John Werry Archives - BookDragon

Booklist Backlist: Japanese Graphic Horror [in Booklist]

29 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Lists, Short Stories, Translation, Young Adult Readers

I can’t watch scary movies, but I love graphic horror on the page. And really, fear-mongering via Japanese manga – both series and standalones – promises some of the most affecting fright-fests. As we approach that most haunting time of the year, here’s some chilling company. Death...

Asadora! (vol. 3) by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]

28 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

The third volume of Naoki Urasawa’s latest superb spectacle begins to distinguish individual story lines while overlapping various subplots. It’s 1964, five years since Japan’s deadliest typhoon. Asa is as righteously spunky as ever, determined to expose what happened the morning after she witnessed what couldn’t...

Asadora! (vol. 2) by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]

02 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

And so the intriguing layers – always characteristic of auteur Naoki Urasawa’s series – begin to multiply in volume 2 of his latest Stateside import, brought into English by frequent manga translator John Werry (who lent his talents to the first volume, and the continuity...

Asadora! (vol. 1) by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]

12 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Once upon a 1960s screentime, Japan’s NHK broadcast serial dramas in the mornings, a genre called “renzoku terebi shōsetsu,” literally “continuing TV novel,” shortened to “asadora,” meaning “morning drama.” Legendary Naoki Urasawa ingeniously riffs on the bygone genre, replacing “terebi” with “manga” to create Renzoku manga shōsetsu...

Sneeze by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]

06 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation

For Naoki Urasawa newbies, his latest collection (another satisfying English translation by popular manga-specialist John Werry) is a beckoning introductory primer. For aficionados, these eight stories (none titled “Sneeze”), originally published between 1995-2018, are an affirming reminder of his irrefutable genius. Urasawa’s most memorable stories feature...

Mujirushi: The Sign of Dreams by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]

13 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Kamoda can’t stop making detrimental decisions: dodging taxes results in losing the family’s sandals business, agreeing to mass-manufacture caricature masks of a U.S. presidential candidate (who looks surprisingly like Trump) takes everything else. Kamoda’s wife has already fled, leaving their daughter, Kasumi, as the only voice...

Five More to Go: Margaret Atwood and Reneé Nault’s The Handmaid’s Tale [in The Booklist Reader]

16 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, European, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Lists, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and Reneé Nault In the decades since its 1985 publication, Margaret Atwood’s dystopic classic has spawned audio, film, radio, theater, opera, ballet incarnations, and, most recently, the wildly popular television series (which veers significantly from the original, ahem). Given the evergreen...

Favorite Manga Series, Part I: 20th Century Boys through Ultraman [in The Booklist Reader]

28 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Lists, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Favorite Manga Series, Part I: 20th Century Boys through Ultraman Graphic titles are big news. Even if you’re not a pop-culture connoisseur, you can’t have missed the graphic titles regularly popping up on bestseller lists—not to mention their various incarnations on film and even the stage! When...

14 Japanese Thrillers in Translation [in The Booklist Reader]

31 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Lists, Repost, Translation

Mysteries and thrillers make up a sizable portion of the Japanese literary market. Thanks to the international success of Keigo Higashino, Natsuo Kirino, and Miyuki Miyabe – and, just as importantly, their translators – contemporary Japanese crime fiction proliferates on Western shelves. Below is a list...

Master Keaton (vol. 5) by Naoki Urasawa, story by Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki, translated and adapted by John Werry

12 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, British Asian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

For those of us of a certain (old) age, we might remember an animated rabbit used to sell artificially colored, chemically flavored powder that altered milk into some sort of sweet goop: Quiky the Quik Bunny would quip "You can't drink it slow, if it's Quik."...

Master Keaton (vols. 3-4) by Naoki Urasawa, story by Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki, translated and adapted by John Werry

16 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Well, I've done it now – binge-read two volumes of my latest favorite manga obsession. I really was trying to space out the fabulous adventures of Taichi Hiraga Keaton, our British/Japanese hapa professor/insurance investigator (ha! of course, he's so much more than that!), but once begun...

Master Keaton (vol. 2) by Naoki Urasawa, story by Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki, translated and adapted by John Werry

03 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hapa/Mixed-race, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Okay, I admit it: Master Keaton is my favorite new series. Luckily, Naoki Urasawa’s manga tend to go lonnnggggg (24 volumes of 20th-into-21st Century Boys, 18 volumes of Monster, and the shortest, eight-volumes of Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka) so hopefully the good Master will keep me mightily satisfied for a...

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (vol. 10) by Motoro Mase, translated by John Werry, English adaptation by Kristina Blachere

05 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

So this is it ...

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (vols. 8-9) by Motoro Mase, translated by John Werry, English adaptation by Kristina Blachere

23 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

First thing first: although every volume offers possibly standalone chapters, to get the full narrative arc, you really need to read them all in order. [Click here to check out the rest of Ikigami.] If you're not yet familiar with this chillingly effective, utterly addictive series, the most important...

Genkaku Picasso (vols. 2-3) by Usamaru Furuya, translated by John Werry

29 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Doh! For some reason, I had no idea the other-worldly adventures of the Picasso/Chiaki dynamic duo [pocket-angel Chiaki directs the surviving Picasso towards doing good deeds for his fellow students] was a trilogy. I figured on a few more years of diving into secret sketches since...

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (vol. 7) by Motoro Mase, translated by John Werry, English adaptation by Kristina Blachere

30 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Young Adult Readers

In anticipation of tomorrow's frightfest, thought I should share some deathly dystopian manga – ikigami literally translating to 'death paper.' While each volume could potentially stand alone as a series of individual episodes that detail how the chosen spend their predetermined final 24 hours, you'll need to start from...

Blue Exorcist (vol. 1) by Kazue Kato, translated by John Werry

21 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

We all probably have a little bit of devil in us, but what do you do when you find out that your birthfather is Satan himself? Twin brothers (and, not surprisingly, polar opposites), Rin and Yukio, have been raised all their lives by Father Fujimoto,...

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (vol. 6) by Motoro Mase, translated by John Werry, English adaptation by Kristina Blachere

14 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Federal employee Fujimoto delivers ikigami – death notices from the National Welfare Program, which insists that its arbitrary system of randomly killing one in every 1,000 citizens will teach people to value life. Fujimoto has been in doubtful turmoil about the death-system, although he knows...

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (vol. 5) by Motoro Mase, translated by John Werry, English adaptation by Kristina Blachere

23 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

The town of Musashigawa has a graffiti problem ...

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (vol. 4) by Motoro Mase, translated by John Werry, English adaptation by Kristina Blachere

09 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

This latest volume of Ikigami will be forever associated with the great snowpocalypse of 2010! I pre-ordered it last October, knew it would take awhile (official pub date is actually today), and finally got an email from Amazon last week saying it was being shipped. 'Lo...

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