Yeah, so the manga is a work of genius and the novel is one of the funniest things around.

Discuss.

Woa! There's a novel form of it?

My friend was obsessed with the film. I never knew there were any other forms.

I watched the film. I don't know why, but Japanese attempts at seriousness in live action make me crack up. I've heard the book and manga are both pretty good.

Apparently the novel version comes with a map that lets you track the characters and cross them off as they die.

Not my edition of the novel, sadly.

And yeah, the novel is the original form.

And, Buckaroo-et, I agree. The best Japanese film I saw ever was The Happiness of the Katakuris, which was just utterly stupid. It seems that only Kurosawa could do serious Japanese action.

See harakiri by masaki kobayashi. Very good film.

To be fair, Kurosawa can be pretty funny too, in his own way. Sanjuro, for instance, mixes humor in for most of the film. But even in that film, he has a finale which dispels that humor at the end of the film.

I feel like I've seen something else, but I can't get it out of my head.

Have you ever seen Yojimbo? Very good Kurosawa.

I think one of the biggest problems with Japanese action films is the silly, silly camera work. And the fact that it's very condensed, with too much happening too quickly.