About Ika Takozushi

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The origin of The Legend Of Ika Takozushi

In 1997, while working to create the website 'Otakuworld.com', I became facinated with the origins of anime and manga; both of which derived from the work of street performers in 1930's Japan.

Called Kamishibai, or "paper-picture-drama", adventures were performed using hand-drawn picture cards displayed in a kind of wooden 'television'.

These early kamishibai stories laid the foundations of all manga and anime, and the artists of these stories went on to become the first manga writers, the most famous of which was Osamu Tezuka, the 'god of manga'.

I envisioned a windows program that could replicate the experience I had become facinated with, and Stephen and I created it that year. The Kamishibai player allowed both viewing stories as well as making new ones to share with others.

The first story created, designed to ship with the program, to act as both inspiration and guide to users was "The Legend Of Ika Takozushi". I came up with the characters and then Stephen wrote a brilliant script, which I promptly illustrated. It has always been my favorite, and one that I felt deserved an even bigger treatment.

The anthropomorphic story of an Enlightened samurai half-breed 'squidopus' and his loyal pig disciple began with the animated raising of a Noh curtain upon a scene that would soon become a battleground.

The otherworldly, almost monk-like character of Ika Takozushi distantly references David Carradines' performance in the Bruce Lee scripted movie Circle Of Iron.

Ton Katsu, Ika's loyal follower, was vaguely based on the character Sancho Panza from Cervantes' Don Quixote; one of my favorite books. Stephen did a masterful job of taking my suggested archetypes and making them their own person, unique to themselves.

You can Download the original Kamishibai Player with the original Takozushi story!

Just click on the image of the program to the left of this text to jump to Otakuworld.com for the free download!

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