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Never Open It, by Ken Niimura, is a graphic novel retelling of three old stories from Japan.

What I liked:

• Urashima Taro and Tsuru no Ongaeshi are familiar stories from my childhood, but the story of Ikkyu was new to me. I’m not sure of the original plot of Ikkyu, but I assume Niimura’s twist was to make the entire story a figment of the monk’s imagination, which I found highly entertaining. The twists on Urashima Taro and Tsuru no Ongaeshi felt a bit darker, especially the ending of Tsuru no Ongaeshi. I did feel justice was served with the new ending of Urashima Taro, since the original version never satisfactorily explains why the undersea kingdom exists in the first place. As far as Tsuru no Ongaeshi, though I found Niimura’s take somewhat disturbing, I also think he has plenty of scope to expand the story into a full-length, standalone graphic novel, or maybe even a manga series.
• Niimura’s art style is fascinating. It makes me think of cartoons, or newspaper comics, rather than manga, and while there are many moments in the book which felt very emotionally Japanese, the art itself feels oddly nation-less, which to me made it all the more international. It’s difficult to explain, but I feel an artist from any country or background could draw in this style, as it seems versatile and adaptable to many types of stories. Funnily, I realize I’m saying this even as I talk about a Japanese artist drawing distinctly Japanese stories. In the same way the use of multiple languages in Harmony Becker’s Himawari House (read my post here) made me consider what the global literature(s) of the future might look like, Niimura’s art seems to provide one possible visual counterpart of the same concept.

What I learned:

• I read plenty of manga (as anyone who follows me on twitter knows), but it hardly ever occurs to me to look for other types of graphic novels in Japanese. After reading Niimura’s work, I definitely need to work on this!

Questions I had:

• Does Niimura choose which language to publish each of his books in, or does it have more to do with which publisher accepts his pitch? I am assuming Spanish and Japanese are his native languages, based on the original languages of Never Open It and Henshin, another of his works, and I have also listened to him do an interview in English. I’m curious about publication language because I wonder if it affects Niimura’s vision of his target audience. For example, I’m bilingual in Japanese and English, but since I mostly envision English-reading nikkei as my primary audience (in the sense that these are the people I want to write for, first and foremost), I contextualize my writing using basic assumptions about what most nikkei might know about Japanese culture and language. I imagine it works a bit differently in art (a picture is worth a thousand words, etc.), but still, I wonder if there is any correlation between language and audience for Niimura as a creator.
• Are there any plans to publish a Japanese edition of Never Open It? If so, would Niimura write the script himself?
• How does Niimura situate himself and his work in the existing body of Japanese literature and/or art?

Follow-up:

• I feel bad for not reading Never Open It in the original language, Spanish (I cannot seem to locate a reasonably-priced copy), but I hope to read Henshin in the original Japanese, provided I can acquire a copy.
• I’m looking forward to Niimura’s next graphic novel!