Kung Fu High School by Ryan Gattis

Tenjo Tenge: Where the boys are bad, and the girls are badder.

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Agent_Wax
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Kung Fu High School by Ryan Gattis

Post by Agent_Wax »

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0156030 ... eader-page

This has been snapped up by a motion picture studio.


I'm speechless.
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kk1
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Post by kk1 »

BFA in creative writing, I guess "borrowing" from other writers counts as creative as long as know one else knows where you "borrow" from. Or maybe the creative part is in thinking up new names to replace the originals. Hollywood is clueless, I feel bad for Japanese artists, they're so creative and original (compared to the US anyway, this stuff may have been around for decades over there I wouldn't know) but get screwed because of the language barrier.
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Post by standa-man »

Since I'm a bit lazy to read too in depth into the book, I'm going to give the author the benefit of the doubt here.

From the description of the book I'm not seeing how this is an obvious ripoff. Sure it's the same genre as TenTen. And as a result of the fairly limited number of premises typically in the genre there will inevitably be some common plot elements. But how does this borrow from TenTen?

I mean, TenTen does not have a monopoly on the crazy powerful students fight for control of school genre. Nor was it one of the originators of the genre.

For something like Ikkitousen though that obviously 'borrowed' from TenTen (art not plot though).
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Post by MrProphet »

I'd have to agree. The idea did not originate with Tenjou Tenge, nor did it end there.

If anything, this sounds more like the updated version of "Class of 1999", but with kung-fu instead of cyborgs. But all in all, the idea is pretty much been-there-done-that and the only thing that changes is the gimmick.

I don't really think that TJTG is good because it's the most original thing ever. All shounen adventures are very similar. It's the plot, the characters and the art that make a great series, not the originality of the premise.
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Post by Agent_Wax »

From the description of the book I'm not seeing how this is an obvious ripoff. Sure it's the same genre as TenTen. And as a result of the fairly limited number of premises typically in the genre there will inevitably be some common plot elements. But how does this borrow from TenTen?

I mean, TenTen does not have a monopoly on the crazy powerful students fight for control of school genre. Nor was it one of the originators of the genre.
You know that, and I know that.

http://www.ryangattis.net/home.htm

But apparently most others are clueless.

And no, I don't find it surprising at all that there are plenty of other High School Fighting manga. Nor do I begrudge the creators or Gattis himself. But the portrayal in the media of the issue is that this is something fresh and original. Sure, if you discount the fact that the Asians, from Hong Kong to Japan to Korea, have been doing it for over a decade. The making of a motion picture will only make things worse. The roots of the genre will surely be lost in the ensuing frenzy.
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Post by standa-man »

Good point Wax. Didn't think of it that way.
It sucks when something supposedly "new" gets big in a way that overshadows its predecessors. Especially when it happens such that the predecessor is viewed as being the derivative one. Something kinda related that comes to mind is how the Fantastic Four movie was modified after The Incredibles became such a big hit because of worries that it might look like a copycat-type movie.
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