Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Jeffrey Kenzaki, the Black Eagle?

Jeff Promoting his band 'Black Eagle'

As many of you probably already know, I have been translating the Jetman manga for the past few weeks. The manga is currently in quality control, so it should be ready in the next few weeks.
I am not going to write about the plot, because although many people have seen the show, not many have had the chance to read the manga yet.

Many among us have heard of the character 'Jeffrey Kenzaki', or just 'Jeff'. Until now most of us, including myself, have thought of this character as the Green Eagle. But is he really green?

I believe he is not, and I have my reasons to believe so.

First of all, Jeff plays in a band called 'Black Eagle'. This is the first indication that he is actually a black Jetman. You can see Jeff promoting his band 'Black Eagle' in the picture above.

The second reason I have to believe that he is a black Jetman is the fact that he is drawn darker than the other Jetmen in most of the pages. If he would be a green Jetman, it would have to be a damn dark variation of the colour green.

And last but not least; his colour is never really mentioned in the manga. The only time the colour green is mentioned is in a little note as seen in the picture below. I would roughly translate this line as "comment: Jeff is the Eagle. ...what if he was green..." This line is followed with a little 'drop of sweat'... which implies this might be meant as a joke. I believe Ms. Akiko Fujii was trolling the readers here.

However, there is a reason to believe he is Green. First of all the little comment stated above, and secondly a little piece of artwork where he is coloured in light green. But this is a piece of artwork... The artwork is made by Keita Amemiya. Is this his interpretation of the character? Or did he colour him green because Ms. Fujii asked him to?

The manga is in black and white, so there is no real way to know if Jeff is the Green Eagle or the Black Eagle. Everybody is free to interpret the character's colour as they want, and I think this also is what Ms. Fujii wanted.

I believe... that the dude is black.