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sorren_briarwood 's review for:
Turning Japanese: Expanded Edition
by MariNaomi, MariNaomi
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Turning Japanese is an entertaining read, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in Japanese culture, host clubs, or the experience of being mixed race and/or otherwise disconnected from your cultural heritage.
MariNaomi’s artstyle is quite variable, which is consistently engaging, but I didn’t love every panel. Its strengths, however, are apparent: in particular, how they represent interiors and the creative flares they incorporate with inventive panelling, lettering, etc. I would absolutely prefer this over a “pretty,” art style that doesn’t take any risks.
The “characters,” in Turning Japanese are real people, and indeed, they feel extremely vivid and multifaceted, even if they only appear briefly. Whilst this book doesn’t have a strong narrative throughline, I really enjoyed the way that it was presented as a series of moments with thematic parallels. This feels more true to how memories are usually preserved, which suits a memoir well, and I appreciate that the reader can draw their own conclusions from MariNaomi’s experiences, without excessive rumination or commentary from them: just the events filtered through their point of view.
On a more personal note, I really appreciated this read as a mixed race person with some commonalities with MariNaomi’s experiences (e.g. a mother who did not pass on her native language). I think this memoir really captures the strange liminal space you can occupy as a mixed race person, and the sometimes absurd and bewildering experience of trying to reconnect to your heritage as an adult. The conversations it opens up about cultural and intergenerational differences, and how these can be exacerbated by interacting, are something I would love to see more of both in fiction and non-fiction.
The edition I read included a follow-up comic about a more recent visit to Japan, which I think bookended Turning Japanese really nicely- in fact, I can see the ending feeling a little sudden or dissatisfying without it. If you’re interested in this book, I think it’s worth buying an up to date edition for this comic alone: it really recontextualizes the rest of the memoir.
Turning Japanese is an entertaining read, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in Japanese culture, host clubs, or the experience of being mixed race and/or otherwise disconnected from your cultural heritage.
MariNaomi’s artstyle is quite variable, which is consistently engaging, but I didn’t love every panel. Its strengths, however, are apparent: in particular, how they represent interiors and the creative flares they incorporate with inventive panelling, lettering, etc. I would absolutely prefer this over a “pretty,” art style that doesn’t take any risks.
The “characters,” in Turning Japanese are real people, and indeed, they feel extremely vivid and multifaceted, even if they only appear briefly. Whilst this book doesn’t have a strong narrative throughline, I really enjoyed the way that it was presented as a series of moments with thematic parallels. This feels more true to how memories are usually preserved, which suits a memoir well, and I appreciate that the reader can draw their own conclusions from MariNaomi’s experiences, without excessive rumination or commentary from them: just the events filtered through their point of view.
On a more personal note, I really appreciated this read as a mixed race person with some commonalities with MariNaomi’s experiences (e.g. a mother who did not pass on her native language). I think this memoir really captures the strange liminal space you can occupy as a mixed race person, and the sometimes absurd and bewildering experience of trying to reconnect to your heritage as an adult. The conversations it opens up about cultural and intergenerational differences, and how these can be exacerbated by interacting, are something I would love to see more of both in fiction and non-fiction.
The edition I read included a follow-up comic about a more recent visit to Japan, which I think bookended Turning Japanese really nicely- in fact, I can see the ending feeling a little sudden or dissatisfying without it. If you’re interested in this book, I think it’s worth buying an up to date edition for this comic alone: it really recontextualizes the rest of the memoir.