#IReadsYou Review: VENUS IN THE BLIND SPOT

 

VENUS IN THE BLIND SPOT
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

CARTONIST: Junji Ito
TRANSLATION & ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Jocelyn Allen; Yuji Oniki (“The Enigma of Amigara Fault”)
LETTERS: Eric Erbes
EDITOR: Masumi Washington
ISBN: 978-1-9747-1547-3; hardcover; 5 3/4 × 8 1/4 (August 2020); Rated “T+” for “Teen Plus”
272pp, B&W, $22.99 U.S., $46.00 CAN, £25.00 UK

Junji Ito is a Japanese writer and artist of horror manga (comics) who has created both long-form horror manga series and manga short works (short stories).  Ito's best known long-form manga include Tomie, Uzumaki, and Gyo.  Tomie was adapted into a live-action film series (beginning in 1998), and Uzumaki was adapted into a live-action film (2000).

VIZ Media has published several hardcover collections of Junji Ito's manga short stories over the last five years.  They are Fragments of Horror (June 2015), Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories (December 2017), Frankenstein: Junji Ito Story Collection (October 2018), and Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection (April 2019).

VIZ's latest hardcover collection of Junji Ito's manga short stories is a “best of” collection, Venus in the Blind Spot.  This striking book gathers ten of the most remarkable short works of Ito's career.  With a deluxe presentation, including special color pages, each chilling tale invites readers to revel in a world of terror created by a modern master of horror manga and comics.

Venus in the Blind Spot includes three stories that Junji Ito adapted from prose fiction writers.  Ito adapts two stories, “The Human Chair” (1925) and “An Unearthly Love” (1926), by Edogawa Ranpo (1984-1965), perhaps the most influential author of Japanese mystery fiction.  Ito also adapts “How Love Came to Professor Guildea” (1900), a short story by Robert Hichens (1864-1950), a British author who, among other things, wrote ghost stories, fantasy, and mystery fiction.

Venus in the Blind Spot opens with the story, “Billions Alone.”  At the center of this story is 19-year-old Michio, who has locked himself in his room for seven years.  He emerges from seclusion as people are being found dead and sewn together in pairs, bound by fishing wire that has been run through every part of their bodies.  Michio wonders that if he attends an upcoming school reunion and coming-of-age ceremony, will he become part of one of these “group corpses?”

A woman with a wicked tongue terrorizes the country as “The Licking Woman.”  A philandering husband discovers a “Keepsake” from his recently deceased wife.  And in the title story, “Venus in a Blind Spot,” the young men of the “Nanzan UFO Research Society” discover that they can't help but love their chairperson, Mariko Shono, but they can't see her either.

THE LOWDOWN:  Junji It's short works (a.k.a. manga short stories) display his incredible imagination and also the diversity in the style and tone in which he executes these stories.  Some are tales of existential terror and threats.  Others feature terrible situations, a twist on a comic situation because, by the end of the story, the reader will laugh nervously while thanking the cosmos that such situations are not his.

Venus in the Blind Spot emphasizes two other signatures Ito types, macabre tales that recall “The Twilight Zone” and eerie stories of haunting.  In such stories, Ito does not make use of beginnings, middles, and ends, so much as he offers episodes that are both terrifying and implausible.

The opening story, “Billions Alone,” is an episode of terror.  It is not metaphorically a tale of loneliness as much as it is a tale of humans alone against an existential terror that does not make sense – an implausible and ridiculous assault on the way humans live.  It is COVID-19 without the hope of science eventually saving our asses.

I have not read any of the three prose short stories that appear here as manga adaptations by Junji Ito.  “The Human Chair” is an Ito gem, and I wonder if Edogawa Ranpo's original is as deranged as Ito's take on it.  [Ranpo's huge cultural influence in Japan can be seen in Gosho Aoyama's manga, Detective Conan, which is published as Case Closed in North America.]  The other two adaptations, “An Unearthly Love” and “How Love Came to Professor Kirida” (from Robert Hichens's “How Love Came to Professor Guildea”).  These two stories have all the hallmarks of Ito's terrible power, and the latter is a tale of a haunting.  Still, they don't quite come together.

Never fear, “The Licking Woman” and “Keepsake” lay siege to your imagination, dear reader, and these two tales, each dealing with a haunting, certainly made my skin crawl.  Damn, that's nasty – both of them.  Venus in the Blind Spot, as a collection, is a good introduction to the short manga of Junji Ito.  New readers will get a taste of what is to come, and, in a way, it is not as deranged, overall, as other collections of Ito's short works.  For Ito's fans, Venus in the Blind Spot is an example of why Junji Ito is our blind spot.  We'll buy just about any book he offers us.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Junji Ito and fans of great horror comics will want the VIZ Signature edition of Venus in the Blind Spot.

9 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: NO LONGER HUMAN

NO LONGER HUMAN
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

CARTONIST: Junji Ito
ORIGINAL NOVEL: Osamu Dazai's “Ningen Shikkaku” as translated into English by Donald Keene
TRANSLATION & ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Jocelyn Allen
LETTERS: James Dashiell
EDITOR: Masumi Washington
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9846-8; hardcover (December 2019); Rated “M” for “Mature”
616pp, B&W, $34.99 U.S., $46.00 CAN, £25.00 UK

Junji Ito is a Japanese horror mangaka (comic book writer-artist) who has created both long-form horror manga series and manga short stories.  Ito's best known long-form manga include Tomie, Uzumaki, and Gyo.  Tomie was adapted into a live-action film series (beginning in 1998), and Uzumaki was adapted into a live-action film (2000).

VIZ Media has published several hardcover collections of Junji Ito's manga short stories over the last five years:  Fragments of Horror (June 2015), Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories (December 2017), Frankenstein: Junji Ito Story Collection (October 2018), and Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection (April 2019).

One of Ito's recent works is a manga adaptation of Ningen Shikkaku, the 1948 Japanese novel from author, Osamu Dazai (as translated by Donald Keene).  Considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan, Dazai took his own life shortly after the last part of Ningen Shikkaku was published.  Ningen Shikkaku, one of Japan's all-time best-selling novels, was first published in serial form.

Junji Ito's Ningen Shikkaku was collected in three tankobon (graphic novel) volumes.  VIZ Media's latest Junji Ito publication is No Longer Human, a collection of Ningen Shikkaku Volumes 1-3 in one hardcover mini-omnibus (5 1/2 × 7 7/8 trim size).

No Longer Human focuses on Yozo Oba.  As a boy, he realizes that he is afraid of people.  He alleviates his fear by being a joker and class clown who dances, sings, tells jokes, and makes funny faces.  As an adult, Yozo is plagued by a maddening anxiety because there is a terrible disconnect between his own concept of happiness and what he sees as the joy of the rest of the world.

Yozo Oba plays the clown in his dissolute life, holding up a mask for those around him as he spirals ever downward.  He is a liar and becomes a womanizer.  He is a drunk and eventually becomes a drug addict.  Seemingly locked arm-in-arm with death, Yozo comes to believe that he must rid himself of the “10 misfortunes” that have always been packed inside of him, but can even doing that save him from the hell that is his life?

I have never read Osamu Dazai's Ningen Shikkaku, which apparently literally translates as “Disqualified From Being Human” and which some people consider to be an autobiographical novel.  In fact, I had heard of neither author nor novel until I did some research after I received a review copy of No Longer Human from my VIZ Media rep.

I will be honest with you, dear reader, that I have never disliked any of Junji Ito's work that I have read.  There have been some manga that I thought were just okay or good, but I have yet to come across Junji Ito manga that I consider a failure or a misfire.  I still have not found failure as of just having finished No Longer Human, which I enjoyed immensely.

Mesmerizing and hauntingly beautiful, No Longer Human is poignant, tragic, and delicate, but is also grotesque, wrenching, and cruel.  It is as if Ito uses his prodigious talents to torment us with a magnificent and gorgeous graphical storytelling presentation that is actually presenting all that is weak, pathetic, selfish, narcissistic, greedy, banal, and evil in humans.

I guess that No Longer Human could be described as psychological horror.  Because Ito has listed the American author of horror and dark fantasy short stories, H.P. Lovecraft, as one of his influences, I think No Longer Human tells a story of existential horror and terror.  Much of Lovecraft's work deals with existential terror and threats both existential in nature and supernatural in origin.  No Longer Human offers images that are connected to existential horror and terror, and while there are supernatural elements in the narrative, the story is itself not supernatural.

Jocelyn Allen's translation and English adaptation of Ito's text are quite a feat.  This is not the first time that Allen has adapted Junji Ito to English, capturing the unnerving calmness and relentless march of horror that defines Ito's work.  James Dashiell's lettering is steady and tranquil, as if he is creating a matter-of-fact declaration of a man living a damned life.

I want to make note of the fact that Ito opens No Longer Human with what can be interpreted as a depiction of the double-suicide of Osamu Dazai and a female acquaintance.  Printed in color, the passage has a dreamlike, pastoral quality that haunts this manga until its final chapter.  That chapter is a total freak show of its own.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: SMASHED: Junji Ito Story Collection

SMASHED: JUNJI ITO STORY COLLECTION
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

CARTONIST: Junji Ito
TRANSLATION & ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Jocelyn Allen
LETTERS: Eric Erbes
EDITOR: Masumi Washington
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9846-8; hardcover (April 2019); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
416pp, B&W, $22.99 U.S., $32.00 CAN, £15.99 UK

Junji Ito is a Japanese horror mangaka (comic book writer-artist) who has created both long-form horror manga (comics) series and manga short stories.  Ito's best known long-form manga include Tomie, Uzumaki, and Gyo.  Tomie was adapted into a live-action film series (beginning in 1998), and Uzumaki was adapted into a live-action film (2000).  Gyo was adapted as the anime film, Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack (2012).

VIZ Media has been publishing hardcover books that collect many of Junji Ito's manga short stories for the last four years.  The first was Fragments of Horror (June 2015), and then, came Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories (December 2017).  Last year saw the release of Frankenstein: Junji Ito Story Collection (October 2018), which collects six Ito stories and Ito's manga adaptation of Mary Shelley's legendary novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818).

The latest Ito short story collection is Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection, which was released last month (April 2019).  This hardcover comics collection gathers 13 chilling, nightmarish stories from one of world's masters of horror manga and comics.   Be warned.  Do not be noticed when you eat the secret nectar, otherwise you’ll get smashed!  What has caused so many people to be “earthbound?”  Why are they tied to a certain place for the rest of their short lives?  What is it about that strange haunted house that has come to town?  This is Junji Ito’s world, where there is no escape from endless nightmares.

A long time ago, I was reading a review of Annie Lenox's second solo album, Diva (an album of cover song), in which the reviewer/ music critic said that every album should have at least one great song.  [He thought Diva had two.]  I sometimes use that standard for collections of comic book short stories, except having one great story per collection is not enough for me.  I want at least two stories that so overwhelm me that I declare them to be great.

Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection contains 13 comics/manga short stories, and I think five of them are great, and a sixth is bat-shit-crazy enough to be great.  The opening story, “Bloodsucking Darkness,” begins as a tale about a young woman who, after being spurned by her boyfriend, decides to starve herself in order to get skinny so she become a model.  It wraps up as a chilling story dealing with themes of obsession and self-destructive behavior with the symbolism of vampirism and human blood as vehicles by which Ito moves the story forward.

“Roar,” an imaginative ghost story about two hikers who encounter a strange flash flood, is a mystery tale that uses an unusual and recurring haunting to explore family and local histories.  Its tragic reunion is one of the most poignant and heart-breaking moments I have ever read in a ghost story.  I think that “Roar” would have made for a wonderful episode of the original version of “The Twilight Zone” television series.

“Earthbound” and “Death Row Doorbell” both explore themes of guilt, revenge, and grief.  In different way, each considers how a sense of guilt can be so strong that it overwhelms the existence of people who have committed violent crimes.  Each story also examines the power that grief and the desire for revenge hold over both the perpetrators of crimes and the victims/survivors.  I don't want to say too much about the plot of each story because it would give away each story's fantastic resolution.  “Earthbound”  is about an epidemic of people frozen to a particular spot on earth.  “Death Row Doorbell” tells the story of a young woman, Noriko Kowa, and her brother (unnamed in this tale) who suffer a visitor whose ringing of their front doorbell causes them great pain and fear.

“I Don't Want to Be a Ghost” is an unsettling tale about a young husband who first finds a strange young woman on a lonely mountain road.  He begins an affair with her only to fall prey to her blood-chilling appetites.  The title story, “Smashed,” centers on a strange nectar that a Japanese explorer finds in an isolated jungle in South America.  The warning is that when you drink the nectar, you must not be “noticed.”  The ending of “Smashed” is of the kind that readers would only find in a comic book, and it reminds me of the ending of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons Watchmen – an excellent science fiction, mystery, and conspiracy comic book miniseries with an ending that is crazy, but is not as enthralling as the story that leads up to it.  “Smashed” is the sixth “bat-shit-crazy enough to be great” tale I mentioned earlier in this review.

The other seven stories in Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection are also quiet good.  Most of them have elements that I would use the word “disquiet” to describe.  Once upon a time, elements in these seven stories might have gotten a cartoonist or comic book creator fired, maybe even made him or her unemployable, or even gotten a cartoonist jailed.  I'm thinking of the three-story suite involving a haunted house and a character named “Soichi.”

The only other comics short story collections that have impressed me as much as Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection does are those books collecting stories originally published in various EC Comics publications.  Smashed proves once again that Junji Ito is the current king of horror comics.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: FRAGMENTS OF HORROR

FRAGMENTS OF HORROR
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTONIST: Junji Ito
TRANSLATION & ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Jocelyn Allen
LETTERS: Eric Erbes
EDITORS: Masumi Washington, Nick Mamatas
ISBN: 978-1-4215-8079-1; hardcover with dust jacket (June 2015); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
224pp, B&W, $17.99 U.S., $21.00 CAN, £10.99 UK

After an eight-year absence from the genre that made his famous, mangaka Junji Ito returned with Fragments of Horror, a collection of macabre manga short stories.  Ito is the creator of such stellar horror manga as Uzumaki and Gyo, as well as numerous short manga.

Fragments of Horror contains eight short stories and an “Afterword” written by Ito in 2014.  VIZ Media recently published an English edition of Fragments of Horror under its VIZ Signature imprint.  The release is a deluxe, hardcover print edition carrying a MSRP of $17.99 U.S. and $21.00 CAN, and it is rated “T+” for “Older Teens.”

Fragments of Horror opens with the story, “Futon.”  The story focuses on a young couple who eloped and are currently living together.  However, Madoka discovers that her boyfriend, Tomio, has basically sealed himself inside a futon.  He blames “dark nature spirits” as the reason for his current predicament.  Madoka is getting tired of this nonsense, but what if Tomio is telling the truth?  Madoka and Tomio return in another story, the neck-traumatizing “Tomio · Red Turtleneck.”

In “Wooden Spirit,” a beautiful and historic wooden house turns crazy-creepy after a new tenant moves in with the current owners.  Feeding and eating turn gruesome and bizarre in the tale, “Blackbird.”

In previous reviews of Junji Ito's manga, I have basically revealed myself to be an acolyte of this modern master of horror.  There have been many adaptations of the work of famed horror and dark fantasy author, H.P. Lovecraft.  There have also been countless comics inspired by Lovecraft.  Junji Ito has named Lovecraft as an influence on his work.  I will take that one step further and say that Ito is the true comics descendant of Lovecraft, and the stories in the Fragments of Horror manga convinces me that I am right.

I will say that not all of the eight stories contained in this volume are exceptional or great.  The stories, “Futon” and “Magami Nanakuse,” are good ideas that fall somewhat flat in execution.  “Whispering Woman” is a classic Gothic tale of troubled and haunted unions, but the ending snatches defeat from the jaws of literary, short story victory.

“Dissection-chan” is creepy and ultimately chilling.  In this volume, the macabre “Blackbird” follows it, and together, the two stories make a blood-curdling one-two punch that might have made even Lovecraft gasp.  Like a Sam Rami movie, “Tomio · Red Turtleneck” is gleefully gruesome.  “Gentle Goodbye” is a masterpiece; it is one of the best short comics that I have ever read.  Every short story collection needs one truly great story that alone can make that collection memorable.  The beautifully haunting “Gentle Goodbye,” with its creepy poignancy, is that story.  Fans of Junji Ito and of horror/dark fantasy comics must have Fragments of Horror on their shelves.

A


Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux; support me on Patreon.


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Review: THE BATTLE ROYALE SLAM BOOK

THE BATTLE ROYALE SLAM BOOK
VIZ MEDIA/Haikasoru – @VIZMedia; @haikasoru

EDITORS: Nick Mamatas and Masumi Washington
COVER: Tomer Hanuka
ISBN: 978-1-4215-6599-6; paperback, (April 2014)
192pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S., $19.99 CAN, £9.99 U.K.

The Battle Royale Slam Book: Essays on the Cult Classic by Koushun Takami is a collection of essays about the world of Battle Royale.  Battle Royale is a Japanese horror novel written by Koushun Takami.  Originally completed in 1996, Battle Royale was not published until 1999 by Ohta Shuppan, but it went on to become a surprise bestseller.  In 2000, the novel became a manga which Koushun Takami co-wrote with artist Masayuki Taguchi, who drew the manga.  A controversial film adaptation directed by Kinji Fukasaku was also released in 2000.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the publication of Battle Royale the novel, Haikasoru (the fiction imprint of VIZ Media) published The Battle Royale Slam Book.  This original paperback release is a collection of essays by writers of popular fiction on the impact of the novel, the two film adaptations, and the Battle Royale manga on pop culture.  The essays also discuss the controversy and continuing social debate that has surrounded the novel ever since its first release.  The Battle Royale Slam Book is offered in print and also in digital editions as an eBook for $7.99 (U.S. / CAN), available for the Amazon Kindle and through Apple’s iBooks Store, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Book Store, and the Kobo eBooks Store.

Nick Mamatas, co-editor of The Battle Royale Slam Book, and 16 other authors offer an array of opinions on Battle Royale and about the enduring power of the acknowledged cult classic.  New York Times best-selling author John Skipp (The Light at the End) connects the novel to his childhood.  Cassie Cuinn talks about girl power.  Sam Hamm, who wrote the screenplay for the 1989 film, Batman (directed by Tim Burton), speculates on the survival chances of Hollywood cinema’s leading teen icons in a battle royale.  Jason S. Riddler (Blood and Sawdust) discusses the novel in the context of the popularity of professional wrestling.  Douglas F. Warrick closes out the book with an essay on Zen.

In order to enjoy and understand The Battle Royale Slam Book, the reader needs to be familiar with Battle Royale the novel or its adaptations.  I saw the film six years ago via a DVD available through Netflix.  The manga adaptation was collected in 15 graphic novel volumes, which were published by TOKYOPOP during the middle of the previous decade.  I read TOKYOPOP’s Battle Royale Ultimate Edition Vol. 1, which collected the first three manga volumes in one hardcover edition.  So I understand much of the context or what is being discussed in The Battle Royale Slam Book, although I have not as yet read the novel.

I think the best essay is the introduction to the book, “Blood in the Classroom, Blood on the Page: Will ‘Battle Royale’ Ever Be on the Test,” written by Nick Mamatas.  Basically, this piece is “what becomes a cult novel most.”  Mamatas discusses other controversial novels (such as Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies) that eventually end up on high school and collegiate reading lists, which, in a way, serves to take away the edginess these works originally had.  I agree with a terrific instructor I had in college:  controversial novels with something meaningful to say about the human condition end up becoming children’s literature.  It is almost as if adults believe that turning such books into juvenile fiction can rob these works of their power to affect change.  I liked how much Mamatas’ essay engaged me and made me think, rather than just be passive, reading for amusement; I read the essay twice and picked through it a third time.

Two other essays also grappled with my imagination.  John Skipp’s “Death for Kids” uses his experience as the child of a U.S. government employee in late 1960s Argentina as the launching point for his essay.  The harrowing personal tale he tells should already be a memoir.

Before it was published, Battle Royale was entered into the 1997 Japan Grand Prix Horror Novel competition.  It did not win any prizes, as it was eventually rejected in the final round due to its content.  Japanese literary critic and editor, Masao Higashi, was there in the competition as a judge.  Higashi’s essay “‘Battle Royale:’ The Fight the Night Before” talks about his thoughts on the novel and why he voted the way he did.

Anyone who has experienced Battle Royale and/or its adaptations will find that The Battle Royale Slam Book is a collection of insightful essays.  Even those who normally don’t read essays will find the essays here worth reading.

A-

www.haikasoru.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

The Secret World of Arrietty Arrives in Books Stores February 7th

VIZ MEDIA BRINGS THE WONDROUS MINIATURE ADVENTURES OF STUDIO GHIBLI’S THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY TO READERS IN A NEW SERIES OF BOOKS

Releases Based On The New The Film By Hayao Miyazaki’s Famed Animation Studio Include Film Comics, Art And Picture Books

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, brings the miniaturized adventure of famed Studio Ghibli’s newest animated creation – THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY – to readers everywhere with a collection of ARRIETTY film comics, art and picture books set to debut on February 7th, 2012. THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY is scheduled for North American theatrical release on February 17th, 2012.

THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY is based on the celebrated novel, The Borrowers, by Mary Norton and was produced by Studio Ghibli, the famed animation company founded by Hayao Miyazaki, which also created Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo. The new film, with planning/screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, will feature the voice talents of Bridget Mendler, Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett and Will Arnett for its English language release.

Arrietty isn’t your ordinary fourteen-year-old girl – she is small enough to make her home under the floorboards of a typical house, “borrowing” what she and her family need from the giants in whose shadows they live. A young boy named Shawn befriends Arrietty, but when adults discover the Borrowers, Arrietty and Shawn must work together to save her family.

THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY PICTURE BOOK • Rated “A” for All Ages • MSRP: $19.99 U.S. / $22.99 CAN • Available February 7th, 2012

The colorful and easy-to-read THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY Picture Book is a full-color hardcover edition that will appeal to younger readers especially. The book uses the vividly colored animation cel art from the feature film combined with simplified text to retell the story of Arrietty and her adventures.

THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY FILM COMICS • Rated “A” for All Ages • MSRP: $16.99 U.S. each / $19.99 CAN each • Available February 7th, 2012

The official 2-volume film comic of THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY re-tells the film’s story with vivid full-color frames.

THE ART OF THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY • Rated “A” for All Ages • MSRP: $34.99 U.S. / $39.99 CAN • Available February 7th, 2012

Co-founded by the legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli films enthrall and enchant audiences across the world. The Art of series gives fans the opportunity to follow their favorite film from initial concept to the silver screen, thanks to hundreds of sketches, concept drawings, and animation cels, plus in-depth interviews with the creators.

“Fans and readers of all ages won’t want to miss these new additions to VIZ Media’s Studio Ghibli Library of titles,” says Masumi Washington, Senior Director, Editorial. “Studio Ghibli has mastered the ability to tell poignant and engaging stories that captivate both children and adults, and their latest film, THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY, continues this tradition. Our forthcoming picture book and film comics are fun ways for young readers to visit the world of ARRIETTY while the gorgeous art book will be a must-have for the ardent Studio Ghibli fan or those who want to know more about the evolution of the film. Discover the adventures in-store for this band of ‘borrowers’ in these new releases scheduled for February!”

More information on VIZ Media’s Studio Ghibli titles is available at http://www.viz.com/.