The Manga Biography of Kenji Miyazawa

Bit of an obscure one this.

As the title indicates, this is a manga biography of Kenji Miyazawa, famous Japanese author and poet.  It’s not really a book made for entertainment purposes, but more an accessible visual description of the more significant instances of Miyazawa’s life.   In all honesty I don’t feel qualified to talk much about this one as I’ve never read any of the author’s works, but as no one else has really written much about this book either it seems a shame to ignore entirely.

Basically all I’m saying is that this book exists, and that I approve of publishers taking on titles from off the beaten track.  It’s obviously recommended for Miyazawa completists who don’t mind the simple yet charming depictions of early 20^th century life, but even they may balk at the poor artwork reproduction (the only proper black you’ll see here is from the translated dialogue, the rest is a bit murky).

Other than that I’m not sure who else would fancy reading it. (unless they’re foolhardy like me)  So um… yeah.

This book did however inspire a little further research into Miyazawa’s works, and that kind of reaction is no bad thing.  Related things to consider checking out:

Gauche the Cellist – Isao Takahata directed an anime of this before his Ghibli days.

Spring & Chaos – Animated biography of Miyazawa – they’re all cats in it.

Night of the Milky Way Railway – Various adaptations, possibly the most known of which is the anime known as Night on the Galactic Railway, which in turn also inspired a manga that was printed in blue ink!