Since the product title “Shuna’s Journey” is already less than seven words, it does not need to be shortened

It’s nice having a little piece of studio Ghibli on the bookshelf. It’s a simple but lovely story it’s beautiful art. If you’re a Ghibli fan, it’s a must have. If you’re a graphic novel reader, it’s a nice little read between your longer stories. Leaves you feeling refreshed and ready for more adventures

My first time reading a story by him. It’s rather short, I’m not sure if I’m personally a fan of his writing style but the art is beautiful and the story is good. I thought it was decent. I really enjoyed the art style though, reminded me of Nausicaa, which I love.

For fans of Miyazaki. Not for younger children as contains violence. Work on this was around the time the film Nausica was being made and it shows in the designs. Japanese style book- read from the back to the front, from right to left. English text.
Headstrong boy heads out for nourishing crops, finds slave traders feeding humans to creature that produces nutritious seeds. Boy takes and is punished with mindlessness, restored by wise girl he had earlier rescued from slavery… usual Miyazaki strong female. The watercolours on every page are delightful.

Pouco conhecido fora do círculo de fãs mais ardorosos de Miyazaki, a Jornada de Shuna (シュナの旅 Shuna no Tabi) é uma pequena preciosidade escrita, ilustrada e colorida pelo artista publicada em 1983 pela Tokuma Shoten dentro da sua série Animage Ju Ju Bunko.

Ela conta a história de Shuna, um jovem que parte de seu vale para “a terra onde a lua dorme” a procura de sementes de um grão dourado (= trigo?) que pode salvar o seu povo da fome.

No geral, trata-se de uma aventura que se encaixa na teoria do monomito (ou mito do herói) de Joseph Campbell, mas que também é considerada uma precursora de outras obras mais conhecidas de Miyazaki como Nausicaa ou Princesa Mononoke já que diversas idéias (como cavalgar num cervo) e elementos visuais como paisagens, pessoas, animais e objetos desses filmes apareceram primeiro em Shuna.

De fato, reza a lenda que Miyazaki queria mesmo era fazer um anime de longa metragem dessa história (inspirada num conto popular tibetano), mas ela era muito simples e curta, de modo que no fim — com o apoio da editora Tokuma Shoten — a Jornada de Shuna virou um pequeno livro de 152 páginas.

E isso não é uma figura de linguagem porque a edição japonesa é realmente pequena (10 x 15 x 0,7 cm) ao contrário dessa nova edição americana, cujas dimensões seguem um padrão mais de mercado (15,9 x 22,2 x 1,83 cm) assim como sua apresentação que é bastante rica com encadernação em capa dura, lombada costurada e sobrecapa em cores.

A única diferença em relação ao original é que o papel usado no interior da nova edição é do tipo fosco, ao contrário do japonês ele é brilhante, o que não faz muita diferença já que Miyazaki costuma colorir seus desenhos com aquarela.

Se comparado com sua filmografia, Miyazaki escreveu poucos livros (e menos ainda ilustrados), de modo que Shuna é um belo e raro exemplo de um conto original que não virou anime, mas ajudou a criar outros dois de grande sucesso.

Hayao Miyazaki is world-renowned for good reason; his illustrious Studio Ghibli is famous for its exquisitely animated films, many of which explore the tensions between man and the natural world. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes fierce and forceful, his tales have depicted humanity as stewards of peace or purveyors of war, Mother Earth as a generous or hostile force. Can both entities live in harmony? Or is one destined to destroy the other?

Miyazaki is also a quick study of the human condition, depicting his leads, usually female, as courageous agents bearing and braving life’s capricious demands. Some of these stories are simple, slice-of-life affairs focusing on family or community. Other tales are sweeping, heavy-handed epics, featuring wars and angry gods and dead civilizations, with mankind often the cause or at least entangled in-between.

Shuna’s Journey, interestingly, is none of these things. Not exactly.

First, it’s not an animated film or TV series. It’s not even a manga in the vein of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, another classic Miyazaki work. Rather, it’s an emonogatari – an illustrated story that deemphasizes word and manga-style paneling for captions and (often) full-page art. A close American equivalent would be a hand-drawn children’s book or, more explicitly, Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, a graphic novel in which the author combines skeins of text with singular illustrations to convey an engrossing story. Shuna’s Journey pushes the format to its fullest potential.

Second, the story is neither epic nor simplistic, but pivots somewhere between the extremes. The eponymous Shuna, the story’s princely avatar, doesn’t leave his quaint homeland to save the world or defeat some terrible evil. Rather, he seeks a special seed—an almost magical grain that promises to forever feed his suffering tribe. And though the young man certainly encounters some danger and excitement on his journey, he spends much of his time simply wandering across landscapes both beautiful and barren, familiar and alien. Here, Miyazaki’s lushly painted pages become the star, filling in the silence of Shuna’s lonely travels with exotic sights and twisted lands that hover between dream and hanging fear.

Lastly, the story doesn’t hold to a specific genre. It’s an adventure, maybe, but not a fun, swashbuckling one. It’s almost a piece of heroic introspection, except Shuna is so stoic to his core, little growth or personality is revealed. It’s about the Earth, yes, but humanity is more the victim here, exploited by both his fellow man and a strangely cryptic, unyielding planet. It’s a tale of love…that goes unstated. It’s a mystery without resolution or proper payoff. Ultimately, it’s a paradox that tantalizes as much as it teaches, dangling scant hints and intimations to explain an incomprehensible, even horrific set of circumstances. In fact, the tale is borderline nihilistic—a strange row to hoe for the usually optimistic author. But hope peeks through the book’s final pages, offering its characters, and its readers, a reason to still believe.

The story, to its detriment, is also a curiosity, unintentionally serving as a prototypal preview of later Ghibli films, most notably Princess Mononoke. These parallels to later works prove as distracting as they are fascinating, diminishing the potency of the original story. If possible, Shuna deserves to be read first, safe in a vacuum far away from the author’s other masterworks. Again, if possible.

Beautiful, ponderous, inexplicable…Shuna’s Journey is Miyazaki’s imagination left to the wind, flowing and unfurling like leaves traveling without destination. Indeed, the story doesn’t conclude so much as it pauses, suggesting a part two that never came. Thus, the story feels more like a fragment dredged from some lost, religious text…incomplete but not insignificant. Some might want more, but readers less concerned with explanations and more willing to be moved and stirred by the images and words contained therein, will find a work primal, timeless…

…and unmistakably Miyazaki.