This is an excellent version of Shakespeare's work!
Line by line, the full text is there and the addition of the (impressive) artwork provides visual renderings of the many uses of symbolism throughout the play. This version is sure to aid those who "just don't get it" when it comes to only reading Shakespeare's work

Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Manga Classics Adaptation by Crystal S. Chan, Julian Choy
Publication Date: October 11, 2018 - Available Now!
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Description from NetGalley...
“In this classic tale by William Shakespeare, a brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia.”

A Note From the Publisher
Every Manga Classics title now comes with lesson plans and teaching guides.
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Thank you to @NetGalley @udonent #mangaclassics for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts...
Macbeth is my favourite of Shakespeare’s plays. It was greed and ambition defined. The words were powerful and emotional. This Manga adaptation was fantastic. The illustrations were incredible in portraying the emotions and the power of the words. I appreciated the graphic representation of the guilt driven madness. I wished I had this in high school. If you’re a Shakespeare purist you might not like it. I was not a Manga fan, but I have a new appreciation for them in these adaptations of the classics. I thing it was a faithful adaptation, keeping to the original text.

This has been my first manga version of a classic story and I´m quite happy that it stuck pretty closely to the original!
Reading "Manga Classics: Macbeth" offers a different experience to watching the play or reading the book. The drawing helped to understand and visualize the Shakespearean language that is sometimes hard to comprehend.
For this reason a Manga like this might even help students that are struggling with classics.


Interesting fact: Drawing changed with character evolvement.

Target audience: Young adults, students, Shakespeare-/ Manga lovers.

All right. So I liked this, but I was pretty lost through most of it (and I've read Macbeth before). Partly this is because the full text is used and I've always found it one of the less-easily understandable Shakespeare plays.

The good thing about this format is that the illustrations give emotional context to often inexplicable (to me) text. I really enjoyed Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the witches, and felt their expressions and actions really added to the text.

The not-so-good thing is that it's really hard to tell who's speaking (except Macbeth and Lady Macbeth) because while the full text is used, the stage directions - including names - are missing and you only have faces to go by. Many of the names are seldom mentioned in the text so I was like, "welp there's a person. And there's another person. No idea who they are or what relation they have to anyone though. Is that one of the princes?"

Also I just couldn't get past the disconnect between the old-fashioned text and the modern images and sound effects (Blam! Boom!) and really sink into the story.

I enjoyed the Count of Monte Cristo manga classic much more than this one.

I thought this manga version of the play would be easier to understand, but it was not. I couldn't make it through the first 10 pages.

Another brilliant rendering of a Shakespeare classic! This is one of my favourites and the visual story telling has done it more than justice - this graphic novel is a work of art.

Somewhat Confusing Version

When I was a child, I absolutely adored Classic Comics, of which my father had an entire box full from his childhood. I loved seeing the classic works of literature depicted as comics. I have heard of manga, of course, but had never read any; I knew it had stylized figures and artwork, but that was about it. But because this series of manga looks at classic books, I had to check it out. One thing that I certainly didn't know about manga is that it's read from back to front and right to left. For those who already know and love manga, I'm sure reading this book would be no issue whatsoever, but for the uninitiated like me, I found it distracting, and I didn't always know where to look on a page. Along with the very dramatic settings—which didn't always seem to be appropriate for the story—this made for hard reading, trying to figure out where and what I should read first or next. This story made the story seem choppy to me. Those already familiar with manga would probably be fine reading this book. By the way, the PDF ARC I received is all in black and white, with no color except for the cover and back and front matter. I don't know if it is that way in the published edition or not as there is no Look Inside feature for the book. And, if a book like this helps introduce the classics to a younger generation in a way that they like to consume, then I'm all for that. It just didn't work for me.

I liked the adaption of this book as a manga. The story is still good and I like the style of the manga really very much. It's a great idea to read classic books that way and I enjoyed reading it.

Lovely illustrations, stays true to the original Shakespearean tale while encapsulating the reader in the world of Macbeth

I’ve always wanted to try Manga so I thought these Manga versions of Shakespeare would be the perfect place to start. I really enjoyed reading this. I love a good graphic novel and I adore Shakespeare so this is was great. It took some getting used to reading “backwards” but after a few pages you get a good flow. I need to check out more of these classics

I really enjoyed it! This was a classic brought back to life with illustration. When starting I was sure this wouldn't be as great as it was. Part of me feels as though this was a perfect book to introduce me to Manga.

Manga Classic: Macbeth by William Shakespeare adapted by Crystal S. Chan and illustrated by Julien Choy, is a graphic novel experience I didn’t expect. Foolishly, I was unaware of what “Manga” was, if I had of known I probably wouldn’t have requested it – but it’s good to try new things.

Okay, for the uninitiated – Manga is a type of comic originating from Japan and it encompasses a certain style which most of us have probably seen. I was just unaware it had a name. This style isn’t a modern phenomenon, in fact, it’s been around since the 1600’s.

This series of graphic novels covers a good number of the classics, and Macbeth is one of them. I thought I would try this out as it’s always good to see interesting variations of well-known literature. But I must say, I just found it all too much. The graphics for me were highly distracting and in my view not appropriate for the story – it was too light, too Rockstar and way too busy. These guys have hair like Duran Duran!!

It also wasn’t ‘moody enough’.

These books seem to be popular with the younger generation, and to my mind would be an excellent and very digestible introduction to fine literature.

Just not for this old fuddy-duddy.

2 Stars

The versions of the classic manga have become my favorites, in my case I have not read the work of Macbeth, with this manga I have entered the story and the complement of the illustrations has helped me understand the work, it is a Brilliant edition of a classic, which undoubtedly addresses raw human emotions including ambition, greed, repentance and loyalty.
One of the classics that is a little difficult to understand but with this manga you will certainly understand it, and the appreciation of the strokes and the text takes you into its history.

If it weren't for the imagery, I would have no idea what was going on in this book.

This book really is a classic adaptation to read in a class room setting, where you can dissect each and every line so you understand the story better. I wouldn't read this as a casual classic read as the Old English is intense. The grammar is completely different and I mostly understood what was happening on the pages through the imagery. So kudos to the artwork, great stuff, but the original material is where I'm just left with a meh feeling. If I had read this as a classroom assignment to really analyze I probably would have loved it but I didn't.

I thought this was an interesting take on the classic Shakespearian story. The artwork was cool and the story was well packaged! I thought it was a nice take on the classic.

As a fan of Macbeth, I found this adaptation into Manga to be spot on and thorough. It kept my attention whilst reading, but a lot of the metaphors that are present in the original story just did not translate in this adaptation. I think the translation of Elizabeth English to more contemporary phrases and moments has its appeal, and I understand why that choice was made.

The author of this adaptation brilliantly merged Shakespear's classic prose with the stunning visual art to tell this tale of magic, murder, madness, and betrayal faithfully in a medium more friendly to the casual (or younger) reader. Most dialog comes directly from the original play, and the few changes blend seamlessly into the whole.

I love this entire line of Classic Manga adaptations by Udon Comics. As a teen librarian with a soft spot for literary classics, this series has been gloriously successful in introducing a new generation of readers to books that have stood the test of time.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an eARC in return for my honest review*

Overall, I really enjoyed this. Adding visuals to Shakespeare is something that really works once you get in a stride. Macbeth can be a challenging play to visualize, so I appreciate this edition of Manga Classics. I do think that the language is hard to match with the visuals because manga has a modern vibe and Shakespeare is definitely not modern. Though I do wish this existed when I was in high school. It would have made eleventh grade English so much easier!

I actually tried to pick up the original play by William Shakespeare when I was a little younger and struggled with it. However, I cam across this Manga Classic and knew I had to read it and boy did it help. The art is well done and the story seems well transposed for the most part (I'll have to read the actual play to give better critique). Still, I really enjoyed this!

I have always loved the tale of Shakespeare's Macbeth but seeing it in a comic form had me a little skeptical. However, this was pulled off beautifully. It was super easy to read and comprehend. The art was beautiful and honestly added another layer to the storytelling, one that is not so achievable by TV or theater. There is an undeniable beauty in the emotions that are conveyed through animations/art, this was like a beautifully done animation of the dark tale but in paper form. I had so much fun reading this and can't wait to get my hand on more Manga Classics.

-- 5 stars --