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The Fisher Boy, written by Debbi Michiko Florence and illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa, is a young readers’ graphic novel adaptation of Urashima Tarō.

What I liked:

• This is one of those books for which my impression significantly varies depending on what type of nikkei audience I envision reading it. If I think of readers like me, who grew up surrounded by books in both Japanese and English, and who likely experienced most Japanese stories in Japanese before ever (if ever) encountering them in any other language, I am, to be perfectly honest, disappointed in this version. To be clear, I don’t believe any fault lies with Florence or Yoshikawa. I experience a similar disappointment/sense of falling short almost every time I experience a Japanese story (meaning, a story originally told in Japanese) in a language other than Japanese (don’t let’s get started on dubbed Miyazaki films or manga translated into English). At the same time, I recognize that, for nikkei who may be unable to experience a Japanese story in Japanese, particularly for those who are unable to listen to, read, or otherwise learn Japanese due to a disability, it is important to make our stories accessible, and I’d like to think The Fisher Boy might make Urashima Tarō accessible to nikkei readers who would otherwise not be able to experience it. Additionally, as longtime readers of this blog are likely aware, I would absolutely always rather see a Japanese author (and illustrator!) tackle a translation or re-adaptation of a Japanese story over anyone else (don’t let’s get started on the extent to which white people have dominated and ‘presented’ Japan to people outside Japan, or the extent to which these ‘presentations’ have, unfortunately, shaped non-Japanese POC ‘presentations’ of Japan to people outside Japan – decolonize does not mean weebs are ok if they are people of color).
• Yoshikawa’s soft, bright, and vibrant palette was so much fun to experience on every page and perfectly filled in the gaps (there are remarkably few words in this book, as befits a comic or graphic novel, but I found this particularly noticeable because the book itself is so short) – I hope – for readers new to Urashima Tarō.

What I learned:

• I don’t remember ever seeing instructions in a book on how to read that book, but I appreciate the step-by-step at the beginning of this book on how to read and interpret panels. These instructions are great not only for young readers who are new to the US comic/graphic novel format, but also for readers who may need additional guidance in order to fully experience this book, including readers with disabilities and/or readers who are unfamiliar with US comics.

Questions I had:

• How did Florence approach this project in terms of translation? First, in terms of how to reshape the original Japanese text into English, and second, in terms of how to condense this reshaped text into comic/graphic novel length and format.
• How did fellow nikkei readers feel about this book? Did they find it to be in line with their personal definitions of Japaneseness? For me, not so much – I would say my overall ‘feeling’ of reading this book was very similar to how I feel about Avatar: The Last Airbender, in the sense that the story is solid and entertaining and ‘wears’ a non-western aesthetic, but at its core feels like a western product created for western audiences. Not necessarily a ‘bad’ feeling, but not at all in alignment with what typically makes me feel something is Japanese.
• Along the same lines, is this book a ‘nikkei’ book? Or rather, how does this book fit into the existing body of nikkei literature? How does this book expand or reframe or challenge the qualities that have ‘defined’ nikkei literature up to this point? How might we, as nikkei readers and the nikkei community at large, approach this book in conversation with other US comics or graphic novels produced by nikkei creators?

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