You have seen Pokémon interpreted in ancient Japanese art of Ukiyo-e. You have seen what Batman might look like as a medieval Japan ninja. Now, see what Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame key characters will look like if they existed in medieval Japan. Being a fan of the Marvel franchise, Japanese illustrator Takumi Toxin decided to commemorate the movie’s release by reimagining the key characters of Avengers Endgame in Ukiyo-e style and the results were pretty darn surreal.
What’s commendable is not just the visual; it is the effort to associate each character with unique patterns and kanji names. For example, Thor is pronounced as tooru in Japanese and so, Takumi assigned the Japanese equivalent name to him and also introduced cloud-pattern on his pants. Likewise, Cap’s pants use the shippo pattern, referencing to its shield while Iron Man has complex bishamon kikko to symbolize circuit board – a reference to the superhero’s advanced technology.
Pretty cool, right? My personal would be Thanos and Rocket Raccoon. I simply dig the clever use of cloud illustration around Thanos and the red fire around the Infinity Gauntlet to express the mythical and magical power the super villain possessed. Rocket’s expression is spot on. The ferocious look is spot on. If you haven’t seen olden Ukiyo-e artworks depicting ferociousness, this would be it. Like I have said, I am absolutely digging these illustrations.
Images: Takumi Toxin.
Source: Spoon & Tamago via Laughing Squid.
