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jamsreadsbooks 's review for:
Manga Classics: Pride & Prejudice
by Po Tse, Stacy King
Disclaimer: Received a copy for free from NetGalley
To start I’d just like to say that I really like the idea of adapting classics to manga. I think it’s a creative way to make older books more accessible to younger generations. While the concept is great, I’m not sure how I feel about the results.
mangaclassicsprideandprejudice1One of the glaring issues with this adaptation is how much of the important details and narration are left out, with the manga only skimming the story. You don’t really get much of Elizabeth’s monologue and all character development is pretty much lost. For a classic that is largely character driven this makes for a very poor adaptation.
You have Mr. Darcy talking trash about Elizabeth on one page and just a few panels later he’s madly in love with her. There was hardly any transition, with Darcy seeming to only change his mind after he noticed how pretty she was. Elizabeth’s cleverness is largely left out until the very end. Some of the characters are given more humorous manga expressions, in particular Mrs. Bennett and Mr. Collins, that make their characters quite comical. At first I found them to be humorous, particularly with Mrs. Bennett. On the other hand with Mr. Collins I just never found him to be a funny character at all from the book, which made it so awkward that he was a lovable goofball in the manga. He reminded me of Umino, or Melvin, from the Sailor Moon series. The less serious representations of these characters I think take away a little bit from their roles in the story overall, with both of them being reduced to comic relief.
The book starts off quite well, but the story becomes rather muddled and is shortened through most of it. The ending however is satisfying and it picks up the manga just a little bit. This adaptation managed to keep most of the important plot lines from the original which I appreciated and I think the most important part. I just wish that more could have been done to keep the story flowing nicely and characters developing as they should instead of having such drastic changes of character without any warning or changes in their personal story.
The style is lovely and drawn quite well. Everything is just so… So ROSEY, which kind of made me chuckle given the subject matter. It’s fitting and has that tiny bit of cheese to it that makes it agreeable. The characters features are a bit awkward and stiff at times, and the overly huge anime eyes could be a little bit off putting. Along with the comical portrayals of Mr. Collins and Mrs. Darcy, both of them are often drawn in a chibi or other humorous style. This I also found to be grating after a while. It somehow made Mr. Collins likable which I feel defeats the purpose of his character a little. In spite of my complaints, I found the art to be one of the highlights of the manga.
To start I’d just like to say that I really like the idea of adapting classics to manga. I think it’s a creative way to make older books more accessible to younger generations. While the concept is great, I’m not sure how I feel about the results.
mangaclassicsprideandprejudice1One of the glaring issues with this adaptation is how much of the important details and narration are left out, with the manga only skimming the story. You don’t really get much of Elizabeth’s monologue and all character development is pretty much lost. For a classic that is largely character driven this makes for a very poor adaptation.
You have Mr. Darcy talking trash about Elizabeth on one page and just a few panels later he’s madly in love with her. There was hardly any transition, with Darcy seeming to only change his mind after he noticed how pretty she was. Elizabeth’s cleverness is largely left out until the very end. Some of the characters are given more humorous manga expressions, in particular Mrs. Bennett and Mr. Collins, that make their characters quite comical. At first I found them to be humorous, particularly with Mrs. Bennett. On the other hand with Mr. Collins I just never found him to be a funny character at all from the book, which made it so awkward that he was a lovable goofball in the manga. He reminded me of Umino, or Melvin, from the Sailor Moon series. The less serious representations of these characters I think take away a little bit from their roles in the story overall, with both of them being reduced to comic relief.
The book starts off quite well, but the story becomes rather muddled and is shortened through most of it. The ending however is satisfying and it picks up the manga just a little bit. This adaptation managed to keep most of the important plot lines from the original which I appreciated and I think the most important part. I just wish that more could have been done to keep the story flowing nicely and characters developing as they should instead of having such drastic changes of character without any warning or changes in their personal story.
The style is lovely and drawn quite well. Everything is just so… So ROSEY, which kind of made me chuckle given the subject matter. It’s fitting and has that tiny bit of cheese to it that makes it agreeable. The characters features are a bit awkward and stiff at times, and the overly huge anime eyes could be a little bit off putting. Along with the comical portrayals of Mr. Collins and Mrs. Darcy, both of them are often drawn in a chibi or other humorous style. This I also found to be grating after a while. It somehow made Mr. Collins likable which I feel defeats the purpose of his character a little. In spite of my complaints, I found the art to be one of the highlights of the manga.