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Saber Tiger
Published by Viz Comics May, 1991. $12.95 cover price. 80 pages. Black and White. Manga in English. Softcover Manga Graphic Novel. Story and art by Yukinobu Hoshino. "Explore strange worlds with prehistory and mystical elements as seen through the eyes of science fiction."
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
14 people want to read
About the author
Yukinobu Hoshino
203 books27 followersYukinobu Hoshino (in Japanese, 星野之宣) is a Japanese manga artist. In 1975, after dropping out of Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, he debuted with Kotetsu no Queen (鋼鉄のクイーン). In the same year, he won the Tezuka prize for an outstanding manga with Harukanaru Asa (はるかなる朝).
He is known for using the gekiga style to create detailed and serious science fiction stories based on American and European SF novels but creating a completely different storyline. He had also drawn various works based on ancient and pre-historic histories. Amongst other things, he is known for his graphic novel series, 2001 Nights (2001夜物語).
His work is acknowledged by the British Museum and was on display during 5 November 2009 to 3 January 2010.
He is known for using the gekiga style to create detailed and serious science fiction stories based on American and European SF novels but creating a completely different storyline. He had also drawn various works based on ancient and pre-historic histories. Amongst other things, he is known for his graphic novel series, 2001 Nights (2001夜物語).
His work is acknowledged by the British Museum and was on display during 5 November 2009 to 3 January 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 31, 2021
Very goofy (time is a spiral because DNA woooo), but at least it has ideas.
February 1, 2009
Being a fan of 2001 nights, I found no problem enjoying this forgotten collection of two early hard science fiction stories. I'm glad I picked this up when I came across last year. I had a few problems getting into the 2nd story, but the 1st story is a great version of a classic sci-fi theme.
October 14, 2020
Dos buenas historias de ciencia ficción en la línea Bradbury.
El primero el choque entre eras donde un grupo de humanos es enviado a la prehistoria a corregir cierta anomalía temporal.
El segundo, otro grupo de exploradores espaciales llegan a un planeta desconocido muy similar a la tierra con el fin de evaluar su habitabilidad para la humanidad.
El dibujo es muy bueno, es un gran testigo del manga de género de los ochentas.
El primero el choque entre eras donde un grupo de humanos es enviado a la prehistoria a corregir cierta anomalía temporal.
El segundo, otro grupo de exploradores espaciales llegan a un planeta desconocido muy similar a la tierra con el fin de evaluar su habitabilidad para la humanidad.
El dibujo es muy bueno, es un gran testigo del manga de género de los ochentas.
November 22, 2024
Scifi manga extraordinaire Yokinobu Hoshinos work is always compelling, especially for fans of hard scifi. It features two short stories, which your enjoyment of may vary. Personally, the 2nd short story was much better, as it was more fleshed out.
Amazing art too! Viz really knocked it out of the park presentation wise, as the viz spectrum editions were gorgeous books. I wish they'd continued these, but they stopped after 3 releases back in 1990-91.
Amazing art too! Viz really knocked it out of the park presentation wise, as the viz spectrum editions were gorgeous books. I wish they'd continued these, but they stopped after 3 releases back in 1990-91.
December 31, 2013
Saber Tiger is one of 1980s-era manga/graphic novels that I would have rated much higher at the time but now seems very dated. The book explores the common sci fi tropes at the time through two stories - time travel and affecting the future by going into the distant past (done better by Ray Bradbury and "Sound of Thunder"), and colonizing a new planet and how it affects humans and the animals left to fend for themselves on the that unexplored world.
In the first story, scientists discover and then land on an Earth-like planet. They release a small set of animals into a large grassy plains to see how they survive on the planet. But their ship becomes mired in the soil and they find themselves marooned for five years before a relief craft will come. They have to make a home due to the ship's limited supplies/power but soon a strange, constant noise begins affecting them and the animals that survive (horses, monkeys, swans..). It creates anti-social tendencies in all the Earth life forms and the scientists begin to unravel.
In the second story, women from the future have come to the cavemen past in order to save cavemen from natural predators (in this case, a sabre tooth tiger clan) so the human gene pool is as large as possible. It seems the future of humanity is in jeopardy due to the gene pool running out of differentiation options and humans reaching a dead end of extinction. But the sabre tooth tigers don't really care about humanity's future and happily decide to get revenge for the death of one of their den.
As you can imagine, in the days of hard technology in the 21st century, the idea that a ship would randomly drop animals to see how they 'survive' (e.g., here's a plains, let's drop some swans and see if they can survive without water) is ludicrous. As is the idea of randomly landing without actually checking the location's suitability/stability. It's hard to take anything seriously in the story when the science is a joke.
Similarly, in the second story, women who all look alike in space suits armed only with a small laser on their hands (and it takes all 6 of them to kill one sabertooth tiger) are expected to be able to save 500 cavemen. They get quickly offed by oddly sentient revenge seeking tigers (yeah right) and then 3 or 4 of the animals jump into the cave and slaughter all the cavemen (who are armed) as well. Humanity is doomed thanks to some animals. Because clearly cavemen can't defend themselves unless 6 stupid women come from the future and save them. Again, ludicrous.
At the time, these were deep musings on US and European sci fi themes from the 1970s. But 30 years later, it all seems trite, shallow, and cringeworthy.
In the first story, scientists discover and then land on an Earth-like planet. They release a small set of animals into a large grassy plains to see how they survive on the planet. But their ship becomes mired in the soil and they find themselves marooned for five years before a relief craft will come. They have to make a home due to the ship's limited supplies/power but soon a strange, constant noise begins affecting them and the animals that survive (horses, monkeys, swans..). It creates anti-social tendencies in all the Earth life forms and the scientists begin to unravel.
In the second story, women from the future have come to the cavemen past in order to save cavemen from natural predators (in this case, a sabre tooth tiger clan) so the human gene pool is as large as possible. It seems the future of humanity is in jeopardy due to the gene pool running out of differentiation options and humans reaching a dead end of extinction. But the sabre tooth tigers don't really care about humanity's future and happily decide to get revenge for the death of one of their den.
As you can imagine, in the days of hard technology in the 21st century, the idea that a ship would randomly drop animals to see how they 'survive' (e.g., here's a plains, let's drop some swans and see if they can survive without water) is ludicrous. As is the idea of randomly landing without actually checking the location's suitability/stability. It's hard to take anything seriously in the story when the science is a joke.
Similarly, in the second story, women who all look alike in space suits armed only with a small laser on their hands (and it takes all 6 of them to kill one sabertooth tiger) are expected to be able to save 500 cavemen. They get quickly offed by oddly sentient revenge seeking tigers (yeah right) and then 3 or 4 of the animals jump into the cave and slaughter all the cavemen (who are armed) as well. Humanity is doomed thanks to some animals. Because clearly cavemen can't defend themselves unless 6 stupid women come from the future and save them. Again, ludicrous.
At the time, these were deep musings on US and European sci fi themes from the 1970s. But 30 years later, it all seems trite, shallow, and cringeworthy.
August 30, 2016
Il volume raccoglie sette gradevoli racconti di SF, di cui i migliori sono il cupo "Sabel Tiger" che da il titolo al volume; la pessimistica storia "Sergente", una storia di guerra dove non è chiaro se comandino l'uomo o le macchine e chi debba proteggere chi; infine "Trappola di bitume" divertente, con un profondo e nero senso dell'umorismo.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews