First Look at Danai Gurira as "The Walking Dead's" Michonne

[CBR News]

AMC has revealed a first look at actress Danai Gurira as fan-favorite character Michonne for "The Walking Dead" season three, complete with katana.


Full article here.

[starman]

Thank you so much for introducing Michonne, but please kill Lori and Andrea this season. They are driving me insane.

[jediracer]

that is NOT the proper way to grip a katana!!!

[Marak the Merciless]

Looks exactly like the comic character. Awesome!

[Rosebunse]

that is NOT the proper way to grip a katana!!!

While I'm sure Robert Kirkman has already gotten hundred of emails telling him this, I think it could be explained by the fact that, while in the comics Michonne has been shown to have taken fensing classes, she's not trained in how to use a katana. She's really good at using it, but that's easy when most of your opponents are shambling, rotting, animated corpses.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

that is NOT the proper way to grip a katana!!!

How many girls do you know who know how to grip a katana?

Heck, how many guys you know who know how to grip a katana?

She´s just an everyday urban girl who stumbled into a pair of katanas, not Samurai Jack.

[verslibre]

Thank you so much for introducing Michonne, but please kill Lori and Andrea this season. They are driving me insane.

Kill Lori and keep Andrea. And let her lose some clothes sometime. Anytime.

[verslibre]

that is NOT the proper way to grip a katana!!!

That's exactly what a walker told her before she decapitated it.

[the goddamn batman]

Michonne -- remains intact from the comics

is this gonna be like how "Andrea is Andrea" ...??

[Eliseu Gouveia]

Kill Lori and keep Andrea. And let her lose some clothes sometime. Anytime.

"Most of the time?"

[rasx]

This looks awesome! Good casting.

[Nyssane]

She looks exactly how I imagined Michonne, I'm really excited for her.

[Phil Clark]

I actually studied Kenjitsu, and that hand positioning is pretty intuitive and fairly accurate. As too her body posture... that depends on what style of sword fighting they are trying to employ. A fencer will use the Katana as a poking weapon, until the first time it becomes lodged inside a walkers chest. Katanas are slicing weapons, not poking or hacking weapons. I wonder if they will hit on any of that as the character progresses.

[megavikingman]

I actually studied Kenjitsu, and that hand positioning is pretty intuitive and fairly accurate. As too her body posture... that depends on what style of sword fighting they are trying to employ. A fencer will use the Katana as a poking weapon, until the first time it becomes lodged inside a walkers chest. Katanas are slicing weapons, not poking or hacking weapons. I wonder if they will hit on any of that as the character progresses.

Thank you! I was about to smack a bitch.

There were/are many different schools of kenjitsu, with many different takes on posture, hand positioning, etc. There were even some Japanese swords designed to be capable of stabbing, actually, but they were typically straight, double-edged and only existed for a very brief period of time in Japanese history. I'd have to dig out my senior thesis to remember exactly when and where these were made, though, it's been a long time since I studied swords.

[jediracer]

I actually studied Kenjitsu, and that hand positioning is pretty intuitive and fairly accurate. As too her body posture... that depends on what style of sword fighting they are trying to employ. A fencer will use the Katana as a poking weapon, until the first time it becomes lodged inside a walkers chest. Katanas are slicing weapons, not poking or hacking weapons. I wonder if they will hit on any of that as the character progresses.

Are we looking at the same picture?

Not sure what ryu you studied, but she is definitely holding that thing like a baseball bat, not a katana. Her left hand should be closer to the bottom of the tsuka, and her stance is certainly not any traditional Japanese kamae I have ever seen. Maybe if she was holding the sword higher, above her head, it might pass as daijodan, maybe.

But, as it was mentioned, the character is/was not actually a student of the sword (have not read the comic so I didn't know), so it's irrelevant either way.