Kogaratsu
Encyclopedia
Kogaratsu is a comics
series created by the Belgian
comics creators
Bosse (pseudonym of Serge Bosmans) and Michetz (pseudonym of Marc Degroide). It was first published in Robbedoes magazine, known as Spirou
in English, in 1982. The success of the series, written by Bosse and illustrated by Michetz, inspired then illustrator and script writer Bosse to give up illustrating in order to focus solely at script writing.
in the service of somebody, or ronin
without a master, caught in a fratricidal war, and confronted with superstitious farmers, Kogaratsu lives the way of the samurai: his honour, his weapons, and his love are the things dearest to him, in that exact order. And in the tumultuous Japan of the 17th century, honour is the small margin between life and death, wielding a weapon is a calling and love is a weakness.
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
series created by the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
comics creators
Comic book creator
A comic book creator is someone who creates a comic book or graphic novel.The production of a comic book by one of the major comic book companies in the U.S...
Bosse (pseudonym of Serge Bosmans) and Michetz (pseudonym of Marc Degroide). It was first published in Robbedoes magazine, known as Spirou
Spirou (magazine)
Spirou magazine is a weekly Belgian comics magazine published by the Dupuis company...
in English, in 1982. The success of the series, written by Bosse and illustrated by Michetz, inspired then illustrator and script writer Bosse to give up illustrating in order to focus solely at script writing.
The comics series
Kogaratsu is about a mercenary named Nakamura Kogaratsu. SamuraiSamurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
in the service of somebody, or ronin
Ronin
A or rounin was a Bushi with no lord or master during the feudal period of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege....
without a master, caught in a fratricidal war, and confronted with superstitious farmers, Kogaratsu lives the way of the samurai: his honour, his weapons, and his love are the things dearest to him, in that exact order. And in the tumultuous Japan of the 17th century, honour is the small margin between life and death, wielding a weapon is a calling and love is a weakness.