THE 47 RONIN
I’ve seen some reviews of our new book THE 47 RONIN already and mostly it’s been good. One thing I’ve been surprised about is how some readers felt that the book had too many abrupt changes between panels. “It seems less like a smoothly-flowing story and more of a series of standalone panels. It doesn't flow, to my eye. The emotion shifts from one panel to the next are jarring”
This is normally what I am supposed to be the best at, making smooth transitions and having the whole thing move along nicely. Odd to see the opposite said here. One reviewer said that in the second part: “the story lost a LOT of text and became difficult to follow”. Another said ““The art and writing are both spare, perhaps too much so.” Obviously I don’t agree – the book was made that way deliberately in order to tell the story with a minimum of captions and text. To have it as a far more visual based book than my other Japanese historical/martial arts books. To tell it in a more sophisticated fashion. And I am a bit confused as to where it becomes difficult to follow.
“The panels became very jumpy…” Again, it seems to flow fine to me, although the jumps between panels are sometimes considerable, but never so much as to confuse, it seemed to me anyway. They are just SUBTLE, linked in ways that don’t beat the reader over the head with the obvious, or that link things in a fragmentary way that adds up to a total picture – all of which is very different from confusing.
“it was difficult to distinguish who was on which side, particularly during the final battle scene (hint: the 47 ronin are wearing helmets)” – huh? That’s a HINT? Seems like a very clear indication to me. The ones with helmets are the ronin, the ones without are the other side.
“when the ronin finally exact their revenge ... the artwork, to me, looked like the illustrator started to draw the act of seppuku, cutting across the belly, and then switched to having Kiro's head cut off instead. It seemed like a very ... wide cut to decapitate someone. Not that I am a connoisseur of such things” It’s very simple and clear in the book: they WANT Kira to commit seppuku, but he refuses, he is to scared to do it. So they decide to cut his head off instead. Which is apparently, according to some historians, what actually happened.
“But the adaptation is hampered a bit by some pacing issues and a lack of contextual information.”
As I say the pacing is deliberate, there are no mistakes there, it’s just done differently from what these readers seem to be used to. The lack of explanation is also a product of the more poetic approach.
We tried to make a version of the 47 ronin story that was not a 'join the dots' over simplified one. Also to avoid the cliched, hyperbolic, exaggerated style of hollywood… instead to make a version that was stark, ambiguous, subtle. I thought folk would ‘get’ that, but it seems that some don’t, hopefully many do.
Check it out with these thoughts in mind please.
Thanks,
Sean
This is normally what I am supposed to be the best at, making smooth transitions and having the whole thing move along nicely. Odd to see the opposite said here. One reviewer said that in the second part: “the story lost a LOT of text and became difficult to follow”. Another said ““The art and writing are both spare, perhaps too much so.” Obviously I don’t agree – the book was made that way deliberately in order to tell the story with a minimum of captions and text. To have it as a far more visual based book than my other Japanese historical/martial arts books. To tell it in a more sophisticated fashion. And I am a bit confused as to where it becomes difficult to follow.
“The panels became very jumpy…” Again, it seems to flow fine to me, although the jumps between panels are sometimes considerable, but never so much as to confuse, it seemed to me anyway. They are just SUBTLE, linked in ways that don’t beat the reader over the head with the obvious, or that link things in a fragmentary way that adds up to a total picture – all of which is very different from confusing.
“it was difficult to distinguish who was on which side, particularly during the final battle scene (hint: the 47 ronin are wearing helmets)” – huh? That’s a HINT? Seems like a very clear indication to me. The ones with helmets are the ronin, the ones without are the other side.
“when the ronin finally exact their revenge ... the artwork, to me, looked like the illustrator started to draw the act of seppuku, cutting across the belly, and then switched to having Kiro's head cut off instead. It seemed like a very ... wide cut to decapitate someone. Not that I am a connoisseur of such things” It’s very simple and clear in the book: they WANT Kira to commit seppuku, but he refuses, he is to scared to do it. So they decide to cut his head off instead. Which is apparently, according to some historians, what actually happened.
“But the adaptation is hampered a bit by some pacing issues and a lack of contextual information.”
As I say the pacing is deliberate, there are no mistakes there, it’s just done differently from what these readers seem to be used to. The lack of explanation is also a product of the more poetic approach.
We tried to make a version of the 47 ronin story that was not a 'join the dots' over simplified one. Also to avoid the cliched, hyperbolic, exaggerated style of hollywood… instead to make a version that was stark, ambiguous, subtle. I thought folk would ‘get’ that, but it seems that some don’t, hopefully many do.
Check it out with these thoughts in mind please.
Thanks,
Sean
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