Game of Thrones Gets a Gorgeous Upgrade in these Japanese Manga Covers

[NoShoes]

Game of Thrones Gets a Gorgeous Upgrade in these Japanese Manga Covers

This was destined to be awesome.

Thanks, Japan, for once again proving that you're still pretty much cooler than everyone else. For the manga version of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, Japanese publishing company Hayakawa commissioned artist Noriko Meguro to create covers highlighting some of the series' favorite characters. And yes, they are as awesome as you'd expect.

These covers provide an all-new glimpse into some truly beloved characters, including a few that seem to take inspiration from their onscreen counterparts and at least one that couldn't be further from his. Khaleesi is present with her dragons and shocking platinum hair, Samwell's awesome pose definitely portrays 'don't mess with me', and Jon Snow reps those crow feathers well in his Night's Watch cover. The award for most frightening cover, though, goes to Tyrion Lannister. There's something so terrifying about those big eyes...Don't mind me while I go turn on all the lights in the house.

Check out the covers below and pray to the old gods and the new that there will someday be an English version of this manga for purchase.

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Let us know which cover is your favorite. I'll just be right here, fawning over Jon Snow.

Source: Dorkly [http://nerdist.com/japanese-game-of-thrones-covers-are-manga-nificent/]

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[Sigmund Av Volsung]

These are so out there that they barely look anything like Game of Thrones.

Kudos, definitely. These could honestly fool me for an original manga series.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Tyrion looks like he belongs in fucking Akira. Eesh!

Very nice looking art, but I can hardly reconize half of them.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I kinda like them. They remind me of the character artwork from the "Disciples" games, which had this very cool Western/Japanese look combined with a very dark fantasy feeling.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Not bad, I was expecting the worse like some kind of Bishōnen artsyle! Still for the most part, the style suit it.

 

[Fox12]

What on earth did they do to John Snow and Breanne? They just look like typical JRPG protagonists.

Otherwise, excellent. I really liked Arya and Cersei, the red outfit really suited her. At least, I think that was Cersei. And anything with Arya is good. Or, as I like to call her, the only good character left.

 

[enginieri]

Otherwise, excellent. I really liked Arya and Cersei, the red outfit really suited her. At least, I think that was Cersei. And anything with Arya is good. Or, as I like to call her, the only good character left.

I'm pretty sure is Melissandre, not Cersei (dressed almost always in red, flowing fabric like flames, red gem in her neck)

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Sort of reminds me of the hyper detailed style of berserk.

Also, if I know anything about scanlators, this series will be in English about 10 minutes after it's released in japanese.

 

[Terminal Blue]

I'm pretty sure is Melissandre, not Cersei (dressed almost always in red, flowing fabric like flames, red gem in her neck)

Melisandre is described as having red hair though, whereas the Lannisters all being blonde is a big deal.

It's beautiful art, but somehow it isn't doing it for me. For some reason, the style really reminds me of that kind of kind of hyper-representational "sword and sorcery" style, whereas I always imagine A Song of Ice and Fire in very realistic terms.

 

[UberGott]

Hate to burst any bubbles, but these aren't comics; they're just the Japanese cover art for the Japanese translation of Martin's original novels. Trust me, if there was a Song of Ice and Fire manga kicking around, the scanlation community would have been on that before HBO had even inked a deal for the TV series.

Japan has quite a fondness for stylistic illustrations accompanying their fantasy literature. The Vampire Hunter D and Guin Saga novels have had sparse interior artwork to match their gorgeous covers going back as far as the early 1980s.

 

[Bat Vader]

What on earth did they do to John Snow and Breanne? They just look like typical JRPG protagonists.

That's because they are typical JRPG protagonists. DUN DUN DUUUUNN!

 

[FuzzyRaccoon]

Am I the only one that saw the Tyrion drawing and instantly thought it was a baby Sandor? Can't remember which book actually recounts what happened to him but the ruined face and the beast head in the background kinda cemented the thought. When I read that it was Tyrion I was weirded out. It looks nothing like him. Where's the stupid nose?!

 

[MANIFESTER]

Am I the only one that saw the Tyrion drawing and instantly thought it was a baby Sandor? Can't remember which book actually recounts what happened to him but the ruined face and the beast head in the background kinda cemented the thought. When I read that it was Tyrion I was weirded out. It looks nothing like him. Where's the stupid nose?!

As someone already mentioned in these comments, that is a drawing of him based off his description in the books. He isn't a handsome dwarf like in the show; he is more akin to a lab experiment gone wrong. different colored eyes, barely any hair, and the wound he got in the Battle of the Blackwater took his entire nose and scarred his face (not exact detail, but I am sure someone else can enlighten me if it suits them). The intention probably being to highlight even further how Tyrions only redeeming personal quality is his great mind.

 

[Erttheking]

Am I the only one that saw the Tyrion drawing and instantly thought it was a baby Sandor? Can't remember which book actually recounts what happened to him but the ruined face and the beast head in the background kinda cemented the thought. When I read that it was Tyrion I was weirded out. It looks nothing like him. Where's the stupid nose?!

As someone already mentioned in these comments, that is a drawing of him based off his description in the books. He isn't a handsome dwarf like in the show; he is more akin to a lab experiment gone wrong. different colored eyes, barely any hair, and the wound he got in the Battle of the Blackwater took his entire nose and scarred his face (not exact detail, but I am sure someone else can enlighten me if it suits them). The intention probably being to highlight even further how Tyrions only redeeming personal quality is his great mind.

Pretty much. Also he has trouble walking because of how small his legs are, he had to get a saddle specially designed to himself in order to ride.

 

[RandV80]

Hate to burst any bubbles, but these aren't comics; they're just the Japanese cover art for the Japanese translation of Martin's original novels. Trust me, if there was a Song of Ice and Fire manga kicking around, the scanlation community would have been on that before HBO had even inked a deal for the TV series.

This has always kind of made me wonder, but seeing as Western style fantasy is a popular theme in Japanese lite novels/manga/anime I wonder why no one's tried using an actual popular Western series as a source material for a manga? I know the Japanese like doing their own thing for their own market, and there would be lots of complications between rights holders and publishers, but still. As someone who loves fantasy novels it would be an interesting experiment.

 

[Terminal Blue]

He isn't a handsome dwarf like in the show; he is more akin to a lab experiment gone wrong. different colored eyes, barely any hair, and the wound he got in the Battle of the Blackwater took his entire nose and scarred his face (not exact detail, but I am sure someone else can enlighten me if it suits them).

The problem is that that picture doesn't look like a lab experiment gone wrong, it looks like Francis Bacon tried to draw a Pixar character.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

This has always kind of made me wonder, but seeing as Western style fantasy is a popular theme in Japanese lite novels/manga/anime I wonder why no one's tried using an actual popular Western series as a source material for a manga? I know the Japanese like doing their own thing for their own market, and there would be lots of complications between rights holders and publishers, but still. As someone who loves fantasy novels it would be an interesting experiment.

Actually there are several western creators who use things like anime and manga as reference/inspiration, although it's admittedly not many. Guillermo del Toro is probably this most notable, but there are others, especially in animation. I'd imagine it's much the same in Japan: a few creators taking inspiration from western media, but being mostly in the minority. It only seems like they do it more because only a fraction of Japanese pop culture successfully makes the cross, which usually consists primarily of things of either very high quality, popularity, novelty (which includes seeing western culture seen through the lens of an outside viewer), or some combination of all.

OT: While I think the art's great, I wouldn't have pegged it as ASoIaF.

 

[ArcaneGamer]

Tyrion looks like he belongs in fucking Akira. Eesh!

Very nice looking art, but I can hardly reconize half of them.

Quick, somebody take the story of the books and make manga adaptations of them!

 

[Queen Michael]

Cool! Now let's just wait until they do like they did with the Sherlock manga, and don't release it o9verseas even though there's a market for it! Yay!