Dec 15, 2015
Well, to begin with, the main motive I decided to make this review is because I personally think the other reviews provided exaggerated scores, it’s a very good manga but it’s not a masterpiece and not much remarkable either, however I know that be a masterpiece was not the objective, it was only made to be a beautiful and uncomplicated story and that I can say it was a accomplished objective. Also I am not a experienced manga reader but I’ve seen most of Miyazaki works so I think I am in condition to do this review, explained that let’s get to it.
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Shuna no tabi is a small and beautiful manga, it is one of the most unknown works of Miyazaki and it was done during the beginning of his career.
The story is like a folktale and actually is inspired in one (a Tibetan tale). The protagonist (Shuna, as the title of the manga may imply, is his name) is a prince of a small and poor country. He discovers about magical seeds that may perhaps exist in a distant land in the west, these seeds could save his homeland so Shuna decides to go in a journey to find them. In this adventure he passes for different and diverse places, deals with dangers, makes friendships, found a great and cruel city, and also explore a fantastic place, therefore it is an interesting and well paced adventure story, and a simple one, although it has some darker and deeper moments
This was made by Miyazaki so as expected the art and atmosphere are both great, the setting of this imaginative world is surprisingly good considering the small extension of the story, actually the creation of magical worlds is the better part of most Miyazaki works and this one is no exception. Shuna no tabi is an unusual manga, sometimes looks more like an illustrated book given that the storytelling is done mainly by narration and images with few dialogues, and also the manga is even fully colored what is untypical.
Shuna no tabi is a typical Miyazaki work and it’s possible to recognize elements of his future films in this manga, mainly princess mononoke and nausicaä, so I highly recommend it to Miyazaki fans, however even for people who don’t are his fans this may be worth of reading, after all it’s interesting, beautiful and short.
(Parts of this text contain stuff already mentioned in other reviews here but I decided to maintain all the information I consider important)
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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