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Kanta Ishida, writer for the Yomiuri Shimbun (newspaper) in Japan, analyzes different theories and tries to nail, ar at least approach, the first manga in history. Over at the Suntory Museum in Japan, more than 100,000 people went to see the Choju-Jinbutsu-Giga Emaki (”Scrolls of Cartoons of Birds, Animals, and People”  exhibition. Many visitors came after hearing a theory that these scrolls from the 12th and 13th centuries are the first examples of manga. Nevertheless, mangaka Seiki Hosokibara found another scroll, the Shigisan Engi Emaki, as the first manga innuendo in history.

Ishida argues that “there is no connection between the traditions of Choju Giga (the scrolls above mentioned) and contemporary manga, including the domestic works we are familiar with in our daily lives and the foreign works that have increased with the growing number of manga fans worldwide.” He suggests that the scrolls sould be treated as a different section of Japanese painted art, and not to be mixed with the first traditional manga, like Astroboy.

This is a nice attempt on finding and giving answers to a lot of questions left in the old times. What could be next? Finding out that Vikings roaming through the 7 seas, making contact with the Americas before the Spanish colonization? That’s crazy-talk! 

[ANN]

Ever wondered whats the big deal with Famitsu? The Japanese gaming magazine is without a doubt the most influential of them all but many dont know why. Famitsu even gets to give good scores to a great franchise’s crappy sequels and get away with it. Its become an industry moving publication that has catapulted unknown games into stardom.

Did you know Resident Evil wasn’t selling much until Famitsu gave it a near perfect score? If you want to know more about the history of Famitsu and have a look at its first issue, head off to Kevin Gifford’s Game Set Watch column, its spiffy!

[Game Set Watch / Via Joystiq]

Corey Faller seems to have cracked one of the gaming world’s biggest secret: A coherent timeline for the Legend of Zelda games.. well sort of. The guide was written 4 years ago and since then we’ve seen important additions to the Zelda franchise (namely Wind Waker). Coery knows the guide’s not perfect.

Since we seem to be getting a huge surge of new visitors to an article that was primarily written nearly four years ago, I just wanted to make sure you all knew that… this was written nearly four years ago! While I do still agree with a number of the things I brought up in this piece, many many things have changed since then. New games, new theories. So while I’m glad that you’re all enjoying the piece, make sure to remember that it’s hardly indicative of the current state of the Zelda timeline.

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