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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is a very quiet, slice of life graphic novel about the residents of a boarding house in Japan. The two boys are from Japan, but the three girls are from Singapore, South Korea, and the U.S. I absolutely loved the way different languages were handled in this book. They're printed in the original language with the English translation underneath dependent on how much the character understands. It's really fascinating to watch the main character, who was born in Japan and raised in the U.S., start off only catching a few words of Japanese and then being relatively fluent by the end.
This book just wasn’t for me. I had a hard time following the storylines and the dialogue. I DNF halfway through
4.5/5
This is a really beautiful book about human communication and forging connections through cultural and language barriers. I loved the way the dialogue is presented not just in English, but also in the native speakers’ language. This book and it’s characters felt so real, more real than honestly most things I’ve read in a while. Bravo to the author! The art is great too and I love the manga-esc comedic faces and panels.
My only complaints are:
I wanted more at the end!! It’s so abrupt!
I wish we had more Masaki development I feel like he’s almost a stranger until like the very end, and even then we barely know him. Which is weird because everyone else feels so real.
Highly recommended and a must read for anyone going to spend a significant amount of time abroad or if you know/live with people of other nations and cultures!
This is a really beautiful book about human communication and forging connections through cultural and language barriers. I loved the way the dialogue is presented not just in English, but also in the native speakers’ language. This book and it’s characters felt so real, more real than honestly most things I’ve read in a while. Bravo to the author! The art is great too and I love the manga-esc comedic faces and panels.
My only complaints are:
I wanted more at the end!! It’s so abrupt!
I wish we had more Masaki development I feel like he’s almost a stranger until like the very end, and even then we barely know him. Which is weird because everyone else feels so real.
Highly recommended and a must read for anyone going to spend a significant amount of time abroad or if you know/live with people of other nations and cultures!
it was cute :) 3.75 stars i liked it. everyone’s personal stories and experiences were nice to learn about and see them not necessarily overcome them but come to terms with them. if that makes sense
In this excellent graphic novel, Becker captures both the joys and challenges of being a young person in strange settings. Nao, a student who was born in Japan but has spent most of her life in the United States, travels to her home country in hopes of reconnecting with her past, while brushing up on her Japanese. At the shared house, she meets other men and women who also are trying to find their places in the world through studying languages and learning Asian cooking. You'll quickly become engrossed in this great snapshot of life in Japan and learn about the family ties and missed connections all the young people face. -- Louisa A.
Made me laugh, cry, and inspired me to want to write comics again. I read They Called Us Enemy last year and thought it was incredible, and once again Harmony Becker has outdone herself— not only as an artist this time, but as a writer. This book has touched me deeply and is definitely one of my favourite reads of the year so far.
This one now belongs in that rare category of books I loved even MORE on the second read. It captivated me the first time with the stunning artwork—not just on a level of technical prowess and distinctive voice, but also the author’s sheer genius at mixing up different genres/styles of art (realism, manhua, CK drama), often in a single panel, to evoke mood in brilliant ways. I loved the story and characters and the authentic nostalgia and melancholy that slowly build. There’s also a palpable sense of place; I can feel winter, summer, and spring in Japan waft up through these pages. But the real magic happened for me when I recently reread it a few days ago. The book hadn’t changed, but in the time since my first reading I had, through three months of living in Taiwan last year in a shared flat very similar to Nao’s. I was not prepared for how this book would unlock all these doors of memory and nostalgia and emotion within me from that time in my life. Every page felt like an emotional time machine, and that’s a testament to how true the author’s portrayal is of being caught between languages, straddling identities, acquainting yourself in a land that is not yours, finding friendship in unexpected places, and not realizing just how much you’ve experienced and grown until you are far removed from that chapter in your life. I’m looking forward to pulling this one off my shelf in the years ahead, not just so I can once again find myself in Nao’s story, but so I can revisit my own and the person I was in that time.
Such a beautiful story about friendship, family, and culture. Well worth the read.