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Garden
A group of friends is attempting to enter a garden just beyond a wall. When they succeed, the garden they finally enter is no Eden, but rather a massive landscape of machines, geometric forms and all manner of nonorganic objects. In Japanese comic-book artist Yuichi Yokoyama's newest and longest (at 328 pages) work of graphic magic, his characters become enmeshed in a fantastic wonderland of distorted mirrors, photographic equipment, massive libraries and complex pathways. To his signature vivid visual style, Yokoyama has added more dialogue than in past works, fleshing out the characters and allowing them equal billing with his spectacular architectural creations, thus yielding a reflection on the myriad ways human interact with the complex mechanical world we have created. Douglas Wolk, writing in the New York Times Book Review, declared that few cartoonists of the moment are "weirder or more original than Yuichi Yokoyama."
328 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 2010
2 people are currently reading
562 people want to read
About the author
Yuichi Yokoyama
25 books68 followersYuichi Yokoyama is a Japanese cartoonist and visual artist.
Yokoyama was born in 1967 in Miyazaki. He graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Musashino Art University in 1990 and initially pursued a career in fine arts.
Towards the end of the 90's Yokoyama turned his focus to manga. His cartooning style, blending modernist abstraction and comics, has been described as "neo-manga". His work has appeared in the alternative magazines Comic Cue, Mizue and Saizô. Among his books are New Engineering (2004), Travel (2006), Garden (2007), Outdoors (2009), Baby Boom (2009), World Map Room (2013), Iceland (2016) and Plaza (2019). Many of his manga have been translated in English and French.
Presently, Yokoyama is also active as a contemporary artist and an illustrator for the press and publishing houses in various countries.
Yokoyama was born in 1967 in Miyazaki. He graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Musashino Art University in 1990 and initially pursued a career in fine arts.
Towards the end of the 90's Yokoyama turned his focus to manga. His cartooning style, blending modernist abstraction and comics, has been described as "neo-manga". His work has appeared in the alternative magazines Comic Cue, Mizue and Saizô. Among his books are New Engineering (2004), Travel (2006), Garden (2007), Outdoors (2009), Baby Boom (2009), World Map Room (2013), Iceland (2016) and Plaza (2019). Many of his manga have been translated in English and French.
Presently, Yokoyama is also active as a contemporary artist and an illustrator for the press and publishing houses in various countries.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
March 19, 2016
A group of friends--humanoids? Oddly and futuristically dressed characters?--clearly in some fantasy of the future, explore a "garden" made of machines, geometric forms and all sorts of objects. Sometimes there are actually flowers and trees, too. But it's mainly a fantasy of a continuous journey into the mind's complex pathways.
Visually, it's mechanical and abstract, black and white drawing. On an emotional continuum of its effects, it would be very cold, definitely not warm. The way I think of it is that it is more like the geometrical Mondrian than the watercolors of Renoir, just to make an obvious contrast. Compared to other works I have read from Yokoyama, it is quite a bit longer, with more dialogue, though whatever the friends say to each other are mostly observations anyone could make themselves of what is going. We don't get to know them, or see them differentiated from each other except in the way they look. They don't give us or each other any insights into what they see, really. But I guess to have Yokoyama have the characters speak to each other about the objects in the garden, it is in a way how people interact with things.
There's really very little in the way of narrative or any of the traditional notions of what one would associate with a graphic "novel," though there is something visually dramatic that happens near the end. Strange and original, this Yokohama. As with his other works, it feels kind of an amazing technical accomplishment, but not something you "like" in the same ways as narratives with interesting characters that develop. It's kind of a mechanical world with very little emotion. But like his other works, Garden kind of stays with you.
Visually, it's mechanical and abstract, black and white drawing. On an emotional continuum of its effects, it would be very cold, definitely not warm. The way I think of it is that it is more like the geometrical Mondrian than the watercolors of Renoir, just to make an obvious contrast. Compared to other works I have read from Yokoyama, it is quite a bit longer, with more dialogue, though whatever the friends say to each other are mostly observations anyone could make themselves of what is going. We don't get to know them, or see them differentiated from each other except in the way they look. They don't give us or each other any insights into what they see, really. But I guess to have Yokoyama have the characters speak to each other about the objects in the garden, it is in a way how people interact with things.
There's really very little in the way of narrative or any of the traditional notions of what one would associate with a graphic "novel," though there is something visually dramatic that happens near the end. Strange and original, this Yokohama. As with his other works, it feels kind of an amazing technical accomplishment, but not something you "like" in the same ways as narratives with interesting characters that develop. It's kind of a mechanical world with very little emotion. But like his other works, Garden kind of stays with you.
December 14, 2019
A work of artistic genius.
September 29, 2014
The other day, while looking down upon a construction site from a bridge, I saw a heap of discarded sections of sod, punctuated by shattered wood pallets and various types of gravel, and it made me think of Yuichi Yokoyama’s Garden. Though it was a meaningless pile of generic rubbish I saw a certain beauty in it. The heap had been carefully shoveled into place, as evidenced by all the smoothed out dirt surrounding it, and being as its components were building and landscaping materials they brought to mind imaginary structures, even as they evinced rubbish and even destruction. There was beauty, structure, destruction, pointlessness, a touch of soulless poignancy, and projected imagination in this heap. These elements are all very much in evidence in Yokoyama’s Garden.
It is the story of a seemingly ever expanding group of friends who enter a closed garden and have one strange encounter after another with things such as rivers, cascading balls, mountains composed of mattresses, artificial trees, organo-mechanical landscapes, etc. It is very much like a Rube Goldberg contraption or Fischli and Weiss’ The Way Things Go, and even Roussel's Impressions of Africa, with its flow and interconnectedness of pure invention. As this ever growing group of friends proceeds further into this dimensionless garden a strange and subtle menace begins to intrude in the form of unidentified observers, as the friends encounter real-time projections of themselves on features of the landscape and piles of photographs of everything they have done up to the very point of finding the photographs. There is also an aura of menace in the friends themselves as while each is radically different (on the surface) from the other – different heads, different hands – each is also little more than automaton, so that as a collective they give the sense of a radically heterogeneous yet ominously homogeneous mob; an idea I found particularly creepy.
Facelessness masquerading as a multitude of different masks, precise beauty wedded to destruction, surveillance, and endlessly self-generating pointless novelty add up to a gripping and disquieting experience that has more than a few echoes in our current culture.
The book ends in a whirring blur of self-referentiality and ever-accelerating destruction.
It is the story of a seemingly ever expanding group of friends who enter a closed garden and have one strange encounter after another with things such as rivers, cascading balls, mountains composed of mattresses, artificial trees, organo-mechanical landscapes, etc. It is very much like a Rube Goldberg contraption or Fischli and Weiss’ The Way Things Go, and even Roussel's Impressions of Africa, with its flow and interconnectedness of pure invention. As this ever growing group of friends proceeds further into this dimensionless garden a strange and subtle menace begins to intrude in the form of unidentified observers, as the friends encounter real-time projections of themselves on features of the landscape and piles of photographs of everything they have done up to the very point of finding the photographs. There is also an aura of menace in the friends themselves as while each is radically different (on the surface) from the other – different heads, different hands – each is also little more than automaton, so that as a collective they give the sense of a radically heterogeneous yet ominously homogeneous mob; an idea I found particularly creepy.
Facelessness masquerading as a multitude of different masks, precise beauty wedded to destruction, surveillance, and endlessly self-generating pointless novelty add up to a gripping and disquieting experience that has more than a few echoes in our current culture.
The book ends in a whirring blur of self-referentiality and ever-accelerating destruction.
March 5, 2018
Part Raymond Roussel in comic form, part Dr. Seuss picturebook for grownups, this is essentially a guided tour through a semi-rationalized dream landscape, and as such is pretty much plotless with thoroughly perfunctory dialogue; despite such caveats, (and the semi-abstract art that borders on the minimal at times) I still found this fascinating. Yokoyama takes banal objects and takes them to pieces, literally and otherwise, transforming these everyday materials into delightfully otherworldly environments that all but beg the reader to come explore them- and indeed, I was often reminded of my own (admittedly far less complex) dreamscapes while reading.
July 18, 2011
I really like his other books of (call 'em) structuralist architectural manga (with occasional fight scenes), but I'm gonna say this is Yokoyama's masterpiece (to date) and the best place to make his introduction. It starts a bit slow but then plunges you into a pleasuredome that rivals the worlds of Raymond Roussel. The introduction of language doesn't puncture the wonderfully inhuman quality of the work, but merely adds clarity to this strange theme park of intoxicating wonders.
August 8, 2011
As with the totally brilliant Travel, Yuichi Yokoyama's world here is almost autistic in its focused, mechanical detailing of variations and possibilities, in this case those offered by an inexplicable "garden" of design concept detritus, an unending architectural sculpture park of impractical ideas. Mirroring the logically-illogical landscape, the group of explorers we follow seem to be a series of incomprehensible variations in their own right, baffling humanoids ranging from the maybe-human to the insane sculpture-bodied airplane-heads and what not. In the mouths of these odd automata, the equivalent of the endnotes of Travel -- mechanical observations and non-explanations. ("There are many moving parts here." "The have the appearance of trees." Possibly it's partly just a matter of freshness, but, despite the greater allure of the unknown here, I think I liked the groundedness and the journey-purpose of Travel rather more. This feels a little less meticulous and focused. But certainly filled with wonders and totally unique.
June 21, 2019
With all the repetitive dialogue it felt like I was being hit in the head with what the visuals were supposed to be rather than letting the graphics speak for themselves. Also due to the seemingly endless movement the pacing seemed rushed.
‘Travel’ is fast paced, but there is an ergency and emotion behind it. In ‘Garden’ it comes off as a novel visual world where the point of view never rests and the observer/reader is just rushed along to view one possibly interesting sight after another without the chance to take any one thing in. It was like sprinting through a museum.
‘Travel’ is fast paced, but there is an ergency and emotion behind it. In ‘Garden’ it comes off as a novel visual world where the point of view never rests and the observer/reader is just rushed along to view one possibly interesting sight after another without the chance to take any one thing in. It was like sprinting through a museum.
November 21, 2015
Enigmatic figures explore the Disney World of conceptual design. The continuing onslaught ofstrange discovery that makes up for a narrative, as well as the unexpected breaks within the usual patterns of the "story" made this an addictive reading experience. Reminded me of Last Year in Marienbad.
October 1, 2019
I love the first sentence of the book's description: 'A group of friends is attempting to enter a garden just beyond a wall'. While this is technically accurate, it drastically understates what is at play here. 'Group' translates to literally hundreds of figures visible at times when the perspective expands outward and upward; 'friends' equals a panoply of humanoids displaying abstract features and body forms including geometric patterns, spheres, numerals, and organic anomalies such as large feathered wings or excessive body hair; and 'garden' means a bizarre and seemingly endless space housing a city and buildings (including a fantastic library), rivers and ponds, abstract landscapes, various types of vehicles, and a park in which each component is mounted on casters for easy rearrangement. The group moves with frenetic spontaneity through this environment, maintaining a running dialogue on what they are seeing and how to interact with it, while issuing warnings and cautionary words to each other during particularly perilous moments. At times they move with almost military unity and precision, driven forward by their collective desire to explore. One figure takes photos throughout, and these photos later on provide glimpses into what happened beyond the confines of the panels. The entire book struck me as an occasionally unsettling celebration of the possibilities inherent in a shared spirit of adventurous imagination, but it was also totally weird and dreamlike.
May 28, 2020
4.5 I liked it a lot more than I did Travel. Mechanical, unemotional, with too much movement and, like Travel, I found it hard to follow at times. BUT the illustrations are hypnotic, futurist-esque (?), and quintessentially Yokoyama's. And the ideas in Garden are so dream-like and weird that it's hard to stop reading.
I especially loved the library bit. I "re-read" that section a few times. I've always loved surreal stories involving books. Like Borges' The Library of Babel and Murakami's The Strange Library.
4.5 because of the ending. Didn't really understand what happened. I'm not sure whether too many people do??? Maybe I'm being unfair. Did I expect a coherent ending after reading and seeing over 300 pgs of nonsensical and surreal ideas and images in a plotless gn? I guess I shouldn't but I still found the ending meh.
I especially loved the library bit. I "re-read" that section a few times. I've always loved surreal stories involving books. Like Borges' The Library of Babel and Murakami's The Strange Library.
4.5 because of the ending. Didn't really understand what happened. I'm not sure whether too many people do??? Maybe I'm being unfair. Did I expect a coherent ending after reading and seeing over 300 pgs of nonsensical and surreal ideas and images in a plotless gn? I guess I shouldn't but I still found the ending meh.
June 14, 2025
This is a brilliant, brilliant piece of visual storytelling, and I will be forever bitter that my university library card expired two weeks before term ended because I had to race through the last hundred pages to dodge late fees, and this is the sort of abstract narrative you really have to soak in. I really admire Yokoyama's refusal to make any aspect of this story definite or fixed - the number of characters changes depending on the size of the panel, and rarely do you see the same face twice. The word 'face' hardly suffices here - there's a brilliant contradiction in the identical proportions of each character versus the dramatic differences in the shapes and features of their heads. They manage to be eerily similar and completely at odds with each other. And yet they traverse their unrecognizable world with almost naive earnest curiosity, never disagreeing or diverging in opinion; they reach a forest in which every tree trunk has been stripped bare and capped at an identical height, and unanimously they begin to climb, for no purpose other than to see what happens next. They reach a library and flick through several books, commenting neutrally on the contents of each. No opinion is shared beyond 'this is too dangerous to crawl through, let's find another route' - they are all equally curious, cautious and adventurous in a way which manages to be oddly endearing despite the characters' lack of individuality. Breakdown Press if you're reading this I would kill for a reissue of any of Yokoyama's works so I don't have to pay £200 for a second-hand copy PLEASE
January 14, 2022
40 or so physically fit friends trespass on a large place full of objects and absurdities. Sometimes hard to tell what’s going on in a panel because of simple lines and close-up images. Humour and fascinating architecture abounds. My favourite aspect is the cooperation between all the the guys on their curious journey.
June 29, 2014
This is my first Yokoyama book. Over 300 pages, but a fast read manga.
I don't get much from it. What look like a small group of friends want to get into a garden. They are told it isn't open, but they find a way in through a crack in the wall. The "garden" is full of constructs, many geometrical.
The group becomes a crowd of hundreds or thousands of "people." There is no leader, none have any consistent personality, and their only purpose seems to be to explore this garden of seemingly infinite dimensions. There are other "beings" in the garden but our crowd wants no interaction, instead hiding from them.
Yokoyama is inventive with his constructs. I was enchanted by his mountain of boats and water, for instance. Yet, there is no point or resolution to this exploration, no indication whether there a difference of proportion that might make some sense and it ends more with a whimper than a bang.
Too bad.
I don't get much from it. What look like a small group of friends want to get into a garden. They are told it isn't open, but they find a way in through a crack in the wall. The "garden" is full of constructs, many geometrical.
The group becomes a crowd of hundreds or thousands of "people." There is no leader, none have any consistent personality, and their only purpose seems to be to explore this garden of seemingly infinite dimensions. There are other "beings" in the garden but our crowd wants no interaction, instead hiding from them.
Yokoyama is inventive with his constructs. I was enchanted by his mountain of boats and water, for instance. Yet, there is no point or resolution to this exploration, no indication whether there a difference of proportion that might make some sense and it ends more with a whimper than a bang.
Too bad.
May 7, 2013
I liked Travel much better. Garden tried to accomplish too much, I think. And the dialogue wasn't very helpful.
December 31, 2023
Well that was certainly a ride.
Garden is a minimal story telling tour through a park filled with mechanical inventions and creations. The sleeve of this graphic novel talks about how the author tries to capture the relationship between humans and our mechanical inventions, and the novel does feel like a fever dream of that.
For me this novel also feels like an exercise in abstract storytelling and art. There is no real narrative in the conventional sense, but it is a very enjoyable ride where you get to enjoy the exhibits through the eyes of those moving through the Garden.
Definitely some interesting artwork and I'm interested in seeing more from this artist.
Garden is a minimal story telling tour through a park filled with mechanical inventions and creations. The sleeve of this graphic novel talks about how the author tries to capture the relationship between humans and our mechanical inventions, and the novel does feel like a fever dream of that.
For me this novel also feels like an exercise in abstract storytelling and art. There is no real narrative in the conventional sense, but it is a very enjoyable ride where you get to enjoy the exhibits through the eyes of those moving through the Garden.
Definitely some interesting artwork and I'm interested in seeing more from this artist.
November 8, 2024
Wow. 🤯
I felt stunned as I out the book down and my first impression is that this is the opposite of Alice in Wonderland where curiosity is rewarded, and yet like Alice, the creativity shown is off the charts. What a masterpiece.
I felt stunned as I out the book down and my first impression is that this is the opposite of Alice in Wonderland where curiosity is rewarded, and yet like Alice, the creativity shown is off the charts. What a masterpiece.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 15, 2021
I recently read Yokoyama’s Travel and felt like that one would have probably benefited from some explanatory text/dialogue to move the story forward. Based on the text in this one, I was clearly wrong. The visuals are creative and really fun but the literal and simplistic text quickly becomes repetitive and monotonous. Still a nice volume to floor though too appreciate the creativity.
November 27, 2015
Despite the middling score I'm giving this, Garden is far from average. I've read a fair share of manga, but have yet to see anything else quite like it, and the atypicalness of the thing makes it difficult to rate.
As for the actual plot: Some characters break into a garden and explore. Granted, it's not a normal garden: instead of trees and various shrubbery there are huge, inorganic structures. But that's it. There's no drama, no mystery, no conflict beyond "how do I cross this river made of balls?" or "why is there a mountain made of glass?". Though the story is barebones (to say the least), the bizarre things that the characters encounter usually provide adequate entertainment. It's clear that the mangaka had a lot of fun coming up with ridiculous buildings and landscapes to fill this book with, and absolutely nothing that pops up is expected.
ART
The illustrations mirror the sparse narrative. Screentones, shading, and anything more than the bare minimum of detailing is almost non-existant, and the clean geometric linework gives the whole thing a sterile feel. The character designs were interesting and extremely varied, perhaps to make up for the characters' lack of personality.
CHARACTERS
Calling anything a 'character' in Garden is a bit of an overstatement. 'Hive mind' would be more appropriate. There are oodles of humanoid… things that wander around occasionally offering opinions, but oftener explanations of their surroundings. Their numbers fluctuate anywhere from five to thousands depending on the situation, and once a character has been shown, they may or may not show up ever again.
OVERALL
The end effect is akin to watching someone else play a videogame. Not one of those story-fueled, action-filled rpgs, though- more something like Katamari Damacy (with a smidge less lunacy). There's no reason to watch/read, you have absolutely no stake in what transpires, and yet it's strangely mesmerizing.
As for the actual plot: Some characters break into a garden and explore. Granted, it's not a normal garden: instead of trees and various shrubbery there are huge, inorganic structures. But that's it. There's no drama, no mystery, no conflict beyond "how do I cross this river made of balls?" or "why is there a mountain made of glass?". Though the story is barebones (to say the least), the bizarre things that the characters encounter usually provide adequate entertainment. It's clear that the mangaka had a lot of fun coming up with ridiculous buildings and landscapes to fill this book with, and absolutely nothing that pops up is expected.
ART
The illustrations mirror the sparse narrative. Screentones, shading, and anything more than the bare minimum of detailing is almost non-existant, and the clean geometric linework gives the whole thing a sterile feel. The character designs were interesting and extremely varied, perhaps to make up for the characters' lack of personality.
CHARACTERS
Calling anything a 'character' in Garden is a bit of an overstatement. 'Hive mind' would be more appropriate. There are oodles of humanoid… things that wander around occasionally offering opinions, but oftener explanations of their surroundings. Their numbers fluctuate anywhere from five to thousands depending on the situation, and once a character has been shown, they may or may not show up ever again.
OVERALL
The end effect is akin to watching someone else play a videogame. Not one of those story-fueled, action-filled rpgs, though- more something like Katamari Damacy (with a smidge less lunacy). There's no reason to watch/read, you have absolutely no stake in what transpires, and yet it's strangely mesmerizing.
September 22, 2011
How to begin discussing this graphic novel? Though admittedly I was ignorant of Japanese reading mechanics - I began reading it in the opposite direction, left to right - I doubt that it would have affected my understanding of Garden. The logical progression from one environment after another, the terse and cursory sentience of the automatons, the tenuous narrative spread among hundreds of characters: I'm still unclear of what I just read. Aesthetically, it's brilliant. Yuichi Yokoyama, to my mind, is a 'fine artist' on par with the best art history cares to remember (I can't help but recall de Chirico's automatons). I would be perfectly content with no dialogue and only drawings. No doubt the narrative leaves one cold and alienated, if the fantastical landscapes and mutated characters weren't enough, but perhaps this is the point. They explore and accept the circumstances unique to their environs, leading a peripatetic journey across each plane, the only desires being of mild curiosity and mild fear. Our existence necessitates muted desires while maintaining our self-preservation as a hazy, yet ever present, afterthought. That nothing really happens - in our own lives, in the lives of the automatons - that we're all just trying to win the race without understanding why. Still, let's eschew narrative furniture in favor of reality.
March 23, 2020
2.5 stars. I had trouble rating this and I loved the ideas the author wants to bring up but I disliked the art and the style of this book.
First off, this is the most bizarre graphic novel I have ever read. And the artwork was in a very interesting style which I wasn't fond of. The premise is that friends want to go and see this garden which to me seems like a museum and are told it is closed so they break in. Inside they find the world of the weird and wonderful shapes buildings and experiences which push them physically and mentally make them question everyone around them. The ending does not show them leaving so I don't even know how they leave. From the artwork and from what is in the "garden" its clear to me that that the author wants us to examine our connection to stuff, technology and nature and how these things shape the order of our world for better or worse.
First off, this is the most bizarre graphic novel I have ever read. And the artwork was in a very interesting style which I wasn't fond of. The premise is that friends want to go and see this garden which to me seems like a museum and are told it is closed so they break in. Inside they find the world of the weird and wonderful shapes buildings and experiences which push them physically and mentally make them question everyone around them. The ending does not show them leaving so I don't even know how they leave. From the artwork and from what is in the "garden" its clear to me that that the author wants us to examine our connection to stuff, technology and nature and how these things shape the order of our world for better or worse.
June 10, 2019
I threw this book halfway across the room a few times because I just didn't "get it", before I finally buckled down and finished it. Turns out there's not much to get. It just "is". It is as modern as modern art gets. Is it art? For sure. Is it enjoyable? Questionable.
It was frustrating to get through, and no real a-ha moment at the end because it just ended with not much explanation. Sort of a long journey through really interesting dreamscapes punctuated by an army of interchangeable humanoid-shaped alien beings.
Oh and when it's said there is no plot... there really, REALLY is no plot. Don't go looking for one. It's not "no plot" like BAD writing might be, but a true, actual void. Which I think is the point. It's enjoyable, in some abstract way, kind of.
It was frustrating to get through, and no real a-ha moment at the end because it just ended with not much explanation. Sort of a long journey through really interesting dreamscapes punctuated by an army of interchangeable humanoid-shaped alien beings.
Oh and when it's said there is no plot... there really, REALLY is no plot. Don't go looking for one. It's not "no plot" like BAD writing might be, but a true, actual void. Which I think is the point. It's enjoyable, in some abstract way, kind of.
March 13, 2012
I really enjoyed this book, because it (to my mind)celebrates the joy of exploration. Although there was no real plot or any character development, the pacing made it feel like an adventure. There were several moments when I turned the page to reveal an unexpected architectural wonder and the characters would seemingly mirror my delight. The artist was able to emphasize these visual moments with a character murmuring "This is wonderful!" or "That is amazing." Those moments helped me to connect to the myriad nameless characters as fellow explorers through the surreal geometric landscape like astronauts on an unknown planet.
February 2, 2013
This book is better approached as an art book that's structured like a manga than a manga proper.
The plot is thin and the hundreds of characters are a hive minded cipher. Plus there are some "no shit" moments in the dialogue (*A large books falls* Character: "The book fell").
That said, that's not really the point of the book. The wonderful and surreal artwork is amazing and at times almost overwhelming. The creativity in the areas of the garden the characters explore is astounding. The designs of the characters are fascinating as well.
This is well worth a read and I'll be checking out more of Yokoyama's work.
The plot is thin and the hundreds of characters are a hive minded cipher. Plus there are some "no shit" moments in the dialogue (*A large books falls* Character: "The book fell").
That said, that's not really the point of the book. The wonderful and surreal artwork is amazing and at times almost overwhelming. The creativity in the areas of the garden the characters explore is astounding. The designs of the characters are fascinating as well.
This is well worth a read and I'll be checking out more of Yokoyama's work.
September 8, 2013
crazy impressive
"When a group of friends decides to enter a garden through a break in an enclosing fence, they find themselves in a world never before imagined. Instead of wandering through a natural landscape, they are in the midst of a fusion of the natural and mechanical, including rivers of slowly moving balls, buildings of finely cut paper, and mountains made of seed bags. As the characters move from one part of the garden to the next, their dialogue is exclusively devoted either to describing matter-of-factly what they see or asking questions about it, questions that are often delightfully unanswered."
"When a group of friends decides to enter a garden through a break in an enclosing fence, they find themselves in a world never before imagined. Instead of wandering through a natural landscape, they are in the midst of a fusion of the natural and mechanical, including rivers of slowly moving balls, buildings of finely cut paper, and mountains made of seed bags. As the characters move from one part of the garden to the next, their dialogue is exclusively devoted either to describing matter-of-factly what they see or asking questions about it, questions that are often delightfully unanswered."
December 29, 2011
Yuichi Yokoyama's "Garden" is an alt-manga with an undeniable, surreal and abstract bent. The book provides a great representation of the common dream experience where one finds themselves in a familiar but bizarre locale and while journeying through the landscape the environment constantly shifts and twists into an ever increasing fantastic setting. The narrative is as simple as a progression through this landscape or can be as confounding and unreal as one would like depending on the depth of interpretation you care to delve into.
January 4, 2012
I think I liked it, though I am not sure what the Hell I just read.
A large group of strange nameless humanoid figures move through a very abstract landscape.
All in black and white.
I am sorry if this is a spoiler because this is a pretty good summation of the entire book.
There were no characters, ...
there was no plot,....
I applaud the strange, unique originality of this book,
though I must admit it seemed kinda pointless.
A large group of strange nameless humanoid figures move through a very abstract landscape.
All in black and white.
I am sorry if this is a spoiler because this is a pretty good summation of the entire book.
There were no characters, ...
there was no plot,....
I applaud the strange, unique originality of this book,
though I must admit it seemed kinda pointless.
June 14, 2015
at times difficult to make sense of both the narrative and the images, but arresting play on perspective, transparency, and distorted perception. a legion of bazaar humanoids walk through an impossibly staged and ever changing landscape, while making obvious statements about the strangeness they encounter. unlike any other work i've ever encountered, and more disorienting than "Travel," another by Yokoyama. the imagination and visual complexity make it worth while, but it is a bit of a chore.
January 3, 2014
An excellent book of alternative manga in which a mass of people take an unauthorized tour of a "garden"--a sprawling, county-sized area of glass mountains, plastic trees, artificial lakes and rivers, houses on casters, and dozens of other strange feats of architecture, urban planning, and technology. The variations on these themes seem endless and the book ends, appropriately enough, inconclusively: it just stops. Yokoyama's page layouts, draftsmanship, and imagination are wonder-inducing.
January 4, 2019
This is difficult to rate.
I especially liked the passage with the library, and the part about the garden within the garden. After reading it (and having also just started Marie Kondo's book - I never would've expected to make a connection between these two books, yet here we are) I feel more conscious about the way I interact with the objects, buildings, and landscapes surrounding me.
I would love to see this book in full colour.
I especially liked the passage with the library, and the part about the garden within the garden. After reading it (and having also just started Marie Kondo's book - I never would've expected to make a connection between these two books, yet here we are) I feel more conscious about the way I interact with the objects, buildings, and landscapes surrounding me.
I would love to see this book in full colour.
October 2, 2013
?
I think if you took drugs and perhaps walked into a modern art museum, this is what you would experience while tripping out. there is no plot, just tons of odd structures within the book up for interpretation. very strange but imaginative piece of...manga. this Garden is more of a piece of art rather than a manga which is why I'm not sticking this on my comic shelf.
I think if you took drugs and perhaps walked into a modern art museum, this is what you would experience while tripping out. there is no plot, just tons of odd structures within the book up for interpretation. very strange but imaginative piece of...manga. this Garden is more of a piece of art rather than a manga which is why I'm not sticking this on my comic shelf.
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