I enjoyed the simplicity of the art and the humor. But mostly I found myself in Mari and their journey of getting to know one’s heritage. As a Palestinian-Mexican American who similarly grew up in a predominantly English-speaking household, so many of Mari’s interactions and experiences mirrored my own. I’d definitely recommend this!

I feel like I've been starting all of my reviews this way, but I'm not usually a fan of graphic novels. I'm not here to police what anyone is reading, but for myself, going outside of my comfort zone is an added way to further educate myself.

I greatly enjoyed this one. I will admit I chose this book because MariNaomi is non-binary. I had hoped to see some of that representation in the book.

We do get some mixed race representation, which I think is important. I can't personally speak on this, but from what I've heard secondhand, it's hard for mixed race Asian Americans growing up, because they feel like they have to defend their Asian identity. I can't remember who it was now, but I remember someone once saying that they weren't half of one thing and half of another, but the whole of both. That stuck with me.

This is a curious story about being Japanese American without speaking Japanese, hostess bars, and mediocre boyfriends. The concept of hostess bars has interested me ever since reading and watching the historically incorrect Memoirs of a Geisha. I'm not here to judge. I'm just here to learn.

Another thing I found interesting was that while Mari didn't grow up speaking Japanese, she (mc not author) clearly understood some, because once she moved to Japan she began to pick up bits and pieces faster than her mediocre boyfriend. I'm just going to keep calling him that. It's fine.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

this book felt like a hug!!!! it felt like i was feeling someone else’s nostalgia and the women in this book made me melt. i loved learning about a culture different than mine, and i know the feeling of feeling disconnected with your own history and struggling to learn the language. i really loved this book

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an eARC of the expanded edition of MariNaomi’s Turning Japanese. This was a nice atmospheric story, filled with a lot of little moments. I really enjoyed the pacing, it felt really easy and the little insights into the author's life.
We follow Mari as they explore their roots and how that connects to who they are now. I found this graphic novel very sweet, to the point, and frank. The art was really nice, almost simplistic. I think if it had been more complicated it would have taken away from the story.
I think, officially this is a 3.5 for me. I really enjoyed it but I didn’t feel feral about it. It was just nice. I’m rounding it up to four though.

This book dives into an exploration of being Asian American and mixed race and relationships. It's a very interesting memoir. Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book for review!

An interesting exploration of the Asian American experience, seen through the eyes of MariNori, a twenty-something Bay Area resident, drifting through life trying to figure out who she is and where she belongs. Caught between two cultures, and seemingly not fitting into either especially well (visibly Asian, yet not able to speak Japanese) she decides to lean into the Japanese side of her world, and goes to work in a Japanese hostess bar in San Jose in an attempt to learn the language better.
She then takes a long trip to Japan with her boyfriend to fully reconnect with her roots and family. And while her Japanese may not be fluent, she still successfully manages to make her way through the country and communicate with her family, including seemingly managing to crush her grandfather's dreams of becoming a great grandfather.
Updated with what happened to MariNori when she returned to the States, this is a fascinating perspective on the reality of being a mixed-race Asian American. Highly recommended.

MariNaomi's graphic memoir Turning Japanese discusses their identity as a Japanese American as they navigate through working in hostess bars in San Jose and moving to Tokyo. Mari always feels a bit out of place - too Japanese in America, too American in Japan - always striving to find their fit into this world. As Mari navigates their identity, they explore romantic, family and self relationships. While not the main focus of the work, Mari's feelings about their gender identity are touched on. In the graphic novel, MariNaomi uses the pronouns associated with them at the time. NOTE: This review has used they/them pronouns for MariNaomi, which are accurate to the author/illustrator today but differ from pronouns in the memoir. Recommended for public libraries.

Thank you to NetGalley & Oni Press for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a fair & honest review.

This book is refreshing. It gives more perspective on what life is like as a mixed-race person being largely cut off from one part of your heritage, and the author allowed us to join their journey on connecting to that heritage in a very real and tangible way. Thank you MariNaomi for drawing this. I would absolutely recommend it for reading. I like that the story has been told in a collection of memories put together, along with some reflection from the author. It is definitely worth a read.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher of Simon & Schuster, and the author MariNaomi for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I didn't know the differences between the original and expanded version, besides the author saying there was an additional epilogue. There could be some other technical differences such as the inking and coloring being updated or some scenes re-drawn. Besides those details, the graphic novel was a fun and compressed travelogue journey as the author travels throughout Japan and works as a hostess. Their struggles to relearn their native/mother tongue are quite relatable. While, I didn't particularly enjoy the presence of their boyfriend, Giussipe, I understand why he was included. I'm surprised there wasn't much interaction between their parents as they traveled in Japan. Including those elements would have been interesting or brought some insights about the author's life and their themes.

I am very interested in purchasing this title for my library because I believe our patrons will identify with its themes of family, self-identity, and personal exploration.

Memoirs are personal and almost always don’t satisfy every individual’s taste when reading one. In this case, reading and looking at one since it is written in graphic novel style. More so than not, there is always something that happens that one can relate to though. MariNaomi’s relationship with her boyfriends, her parents, her workplace………don’t we all have these relationships with people? She has this constant search for a way to learn the Japanese language (she is Hapa, mixed race). This is a common desire among those who are Hapa and unfortunately, a result of the generation gap and modern society where English is the dominant language. She deals with cultural mores and does her best with the knowledge she has, of dealing with them. Sometimes hilarious and sometimes sad, you’ll find that by the time you reach the end of the book, MariNaomi has grown up from the age of twenty-two to a pretty well-rounded, and thoughtful, adult.

I enjoyed reading this graphic novel memoir. The author tells the story about the way they have searched for their own culture and identity as a person of mixed heritage. Born in the US to an American father and Japanese mother, MariNaomi illustrates their own relationship with Japanese language, culture and Japan. We are shown how the author navigates all these aspects of their life at the same time as navigating work and relationships. None of this is easy but MariNaomi searches for the Japanese part of themselves with courage and candour sometimes finding themselves in complex situations.

We are taken from an illegal bar San Jose where they hope to learn Japanese from the bar’s patrons, to Tokyo where they do their best to learn the Japanese language and culture with their partner in tow and they succeed, but in so doing discover deep differences in what they and their partner want for their lives.

This memoir is both humorous and moving as we witness a journey of personal discovery. As some one who lived and grew up on the edge of my own culture and not speaking the language of my heritage, I could identify with the author in some aspects. I think, for many people in our highly mobile world today, where people either have mixed heritage or live outside their countries/cultures of origin, MarieNaomi’s memoir will resonate.

The artwork is black and white with drawings and text that convey a powerful and educational memoir. I enjoyed reading this and I will check out other graphic novels from this author.

Copy provided by Oni Press via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Another reviewer described this as a book of moments, and that captures it perfectly for me too. Big and small, mundane and life changing. Marinaomi’s (they/them) graphic novel about finding themself and learning Japanese as an adult while working at an illegal hostess bar for Japanese expats has real moments of interest and depth, but they also spend the majority of the book detailing the slow death of their relationship to a guy named Giuseppe after they visit Japan together and he’s just such boring oatmilk flavoured blah that he drags the whole book down around him. If this book hadn’t spent time with him at all I would have enjoyed it more, but the minimalist art is engaging and it made me laugh, empathize and relate—definitely enjoyable as a whole.

A candid and engaging memoir of cultural exploration and self-discovery. I loved the art style in this book. Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC!

I'll start this off by saying that I will still whole-heartedly recommend this graphic memoir to the people around me - it was just simply not *for me*.

I found it to be rather lackluster and directionless. There were some themes and discussions cracked open but then left uncooked. I saw some people describe this as a "book in moments" and I agree - and I know that some people will adore that. Unfortunately, I did not.

I did not feel visually stimulated either - the art seemed more and more simplistic as it progressed (which, again, other people might and will love) or overshadowed by heaps of texts. Overall, I can just say that I wish the main focus would have shifted away from Giuseppe and zeroed in on other, much more interesting, things / issues / topics that were brushed over.

This has and undoubtedly will have its audience and I'm super sad I didn't find myself being a part of it.

Thank you to Netgalley, Oni Press (Love y’all), and author MariNaomi for the opportunity to read this arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Turning Japanese is a graphic novel memoir detailing the reconnection of author MariNaomi’s with their culture. Since this is a real story, I’m going to tread lightly with my commentary. I think it’s important to have a discussion about a piece of work, but also be sensitive to the experiences of others.

With that being said, I did not necessarily enjoy this book. On the technical side, this was very text heavy. I sometimes felt it was a chore to read through everything on a page because despite being a graphic memoir, the designs helped very little. In terms of the writing itself, I felt it was very surface level. What did Mari get out of this whole journey? I didn’t think they really learned anything or got that much closer to the culture they initially wanted to embrace. I think part of it was I couldn’t connect with Mari as a person. I undertake reconnecting with my family and heritage very differently, which is not a bad thing, I just think we have different ways of approaching that complex idea.

Anyhow, I am glad I read it, but I had quite a few obstacles with it so that’s why it’s getting a 2.5-3 stars from me.

This is an illustrated autobiography by MariNaomi (they/them), a half-Japanese artist. The first half chronicles their life growing up in California, and the second half takes place in Japan. Having felt alienated from their own heritage by a mother who did not teach them Japanese, Mari hoped to find a sense of belonging in a country that they felt was a part of their identity, but they found themselves still tied to their life in the United States.

The book is an excellent memoir about the meaning of "home." As a white person who has lived in Tokyo, the story is both familiar and foreign, much like Japan is to Mari in the book. Their journey with the Japanese language reminds me of my own experiences as an on and off Japanese student myself, and their first journeys in Tokyo echo my own. But more importantly, their story as a half Japanese person is revealing, exposing nuances of familial relationships I have not heard from other people in similar situations. The book focuses on their Japanese half almost exclusively, though; I would be interested to see a sequel where they examine both halves of their identity in conversation with each other.

The artwork is simple and easy to understand, although at times it can be difficult to track where the eye should go next. It is a plain black and white style that uses fonts as a way to convey mood; this may be difficult for readers with dyslexia, vision issues, or other reading difficulties.

I recommend Turning Japanese to anyone who is interested in Japan, cross cultural communication, and the search for identity. I am grateful to NetGalley and Oni Press for offering this book as an eARC.

I found this story meaningful but meandering. By the end I wasn’t sure what the central point the author was trying to make me see, so the second epilogue was needed. The art style would change slightly and it would talk me out of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

Delving into the life of the author including being a hostess at Japanese bars and trying to connect with their Japanese roots, this graphic memoir touches on themes of self-discovery, relationships, language, and experiences as a mixed person.

The struggles with language, especially trying to learn it but not being supported in that endeavor, were very relatable. Trying to connect with an estranged part of one's identity is something I struggle with as well. The author also details their panic attacks and health struggles. I think the reader gets to know the author quite well through this graphic memoir.

The black and white art style of Turning Japanese is simple and has its own charm although it may not be to everyone's taste. I would have liked more near the end although I did like the second epilogue in closing out the memoir. Between returning from Japan and the second epilogue, it felt like there could have been more.

3.75/5

Turning Japanese by MariNaomi was a beautifully illustrated graphic memoir. I absolutely enjoyed the style in which MariNaomi illustrated their book with, as I found it renewing and like a breath of fresh air to see. I felt like I was reading a graphic novel from the nineties, which was likely on purpose, and it was that much easier to get lost into the story being told.

A graphic memoir from a specific time period of their life, Turning Japanese by MariNaomi tells of the unique — yet not-so unique — experience of how it feels to yearn for your culture, to be the child of an immigrant, and specifically the child of an Asian immigrant.

In the novel, Mari and their then boyfriend, Giuseppe, travel to Japan for half a year. While there, Mari reconnects with their family, and also takes a job at a restaurant where they hope to learn more Japanese. Their goal for those months is to learn more about their Japanese culture and language and to strengthen their Japanese roots.

MariNaomi transports us on a journey to Japan, back to the 90's, and has us watch as their younger self experiences each lesson they need to learn in order to become who they are now in 2023.

Turning Japanese is a vulnerable portrait into the life of not just the author, but of all who may feel they have lost a part of who they are, or their culture. Hopefully, by the end of the novel, readers will feel comforted and less alone. The story is relatable for everyone - especially Asian Americans / the Asian diaspora - and all will likely find a piece of themselves in here somewhere.