Berserk - Complete Series (1997)

Berserk is a long-running seinen manga by legendary manga-ka Kentaro Miura. It is an incredibly dark and deeply textured tale centering on two men; the black swordsman: Guts, and the leader of the Band of the Hawk: Griffith. The first volume of the manga was published on November 26, 1990 by Hakusensha in it's Jets Comics collection. 

In 1992, after the publication of three more volumes, Berserk was serialized in Young Animal. The series was adapted into a twenty-five episode series covering the series' first story arc from October 7, 1997 to March 31, 1998. 

It should be noted that Berserk, the manga, is still running and still features some of the best artwork ever created for the medium. Miura is an undisputed master and Berserk is his masterpiece. The series gets progressively more supernatural as it goes forward and fans who began the series in the nineties are still eagerly awaiting it's conclusion.

The anime series below is an excellent introduction into the Berserk universe and covers the first major story arc of the manga, The Golden Age, extremely faithfully. As good as the anime is (and it is good), the manga is better, and so if you like the show I assure you, you will need to read the series, especially since (without giving anything away) the show ends extremely abruptly and at a very insane cliffhanger that if you are anything like me, will just encourage you to read through the entirety of the manga, probably as quickly as possible.

Wicked City aka Yōjū Toshi (1987) - Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Kohei Yoshiyuki - The Park

“The Park” is a series made in the 70′s by the Japanese photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki. Crossing one night Shinjuku’s Chuo park, Kohei Yoshiyuki noticed a couple lying on the floor and, a few meters away, discretely moving closer, two men who observe the pair. He takes his camera but the darkness blurs the image. He then decides to buy Kodak infrared flashbulbs and begins an immersion into the strange world of voyeurism. “The Park” results from this experience. Lovers and spies are caught by the lens which therefore takes part to the scene. The viewers are thus exposed to the same situation. With a certain irony, Kohei Yoshiyuki chose in 1979 to exhibit the series at Tokyo’s Komai Gallery in a complete darkness distributing flashlights to the visitors. As Walker Evans or Weegee, Kohei Yoshiyuki belongs to that caste of photographers who, far away to get satisfied with a contemplative approach, equip themselves to force the moment and, in such a way, transcend the boundaries between public life and intimacy. (via)

Nakamura Hiroshi

Nakamura Hiroshi described the 1950s as a “civil-war era,” and he obviously had confrontations over the militarization of Japan in mind. He himself took both the Girard and Sunagawa incidents as subjects of his artwork, in two equally powerful but stylistically very different protest paintings. Militarization, however, was only one aspect of what Nakamura and his like-minded compatriots found disturbing and grotesque in post-occupation Japan. Commonly known as the “reportage painters” for their distinctive left-wing combination of realism and surrealism, these artists also called attention to social oppression and grievous poverty; to corruption, and the return of former militarists to high political positions; and to the “inhumane mechanism” of postwar society in general. (via)

Chiharu Shiota - Installation

Suehiro Maruo - Tokyo Apocalypse and Dessins (from Maruograph EX)