Gon (manga)
Encyclopedia
Gon is a tiny fictional
dinosaur
and the title character of a Japan
ese manga
series created by Masashi Tanaka
. The Gon series features the completely wordless adventures of the irascible title character as he interacts with the natural world, depicted by Tanaka in lush, realistic detail. Gon somehow survived the extinction of his fellow dinosaurs and interacts with paleolithic
animals.
In 1998, the manga received an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival
.
with an enormous appetite. He possesses enormous power and endurance for his size, his feats of strength including supporting his own weight with his jaws, to being able to partially lift a fully grown African Elephant. His scaly hide is almost impenetrable, being able to shrug off the bites of larger predators.
Gon's intelligence seems to fluctuate in each adventure, ranging from total cluelessness (such as failing to notice a bird nest on his head for weeks), to strategic cunning (using a lion as a beast of burden to capture prey).
In Tekken 3
, Gon is fireproof, has the ability to spit fireballs and use toxic fart
s. He vocalizes in chirps and shrieks, reminiscent of raccoon
s and parrot
s.
(Gon's creator) has said, "This work contains no dialog or onomatopoetic words. People always ask me why I have done this. From the beginning, I didn't think it was necessary. Manga should be without grammar
. I also think that it is strange to give animals human language and make them talk. What I set out to do with Gon was to draw something that was more interesting than anything you could say in words. Manga still has great potential that does not exist in other media. I plan to continue developing the art of expression."
Gon's adventures are usually comedic with environmental connotations. There is very little continuity within the series, with Gon appearing in different countries and interacting with their respective fauna in almost every issue. He is often portrayed as being a short-tempered yet good-hearted creature, offering his help to the various animal friends he encounters in each issue.
The English
edition of the manga was originally published by Manderin Publishing (UK, 1994) and Paradox Press
(USA, 1996).
Manderin Publishing
Paradox Press
CMX, a subset of DC Comics, finished publishing a seven volume series of Gon graphic novels in January 2009. Unlike the Paradox Press versions which were reversed for western readers, these novels are reproduced in their original right to left format. CMX had closed their doors in early 2010. Kodansha Comics USA will reprint the series in summer 2011.
game of the same name. It is a platformer game that relies on passwords than a save system. Gon goes to different types of ecosystems and fights off animals. Gon has three attacks tail whip, a head butt, or a chomp.
Gon is a licensed character appearing in Tekken 3
. He is unlockable by defeating him in the Tekken Ball mode or by achieving a high score in Survival mode and inputing the name "GON". He is one of the two special hidden playable characters, along with Doctor Boskonovitch. It is unknown if Gon's appearance in Tekken 3 is canon
or not. His appearance seems purely ornamental, considering no motive is given for him participating in the third King of Iron Fist Tournament. Gon's ending is the only ending in Tekken 3 that goes in a continuous loop. Gon's alternate costume for this game shows him with a turtle shell and blue gloves (the turtle shell being a reference to the time when Gon decided to wear a turtle shell that he found). Gon is the only character in Tekken 3 who is barely affected by True Ogre's fire blast. It only does 1 damage point to Gon and only flinches him as opposed to stunning him like all of the other characters in the game.
has announced that Moto Sakakibara, co-director of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
, will direct a theatrical CG Animation
based on the Gon manga. The movie was due for release in 2009.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
and the title character of a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series created by Masashi Tanaka
Masashi Tanaka
Masashi Tanaka is a Japanese manga artist best known for Gon, his silent manga starring a miniature dinosaur. He began publishing Gon in 1991. He later worked on the game Street Fighter EX.-External links:...
. The Gon series features the completely wordless adventures of the irascible title character as he interacts with the natural world, depicted by Tanaka in lush, realistic detail. Gon somehow survived the extinction of his fellow dinosaurs and interacts with paleolithic
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
animals.
In 1998, the manga received an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival
Japan Media Arts Festival
The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs since 1997. The festival for a nominal year was usually held during February or March next year, rather than at the end of the nominal year. For instance, the 2010 Japan Media Arts Festival, where...
.
Characteristics
Gon's exact saurian species is never delved into. He vaguely resembles an outdated depiction of a generic carnosaur in a tripod stance, only about the size of a small dog. He is an omnivoreOmnivore
Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source...
with an enormous appetite. He possesses enormous power and endurance for his size, his feats of strength including supporting his own weight with his jaws, to being able to partially lift a fully grown African Elephant. His scaly hide is almost impenetrable, being able to shrug off the bites of larger predators.
Gon's intelligence seems to fluctuate in each adventure, ranging from total cluelessness (such as failing to notice a bird nest on his head for weeks), to strategic cunning (using a lion as a beast of burden to capture prey).
In Tekken 3
Tekken 3
Tekken 3 is the third installment in the popular Tekken fighting game series. It was released for Arcades in March 1997, and for the PlayStation in mid-1998. The original Arcade version of the game was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 as part of Tekken 5s Arcade History mode...
, Gon is fireproof, has the ability to spit fireballs and use toxic fart
Flatulence
Flatulence is the expulsion through the rectum of a mixture of gases that are byproducts of the digestion process of mammals and other animals. The medical term for the mixture of gases is flatus, informally known as a fart, or simply gas...
s. He vocalizes in chirps and shrieks, reminiscent of raccoon
Raccoon
Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...
s and parrot
Parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
s.
Manga history
Masashi TanakaMasashi Tanaka
Masashi Tanaka is a Japanese manga artist best known for Gon, his silent manga starring a miniature dinosaur. He began publishing Gon in 1991. He later worked on the game Street Fighter EX.-External links:...
(Gon's creator) has said, "This work contains no dialog or onomatopoetic words. People always ask me why I have done this. From the beginning, I didn't think it was necessary. Manga should be without grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
. I also think that it is strange to give animals human language and make them talk. What I set out to do with Gon was to draw something that was more interesting than anything you could say in words. Manga still has great potential that does not exist in other media. I plan to continue developing the art of expression."
Gon's adventures are usually comedic with environmental connotations. There is very little continuity within the series, with Gon appearing in different countries and interacting with their respective fauna in almost every issue. He is often portrayed as being a short-tempered yet good-hearted creature, offering his help to the various animal friends he encounters in each issue.
The English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
edition of the manga was originally published by Manderin Publishing (UK, 1994) and Paradox Press
Paradox Press
Paradox Press was a division of DC Comics formed in 1993 after editor Mark Nevelow departed from Piranha Press. Under the initial editorship of Andrew Helfer and Bronwyn Carlton the imprint was renamed. It is best known for graphic novels like A History of Violence and Road to Perdition...
(USA, 1996).
Manderin Publishing
- Gon: ISBN 0749396857
Paradox Press
- Going, Going...Gon: ISBN 1563892995
- Gon: ISBN 1563897490
- Gon Again!: ISBN 1563892979
- Gon Color Spectacular: ISBN 1563893819
- Gon on Safari: ISBN 1563896699
- Gon Swimmin′ : ISBN 1563893800
- Gon Underground: ISBN 1563895919
- Gon Wild!: ISBN 1563894742
- Here Today, Gon Tomorrow: ISBN 1563892987
CMX, a subset of DC Comics, finished publishing a seven volume series of Gon graphic novels in January 2009. Unlike the Paradox Press versions which were reversed for western readers, these novels are reproduced in their original right to left format. CMX had closed their doors in early 2010. Kodansha Comics USA will reprint the series in summer 2011.
Video game history
Gon made his first video game appearance in the SNESSuper Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
game of the same name. It is a platformer game that relies on passwords than a save system. Gon goes to different types of ecosystems and fights off animals. Gon has three attacks tail whip, a head butt, or a chomp.
Gon is a licensed character appearing in Tekken 3
Tekken 3
Tekken 3 is the third installment in the popular Tekken fighting game series. It was released for Arcades in March 1997, and for the PlayStation in mid-1998. The original Arcade version of the game was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 as part of Tekken 5s Arcade History mode...
. He is unlockable by defeating him in the Tekken Ball mode or by achieving a high score in Survival mode and inputing the name "GON". He is one of the two special hidden playable characters, along with Doctor Boskonovitch. It is unknown if Gon's appearance in Tekken 3 is canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
or not. His appearance seems purely ornamental, considering no motive is given for him participating in the third King of Iron Fist Tournament. Gon's ending is the only ending in Tekken 3 that goes in a continuous loop. Gon's alternate costume for this game shows him with a turtle shell and blue gloves (the turtle shell being a reference to the time when Gon decided to wear a turtle shell that he found). Gon is the only character in Tekken 3 who is barely affected by True Ogre's fire blast. It only does 1 damage point to Gon and only flinches him as opposed to stunning him like all of the other characters in the game.
Theatrical Movie Release
Sprite Animation StudiosSprite Animation Studios
Sprite Animation Studios is a Los Angeles, CA-based CGI animation studio founded in 2002 by former members of Square USA led by Moto Sakakibara, co-director of Square Pictures and Columbia Pictures’ feature film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within...
has announced that Moto Sakakibara, co-director of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a 2001 Japanese-American computer animated science fiction film directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series of role-playing video games. It was the first photorealistic computer animated feature film and also holds the record for the most...
, will direct a theatrical CG Animation
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
based on the Gon manga. The movie was due for release in 2009.