Top Graphic Novel Reviews

This is one very unique book by Gaiman. This is actually an adaptation of a popular folklore tale in Japan. He stumbled upon this story while researching his translation of Hayao Miyazaki’s film Princess Mononoke. It does not follow the traditional comic kind of story telling. It is more of one page of story, one page of graphics and they don’t mix. Neil Gaiman morphs the story into the world of Dreaming

The story begins with a wager between two jealous animals, a fox and a badger: which of them can drive a young monk from his solitary temple? The central characters are the Fox and the Monk, and the Sandman only plays a peripheral role. But an excellent peripheral role at that.

So the story goes that the fox tries to temp and seduce the monk by turning into the form of a woman. Gradually, she falls for him. Meanwhile over in Kyoto, an evil rich master of Yin-Yang is haunted by fears and nightmares (mainly through his own insecurities). He tries to find solace in his command of sorcery. He finds out of the inner peace the monk has and sends monsters and demons to capture and kill him to bring peace to himself. The fox learns of this and begins her mission to save the man she secretly loves and whom she so admired.

It is also the first time Gaiman works with Yoshitaka Amano and full credit to the Japanese for the wonderful illustrations that can tell a story by themselves. These paintings make the story come alive on the page and create a sense of past and wonder that could only be hinted at with words alone. It is unlike anything done before in Sandman or anything I’ve seen in Japanese Manga. A beautiful work of art.

He also does his best in retaining the original story whilst weaving some Sandman elements inside. Kudos to him for that.