Gun of the Stranger

Once in the Old West, an army sharpshooter disappears after following orders to execute the children of a Native chief. Years later, a young boy is saved by a mysterious "man with no name"--a gunner who refuses to pull his gun--and hires him as bodyguard. They are chased by the Mexican Emperor's troops who are after the map of a gold mine tattoed on the child's body--although the troop's fastest shooter is only interested in an equal opponent. Meanwhile, a mayor and his sheriff have also become aware of the map and seek the boy for their own purposes...

[Gun of the Stranger], or [Stranger Muhou Jyudan(ストレンヂア無法銃譚 )]--a Western spoof, lol
Not sure if Emperor Maximilion of Mexico had enough resources to look for a gold mine (as it's a Western, everybody's after gold mines instead of some elixar of immortality), but he could have been pretty desperate. And perhaps Nanashi dyed his hair being too famous as a red-headed, scarfaced sharpshooter? As for Rarou, wearing a red poncho is like asking to be a human target...yet apparently he's never been shot, and probably applies super protective sunblock as well. Kotaro would have stayed in a Catholic church or a monastery, and Shoan a friar or priest. All fitting surprisingly well into an Old West background.

Since [Sword of the Stranger] is initially a traditional Western narrative--a mixture of structures and components from [Shane], [Vera Cruz] and [A Fistful of Dollars]--it converts quite easily into a Western genre. I actually drew this to accompany a posting (in my Korean blog) to prove my point that SotS was fundamentally a masculine genre narrative instead of being BL(boys love)-coded as some some male acquaintances were saying. I mean, if it was, it could have been easy to advertise like other BL-coded movies such as [The King and the Clown] or [Antique]. And there used to be a time when fiction with lots of men were for guys and lots of women were for girls...even in anime or manga. Then again there's an opinion that most Westerns are 1000 percent gay...but still, it's initially for the guys. It's just that recent popular culture for men has lost touch with the testosterone drive and steamy male bonding and instead labling them as being gay or BL, which basically arises from homophobia...nobody's taking this too seriously, are they?

The pic took much longer, which I was hesitant to upload because it's obviously unconvincing that it took days to produce and therefore quite embarrassing but...well, haven't got anything else to upload, so here goes.