Блуждающий остров, том 2

Wandering Island #2

by Kenji Tsuruta, 鶴田謙二

Микуре наконец-то удаётся вычислить положение Электрического острова, и она устремляется туда на своём гидроплане. Вместе с верным котом Индевором она оказывается на извилистых и пустынных улочках, а местное население почему-то настроено совсем недружелюбно. Все попытки Микуры доставить посылку загадочной Амелии оборачиваются неудачей, так как никто из обитателей острова не желает о ней говорить. Какие тайны они скрывают? И куда дрейфует Электрический остров?

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Japan, Japanese Literature, Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2017

About the author

Kenji Tsuruta (in Japanese, 鶴田謙二) is a Japanese manga artist. Among his most famous works is the science fiction series Spirit of Wonder, which has been adapted into an anime series and brought him much acclaim.

During his years in university as a student of optical science, Tsuruta, initially wanting to be a photographer, encountered works of Yukinobu Hoshino, which had inspired him to create manga. Soon after graduating, he wrote numerous dōjinshi and was an assistant to many manga artists, prior to making his debut as a professional manga artist in 1986.

Tsuruta received the 31st, 32nd, and 44th Seiun Awards for outstanding artist of the year in 2000, 2001, and in 2013. He also received the Hayakawa Award for best illustrator in 2000.

Reviews

[Artemy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly silent 200 pages of an almost naked girl wandering around a mostly empty, lifeless island makes for a very hollow read. What even is this series? I have no idea, and I'm not sure the author does, either. At least this was a quick read.

[Pop Bop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Expressive and Atmospheric

So, I may be in the minority, but it sometimes seems to me that words, especially in graphic novels, are overrated. This graphic novel has only a few bits of dialogue and a handful of fragmentary comments, but it struck me as both fascinating and engaging.

Our heroine, Mikura Amelia, is on a quest to deliver a package to someone on the Wandering Island. She makes it to the Island, goes exploring, and seems about to experience some sort of revelation about the Island when this Volume 2 concludes. Volume 3 is apparently in the works and will arrive eventually. Most middle books are disappointing placeholders, and it struck me as rather clever to embrace that neither here-nor-there middle child problem and just go for mood, hints, and vague promises of more to come.

Of course, that wouldn't be nearly enough if the images were just static or boring or bland. But, this is storytelling through sequential art, and there's a lot of story to absorb if you're open to it. Mikura is rendered remarkably expressively, and her confusion, doubt, annoyance, impatience, and conflict play our clearly on her face and in her physical attitude. Much more satisfying, actually, than narration or some balky attempt at internal monologue.

But that aside, the Wandering Island is rendered in great and mysteriously compelling detail. While the style and purpose of the art is entirely different, I kept thinking of the odd and foreign and yet alluring scenes I remember from that classic video adventure "Myst". These drawings are black and white, with little reliance on too much ink, but you can feel the heat, the white light, and the desolation of this almost hypnotically severe abandoned place.

So, light on the usual staples of graphic novel storytelling, this still ended up being an enjoyable and memorable experience. I would expect Volume 3 to pick up the story now that we have the mood so deeply etched, but I guess time will tell on that.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

[Karlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m blown away by this series! The minimal dialogue and detailed pictures work together nicely and the story is slow but fits with the relaxed lifestyle of living on an island. I’ll probably have to wait 4+ years for the next volume to come out, but I’m so happy I have this in my collection.

[Joe Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again a beautiful package with just as beautiful art. A couple of more questions answered, but many remain.
The only real negative is that it was a quick read, I finished it before I finished my cup of coffee.
Interesting essay from Dark Horse that explains Japanese Comics' publishing history/practices both in the States and in Japan. Also, the essay goes into how volume 2 of this manga came to be. An interesting read.

[Walkíria · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting plot but it was too fast paced, a lot of things weren't mentioned or got confusing. I guess I'll try again later to try to understand more about it.
I wish there were more chapters like Emanom....

[scylla ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

j'en ai marre, il peut finir les mangas qu'il sort ouuuuu il est maudit ?
j'aime trop l'ambiance du manga (comme pour emanon) j'ai grave envie de connaître la suite, c'est tellement frustrant

[Wally Xie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a sucker for adventure stories involving discovery of some lost land or island. Consequently, Wandering Island by Kenji Tsuruta may be my favorite manga in a while. The narrative involves a woman named Mikura who pilots an airmail delivery service in a charming biplane to serve communities scattered across Japan's more remote islands in the Pacific Ocean. Mikura becomes wrapped up in an obsession to find a mirage island in the Pacific Ocean that her grandfather sighted years ago called the Electric Island.

The story is fairly simple, but well-executed up to the current Volume 2. Mikura has an energetic, engaging disposition that puts a big smile on my face. I'm a big fan of Kenji Tsuruta's art -- he draws very warm and vibrant characters. Mikura's character design goes with her personality. He's made the island villages and towns look so charming I'm actually now dreaming of a trip to visit those Japanese islands at some point. The first volume ends with actually a fairly educational afterward about those Japanese islands from Dark Horse.

I have a pretty amorphous and varied taste in manga. FYI, my favorite series include Children of the Sea, Blame, A Distant Neighborhood, Mushi-shi, Nausicaa, Gon, and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (Gon being the non-seinen exception here), so while those are pretty different from Wandering Island, if you're not a big fan of some of them, perhaps that can be informative. I suppose an underlying thread connecting all of those previous works is a sense of wonder and discovery, and that's a feeling I'm always chasing as I'm reading manga. Wandering Island is my favorite combo of art, character, and narrative I've read in a manga in a while. As a heads up, I'm cool with seeing more "natural" and "functional" under-dressed-ness and nudity in characters (of any gender) and did not find Mikura's traipsing about in a bikini to be erotic or distracting, but I can see how others may find her portrayal too fanservicey or somewhat sexist.

Dark Horse has released two English-translated volumes so far, pretty solidly constructed books with durable paperback covers. It's just unfortunate that the first volume is already out of print. Lately, Dark Horse seems to have been doing pretty small print runs, which I understand, but it means that things can get hard to find even in just 3 - 4 months, as is the case with the Blade of the Immortal omnibuses.

Anyhow, I highly recommend Wandering Island! My closest comparison to Wandering Island may actually be the late Jiro Taniguchi's "The Walking Man." There is a lot of wordless walking and observation from Mikura's point of view that makes for a relaxing read. Kenji Tsuruta is a really underrated mangaka who is a case of quality over output quantity. Other previous notable works of his include Omoide Emanon (Memories of Emanon, also recently licensed by Dark Horse) and the long out-of-print Spirit of Wonder.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first book in this series was magnificent, a impactful story of a young woman pushing to fulfill a final promise to her grandfather and using her wits to discover a mythical lost island. Really, that should've been the end of the story. She's set off to honor her final promise, but we got this sequel, where she arrives on the lost island and mostly wanders around a semi-deserted city. The art's mostly solid, but there's no story and nothing to compel the protagonist or the reader.

[nelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't get over how beautiful the art style is! And why has this have to end on a cliffhanger?! Now I'll have to wait what? 3 years? 5 years? More? for the next volume.....

[Tien · Rating 5 out of 5]

No volume 3 yet!?

[Paul Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I may be in the minority, but it sometimes seems to me that words, especially in graphic novels, are overrated. This graphic novel has only a few bits of dialogue and a handful of fragmentary comments, but it struck me as both fascinating and engaging.

Our heroine, Mikura Amelia, is on a quest to deliver a package to someone on the Wandering Island. She makes it to the Island, goes exploring, and seems about to experience some sort of revelation about the Island when this Volume 2 concludes. Volume 3 is apparently in the works and will arrive eventually. Most middle books are disappointing placeholders, and it struck me as rather clever to embrace that neither here-nor-there middle child problem and just go for mood, hints, and vague promises of more to come.

Of course, that wouldn't be nearly enough if the images were just static or boring or bland. But, this is storytelling through sequential art, and there's a lot of story to absorb if you're open to it. Mikura is rendered remarkably expressively, and her confusion, doubt, annoyance, impatience, and conflict play our clearly on her face and in her physical attitude. Much more satisfying, actually, than narration or some balky attempt at internal monologue.

But that aside, the Wandering Island is rendered in great and mysteriously compelling detail. While the style and purpose of the art is entirely different, I kept thinking of the odd and foreign and yet alluring scenes I remember from that classic video adventure "Myst". These drawings are black and white, with little reliance on too much ink, but you can feel the heat, the white light, and the desolation of this almost hypnotically severe abandoned place.

So, light on the usual staples of graphic novel storytelling, this still ended up being an enjoyable and memorable experience. I would expect Volume 3 to pick up the story now that we have the mood so deeply etched, but I guess time will tell on that.

[Doc · Rating 4 out of 5]

On course to new discoveries!

I see some people complaining about this book and that is fair because this book is not really a typical volume you might find put out regularly with few words making it a super easy read but in my mind this book is less about character development and more about transitioning from an average life to one explorers can only dream of (even if the city itself is not exactly high fantasy or science.) As always with Kenji Tsuruta don't be surprised by nudity that shows up in the story from time to time but don't forget to look at the pages as you make your way through the book. If you sped through it on the first read crack it open again and really take your time to appreciate all the small details within as the protagonist of our story uses her smarts to reach her goal just to be road blocked by the mysterious mostly elderly residents of the mobile island she finds herself upon.

Of course after the manga we get another aftermath (this time also mentioning the differences between manga publications versus single comic releases) but this one is 7 pages long so if you want insight on the volume (or just want to hear how the folks at Darkhorse created the book as well as some tidbits connected to the manga then by all means have fun reading. Ultimately it shouldn't affect your reading of the manga unless you discover things you did not notice before. Now if only Kenji Tsuruta were better at releasing volumes. :)

[Gabriel Benitez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mikura logra encontrar a la isla errante y llegar a ella. La isla es en su totalidad un pueblo estilo italo-mediterraneo. Espero que eso de la idea de lo que quiero decir: edificios de varias plantas, callejuelas de piedra, casas de dos aguas que parecen ascender construidas no sobre una colina, sino sobre ellas mismas, y en la parte superior, una construcción con una torre de aguja que parece casi una iglesia.
Para su sorpresa, el pueblo se encuentra casi abandonado y es un verdadero laberinto. Ahora, Mikura, con su avión descompuesto, deberá planear su vida ahí.
Me gustaría advertirles que este es un comic hermoso, pero es básicamente visual. Está hecho para transmitir una sensación de sosiego y tranquilidad, sentir la brisa del mar, y el paso lento del tiempo. Así que no van a encontrar un desarrollo muy extenso de la trama. Es básicamente un comic muy zen, para sentarse a observar los detalles de las viñetas, la arquitectura de los edificios y transportarte a esos escenarios mediterraneos de cielos azules y mares del mismo color.
En otras palabras, no es una historieta para todos.
La mala noticia: Yo pensaba que era un historia completa en dos números, pero no es así. Acaba en continuará y quién sabe cuando saldrá la siguiente recopilación.
Pero vaya que vale la pena.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I'm ever going to get over the art in this volume. There is so little dialogue to move the story along, and yet I feel like the imagery alone is enough to tell just how rich and evolving the story itself is becoming.

Picking up from the previous volume, Mikura has finally found Electric Island through much persistence, hard work and ingenuity, and yet... and yet. Clearly something isn't what it seems, and that's when the story really starts to pick up. I'm absolutely in love with this volume, and it ends on such a quiet little cliffhanger that I really need more sometime soon. I'm going to be keeping my eye out for if/when Tsuruta continues on with this series, because I am starting to just get really invested, and I would love to see what happens next.

If you were unsure about picking up this title, I'm here now and begging you to please give Wandering Island a shot. So much of this series is more about the art and the way the story is told through it than it is through dialogue, and I think the experience of reading it is all the richer for that reason.

[Deep · Rating 5 out of 5]

To me, manga has always held a special place. It evokes something magical and enchanting, residing in the twilight zone between the audio-visual medium and texts. Yet, it harbours a certain essence in those black and white panels that lacks in other forms of graphic art. It is a feat of passion, the fervour of a mangaka.

For me, the perfect manga is what resembles a Sunday morning, a brisk spring, a passing breeze—an affair of nostalgic summer evenings.

Kenji Tsuruta, who has also authored the phenomenal ‘Emanon,’ achieves this with ‘Wandering Island,’ rightfully encapsulating these elements that ultimately aim to unsettle the rigid foundations of reality. The story seems obviously inspired by the adventures of Amelia Earhart, Dutch expeditions, and the beauty of Mont Saint-Michel.

It is a tale of bygone days, a letter from the forgotten past, a memory that we may have never had—an adventure that is better left unfinished.

[miha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zelo mi je blo všeč pismo urednika na koncu, je naredilo strip še bolj zanimiv z vsemi detaili in zgodovinsko podlago - avtor je veliko raziskal o letalih in otokih in zgodovini. Drugače bi se mi samo zdel zelo lepo, detailno zrisan strip z glavno junakinjo, pilotko, ki išče nek skrivnostni otok in je veliko narisana v kopalkah :)

Zelo skrivnostno se konča, pokaže kot da prepozna neke ljudi na otoku, a jih mi ne vidimo v obraz. Se mi kar zdi da zna bit, če bo kdaj nadaljeval z zgodbo, kakšno časovno potovanje, kakšni portali izven časa, da je pršla nazaj v zgodovino, al pa da na otoku poteka čas drugače... Me kr zanima kaj bo.

Mi je pa fino k v opisu urednika na koncu naredi reklamo za drugo serijo, ki se je tudi že lotevam prebirat :) + vse o tem kako deluje manga založništvo na japonskem - zelo zanimivo. 1000 stranski mesečni manga magazini.

[Leggeremale · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 / 5

Per la recensione del primo volume clicca qui

La narrazione riprende esattamente da dove l'abbiamo lasciata alla fine del primo volume. Non mi dilungo troppo a parlare di storia e delle bellissime illustrazioni, l'ho già fatto nella recensione del primo, quindi sarebbe una ripetizione -e un mezzo spoiler-.

La storia qui è molto più facile da seguire, ci sono meno salti temporali ed è tutto bene o male abbastanza lineare.
Il finale poi.... avevo letto su internet che era una storia in due volumi. BEH NON LO È. E questo mi fa arrabbiare. Perché adesso voglio assolutamente sapere come finisce.

[Alten · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than anything, this manga creates a feeling. And this is something that you as a reader might appreciate or not. There is very little dialog and the story could probably fit on a post-it. But the drawings are magnificent and Kenji Tsuruta's style and ability to show an interesting perspective or frame reminds one of the finest cinematographers. Super-thin outlines come with very expressionistic and rough brush strokes. The depiction of light reflections in the water, the architectural features of the "wandering island" and the female beauty of the protagonist are just stunning. And so is Tsuruta's sense for subtle visual poetry.

[Mark Robison · Rating 2 out of 5]

That cover art ... sigh. Just look at it. The interior art isn't great either, nowhere near as good as in Volume 1. The book also has a lackluster, mostly wordless story that feels like the boring interlude between an intriguing opening volume and the as-yet-unwritten concluding volume(s) about a young woman tracking down a mysterious island in Japan's archipelago that seems to be inhabited by people from ... Denmark? I still like the cat named Endeavor, but even he doesn't get much interesting to do beyond wander a mostly vacant stone city that reminded me of a more vertical Venice.

[afton · Rating 3 out of 5]

unfortunately, this is not a two volume series like i initially thought, but i will keep my eye out for future volumes, whenever they may come. there was something missing with this volume, and it wasn’t the dialogue. i actually really like that there isn’t much dialogue in this story, but something was lacking. a part of me was hoping that there was a slight horror or more dark twist to the story, but i doubt that there’s going to be a really dark theme in the future. this inhabitants of this city are definitely more odd

[David Allen Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this manga, but it’s probably not for everyone. It’s a bit slow and neither vol one or two have definitive ending.

Whether there will be a volume three is anyone’s guess. But that’s fine with me. A cliffhanger doesn’t spoil my fun. I like not knowing how things absolutely end.

Same review for Volume one and two. A five four what’s there, and a four because it’s basically an unfinished story which might irk some people.

Good stuff.

Art is great

[azu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il ne passe pas grand chose dans ce deuxième tome, Mikura explorant petit à petit Electriciteit et se heurte à ses habitants pour le moins hostiles.

Peu de dialogues, mais la beauté des pages parle d'elle-même. J'ai hâte d'en savoir plus sur les mystères de cet île errante, mais je sens qu'il va falloir s'armer de patience !

[David Doel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is volume 2 of the series Wandering Island; I read volume 1 before joining Goodreads. Both volumes are beautifully illustrated -- the story is told primarily through the illustrations. Volume 2 was released 2.5 years after volume 1. There will be at least a volume 3. I highly recommend this series -- as my son would say, I'm likely to reread this in the future.

[kaitlphere · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's not a ton of action in this one, but Endeavor the cat the there the whole time and the art is stunning. There's a bit of a cliffhanger at the end that has me looking forward to the next volume.

I highly recommend reading the back matter. The creator used a mix of old Dutch and old Japanese in the signage that lends to the mystery of the island.

[Erik Jay Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpected Dutch heritage connection ahoy in Japan.

[Jesse Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even better than the first volume.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book feels like a tribute to an amazing girl and some very distinct architecture. The girl appears in almost every frame and you see her in many poses. It feels like a character study.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enigma

Enigmatic story of a young girl searching for a elusive roving Pacific island in order to deliver an old package via a Biplane Sea Plane. Mysterious!

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 1 was better but I’m curious to see what happens in volume 3.

[Jane Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really, really nice art.