Shuna's Journey
by Hayao Miyazaki
translated by Alex De Wit
2022
Shuna's Journey is one of Miyazaki's earliest works, only recently translated into English. He drew it before he had an animation studio, before his famous manga Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. And yet, I see echoes of many of his other works in this one, or rather, I see now that there are echoes of Shuna in much of what he made later. This book is quietly excellent.
The style here isn't a traditional manga; the translator calls it an emonogatari, which almost literally translates as graphic novel. There are no word bubbles and only a little dialogue. Most of the text is narration, and it's all printed directly over still places in the art. Rather than crisp black and white drawings divided into panels, Miyazaki gives us what look like pencil sketches painted with watercolor. I don't mean to make it sound unskilled - it feels warm and humane, it's just that none of the edges are crisp or sharp, none of the colors fully saturated.
The style here isn't a traditional manga; the translator calls it an emonogatari, which almost literally translates as graphic novel. There are no word bubbles and only a little dialogue. Most of the text is narration, and it's all printed directly over still places in the art. Rather than crisp black and white drawings divided into panels, Miyazaki gives us what look like pencil sketches painted with watercolor. I don't mean to make it sound unskilled - it feels warm and humane, it's just that none of the edges are crisp or sharp, none of the colors fully saturated.
Shuna is based on a Tibetian folktale, about how barley first came to their country, but transposed into a distant, post-apocalyptic future. Shuna is a teen boy, the prince of a small community living with their antelope-like 'yakuls' in a deep mountain valley. Their seeds grow only small grains, and hunger is ever-present. One day Shuna meets a dying traveler. He claims to be the ruler of a kingdom to the east, on a journey to the west to find a place where golden seeds grow into large, filling grains. He has some of the seeds, but they've hulled and will never grow.
Shuna takes a yakul, his sword and rifle, and sets off to find the golden seeds for himself. Along the way, he sees ruins of civilizations past ... and slave traders with caged wagons full of captives. He makes his way to a trading city. There are merchants selling hulled grain, but no seeds, and everywhere there are captives. Shuna learns that none of these people grow their own grain. It's grown by the 'god-folk' in the west, who trade it for slaves.
Shuna meets a pair of enslaved sisters; older sister Thea is around his own age. He wants to free them. First he offers to buy them, but Thea refuses. He tries to continue his journey, but he's troubled by what he's seen. Eventually he mounts a rescue of the girls, and all three escape together. They reach the border of the strange land where the god-folk dwell. Shuna gives Thea his Yakul. She and her little sister ride away to find a village.
Shuna enters the land of the god-folk, sees what becomes of the slaves that are brought in, steals some seeds, and escapes, but loses his memory and his possessions in the process. Somehow he wanders to the village where Thea has settled. In secret, she cares for him, nurses him back to health, grows the seeds into crops, harvests more seeds. In the end Shuna is restored, and there are enough seeds for Shuna and Thea and her sister to leave and return to his homeland.
The tale is relatively simple, but told well. There's a moral complexity to Shuna's encounter with slavery for example. He has no part in the system of trading human lives for grain, he is nearly powerless to do much about it, but his conscience also won't let him do nothing. And Thea is no damsel. She is strong from the start, and eventually saves Shuna as much as he saves her.
And Miyazaki's art is excellent throughout. Shuna's clothes resemble traditional Tibetan garb. The city and its dwellers have more colorful, outlandish outfits. The most compelling images come from the ruins of the old world and the bizarre land of the god-folks, which combines the new, the alien, the deeply ancient. The strange and magical landscapes and creatures that eventually made Miyazaki famous are visible in their early form here.
Shuna takes a yakul, his sword and rifle, and sets off to find the golden seeds for himself. Along the way, he sees ruins of civilizations past ... and slave traders with caged wagons full of captives. He makes his way to a trading city. There are merchants selling hulled grain, but no seeds, and everywhere there are captives. Shuna learns that none of these people grow their own grain. It's grown by the 'god-folk' in the west, who trade it for slaves.
Shuna meets a pair of enslaved sisters; older sister Thea is around his own age. He wants to free them. First he offers to buy them, but Thea refuses. He tries to continue his journey, but he's troubled by what he's seen. Eventually he mounts a rescue of the girls, and all three escape together. They reach the border of the strange land where the god-folk dwell. Shuna gives Thea his Yakul. She and her little sister ride away to find a village.
Shuna enters the land of the god-folk, sees what becomes of the slaves that are brought in, steals some seeds, and escapes, but loses his memory and his possessions in the process. Somehow he wanders to the village where Thea has settled. In secret, she cares for him, nurses him back to health, grows the seeds into crops, harvests more seeds. In the end Shuna is restored, and there are enough seeds for Shuna and Thea and her sister to leave and return to his homeland.
The tale is relatively simple, but told well. There's a moral complexity to Shuna's encounter with slavery for example. He has no part in the system of trading human lives for grain, he is nearly powerless to do much about it, but his conscience also won't let him do nothing. And Thea is no damsel. She is strong from the start, and eventually saves Shuna as much as he saves her.
And Miyazaki's art is excellent throughout. Shuna's clothes resemble traditional Tibetan garb. The city and its dwellers have more colorful, outlandish outfits. The most compelling images come from the ruins of the old world and the bizarre land of the god-folks, which combines the new, the alien, the deeply ancient. The strange and magical landscapes and creatures that eventually made Miyazaki famous are visible in their early form here.
I've never heard of this but sounds interesting!
ReplyDeleteI really recommend it! It's quite short, and the first of Miyazaki's comics I've ever read.
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