Mohiro Kitoh

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Mohiro Kitoh

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Postby El Squibbonator » Mon Apr 07, 2014 12:38 pm

I can't believe this guy doesn't have his own thread yet. It's not TOTALLY off-topic, since he did do some Evangelion work (namely, designing the skeleton-dragon Angel for the second movie), but he's a lot better known for his own manga and anime. Which, incidentally, are very similarly to Evangelion in their tone and themes. The two best known ones are:
Bokurano--Kitoh's own "emotionally unstable teenagers piloting giant mechs" manga. 15 kids wander into a cave and meet a strange man who invites them to play a game where they defend Earth from evil aliens using a giant robot. The catch is
SPOILER: Show
the robot runs on the life energy of its operator, who dies after using it. And the robot fights? Essentially an alien game show where the losers get their planet destroyed.

Narutaru-- On the surface, it looks like another one of those Poké/Digi/Chinpokomon-type shows that were everywhere in the early 2000s. That's exactly what the author wants you to think. It's actually one of the most graphic, disturbing, and violent manga imaginable.

On the plus side, Kitoh has a love of aviation to rival Miyazaki, and his artwork is downright excellent. Have any of you read his works? If so, what did you think of them?
Last edited by El Squibbonator on Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Mr. Tines » Mon Apr 07, 2014 2:09 pm

Oh, yes! I even helped with the editing of some of the later chapters, when it otherwise looked like Narutaru would never get a complete translation.

Kitoh's works turn up in conversation from time to time. Search the site for the titles and you'll find some gems, like

View Original PostXard wrote:NARUTARU IS FUCKED UP

like, Evangelion/Elfen Lied/Now and Then Here and There level fucked up.
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Postby Bagheera » Mon Apr 07, 2014 2:52 pm

View Original PostMr. Tines wrote:Oh, yes! I even helped with the editing of some of the later chapters, when it otherwise looked like Narutaru would never get a complete translation.

Kitoh's works turn up in conversation from time to time. Search the site for the titles and you'll find some gems, like



Eva's out of place there. It's not even in the same league, really.
For my post-3I fic, go here.
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Postby Xard » Mon Apr 07, 2014 3:02 pm

Uhhh, why? Eva is definetly more disturbing than Elfen Lied and NTHT and about on par with Narutaru if you ask me.

Which is great manga. One of my favourites. I've never read Bokurano though. Not surprisingly Anno likes Bokurano which probably explains why he hired Kitoh as designer for 2.0

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Postby Bagheera » Mon Apr 07, 2014 3:34 pm

View Original PostXard wrote:Uhhh, why? Eva is definetly more disturbing than Elfen Lied and NTHT and about on par with Narutaru if you ask me.


Nope. Those all involve healthy amounts of rape and murder, and Eva doesn't even approach dealing with stuff on that level. The closest it gets are 22, 23, and parts of EoE, but even there we don't see humans visiting violation and violence on children as a matter of course. Psychologically, yes, it's there, but it's just not the same.

Which is great manga. One of my favourites. I've never read Bokurano though. Not surprisingly Anno likes Bokurano which probably explains why he hired Kitoh as designer for 2.0


I like all three of the cited examples a lot. Gotta go with the manga in the cases of EL and Narutaru, though.
For my post-3I fic, go here.
The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. -- Akane Tsunemori, Psycho-Pass
People's deaths are to be mourned. The ability to save people should be celebrated. Life itself should be exalted. -- Volken Macmani, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra
I hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion
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Postby Xard » Mon Apr 07, 2014 3:37 pm

View Original PostBagheera wrote:Nope. Those all involve healthy amounts of rape and murder


If this determined disturbiveness of the work on its own Mad Bull 34 or Angel Cop would be far more disturbing than any of these...



We've had earlier (shoooort lived) thread for Bokurano here, by the way.

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Postby Bagheera » Mon Apr 07, 2014 4:21 pm

View Original PostXard wrote:If this determined disturbiveness of the work on its own Mad Bull 34 or Angel Cop would be far more disturbing than any of these...


On their own, no, but in context, yes. It's mostly because it's kids doing it to other kids in all cases, and because it's handled seriously and credibly every time. Eva's a psychological treatise; Anno only torments his characters when he wants to reveal something about them, and no violation or calamity is permanent. Even at the end of EoE literally everyone can come back, quite possibly as much better people than they were before. Compare that to Norio's fate in Narutaru, or even Aki's (deserved as it might be). I'm hard pressed to see how anything could be more disturbing than either of those.
For my post-3I fic, go here.
The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. -- Akane Tsunemori, Psycho-Pass
People's deaths are to be mourned. The ability to save people should be celebrated. Life itself should be exalted. -- Volken Macmani, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra
I hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Yes, I know. You thought it would be something about Asuka. You're such idiots.

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Postby El Squibbonator » Mon Apr 07, 2014 4:49 pm

I've read Narutaru and I'm partway through Bokurano. I don't want to be spoiled about how Bokurano ends, but after seeing how Narutaru ended, I'm not hopeful. Remember the "Coon and Friends Trilogy" of South Park? The one where Cartman manages to control Cthulhu and uses him to wipe out hippies, gingers, Jews, and Justin Bieber? That's basically how Narutaru ends.
Life can seem a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It's never easy when so much is on the line.


Do you like Eva? Do you like Pokemon? Then check out Neon Genesis Evangelemon-- You Can (Not) Catch 'Em All thread/16052/Neon-Genesis-Evangelemon/

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Postby Mr. Tines » Mon Apr 07, 2014 5:01 pm

On the other hand, there's no sudden "choke a bitch" in the final scene on the beach in Narutaru.
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Postby Bagheera » Mon Apr 07, 2014 5:17 pm

View Original PostMr. Tines wrote:On the other hand, there's no sudden "choke a bitch" in the final scene on the beach in Narutaru.


Yeah, because what we got was worse. At least with Eva everyone can come back. Even if you're right about absolutely everything Eva's ending it still worlds more positive than Narutaru's.
For my post-3I fic, go here.
The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. -- Akane Tsunemori, Psycho-Pass
People's deaths are to be mourned. The ability to save people should be celebrated. Life itself should be exalted. -- Volken Macmani, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra
I hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Yes, I know. You thought it would be something about Asuka. You're such idiots.

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Postby Rodeo » Wed Apr 09, 2014 8:10 pm

I read part of Bokurano a few years back and it didn't really work for me. I mean the world was so shitty that it got ridiculous, it wasn't even depressing, it was pure nihilism. After a while I just couldn't give a damn anymore.
That's how I remember it anyway.

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Postby Mr. Tines » Thu Apr 10, 2014 1:26 am

Not sure what you mean there. It's just normal Japan, where we follow some troubled kids. The apocalyptic super-robot thing is just there to enable things.
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Postby Monk Ed » Thu Apr 10, 2014 2:10 am

View Original PostBagheera wrote:Even at the end of EoE literally everyone can come back, quite possibly as much better people than they were before. Compare that to Norio's fate in Narutaru, or even Aki's (deserved as it might be). I'm hard pressed to see how anything could be more disturbing than either of those.

A lot of people don't share our view of the ending, obviously, so in the aggregate I think it makes sense that Eva would be placed among the ranks of "disturbing" series.

It's like the Beatles song Revolution. I once saw a snippet of an interview of McCartney expressing his frustration of the frequent misuse of that song. "It's not about a revolution, it's anti-revolutionary," I vaguely remember him saying (and I'm probably heavily paraphrasing). And yet the misuse of the song continues.

Point being, even in far less ambiguous cases there can be a public perception vastly at odds with what those who have at least examined the details come away thinking, so it's no surprise that with something as much less straightforward as EoE's ending there would be the same.
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Postby Bagheera » Thu Apr 10, 2014 3:25 am

^That's true, but Tines and Xard are hardly among that group.
For my post-3I fic, go here.
The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. -- Akane Tsunemori, Psycho-Pass
People's deaths are to be mourned. The ability to save people should be celebrated. Life itself should be exalted. -- Volken Macmani, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra
I hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Yes, I know. You thought it would be something about Asuka. You're such idiots.

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Postby Mr. Tines » Thu Apr 10, 2014 4:18 pm

There's a world of difference between something being fucked up and being disturbing. It's the difference between recognising that someone is disturbed and being disturbed by them.
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Postby El Squibbonator » Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:56 pm

Your point being?
In any case, Mr. Kitoh is apparently working on another manga right now. It's about mountain biking. It's . . . pretty much G-rated.
Life can seem a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It's never easy when so much is on the line.


Do you like Eva? Do you like Pokemon? Then check out Neon Genesis Evangelemon-- You Can (Not) Catch 'Em All thread/16052/Neon-Genesis-Evangelemon/

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Postby H-MangaEnthusiast » Thu Apr 17, 2014 11:00 am

Aw, this just reminded me of his Nanika I used to follow... *checks the progress on some sites*

Sigh, 2 years and we're still on 18th chapter. It seems that translators just dropped it.

---

I did like Bokurano a lot, both manga and anime.

SPOILER: Show
And I'd argue that sadness of Narutaru transcends the one of all of his other works (not sure if this is a spoiler or not), but I also find in inferior in some departments.


Narutaru anime was pretty wasteful. But I bought the box set anyway and got a nice tee. :D
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Postby El Squibbonator » Fri May 09, 2014 9:26 pm

Nanika? What was that one about?
Life can seem a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It's never easy when so much is on the line.


Do you like Eva? Do you like Pokemon? Then check out Neon Genesis Evangelemon-- You Can (Not) Catch 'Em All thread/16052/Neon-Genesis-Evangelemon/

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The Works of Mohiro Kitoh

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Postby El Squibbonator » Thu Apr 23, 2015 9:48 pm

I don't know if I've talked about this here before, but I am seriously fascinated by Mohiro Kitoh. If you don't know who he is, he's a manga author who has a fondness for writing stories that look like they're for kids at first glance, but turn out to be anything but. Stories sort of like Eva, in other words. He also has a very unique drawing style--his human characters tend to be tall and slender, and he draws very detailed vehicles, especially airplanes. Some of the things he's written include. . .

Bokurano-- his most famous work. 15 kids pilot a giant robot to save the world. The catch is that the robot runs on the pilot's life energy, and in every battle, the loser gets their planet dimension UNIVERSE destroyed. Made into a anime with a very different ending from the manga.

Narutaru--Came out in 1998, back when Pokemon was white-hot. Takes that franchise's basic kid-meets-cute-monster-and-goes-on-fantastic-journey narrative and graphically mutilates it. Adapted into a anime, but that stopped halfway through the story, presumably because the animators freaked out at what they would have to draw.

Owari to Hajimari no Miles-- This is (or rather was, it's on hiatus) a cool fantasy series set in an airborne world where every object has its own spirit. The heroine, Miles, is the only person who can communicate with these spirits. It almost looks like a Miyazaki movie, but once again it is not for the kiddies.

Wings of Vendemiaire-- A steampunk-style two-volume manga about a series of robots (that look like teenage girls, natch) called Vendemiaires. The story tells how they treat, and are treated by, humans; there is also a very strong flight motif.

Hallucinations from the Womb--a collection of short sci-fi stories in a "half-fantsy, half-futuristic city" detailing the lives of its inhabitants and how they have become corrupted in various ways. Each story takes the form of a police procedural.

Ekrano--a oneshot about two people in ekranoplans (look it up, it's a sort of half-airplane, half-hovercraft thing) fighting creatures called "Kujirani". Actually feels like the first chapter of a longer story that wasn't completed.

SiNNa 1905/ Tumikorot: A Record of A War-- Probably his most obscure work. Apparently this one was published online in 1998 (an early webcomic, in other words). It's a short story about a civil war in an alternate Japan fought with odd-looking mechs, and it has really bad CGI illustrations.

Nanika Mochigatte Masuka-- A sort of "Carrie"-type story about a teenager with psychic powers who's tricked by his classmate into using them for his own evil purposes. Not as good as Bokurano or Narutaru, but still worth a read.

Norririn--A manga about mountain biking. Seriously. It's pretty much G-rated.

He also did the character design for the Third Angel in the second Rebuild movie (you know, the one we call Tunniel). So, have you guys read anything by him?
Last edited by El Squibbonator on Thu Feb 25, 2016 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Life can seem a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It's never easy when so much is on the line.


Do you like Eva? Do you like Pokemon? Then check out Neon Genesis Evangelemon-- You Can (Not) Catch 'Em All thread/16052/Neon-Genesis-Evangelemon/

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Postby Shoujo Kakumei Asuka » Thu Apr 23, 2015 11:19 pm

His works have an unfortunate habit of the anime adaptations being botched. I've read the manga for both Bokurano and Narutaru, and while I tried watching the adaptation of Narutaru, I couldn't make it. His works are pretty great from what I've seen, and I can understand the comparisons to Eva.

Narutaru  SPOILER: Show
Did you think that the ending of Narutaru was similar to that of EoE? It seemed slightly rushed, but I ended up liking it quite a bit anyway. It's interesting how by the end Shiina ended up being just as messed up as everyone else.
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