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dereksilva's review
informative
slow-paced
3.5
I didn't know anything about kamishibai going into this book, so it was highly educational for me. This book is worth the read based on the images alone. It's very interesting to see kamishibai images and stories from as far back as the 1930s. However, the author's writing was not great. The same sentences seemed repeated in multiple places, the order of explanations was weird, and the overall layout was off. For example, sometimes a page would end in the middle of sentence and the next five pages would be a series of full-page images showing a kamishibai story that was mentioned a bit earlier or would be mentioned a bit later.
dee2799d's review
2.0
Not so sure how I feel about this. On one hand, this is a whole new area of illustrative storytelling for me and it was nice to read about kamishibaiya AND see illustrations along with the general idea of the stories they came from. (Pop culture galore!)
On the other hand, 'doujinshi' (as in self-published manga) was listed in the glossary as 'coujinshi'. 'Uncle Kamishibai' was translated as 'Ojisan Kamishibai' instead of 'Kamishibai-ojisan' (honorifics come after??). Too many references to existing Western pop literature and comics WITHOUT going in-depth about how Western art and literature has influenced the art of Kamishibai in Japan. I'm not asking for in-depth analysis, it's a coffee table book, after all and it's mostly illustrations, BUT I would like to read more than 'This illustration is reminiscent of so-and-so's Spiderman comics during this particular time period'.
What does that even mean? Are the elements similar because one of them inspired the other? (Actually kinda getting the feeling of 'Lots of this came from Western ideas and aesthetics.' with the suggestion of 'The West did it first.' And that's kinda irritating?)
It's like a whole bunch of statements without supportive argument. Idk.
All in all, probably a good introduction to the whole art of illustrative storytelling in Japan. I just don't feel like it's comprehensive enough or researched very well. Sorry.
On the other hand, 'doujinshi' (as in self-published manga) was listed in the glossary as 'coujinshi'. 'Uncle Kamishibai' was translated as 'Ojisan Kamishibai' instead of 'Kamishibai-ojisan' (honorifics come after??). Too many references to existing Western pop literature and comics WITHOUT going in-depth about how Western art and literature has influenced the art of Kamishibai in Japan. I'm not asking for in-depth analysis, it's a coffee table book, after all and it's mostly illustrations, BUT I would like to read more than 'This illustration is reminiscent of so-and-so's Spiderman comics during this particular time period'.
What does that even mean? Are the elements similar because one of them inspired the other? (Actually kinda getting the feeling of 'Lots of this came from Western ideas and aesthetics.' with the suggestion of 'The West did it first.' And that's kinda irritating?)
It's like a whole bunch of statements without supportive argument. Idk.
All in all, probably a good introduction to the whole art of illustrative storytelling in Japan. I just don't feel like it's comprehensive enough or researched very well. Sorry.
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