cheap Manga (who also did last week's The Human Clock as well).


Dance! Kremlin Palace! by Shintaro Kago

This latest Shintaro Kago comic is actually a joint project by Rizzah and our good friend Anonymous K. This time those two dudes are tackling an entire book, which they plan to serialize on Wanted: Cheap Manga. Based on the scope of this scanlation, I won't be hosting any files this time, but I'm going to post a notice here each time a new chapter goes up so you guys can go check them out. I've had the pleasure of reading this prologue and first three chapters so far, and it's a very goofy and different kind of story from Kago.



Dance! Kremlin Palace! is, in my mind, another example of Kago taking a smallish kernel of an idea and probing it, rotating it around in his dirty, twisted mind and then expanding it out (conceptually and visually) as fucking far as his brain and hands can take it. In this case, the idea is Soviet Russia (and Marxism/Leninism, by extension) instead of comic strip formalism, and the results are more political and have clearer narrative themes.

That said, we are talking about Shintaro Kago here, and you'll be treated to a mix of NSFW gore, sex and nudity. It's weird and interesting to see Kago tackle a specific aesthetic and theme so strictly, and I really dug some of the jokes and imagery; however, it has to be said that some of the criticisms of communism can be a little broad and slapdash. I can't wait to hear what people think.

(I must note that This Prologue will feel very familiar for anyone that has read Kurt Vonnegut's short story Harrison Bergeron, to which it owes a funny debt.)


Click to download the Prologue from Wanted: Cheap Manga.

Thanks again to Rizzah and Anonymous K for bringing us this new work. Definitely please keep the Same Hat crew abreast of your next updates!


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey ryan!
thanks for posting the news.
the criticism of communist statement is something very interesting, because it's almost not criticism of communism, but criticism of people's ignorance of communism. it's almost as if Kago thought about what he had heard communism was about, and then just made up the rest of the shit.
it reminds me a little bit of when i went to japan and told people i was from tennessee. they always said, "oh, the tennessee waltz!" which is some song i've never heard of in my life. the japanese people in general are usually very ignorant about other cultures (i know it's a harsh statement, just my opinion from my experience. also, it's the same thing here in america, and all over the world), and i think that's one of the main themes of the manga.
thanks for posting the news!!

Anonymous said...

Hm. Its intresting seeing this get anounced now, as i have already downloaded the first few chapters of it in english off of Dead Frog Torrents a few months ago. I aslo though that you had a hand in the english version as it said that one of the people who worked on was somebody named Ryan... but i guess thats actually is not the case. Stil its awesome to see info on it really being brought to light now (as now we know that its still being worked on and that we will more then likely see it finished, maybe some time with in this year :) ).

Ryan S said...

@rizzah: Glad to post this-- I hope a lot of SH readers make their way to check out your blog. Your comment about the criticism of communism is an interesting one. You should totally read that Vonnegut story if you haven't already. Have fun with Anonymous K on this :)

@rolo: I know right? I love that panel!

@arngrim: Oh yeah, it sounds like Rizzah & Anonymous K may have released sections of this here and there. I actually didn't have anything to do with this one, but wanted to link to it and send some readers to that new blog, Wanted: Cheap Manga! Evan and I haven't done any scanlation stuff for nearly a year, but when I find cool stuff to read I definitely will share it here!

Anonymous said...

@arngrim: well, my name is ryan also. i did the translation for dance, not samehat ryan. rizzah is just some nonsensical code name i use as a joke. anonymous k and i already have half of the volume done, and he had been putting it on some torrent sites as we've released them. But all along i wanted a more stable home for them, so i decided to start posting them on my blog. glad you enjoy it!

Anonymous said...

yeah, I also can't wait to see this manga finally finished...the first 4 chapters were awesome as hell...it's hilarious what kago created out of this outlandish theme for a manga...I'm also very glad to hear that the next chapters won't be only available on dead frog, since I hate downloading from torrents! thanks for the effort