'A Christmas Carol' - my rereview.
'The Yellow Wallpaper' - my rereview.
'The Worst Witch' - my rereview.
'The Queen's Nose' - my rereview.
'Sadie' - my rereview.
Friday, 31 May 2024
Graphic Novel Review - 'The Worst Ronin' by Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Writer), Faith Schaffer (Artist)
So this is what a Japanese Edo era version of 'Xena: Warrior Princess' would look like.
How funny, yet gobsmackingly tragic, and packed with heightened emotion.
At first I wasn't into 'The Worst Ronin' because of the artwork. It looked very rough, blotchy, uneven, sketchy, a little lazy, especially with facial detailing and characters going off-model, and overall like a storyboard artist's first draft. But weirdly, I warmed up to it, with me liking the characters and themes more and more as I read towards the end. Plus I like the colours, and how the comic presents its humorous aspects.
'The Worst Ronin' is like a better, more compelling 'The Marble Queen'. Only it is much subtler in its LBGTQ content, and in this case it is stronger for it. You have Tatsuo Nakano, the drunk and traumatised "hero" and the first and only (as is allowed) female samurai, and Chihiro, the sprightly, wide-eyed, naïve fangirl who is determined to become a samurai, who believes in justice, and who hires Tatsuo as her partner - well, bodyguard, as Tatsuo prefers, as she is a cynical, crass, wily lone wolf, for understandable reasons.
I grew to adore these two wildly cartoony, yet really human beneath the surface, heroines. They make a dynamic, enchanting, entertaining duo. For one, tragedy has passed, and she thinks she has nothing left to live for, and for the other, tragedy is coming - has already come, in fact - without her knowing...
'The Worst Ronin' is also like 'The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich' in that it isn't historical fiction because it contains modern technology. 'The Worst Ronin' has Wi-Fi, phones, live streaming, television, movies, and movie posters.
Be warned: 'The Worst Ronin' is not for younger audiences, despite its colourful and cartoony artwork, for it contains strong language, bloody violence, and lots of death. It does not water down the reality of being a samurai, of being a warrior, and the main characters do kill people. For samurai mean to fight to kill, with no holding back. It is shocking, and I commend the graphic novel for it. It makes it stand out, and stick in your memory further.
There are themes of grief, loss, PTSD, and family. And feminism, don't forget about that.
'The Worst Ronin' understands one facet of the patriarchy: it simply won't allow women to take part in a male-dominated field, career, or any boys' club, even when it pretends to when it lets one woman in. But no more. If it has to include one exceptional woman, then it will show her off in a reluctant, shallow, disingenuous gesture of "fairness", as pure tokenism, as paying lip service to the illusion of equality - something it can get away with, since the patriarchal system is designed and constructed so that the novelty of seeing one member of a minority means they are already taking up too much space and attention. Therefore boom, sexism solved! The effect is that women remain powerless, small, and invisible. Nothing actually changes. They have to work harder than everybody else, and be the best that ever was, and even then it won't be enough. They won't be treated fairly, they won't be respected, and they won't receive the recognition they deserve. Their presence challenges nothing, and so means nothing, as is the intention of the patriarchy.
Women gamechangers and trailblazers: You are good enough. It's not your fault if you're "not good enough" according to the men who want to remain at the top. It's the world that needs to change, not you.
Also patriarchal, bigoted men hate everyone, especially those they consider beneath them in society. Men who think of themselves as "heroes" barely bother to hide how much they despise their admirers and supporters, the people who got them where they are in the first place; in fact, they often didn't earn their fame and glory; it's all power in connections and nepotism at the very top of the stagnant, archaic hierarchal order. These types of men are only after their own self-interests, their own power to get drunk on, their own toxic, narcissistic ego trip. Don't forget that.
'The Worst Ronin' - one of the better girl power fantasy graphic novels out there. It's like a nineties cult classic anime and manga.
It's not as good as, say, 'The Fox Maidens', also published in 2024, but it is a fun, riveting, surprisingly intense and thrilling book. I love the two girl leads and their banter and chemistry, and the ending is brilliant, bringing the samurai girls' development full circle, and perfectly combating the BS rules set by the patriarchy.
I wish there were more fantasy elements, but the grounded, real threat of "heroic" men, men with titles and power, effectively suits and adds to the book's feminist themes.
A sword-swinging, heart-pounding, tear-jerking, fresh plum fruit to be savoured - 'The Worst Ronin' title is meant to be ironic, in many, many ways.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Graphic Novel Review - 'Anzu and the Realm of Darkness' by Mai K. Nguyen, Diana Tsai Santos (Colours)
'Anzu and the Realm of Darkness' is a children's Japanese folklore-inspired, epic fantasy graphic novel (that counts as an isekai), about self-confidence, reaching your highest self-esteem and potential, and believing in and being yourself. It also touches on grief, friendship, and belonging. It is a very emotional, inspiring, grand story.
Anzu herself - such a lovely name, she doesn't need to change it to "Anne" to suit the preferences of racist, stupid, ignorant westerners - seems like your typical, moody, new-kid-in-town, out-of-place hero in any coming-of-age story, but she grew on me (and really, the poor confused child - suddenly in a new, completely strange world after having moved away in her own world - has every right to be "whiny"). Her newfound courage, and persistence and determination to never give up doing the right thing won me over. My favourite character is the Gatekeeper of the realm of Yomi, who is an anthropomorphic black dog, and is like Anzu in a lot of ways; he is scared and self-doubting, with a melting heart of gold. I want to hug him, he is precious.There are goddesses (Kami) - both good and evil (and one of them is a giant orange squid) - and the festival of Obon, Musuhi (life energy), spirits of children, a Nurikabe (who is an adorable fluffy wall and doorway), Oni (demons), Shikigami (here they are flying paper bugs), Kitsune, Kamaitachi (giant weasel creatures), a Gashadokuro (a giant skeleton), and of course, a Tanuki!
I might rate 'Anzu and the Realm of Darkness' higher if 'Spirited Away' didn't already exist - indeed it shares many similarities to that film - but as it is, it's its own wonderful, rich, fantastical, life-affirming - and cute and funny at times - treasure. It left me smiling, and a little sad, yet gratified.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Graphic Novel Review - 'Plain Jane and the Mermaid' by Vera Brosgol
From the author of 'Anya's Ghost' comes an original fairy tale.
Jane Brown has just inherited her own estate and property after her parents' deaths - except, being a woman, she can't own any of it, and no one would want to marry her because she's considered too "plain"; plump, dumpy, fat, dull, unremarkable. Her misogynistic cousin wants to inherit her house, and she is in danger of becoming homeless unless she marries quickly. So, in desperation Jane sets her sights on Peter, her crush from a distance since childhood, who is considered to be very handsome, but has no serious suitors because he works as a lowly fishmonger, a family trade. Both are trapped in the roles that society has placed on them, though Peter thinks he deserves better solely because he is handsome and therefore shouldn't be dealt with a bad hand, unlike Jane, whose insecurities and low self-esteem come from being an "ugly" woman in a patriarchal, misogynistic society. Both need to shake off these opposing yet similar toxic ideals.Anyway, a mermaid shows up and kidnaps Peter, and Jane sets out on a quest to rescue him and marry him.
The beautiful mermaid, Loreley, wants to marry Peter, too. Both women have their own ulterior motives for treating him so, as a means to an end, though one end is much more horrific than the other. The two completely different women, who nonetheless both place far too much value on looks being the most important thing in the world, claim to love him, and Peter, who is just as guilty, coming from a culture that is obsessed with beauty and appearances, believes he is entitled to that love, as a pretty boy (and of course he'd prefer the conventionally attractive woman who kidnaps him and endlessly flatters and smothers him (heh, she literally deprives him of natural air underwater!) in compliments that boost his ego). It is surface-level, unhealthy, impure, conditional love, born from insecurity, desperation, loneliness, and/or selfishness.
Go deep, deep, deeper under the sea, to its very depths, to realise your own inner strength, courage and heart, on this adventure.
An undersea - literally and thematically - adventure, precisely. It has a pompous little water demon, a male selkie (there's a selkie society as well as mermaids), shipwrecks, skeletons, a giant anglerfish, a Little Red Riding Hood cloak and its thread, and the subtle subject of family, to go with the message of "looks don't matter at all, not in the slightest", which goes much deeper and more harrowingly than I've seen in most pieces of media that tell the same thing. It is poignant and genuine, and therefore transcendingly effective. It basically says, "What is considered beautiful and pretty is a tool for deception, on both ends, and leads to nothing but unfulfillment and unhappiness, and therefore grievous harm, again on both ends. That is what it means to be shallow, narcissistic and self-hating." Nothing here is done in a hollow, trite, half-hearted and lazy way; the story and themes run as deeply as the ocean. The vast, fathomless ocean.
Also Jane calls her selkie friend Mr. Whiskers, after her cat. And Loreley's sisters, Melusine and Cleodora, are the best, and turn out to be such sweethearts.
Unlike Jane's parents. The reader sees them in flashbacks, and I don't care if it's wrong to speak ill of the dead, they were horrible, horrible people. The way they treated Jane was unforgivable, and even if they weren't outright abusive, they were bad, irresponsible, uncaring parents regardless.
'Plain Jane and the Mermaid' is like 'Finding Nemo' meets a twisted 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Peter Pan'. In fact there are a lot of fairy tale elements borrowed for this well-crafted story: for example, there's a mysterious old crone who at the start gifts the heroine with the apparatus she needs for her quest; and the heroine, who underestimates herself, uses cunning to get out of near-death situations.
It is tragic how much low self-esteem Jane has, because she really is a wonderful, kind, caring, relatable human, who just needs to believe in herself, and not let the opinions of shallow, high-ranking, highly-regarded and powerful people bring her down. And make her feel invisible. Like she doesn't matter.
Beauty should be linked to kindness and courage and bravery; its skin-deep definition is meaningless and empty. The heart and soul - unseen at first glance - will always be the most important aspects of a person.
As great an original folktale 'Plain Jane and the Mermaid' is, with an important message, it is not perfect to me. Towards the end there is a love triangle (not the one with the mermaid) of sorts (ugh!), and the feral child trope is thrown in suddenly with not nearly enough thought and time put into it, the way it needed to be handled. The very end - the final page - kind of confused me, too. Like... is Jane independent and single, or...? Or is it that one woman alone can't beat the patriarchal system... even though she isn't a lone woman, not anymore...
Whoops. Can't get into uncharted spoiler waters...
But despite these small issues, the fantasy, oceanic, nautical graphic novel touched me on a level so few stories have, at least nowadays, for cynical old me. It's quite frightening, yet cathartic and hopeful, how much I related to the heroine Jane. For the sake of everybody, but especially girls and women - all girls and women - there need to be more heroines like her in the media.
Our world is absolutely obsessed with looks, with outward beauty and youth. It is encompassing, suffocating, and inescapable, and it insidiously, effectively targets girls from straight out of the womb. Too much value is placed on appearances, and it needs to stop. "Beautiful" does not equal good and "ugly" does not equal bad, and "ordinary" does not equal worthless and unimportant. What is considered pleasant and desirable at first glance is subjective, fickle and flimsy; it always has been. Surface levels fade; it is naturally temporary. Vera Brosgol says as much and more in her author's note at the end of the book.
Looks. Don't. Matter.
Not in stories. Not in fairy tales. Not in real life.
We need to be careful about what messages we are sending out to the world with the stories we tell; what we say and do, and what we market and advertise.
Girls, women: You are fine the way you are. There is nothing wrong with you. You are stronger than you think. You are enough.
'Plain Jane and the Mermaid' might be a near-perfect antidote to the superficial "looks and mirrors matter and reflect the truth and your value as a person" epidemic - the lie - the globe is suffering from.
Final Score: 4/5
EDIT: 'Plain Jane' has been likened to Studio Ghibli films, but I easily see it being adapted by Pixar. There is no greater, more suitable match made in heaven.
Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Non-Fiction Book Review - 'Huda F Are You?' by Huda Fahmy
I think it was about time I read this:
So, 'Huda F Are You?'A very funny, poignant, emotional, touching, and relevant sorta-semiautobiographical comic about a Muslim American teenage girl, who is as ordinary and as full of self-doubt, insecurities and crises as everybody else. She's as relatable, unsure and introspective as they come, as well as being hilarious.
Plus I think the title is one of the funniest, cleverest things I've ever read.
In 'Huda F Are You?', there are topics and themes of racism, Islamophobia, microaggressions, macroaggressions, social awkwardness, imposter syndrome, finding your own identity and not trying to please everybody and fit in (trying not to constantly seek validation, which has been ingrained), finding your own self-worth and being happy with yourself, standing up for yourself and others, sisterhood, mother and daughter relationships, and generational trauma.
It also discusses and explores the meaning of self-hate, which is linked to self-doubt, self-sabotage, and feeling undeserving - 'When anxiety or self-hatred is strong, it can cause a person to feel great self-doubt, which often leads to second-guessing and self-gaslighting.' (page 132) Internalised bigotry, like every form of bigotry, comes from self-hatred, fear and insecurities.
This is a real eye-opening lesson. Heartbreaking, too.
Poor Huda. I'm glad she managed to eventually recognise this in herself, and ger over it, and maybe seek therapy. She loves being a Muslim and learning all about Islam, and she wants to learn how to love herself whilst living in an ignorant, hateful, bigoted, stupid country. It's society, the world, that has a problem - with her and her religion and race - not her.
But fear not, for 'Huda F Are You?' is overall lighthearted in tone. It is genuinely humorous and clever, and I enjoy the comical, abstract, cartoony, easy-going art style. It's sort of like a Jane Austen novel ('Pride and Prejudice' comes to mind, and not just because Huda has four sisters) with modern Muslim leads, in comics form.
'Huda F Are You?' deserves to be as culturally significant, and celebrated, as 'Persepolis', 'Calvin and Hobbes', and 'Dilbert'. It's funny as heck, without being irreverent or disrespectful.
Utterly, Huda-riffically unforgettable. I'm glad to have finally read it.
Final Score: 4/5
Non-Fiction Book Review - 'I Left the House Today!' by Cassandra Calin
Oh wow this is funny and relatable. I actually laughed out loud a few times, not just chuckled or grinned to myself.
'I Left the House Today!' (a most unfortunate title for something to come out in 2020), with the subtitle 'Comics by Cassandra Calin', is like the anecdotal works of Sarah Andersen, and if you like her comics then you're sure to like Cassandra Calin's as well.The art, the drawings, are great; funny, detailed, expressive, even oddly, paradoxically beautiful when it wants to be; when it is deliberately making fun of "perfect, beautiful people." Ideas and expectations are indeed far from the reality!
Freaking hilarious, true stuff. To be a modern woman! To be an everyday, ordinary, boring person. Who is living life, and maybe trying what they can to make it not boring and routine.
You can't make this up.
Final Score: 4/5
Graphic Novel Review - 'I Feel Awful, Thanks' by Lara Pickle
'I Feel Awful, Thanks' is a unique contemporary graphic novel about anxiety and depression, and seeking the right kind of help, that happens to feature witches. It is the most fortified slice-of-life, and it could actually help people with mental health problems. Maybe even save lives.
It is like 'Flying Witch', 'Doughnuts and Doom', 'Page by Paige', 'Living with Viola', 'The Happy Shop', 'Girl Taking Over: A Lois Lane Story', 'Kiki's Delivery Service', and 'Inside Out'. It is far from overly or overtly magical and fantastical. Potion making doesn't factor into it much. And broomstick riding? Forget it. But it doesn't matter. It shouldn't matter. For 'I Feel Awful, Thanks' is a very human book about life. The "magic" lies in our emotions, and how we manage these natural occurrences. The book is a "spellbook" on how to live and deal with life, and how to find happiness within ourselves, and how to understand our own emotions; understand that none of them are really bad or negative. They are a part of us, after all, and they can go out of balance and overwhelm and frighten us, sometimes. It happens to everyone.Joana Shell is a young woman and witch from Spain who has received her dream job in London, as a potion maker in the giant corporation, WitchCo. Magic Enterprise. She wants to be a
Or is it?
She should be happy, joyful, on top, in control.
But she isn't.
City life - and the universal lie that is adulthood - these are hard. Joana is far from home and living independently. She has to find the right apartment, get along with people, make new friends, and along the way she gets a boyfriend, and she is feeling underappreciated and undervalued at work, and is pressured to meet everybody else's impossible standards, never mind her own... she deals with toxic people in her life... can't mess up in any way in life... always forces herself to think positively...
It's too much.
Joana is tired all the time; she can't sleep well, has bad dreams, and is moody, yet she keeps insisting she's fine to everyone, impulsively takes up exercise routines and diets, indulges in comfort food, wanting - needing - to feel better - happy, 100% happy, 24/7 - now and quickly (goddess, haven't we all been there?). She can't keep her true feelings, frustrations, worries and insecurities locked up in her literal-chest-she-keeps-as-a-handbag much longer. She's going to break down eventually, and her emotional dragons are going to break free and spill out.
Nothing is hopeless, however. With help, Jo will learn how to keep her dragons under her control, on her terms, in ways that are right to her and make her comfortable. She learns to love and care for herself, and not let her anxieties get the better of her, and let depression win.
'I Feel Awful, Thanks' isn't unimportant or mundane. It is life. No one, and no one's life and how they live it, are unimportant.
It is about therapy. It is about self-acceptance, self-love, and self-care. It is about how it is okay to not be okay. Nothing is wrong with you if you're not okay. Toxic positivity is just as harmful as overwhelming toxic negativity. Neither are healthy outlooks. It's about balance, understanding, meditation, introspection, reflection, and knowing what is and isn't outside of your control.
No one is perfect. Perfection doesn't exist. Perfect, forever happily-ever-after goals are not the be-all-and-end-all to existing. That's impossible. But again, with courage, persistence, and seeking the appropriate help, true, if-not-permanent happiness is more attainable than you think.
It is also why empathy towards others is vitally important.
Joana is lucky to have met such great, caring and supportive friends at her workplace, Adora (really?) and Bee (they bond over their favourite boy band). These two are too precious. Jo is never really isolated and alone. Her complex, if sudden, relationship with her new boyfriend James is handled well and realistically. Her boss is a toxic arsehole and bully, and so is her landlady. And she's a witch who loves cats. I wouldn't have her any other way!
It's scary how much I relate to Jo, and I'm sure many people will come to relate to her and her struggles, as a fledgling adult in modern times.
The colourful, cartoony and angular artwork is nice, and a comfort to look at. It's almost nostalgic, and therapeutic. Very fitting. I adore Joana's blue hair (I guess I'll always be a manga and anime girl at heart). Adoring also is the detail of nearly everyone wearing witch's hats, of different colours and styles, that fit their personalities and moods. Jo never wears the same hat throughout the entire book. A lovely, real treat this comic is. The anxiety representation - the cracking, the breaking, the darkness, the intensity, the falling-into-the-void of it all, and its slow, gradual, progressive lightening of its solution in the middle and towards the end - is much better than in 'The Marble Queen', another recently released graphic novel.
Only, and I'm afraid it is time for the negative criticisms: 'I Feel Awful, Thanks' is lacking in cohesive structure, even for something that isn't supposed to have a plot. Scene transitions are almost nonexistent, as are ways of knowing how much time has passed between them. Supposedly the whole book takes place in just over a year? The silly amount of instances where I was confused as to where Joana is, how she got there, and why, I mean honestly! Some scenes feel cut up and unfinished as a result. One particularly baffling moment is when Jo and James are suddenly, for no reason, in Paris. How and when did they get there? No explanation. The trip is not mentioned before and after the fact. It's completely out of place to what is currently going on in Jo's life. It's two pages long, and exists solely for another argument scene between the couple.
The sporadically-placed narration boxes become confusing, as well. Like, is Joana narrating, or someone else? She's just referring to herself in the third person in a few random occasions?
Who are her friends back in Spain? The reader barely gets to know any of them, if at all.
Maybe this is all intentional? To show that life, and depression acknowledgment and the healing process, are nonlinear? And feelings, as well as the external stuff, can happen at random, and for seemingly no reason? How life experiences, and people, come and go, and that's how it is? No structure, no perfection, it's widely messy and unpredictable, and that's fine?
On a minor note: As a Brit, I can confidently say that none of the Londoners here talk like they are British. It's a positive, a surety, they don't spell like British people, either. A Spanish-to-American-English translation fault? Other countries, try to be more authentic when representing London, please - it's the people, not only the place. It's like 'Manga Cruella' all over again.
Then there is the utter lack of LBGTQ+ rep to take into account, for a 2022 publication.
Oops. I've lost track of what I was saying, and what point I'm trying to get across. So I'll end the review on:
'I Feel Awful, Thanks' is a messy yet needed revolution. Learning about self-care, self-love, self-growth, handling anxiety and emotions, plus friendships and which people to preserve for the benefit of your personal, happy living - it has it all. It positively taught me some things, and made me feel lighter, happier and relaxed - in short, in an improved mood - after reading.
Maybe I'll go back to therapy soon.
And do some more writing.
Final Score: 4/5
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