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The Minamata Story: An Ecotragedy

Sean Michael Wilson (Goodreads Author),

Akiko Shimojima (Illustrations),

Brian Small (Introduction)

3.94 · Rating details · 16 ratings · 11 reviews

A powerful graphic novel /manga that tells the story of Minamata disease, a debilitating and sometimes fatal condition caused by the Chisso chemical factory's careless release of methylmercury into the waters of the coastal community of Minamata in southern Japan. First identified in 1956, it became a hot topic in Japan in the 1970s and 80s, growing into an iconic struggle ...more

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Paperback, 112 pages

Published June 15th 2021 by Stone Bridge Press

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May 04, 2021 The Curious Wanderer rated it really liked it

Well good golly...that was quite extremely educational like before I read this book and of course, knowing the Japanese government planning to dump the Fukushima waste in the ocean, I thought Japan were sensible enough in keeping their waters clean. Turns out it wasn’t the case at all.. Of course we have to thank Chisso Corporation who made the fishermen and their families (including animals) lose their livelihoods from the disease (not everyone from the company is to blame but mostly the partic ...more

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Jun 14, 2021 Lizz rated it really liked it

Gracias NetGalley y Stone Bridge Press por enviarme una copia de esta novela gráfica a cambio de una reseña honesta.

Los desastres naturales siempre han sido algo que temo desde niña, porque son impredecibles, al igual que la incompetencia y ambición humana.

The Minamata Story relata la tragedia ecológica sucedida en Minamata, con un estudiante investigando desde los primeros signos hasta su actualidad. Hay demasiadas cosas que podría comentar pero con la situación actual sólo podría decir que cu ...more

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Jun 13, 2021 Ashley rated it liked it

**Disclaimer: I received a free early access copy of The Minamata Story: An Ecotragedy by Sean Michael Wilson through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for this opportunity.

The Minamata Story: An Ecotragedy by Sean Michael Wilson and Akiko Shimojima is a graphic novel that helps to bring light to real events. It switches back and forth between the modern timeline and looking back on events that happened in the past. It was published on Ju **Disclaimer: I received a free early access copy of The Minamata Story: An Ecotragedy by Sean Michael Wilson through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for this opportunity.

The Minamata Story: An Ecotragedy by Sean Michael Wilson and Akiko Shimojima is a graphic novel that helps to bring light to real events. It switches back and forth between the modern timeline and looking back on events that happened in the past. It was published on June 15th, 2021. I rated it three stars on Goodreads.

Here's the summary from Goodreads:

A powerful graphic novel/manga that tells the story of Minamata disease, a debilitating and sometimes fatal condition caused by the Chisso chemical factory's careless release of methylmercury into the waters of the coastal community of Minamata in southern Japan. First identified in 1956, it became a hot topic in Japan in the 1970s and 80s, growing into an iconic struggle between people versus corporations and government agencies.
The event is also the subject of the 2020 Andrew Levitas directed Johnny Depp film, Minamata.
This struggle is relevant today, not simply because many people are still living with the disease but also because, in this time of growing concern over the safety of our environment--viz. Flint, Michigan--Minamata gives us as a very moving example of such human-caused environmental disasters and what we can do about them.

The Minamata Story: An Ecotragedy was a short but very moving graphic novel. I hadn’t really heard about what happened in Minamata so it was an educational story.
The art was well done, but it easily represented what the story was trying to get across. The fact that it was in black and white emphasized certain details. The characters were expressive, and felt unique.
I liked that they used Tomi’s university assignment as a vessel to help us learn about what happened. Tomi didn’t know enough and so as he learned, we learned. I also really enjoyed how he went to visit real people who were living with the disease.
I also really liked how at the end it detailed about the real people who inspired the characters in the story. It's good to pay tribute to the people you drew inspiration from.
However, I will admit that it did feel a little rushed and I would have liked to see more development and expansion on the story to learn even more about it.
It was well done and was really interesting. I highly recommend that you check out the story! ...more

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May 16, 2021 Leighton rated it it was amazing

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Minamata Story by Sean Michael Wilson is a manga/graphic novel about a horrible ecological event that impacted many Japanese citizens. Since the description of the book can say it in a much more concise way than I can, here is a quote from the description of the book: The book is about "Minamata disease," a debilitating and sometimes fatal condition caused by the Chisso chemical factory's careless release ...more

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May 02, 2021 Ana rated it liked it

I received a free e-ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Content warnings: environmental disaster, depictions of disease, depictions of cat and human deaths, prejudice, ableism.

The premise of The Minamata Story is that in 2o2o a college student, Tomi, has to do a presentation on an environmental issue, and he is assigned Minamata disease, which was mercury poisoning caused by eating contaminated seafood. At first he's kind of annoyed and ambivalent about the top I received a free e-ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Content warnings: environmental disaster, depictions of disease, depictions of cat and human deaths, prejudice, ableism.

The premise of The Minamata Story is that in 2o2o a college student, Tomi, has to do a presentation on an environmental issue, and he is assigned Minamata disease, which was mercury poisoning caused by eating contaminated seafood. At first he's kind of annoyed and ambivalent about the topic, but then he discovers that he is actually more connected than he thought. His maternal family were actually from the region, before moving away in the 1970s.

The manga essentially follows Tomi's research into the disease, what caused it, and what the lasting impacts have been. He talks about what it was like at the time with his grandmother, Sato Kimura. She talks about how people with the disease were shunned and blamed for the affect on the local economy - most people's livelihoods were connected to fishing in the waters up and down the coast around Minamata. He goes to visit Minamata with his grandmother to meet people who have been affected by the disease, whether directly or indirectly. He also eventually speaks to a doctor to supplement what he learned online.

I thought this was a powerful, emotionally charged book. I liked how we learned about the environmental disaster and disease alongside the main character, which I thought was very organic. I think it would have been better had we learned the signs and symptoms of the disease much earlier in the book, before we learned about it's impact, because I had no idea what the disease actually did to the human body until well over half way through.

Other than that, this was an excellent non-fiction graphic novel with very clear messages - damaging the environment damages us all; failing to learn from history means that we continue to make the same choices and the same mistakes; and that as a society, and as individuals, we should always stand up and make our voices heard. ...more

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Jun 24, 2021 Sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: 2021

Thank you to Netgalley and Sean Michael Wilson for the digital copy of this book. My review is not sponsored.

Previous to reading this graphic novel, I had never heard about Minamata disease. I couldn't help but see the parallels between the politics and interpersonal conflicts this disease caused and how the American government reacts to oil spills. From not helping fisherman who are now out of work due to the toxic sludge to the government not helping the families losing loved ones to the illn ...more

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May 05, 2021 Dame Samara rated it really liked it

This book was interesting in the sense that this is a piece of history I had never heard about. I know that situations like this are/were far from uncommon, but it's a part of history that is skimmed over.

Some parts of this book can be incredibly upsetting with depictions of Miamata Disease both in humans and in cats.

This book at it's core is a call to action, that if we let it, these types of things will be brushed under the rug. That corporations like Chisso, do not really care about the impac ...more

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May 26, 2021 Cassandra rated it liked it

Shelves: 2021-reads

Full review: https://theliteraryhoe.wordpress.com/...

Minamata disease is a neurological disease caused by methylmercury poisoning. A company named Chisso dumped their chemical wastes into the seas. Humans acquired the methylmercury thru bioaccumulation – it followed the food chain of aquatic organisms to small fish to big fish to humans.

This graphic novel/manga didn’t just tackle how the Minamata disease started, but how it affected the people in so many ways. Aside from getting sick and some ev ...more

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Jun 15, 2021 M.J. Walker rated it it was amazing

An excellent mix of realistic and deeply moving, its well researched and well drawn. A good way to learn about this important environmental disaster.

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May 03, 2021 Andréa marked it as to-read

Shelves: arc, digital, netgalley-edelweiss, sequential-art, kids, informative, true-biographical, tv-movies, diversity

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

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May 12, 2021 Leesa - ToodleBean rated it really liked it

I didn't expect to connect with this material the way I did. I very rarely read non fiction and I knew nothing of Minamata disease before picking this up. Being presented as manga was a smart choice; it's the reason I decided to read The Minamata Story and it's a very Japanese way to present important history.

Tomi, a British Japanese student misses out on his chance to present an assignment on the Fukushima Disaster and is instead assigned Minamata Disease, to his disappointment. Once Tomi lear ...more

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About Sean Michael Wilson

Sean Michael Wilson

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Sean Michael Wilson is a comic book writer from Scotland. He has had around 30 books published with a variety of US, UK and Japanese publishers, including: a comic book version of A Christmas Carol ('Best of 2008’, Sunday Times), AX:alternative manga ( 'Best ten books of 2010’, Publishers Weekly), Parecomic (with an introduction by Noam Chomsky, his first contribution to a book in graphic form). H ...more