Member Reviews

The art work in this book is fantastic, just like all the other manga classics!

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* * * *
4 / 5

I picked up a copy of the The Jungle Book, manga edition on a whim and I was very pleasantly pleased with it. I have read my fair share of manga in my youth and this book follows the traditional format of being read right to left (a handy guide at the back for those that have never read a manga), as well as having loving, classically manga illustrations. As far as I can tell, The Jungle Book follows Rudyard Kipling's original seven stories very closely, even integrating some of the shorter poems into the artwork.

Whilst I am familiar with the stories that make up the typical Jungle Book films, those of Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera and Shere Khan, I did not know that the original Jungle Book also included four further stories: The White Seal, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Toomai of the Elephants, and Her Majesty's Servants. My favourite of these was Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a story about a mongoose defending a human family from a pair of snakes. So as well as being visually lovely, I also got culturally exposed to something I wasn't previously aware of. Bonus!

The artwork, on the whole, is lovely. Most of the animals, particularly Shere Khan and the seals, looked fantastic. Others, like Bagheera and the wolves looked a little weird and too cartoony compared to others, like the monkeys, which is why I am knocking off a star. The humans are classic manga style - pointy chins and big eyes - which can be a plus or not depending on your personal preference. The book also felt a bit long, but this is the price of faithfully following the original stories! I have no complaints about the pacing or the storylines - as far as I am aware they are good representations of Kipling's writings.

On the whole, a good collection for those that have read the original works and want to experience them in a new form, or for those who have no experience of The Jungle Book. I can certainly see children enjoying this profusely.

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the artist for an ARC of this.

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I don't think I have actually read the original book by Rudyard Kipling, but I have seen quite a few of the movie and/or cartoon adaptations and therefore I have always thought that The Jungle Book is only about the man-cub Mowgli who was raised by wolves somewhere in India. But it would seem that I have been living a lie, because that's not the case! Some of the short stories are about the famous boy named Mowgli, but some stories are about different creatures altogether. For example, there's a story about a white seal looking for a peaceful home, there's a story about a mongoose, there's a story about elephants and then there's a story about different animals who are ordered to do as humans wish them to.

Every short story ends with a poem about the story itself, some of them are a bit shorter and some of them a bit longer, and as I understand, that these are something kind of directly taken from the original work. Unfortunately for Kipling, the poems were my least favourite parts even though the people working on this adaptation have done a marvelous job of combining the poems with the stories.

Although I cannot say that the illustrations are as gorgeous as they have been in the other manga adaptations I've read, they're still really nice and I liked them a lot. It's just it's somehow a lot easier to say gorgeous about pictures about people or subjects that I'm more familiar with (e.g. clothes and buildings) than it is about bears or seals for example. It is very easy to distinguish between the animals and I liked the mix of cartoon and real-life style going on. All of the wolves have different faces and looks and all of the animals have been drawn in a way that it's easy to tell whether they're more of the good, bad or just plain nuts kinds of characters.

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Three books detail the original Jungle Book story with the same spirit though I felt it a little rushed in places whilst the art could have been a lot better, the style appeared to change from animal to animal, with some being more detailed than other.s
The last three books details folktales from India, the same area in which The Jungle Book is set, interesting stories but unexpected as the main jungle book story could have been elaborated a lot more.

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A set of classic tales are brought to life in this amazing book. Fantastic artwork brings the characters alive and immerses you in these stories. And for me, told me stories I've never heard before.

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I wasn't able to open the file so I cannot actually review this title.

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