Renowned manga artist Inoue Takehiko ( Slam Dunk, Vagabond ) is doing his part in support of the quake rescue efforts, churning out a series of inspirational “smile” sketches to cheer the country on in these trying times. I believe these speed drawings were created on an Ipad/Iphone application called Zen Brush.
The words appearing on the basketball jerseys, which normally would have been the player’s name, are actually names of prefectures in Japan, many of which were badly hit by the earthquake and tsunami, notably Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate.
With the death toll now numbering more than a 1000 and climbing, Japan now faces yet more challenges, including threats of meltdowns at several nuclear plants in Fukushima, and a growing scarcity of electricity, food and water in affected areas.
In my previous post Japan Earthquake : How You Can Help I’ve included a list of disaster aid relief organizations you can contribute to, please do whatever you can to help.
For more sketches from Inoue-san’s twitpic stream, go here.
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March 14th, 2011 at 7:13 am
INOUE-san is amazing…
March 14th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
Such a big heart, he kept drawing the smiles since his first tweet after the quake. I was more than relieved to know he and a bunch of my other favorite artists are alive.
March 16th, 2011 at 2:34 am
there is something different and wonderful about the Japanese spirit. not to make a blanket statement about an entire country, but there always seems to be something so positive about the way they look at things. even watching the news, it’s always the American or foreigner talking about how horrible their experience was and how glad they are to be on their way home. when the people from that area are interviewed it is a much different scene, and a much less pessimistic atmosphere. i can’t imagine what they’re going through, and i was thinking of trying to stay over there and help if i can in the next few months.
April 7th, 2011 at 1:53 am
Oh my, what an inspiring work! Such an increidble artist Mr. Inoue is.
April 15th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
good job for your manga..i like the way you color it using photoshop brush..it gives great feelings and emotions on your manga.
August 3rd, 2011 at 8:43 pm
The thing about those artworks is, I could stare at them all day and still not quite figure out how to draw like that. I guess it’s just a gift. Awesome artwork from Mr Inoue Takehiko, anyway 🙂
PS.- I agree with Zack’s take on the Japanese spirit. The way that country pulls together in the face of disaster is inspirational for the rest of us.
August 11th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
“there is something different and wonderful about the Japanese spirit. not to make a blanket statement about an entire country, ”
I think any natural disaster has that effect on people, unfortunately for Japan the disaster there was of huge proportions not helped by the mis managemnet of the resulting nuclear crisis. lets hope that Japan and the people there can get back on course and recover from this.
August 14th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
It must be great to have that sort of artistic talent. Those are superb pictures.