Reviews

Johnny Hiro by Fred Chao

saidtheraina's review

4.0

Dude. People.

This.

All this needs is just to turn It Up A NOTCH and I would be blown away by the spectacular.
As it is, it's REALLY really good.

It took me a second to get it, to mentally slide into this ride. But once I did, oh man.

Here's the deal:

Spoiler

Crazy things involving monsters happen all the time (in New York). The government just covers it up.

Once Johnny and his girlfriend Mayumi find this out, they start encountering epic adventures everywhere. Many of which involve Johnny running away.
In their "normal" lives, Johnny works for a sushi restaurant, and wants to work his way up from dishman to someone who gets to actually touch raw fish. Mayumi works as an editor for a publishing house. They occasionally run into celebrities

Spoiler

(David Byrne shows up a time or two)

.

Great concept, great execution. You can tell Chao is smart. He does great little asides (particularly when he portrays something inaccurately), and I ADORE the way he introduces a new apartment. These feel like real people, just with a few monsters thrown in.

The downsides:
1. Not in color (OMG if it was!)
2. Doesn't pass the Bechdel test (correct me if I'm wrong)

I will DEFINITELY be keeping an eye out for more Fred Chao stuff, and dreaming/hoping/wishing for the day he writes something All Ages so I can promote it to my kids.

gimchi's review against another edition

2.0

i wanted to like this more than i did. maybe it's because i don't live in new york, or maybe it's because i don't care about celebrities that occasionally make appearances (though the night court bit was a little cute) - either way, this just never grabbed me.

sizrobe's review against another edition

2.0

Meh. It bothered me that the author constantly inserted celebrities. I'm pretty sure he has no legitimate ties with people like Alton Brown and Judge Judy

christythelibrarian's review

4.0

Fred Chao’s graphic novel, Johnny Hiro, is a wonderful blend of action-adventure, everyday trials, and the absurd. When Johnny and his girlfriend Mayumi’s apartment is destroyed by Gozadilla, they not only have to triumph over the giant lizard, but they also have to deal with their landlord who sues them for the damages. Further adventures find Johnny and Mayumi trying to please their bosses at work, enjoy a trip to the opera while dodging a group of samurai, and make some time to see each other. The humor comes through in both the drawing and the dialogue. I also enjoyed the bizarre cameos by celebrities such as David Byrne, Mayor Bloomberg and Gwen Stefani.

library_hungry's review against another edition

4.0

This book is adorable. Johnny Hiro is a busboy at a sushi restaurant; he's got a great girlfriend but they're barely making ends meet. But Hiro is the kind of guy things happen to--things like a giant monster yanking your girlfriend out the bedroom window, or a platoon of angry samurai chasing you through an opera house. Each issue is a romp, and the cameos are hilarious (Alton Brown babbling in the footnotes about the sushi offerings; Judge Judy and the cast of Night Court dealing with the case between Hiro and his landlord; Mayor Bloomberg saving the day), but the real meat of the series is how normal life can just be wearing, and how we can create our own drama or create our own joy, and we're doing both, all the time.