Shuna’s Journey

10 reviews for Shuna’s Journey

1. 

   My Favorite Things – March 30, 2025

   A simple and sublime illustrated story from Ghibli’s Miyazaki. Manga is read from right to left.
   Reminiscent of Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke, while having many unique elements to make it its own story. Originally written, illustrated, and painted in watercolor by Hayao Miyazaki in tandem with Nausicaa, but only just now being released in English translation with this edition. Although it is an English language version, it is read from right to left, as is typical of manga. The two-volume Nausicaa manga is also this way.The hero, Shuna, has a strong determination and singular sense of purpose that make it a refreshing and simple story. Nothing too intricate or difficult to follow, just a beautiful tale of a selfless prince journeying to find a grain to save his village, while saving a pair of sisters he meets along the way.Beautifully illustrated and fully colored, each page is a delight to read and flip through. It’s more of a storybook than a full manga. It can almost be a children’s book, except for a villain losing a forearm from a gunshot, and a slavery theme.I read it in one sitting and although it’s a complete story, I wish there were more. But that’s usually the way with anything Miyazaki. Just can’t get enough!

2. 

   Sammy Swartz – March 30, 2025

   The Master’s Lost Opus Finally Finds its Way to the West
   Hayao Miyazaki is world-renowned for good reason; his illustrious Studio Ghibli is famous for its exquisitely animated films, many of which explore the tensions between man and the natural world. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes fierce and forceful, his tales have depicted humanity as stewards of peace or purveyors of war, Mother Earth as a generous or hostile force. Can both entities live in harmony? Or is one destined to destroy the other?Miyazaki is also a quick study of the human condition, depicting his leads, usually female, as courageous agents bearing and braving life’s capricious demands. Some of these stories are simple, slice-of-life affairs focusing on family or community. Other tales are sweeping, heavy-handed epics, featuring wars and angry gods and dead civilizations, with mankind often the cause or at least entangled in-between.Shuna’s Journey, interestingly, is none of these things. Not exactly.First, it’s not an animated film or TV series. It’s not even a manga in the vein of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, another classic Miyazaki work. Rather, it’s an emonogatari – an illustrated story that deemphasizes word and manga-style paneling for captions and (often) full-page art. A close American equivalent would be a hand-drawn children’s book or, more explicitly, Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, a graphic novel in which the author combines skeins of text with singular illustrations to convey an engrossing story. Shuna’s Journey pushes the format to its fullest potential.Second, the story is neither epic nor simplistic, but pivots somewhere between the extremes. The eponymous Shuna, the story’s princely avatar, doesn’t leave his quaint homeland to save the world or defeat some terrible evil. Rather, he seeks a special seed—an almost magical grain that promises to forever feed his suffering tribe. And though the young man certainly encounters some danger and excitement on his journey, he spends much of his time simply wandering across landscapes both beautiful and barren, familiar and alien. Here, Miyazaki’s lushly painted pages become the star, filling in the silence of Shuna’s lonely travels with exotic sights and twisted lands that hover between dream and hanging fear.Lastly, the story doesn’t hold to a specific genre. It’s an adventure, maybe, but not a fun, swashbuckling one. It’s almost a piece of heroic introspection, except Shuna is so stoic to his core, little growth or personality is revealed. It’s about the Earth, yes, but humanity is more the victim here, exploited by both his fellow man and a strangely cryptic, unyielding planet. It’s a tale of love…that goes unstated. It’s a mystery without resolution or proper payoff. Ultimately, it’s a paradox that tantalizes as much as it teaches, dangling scant hints and intimations to explain an incomprehensible, even horrific set of circumstances. In fact, the tale is borderline nihilistic—a strange row to hoe for the usually optimistic author. But hope peeks through the book’s final pages, offering its characters, and its readers, a reason to still believe.The story, to its detriment, is also a curiosity, unintentionally serving as a prototypal preview of later Ghibli films, most notably Princess Mononoke. These parallels to later works prove as distracting as they are fascinating, diminishing the potency of the original story. If possible, Shuna deserves to be read first, safe in a vacuum far away from the author’s other masterworks. Again, if possible.Beautiful, ponderous, inexplicable…Shuna’s Journey is Miyazaki’s imagination left to the wind, flowing and unfurling like leaves traveling without destination. Indeed, the story doesn’t conclude so much as it pauses, suggesting a part two that never came. Thus, the story feels more like a fragment dredged from some lost, religious text…incomplete but not insignificant. Some might want more, but readers less concerned with explanations and more willing to be moved and stirred by the images and words contained therein, will find a work primal, timeless… …and unmistakably Miyazaki.

3. 

   Evelyn Rose – March 30, 2025

   Beautiful artwork and storytelling
   Heads up for readers who aren’t familiar with Japanese graphic novels/manga: your copy isn’t misprinted or bound backwards; Japanese comics and graphic novels are read from right-to-left!I love Hayao Miyazaki’s work and bought this for a friend who is also a fan. The watercolor artwork is beautiful, and the writing captures all of the elements of Miyazaki’s thought-provoking themes, while maintaining the feeling of myth and folktale. Truly on-par with his masterpiece films.Would recommend to fans of Studio Ghibli and anyone who loves quality artwork and storytelling.

4. 

   David Napier – March 30, 2025

   of the standard and quality one would expect from the master, Miyazaki
   Shuna’s Journey is yet another gorgeous, deeply emotional masterpiece from perhaps the greatest storyteller of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.If you like Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa, this is a perfect supplement to both — though it is worthy to stand on its own.Get this book

5. 

   Amazon Customer – March 30, 2025

   A fine addition to my collection
   Really neat illustrated work by Miyazaki. Art was beautiful and story was interesting. I wish I could find more books like this! It’s a great addition to my Nausica manga and other books in my collection.

6. 

   somewhere in England – March 30, 2025

   For fans of Miyazaki. Not for younger children as contains violence. Work on this was around the time the film Nausica was being made and it shows in the designs. Japanese style book- read from the back to the front, from right to left. English text.Headstrong boy heads out for nourishing crops, finds slave traders feeding humans to creature that produces nutritious seeds. Boy takes and is punished with mindlessness, restored by wise girl he had earlier rescued from slavery… usual Miyazaki strong female. The watercolours on every page are delightful.

7. 

   zeromig – March 30, 2025

   I bought this book for myself, but I wanted to point out that my daughter (aged 10) really enjoyed this story as well. The art is gorgeous, and based on the art alone, I would have been very happy with the purchase. But I was most interested in getting this rare example of Hayao Miyazaki’s comic storytelling genius in English, and he does not disappoint. The story feels exactly like Miyazaki’s, even though it’s based on an old folk tale (I forgot which culture it’s lifted from, but he tells the story in the foreword). You can feel Princess Mononoke’s Ashitaka, and Laputa’s Sheeta and Pazu, and many more, practically leaping off every page.

8. 

   MARIO NAGANO – March 30, 2025

   Pouco conhecido fora do círculo de fãs mais ardorosos de Miyazaki, a Jornada de Shuna (シュナの旅 Shuna no Tabi) é uma pequena preciosidade escrita, ilustrada e colorida pelo artista publicada em 1983 pela Tokuma Shoten dentro da sua série Animage Ju Ju Bunko.Ela conta a história de Shuna, um jovem que parte de seu vale para “a terra onde a lua dorme” a procura de sementes de um grão dourado (= trigo?) que pode salvar o seu povo da fome.No geral, trata-se de uma aventura que se encaixa na teoria do monomito (ou mito do herói) de Joseph Campbell, mas que também é considerada uma precursora de outras obras mais conhecidas de Miyazaki como Nausicaa ou Princesa Mononoke já que diversas idéias (como cavalgar num cervo) e elementos visuais como paisagens, pessoas, animais e objetos desses filmes apareceram primeiro em Shuna.De fato, reza a lenda que Miyazaki queria mesmo era fazer um anime de longa metragem dessa história (inspirada num conto popular tibetano), mas ela era muito simples e curta, de modo que no fim — com o apoio da editora Tokuma Shoten — a Jornada de Shuna virou um pequeno livro de 152 páginas.E isso não é uma figura de linguagem porque a edição japonesa é realmente pequena (10 x 15 x 0,7 cm) ao contrário dessa nova edição americana, cujas dimensões seguem um padrão mais de mercado (15,9 x 22,2 x 1,83 cm) assim como sua apresentação que é bastante rica com encadernação em capa dura, lombada costurada e sobrecapa em cores.A única diferença em relação ao original é que o papel usado no interior da nova edição é do tipo fosco, ao contrário do japonês ele é brilhante, o que não faz muita diferença já que Miyazaki costuma colorir seus desenhos com aquarela.Se comparado com sua filmografia, Miyazaki escreveu poucos livros (e menos ainda ilustrados), de modo que Shuna é um belo e raro exemplo de um conto original que não virou anime, mas ajudou a criar outros dois de grande sucesso.

9. 

   Vivek J – March 30, 2025

   Must read but I got it more for the illustrations done by Miyazaki himself. Anyone who treasures Ghibli movies should get one tbh.

10. 

    Wilbur Whateley – March 30, 2025

    A beautiful story, a masterpiece of art.