Tonoharu: Part One

A brief, spare comix about some young people doing the Japanese English teacher program (where you spend a year or two in Japan teaching English in schools). I loved the art, and really appreciated the change in perspective - from the Guy That Arrived This Year, to (zooming back) the Guy That Just Left. That made me do a double-take, and I appreciated it. Interesting storytelling!

But, as others have noted, the guy we spend a lot of time with (the Guy That Just Left) is really a gratingly passive sad sack. The comix feels both sympathetic and critical of his behavior - I mean, he's just a shy kid, basically, fresh out of college and paralyzed by culture shock - but it does wear on you, the reader. He is juxtaposed against the fellow English teacher girl from the neighboring town, who seems to be a social butterfly. I kinda just wanted to shake him. But, then again, that can happen when you're an expat: you don't get over the culture shock hump, but just kinda wallow in alienation and loneliness.

Picked this up from the library because I thought the art was just beautiful–and it is. The story didn't grab me at all–for an autobiographical story, the author feel so removed from his own story, it kind of interrupted the telling of it for me over and over again.

The main character was so depressing it was painful, and the plot never really materialized. On the plus side the book is short, so the reader is only bored/annoyed for a small amount of time.