Howl's Moving Castle Film Comic, Volumes 1-4
668 pages in all
published by VIZ Media LLC in 2005
Sophie is a quiet and shy girl working in his late father's hat shop.
But one day everything changes: she meet a mysterious young man, is
chased by some black creatures and finally displease Witch of the Waste,
who transform her into a old woman. Sophie can't stay at home any more,
so she have to try her wings and venture into the big strange world.
Soon she find herself in a moving castle of wizard Howl, who is rumoured
to eat a hearts of the young and beautiful women. How can Sophie break
the curse? And what is the secret contract between Howl and the fire
demon Calcifer?
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| An example of mangas screens |
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The story in question is the plot of Diana Wynne Jones' novel
Howl's Moving Castle, which Hayao Miyazaki adapted in to an anime film, which became manga. Whereas anime take some liberties concerning the novel(not
necessary bad ones), manga is almost fiercely loyal to the anime.
Althought I usually like adaption that follow the original source for a
certain extend, in this one I find it slightly annoying. The fault is
not in the story line (which is the same as in the anime), it is more in
the visual presentation: every screen is straight from the film. I have
to admit it looks pretty cool, but the annoying part is that the
similarities doesn't end there. Manga is clearly trying to mirror the
rhythm of the film, but it ends up becoming just small screens with just
slight differences in them (like characters turn or sit), which is
really irritating, because all the details stuffed into them makes them
seem like find-10-differences pictures. That made me skip almost whole
pages, where practically nothing happened.
Another annoying detail
was imagery of sounds. I don't know is it the same in the English
version (I read them in Finnish), but the translator had been lazy and
left them in their original Japanese form. Nothing doesn't break your
reading rhythm better than an unintelligible scribble over an otherwise
beautiful picture.
I highly recommend that if you are interested
of story would rather pick up the novel or the anime. They honor the
story way better.
Mark: 6
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