What's with Shin's nazi eye-patch?

[PorkRobinson]

Totally. What the hell is that all about? Is nazi stuff stylish or something in japan? Cause I dont' really understand what it's doing on Shin's eye-patch since this manga has nothing to do with Germany or nazis.

[standa-man]

The swastika is not only a Nazi symbol.

Actually it's an ancient symbol often associated with life and good luck. Currently Buddhists and Hindus both use the symbol, which sometimes causes confusion and misdirected hate.

Because of the huge effect Hitler and the Nazi's had on the world most people only associate the swastika with Nazis.

The swastika actually appeared in both clockwise and counterclockwise forms in the past. Sometimes they would have the same meaning but other cultures would have opposite meanings for the 2 orientations. But nowadays people tend to associate the clockwise swastika with the Nazis (that's what they used). Then the counterclockwise swastika holds the older positive meaning.

Shin's is counter-clockwise by the way. For another example of the swastika in manga look at Blade of the Immortal. Actually, the whole swastika thing is addressed in the notes for that manga.

Speaking of which, does anyone know if there are instances of the US version of Blade of the Immortal having flipped swastikas because of art flipping?

Oh yah, so, if it isn't already clear, Shin's eyepatch is probably the non-Nazi version. Maybe he's Buddhist?

[hitori]

Actually, Shin's swastica goes BOTH ways.
Throughout the next few chapters, it switches from clockwise to counter clockwise and back.
Look for it.

I don't know if he does this on purpose, but Oh!Great is very very well known for the plethora of inconsistencies in his works.

Couple clear examples off the top of my head are in Fight 2 (chapter 2) of Tenjo Tenge Book 1.
In page 51, the bento Aya made for Nagi is in an oval container.
That same bento changes to square in page 83.
The funny thing is, the contents of the bento are the same; just the shape of the container has changed.

Another one is in page 59.
Masataka blocks Nagi's punch with a chopstick in his right hand.
The next page, it's somehow in the left hand.

[standa-man]

heh, interesting. Someone else mentioned several inconsistencies or "image typos" before too.

Well, I only checked one page to see which way the swastika (also called crux gammata, and in japanese manji) goes. Guess Oh! Great should hire a continuity checker or whatever like they have in Hollywood movies.

I usually miss all those small details anyways as long as they don't detract from the story or integrity of things.

[The_Shape]

Nazi? We hear something new every day...

Anyway, yeah, Great's art is all over the place. He certainly doesn't pay much attention to what he's doing. I guess he's in such a rush that he doesn't bother to check the continuity. The chopstick punch was a nasty mistake.

[Emlan^_^]

aye...bad bad mistake : /

maby he draws and flips the panels if the it looks odd/bad ?

......

on the other hand, I dont think you can do that on paper XP

[Shin]

A lot and a lot of manga
have the nazi on there pages ..
Like:
One Piece
I'll
Spriggan

[FuguTabetai]

A lot and a lot of manga
have the nazi on there pages ..

As explained above, it is a Buddhist symbol. It has nothing to do with the Nazis in this context.

[standa-man]

aye...bad bad mistake : /

maby he draws and flips the panels if the it looks odd/bad ?

......

on the other hand, I dont think you can do that on paper XP

I'm sure they could do that pre printing ...

But page filpping wouldn't explain the swastikas flipping around though. Then Shin's eyepatch would be changing eyes too. Now that would be a really glaring error.

[Rain_Cassidy]

Shin should put the Millennium Eye symbol on his eyepatch. Then there would be yet another character he resembles.

Now, is his name Pegasus Crawford or Maximillion Pegasus??

[profbobo]

Speaking of which, does anyone know if there are instances of the US version of Blade of the Immortal having flipped swastikas because of art flipping?

I don't think anyone addressed this

Blade of the Immortal is pretty special, in that the pages are cut up and rearranged on the page, to preserve Samura's artwork. Panels only get flipped when there's no way around this.

[Rain_Cassidy]

Blade of the Immortal is pretty special, in that the pages are cut up and rearranged on the page, to preserve Samura's artwork. Panels only get flipped when there's no way around this.

This leads me to believe that BotI is actually more popular in the USA than in Japan, which is a straaaaange phenomenon.
The publisher should just publish Samura's books from right to left, and save itself a lot of work and save Samura any more artistic compromise. There are already translated mangas that do this.

[Rosi-chan]

The swastika is not only a Nazi symbol.

Actually it's an ancient symbol often associated with life and good luck. Currently Buddhists and Hindus both use the symbol, which sometimes causes confusion and misdirected hate.

Because of the huge effect Hitler and the Nazi's had on the world most people only associate the swastika with Nazis.

The swastika actually appeared in both clockwise and counterclockwise forms in the past. Sometimes they would have the same meaning but other cultures would have opposite meanings for the 2 orientations. But nowadays people tend to associate the clockwise swastika with the Nazis (that's what they used). Then the counterclockwise swastika holds the older positive meaning.

That's right. I knew that it was a very ancient sign (Hindu i think)symbolizing the sun and therefore eternity, and it could be orientated in both ways. But unfortunately the nazi symbol had superimposedd its original meaning so that nowadays people feel bad every time they see it.
Moreover, most nazi hierarchs where influenced by esoterism and they probably adopted this symbol from those doctrines.

[Shezy]

The swastika is an ancient symbol of good and benevolence used in all the Indic Traditions (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism); this is because all these religions share a common ancestry in the Vedic religion. The cartwheel symbol can be depicted with three dots above it, horizontally, representing the path to enlightenment (right view, right knowledge, and right conduct). Above the three dots would usually be a curved line with another dot above it, representing moksa (enlightenment). The cartwheel itself represents the four realms with the centre being samara (the human experience).

The whole headache with the Aryans and everything came about because of the link found between the various languages. It was (rightly) hypothesized that the languages once had a common root -- and so the races once had a common root. The link itself was the sacred Vedic texts that had been kept secret from outside eyes for centuries. The texts spoke of "Aryans" (those of noble conduct) and this was (falsely) thought to represent a race. The Aryans were, in fact, a title for the ruling class in the Vedic texts.

Hitler took this new found knowledge and used it for his own purposes... Perhaps he even believed in the "Aryan" theory. But, anywho, that's basically the background of the swastika.

[blackkenshi]

Did you guys know that Hitler could have been killed in his youth. He was involved in a shootout somewhere in Poland or somewhere before he even became the leader of the nazi party. He used to be some errand boy or sumthin.I forgot where the shootout took place but anyway I wonder what history would be like if he died there. But this post doesn't really have anything to do with the subject does it?

[standa-man]

Speaking of swastikas, I saw in USA Today on Thursday that Coca Cola got some flak for recently releasing a promotional toy robot in Hong Kong with swastikas on it.
I couldn't tell from the article if using the swastika was intentional or not though. To me though, it could have been totally legit since the promotion is in Asia where it's more likely that people will know the non-Nazi meaning of the swastika.