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Tonoharu: Part One
Daniel Wells begins a new life as an assistant junior high school teacher in the rural Japanese village of Tonoharu. Isolated from those around him by cultural and language barriers, he leads a monastic existence, peppered only by his inept pursuit of the company of a fellow American who lives a couple towns over. But contrary to appearances, Dan isn't the only foreigner t...more
Hardcover, 115 pages
Published
May 1st 2008
by Top Shelf Productions
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This is the story of an American teaching English in Japan. While the sense of disconnection and uncertainty is understandable, the book seems to be not about the disorientation of living in a foreign country, but about the character's own apathy and inability to connect with anyone. The story moves very slowly and very little actually happens. For someone who was willing to take the step of moving to another country alone, Dan is surprisingly unwilling to make any effort to interact with people...more
Part one of a planned four part plus series. The illustrations are great, especially the lovely cover, endpapers and wonderfully detailed title page.
Tonoharu starts with a first-person account of an Assistant English Teacher, or AET, at a middle school in Japan mulling over whether to renew his contract for another school year. He reviews some of his experiences over the previous 8 months, wonders a bit about the AET who taught before him, and doesn't come to a decision.
...more
Tonoharu starts with a first-person account of an Assistant English Teacher, or AET, at a middle school in Japan mulling over whether to renew his contract for another school year. He reviews some of his experiences over the previous 8 months, wonders a bit about the AET who taught before him, and doesn't come to a decision.
...more
This is part one of four about a man who goes to Japan to teach English.
He's not really sympathetic at all. He's not very interesting, and his interests are limited. (The students ask him questions during his introductory lesson. He didn't come up with any hobbies, and when pressed by another westerner, the only things he could come up with were 'sleeping and watching tv.') He doesn't seem to appreciate the culture around him.
I could give him advice - get a tutor, bra...more
He's not really sympathetic at all. He's not very interesting, and his interests are limited. (The students ask him questions during his introductory lesson. He didn't come up with any hobbies, and when pressed by another westerner, the only things he could come up with were 'sleeping and watching tv.') He doesn't seem to appreciate the culture around him.
I could give him advice - get a tutor, bra...more
The story of Errol P. and Alex M. in graphic novel form? Or at least that's sort of how I imagined it. There was something really wonderful to the understated sense of disconnection in this book, even in the anonymous monotony of the illustration and the typewritten lettering. I'm sure there are lots of fun things that happen in Japan and it isn't quite is miserable as he makes his life out to look in this book (but I guess he isn't saying it sucks as a place, just that he feels alone, I appreci...more
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Lars Martinson employs a skillful attention to detail of each panel. Aside from the great artwork I am personally engaged by the storyline, which I admit might not be of interest to everyone. It is the story of Dan Wells working as an Assistant Language Teacher in a fictional small rural town in Fukuoka-ken ala the JET Program, which I spent two years teaching on in Koshigaya, Saitama from 1997-1999. And although Koshigaya is a city of more than 200,000 people, with more than 10 other JETS, abou...more
I found myself getting really judgey while I read this book. I LOVE the art (my eyes want to get lost in the cover illustration) and I dig any graphic novel about travel that is honest and unflinching.
But, dude, this character is going about travel in the total wrong way. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. As someone who knows a lot of world-travelers, this guy is isolating himself, lacks the humble attitude necessary to learn a language, and doesn't seem to be putting any effort in...more
But, dude, this character is going about travel in the total wrong way. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. As someone who knows a lot of world-travelers, this guy is isolating himself, lacks the humble attitude necessary to learn a language, and doesn't seem to be putting any effort in...more
This isn't actually awful, but there's nothing here. Through the course of the book we learn the main character is unbearably unmotivated and uninteresting and that some weird people live in the town. This could work fine as an opening to longer work, but given that nothing happens in this entire volume - and it's dull - I can't imagine checking out the follow-ups.
For comparison, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is fourteen-volume manga in which, for the most part, nothing happens, but with li...more
For comparison, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is fourteen-volume manga in which, for the most part, nothing happens, but with li...more
3 1/2 stars. But it's only the first part of the story, so it's hard to make a judgment. I was a little confused by the beginning though- the narrator of the prologue is a different than the main character in the first part, so I'm guessing that the author, who actually taught in Japan, is telling a fictional story about his predecessor. But it's not really clear. the art's good, and I like the tension the author creates surrounding the obvious inequality of the protagonist's relationship with C...more
Tonoharu is the story of a man who comes to a rural Japanese town to teach English. As someone who's lived in Japan while teaching English, I found this book made me depressed and angry with the protagonist, Daniel. The prologue I understood and even sympathized with to a degree because I know of a lot of good reasons for breaking your teaching contract or not renewing it. But then it started in on the main story and you find out that the real reason Daniel isn't getting anything out of his stay...more
This started as a pretty promising work about the isolation of being a foreigner, but I think I would have enjoyed it better if the author had not fictionalized the body of the story. I enjoyed the prologue and think the next graphic novel in the series will be better. I just found the main character's self-pitying funk irritating. The graphic style was neat and crisp, but you couldn't see the edge of the talk bubble easily makng it difficult to tell who was saying what- definitly something t...more
While I’ve never been to Japan, checked out the JET program, or lived outside the country I was born in, I identified with some of the themes presented in “Tonoharu.” It is a fairly bleak look at the aimless feeling of some aspects of post college life in the era of the “quarter life crisis” and the self-loathing loneliness and lack of ambition of the main character, Daniel Wells, is something I’ve seen in myself as well as my peers at various low points of our lives between college and career. ...more
The framework of this story is such that it begins with the main character leaving his job as an assistant English teacher in Japan and moving back home. Then we are instantly thrown into a flashback in which we start with his first day on the job. It’s an interesting way of getting the readers involved in the story, because we want to see how things progressed to the point where they ended up. Tonoharu then is a book that makes you want more, and I cannot wait for the next installment.
This is a very lackluster little book. A man spending a year in a small town in Japan being an aide for English teachers in a middle school experiences loneliness and depression. This could be really interesting if the main character showed any spark at all (after thinking hard, he realizes his only hobbies are sleeping and watching tv) or if some of the weird, strange, fascinating things about his new life were depicted. Even the drawings are fairly static. Disappointing.
This book is actually just part 1 of a larger book. The protagonist is a student teacher teaching English in Japan. He is struggling with the idea of renewing his contract to become a teacher for the next year. Immersing himself in Japanese society has not been as idyllic as it seems.
The book does whet the appetite for a greater story but just doesn't get going anywhere yet. Not sure why release an incomplete book.
It does have pretty illustrations.
A co-worker loaned me this graphic novel, and I was skeptical because the last time I read a graphic novel I was young enough to drink illegally. But he assured me I could read it in 10 minutes and he was about right. It's a very smart little thing, this graphic novel. I enjoyed it, not enough to buy part 2, but I would certainly borrow part 2 after it came out. Short and poignant and smart, but too damn short for me to measure seriously.
Just picked up this graphic novel at the library on a whim and read it last night. I love the clean and classic look of the ink drawings and the fact that it still retains a sense of the comic book. Once I got acclimated to reading a graphic novel I appreciated the interaction of the words and the art to tell the story.
Now I just have to track down part two and then wait patiently for the forthcoming parts three and four.
Now I just have to track down part two and then wait patiently for the forthcoming parts three and four.
This book did a good job at showing what it might be like to be an expat in Japan (lonely, bizarre, interesting). I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
Artwork: environments = 5 stars
Artwork: people = 3 stars
Artwork: font = 2.5 stars
Story = 2 stars
Characterization = 2 stars
Details = 5 stars
Average: 3.25 stars, but I'll round it up to 4 since the things it did best were ever-so-great.
Artwork: environments = 5 stars
Artwork: people = 3 stars
Artwork: font = 2.5 stars
Story = 2 stars
Characterization = 2 stars
Details = 5 stars
Average: 3.25 stars, but I'll round it up to 4 since the things it did best were ever-so-great.
The first part of the story of a man who goes to Japan to be an assistant English teacher. He has so much to deal with - the language barrier, the culture barrier, and being the only "foreign" person in his town.
I like books about people's travels and adventures in other countries. This one was kind of confusing because it starts out being narrated by the guy who took over the job after the main character.
I like books about people's travels and adventures in other countries. This one was kind of confusing because it starts out being narrated by the guy who took over the job after the main character.
Daniel Wells decides to teach in Japan after college. This graphic novel tells of his challenges with language and culture, and isolation in his rural village of Tonoharu. I assume it's probably somewhat autobiographical as Mr. Martinson himself taught in Japan as well. Illustrations are better than the story line. First in a series, maybe it will improve?
Fairly interesting quick read. Looking forward to the next in the series to see how the story develops. The dream of a young man is definitely different than the reality he experiences. It looks at the isolation and lonliness he experiences as an outsider in Japan. I know an expat now living in Japan and he describes similar experiences.
As someone who lived and worked as an English teacher in a rural area, I can say that this book is spot on. I didn't have a family of strange Europeans living in my town, but many of the other experiences are weirdly familiar. Besides that, this book is wonderfully illustrated and the story is engaging.
This felt very autobiographical to me and really made me remember my years working in Japan. I felt like Martinson completely grasped the angst and ennui of being an American in such a foreign culture. A must-read for anyone thinking they'd like to live in Japan for any length of time.
Startlingly good - the art is lovely, and the level of detail in the drawings is exquisite. The story is lovely, though at times, Daniel Wells' awkwardness and shy nature made me want to squirm in sympathetic embarrassment. The sign of a well-written story, I think.
For a book about cultural disconnection in Japan, it sure made me miss Japan even more. The story is very monotone throughout the whole book, it was very short and had nothing going on, here's hoping the second book makes up for it.
The book itself is beautifully illustrated in a nice wash of blue, but what's the deal with the mopey, depressed, uninteresting main character, Dan? He just sits there and complains about being tired...I don't understand who this is supposed to appeal to in the graphic novel universe?
I'm trying to read a selection of what I've heard are good graphic novels. This one is about the isolation of an English teacher in a Japanese town where he is the town's only foreigner. Could have been interesting but wasn't quite.
The atmosphere is nice and you really do get the sense of alienation, but there really isn't much more there, and the story doesn't really have an ending. Maybe when the next volume comes out it will all make more sense.
An American English teacher leaves the US to teach in Japan and find himself way over his head. He learns about himself, Japanese culture and teaching. This part one of a four part series. I can't wait to read the rest.
Here are the comic misadventures of one of the few people who are more socially awkward than Peacegal. I enjoyed this insider's look at a life I will no doubt never know--living as a teacher in a foreign country.
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