Adapts the titular Genji's sordid affairs in such a lush, enthralling artstyle that you yourself begin to wonder, in a world this beautiful, is it really any surprise Genji loves the way he does?

Incredible story and I eagerly await for the next installment. I know I could read any of the full translations, but the images in this manga version are terrific.

The art was stunning, but I found story telling somewhat dry. The historical parts (etiquette of the time, customs, etc) were quite interesting to me, but my attention kept drifting off.

The Tale of Genji: Dreams at Dawn by Waki Yamato was amazing. I recently read the huge book that this manga is based off and I can't wait to read more from this visual adaptation.

Before I Start
I picked this book from NetGalley a couple of years ago for two reasons. One, it was The Tale of Genji, which is considered the first novel ever written and has been on my TBR for a while but I never got around to it because of its sheer length. And two, this one was the manga version of it, a form I had fallen in love with, which of course, makes it easier and quicker to read!! 🙂

Somehow I missed reading it, and later got it for myself to read and review. That time, I missed reviewing it. So here it is finally, as I worked on the letter T for this A to Z Challenge!

My Thoughts
The Tale of Genji certainly lends itself to the manga form. Every character and every setting is stunningly beautiful, and the details are amazing. While the story itself is full of twists and turns, and worth a whole review, my thoughts here focus on the manga version.

I cannot comment on how the original has been adapted to the manga, not having read the original (in English translation, of course) yet. But based on the popularity of this manga and the comments (below) from the description, this is totally worth a read:

First published in the 1980s and 90s, Waki Yamato’s renowned adaptation of Murasaki Shikibu’s 11th-century literary masterpiece is still gorgeous to behold and is considered one of the greatest novel-to-manga adaptations of all time.

As for me, reading this book gave me immense pleasure, and I look forward to the rest in the ten-volume series (yes, this is just the first one of ten)!

In Summary
An amazing read for those who love manga, comics, or have The Tale of Genji on their TBRs.

<a href="https://www.ladyinreadwrites.com/">Check my blog - LadyInReadWrites - for more reviews</a>
Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the digital ARC of the book; these are my honest opinions after reading the book.

A gorgeous illustrated version of The Tale of Genji. Will appeal to those who like manga with historical settings, and those that are trying to read more classic literature.

I'm going to be upfront with you: I can't in good concience recommend <em>Tale of Genji: Dreams at Dawn</em>. It's a manga adaptation of Murasaki Shibiku's <em>Tale of Genji</em>, following the son of an emperor who falls "in love" with his stepmother (who is apparently the spitting image of his dead birth mother), and pursues several women in an attempt to find a replacement for her. Including the ten-year-old cousin of his stepmother, who he takes in as his ward, who will – according to character summary at the back of the book – become his wife when she's older.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting that either.

The art has a weird combo of eighties manga charm and same-face syndrome for the female characters, which means that for most of it I was relying on context to tell the characters apart. I'm willing the accept the blame is probably on me! Or that it's actually a clever metatextual touch, in that all women look like his mother to Genji. When the art works well though, it has the framing and staging of a woodblock print, which is incredibly effective.

As for the story itself, I feel like it went past at an incredible speed. It's not unsurprising, considering that it's trying to cover nineteen years in the space of a few pages, but it meant that the cast of women around Genji come on stage and leave again before we really have a chance to get to know them. I would have liked more about them, because most of them do seem to have their own lives and histories apart from Genji, but alas, they're all written out before we get it. But it does mean that there are some odd gaps in the story; did the woman who tried to kill Genji's mother receive any consequences? Did Genji ever mention to his best friend that he found the lover and child that the friend had thought missing for years? I would much rather have had the stories of the women <em>>around</em> Genji than Genji himself, although I feel like that might not have fixed the cruelty of a chapter when the "joke" is that the woman Genji is pursuing is neither beautiful not intelligent, despite what he expects.

I think the most interesting part for me was the creator's notes in the back where the author talks about the process of researching and adapting The Tale of Genji, especially because her initial conception of it was specifically as a shoujo manga. It's also where I realised that thankfully I wasn't <em>supposed</em> to like Genji.

As an introduction to one of the oldest surviving works of fiction, it's fairly interesting, but I don't think that I would read this for its own merits.

[Caution warnings: incest. mentions of grooming in future volumes, dubious consent, death of parents] [This review was based on an ARC from Netgalley.]

My Rating : 4

I have never read any Japanese classic literature and reading this book as a Manga definitely heightened the experience! The artwork is so whimsical and flowing, the story is really captivating and the way the storyline is portrayed is wonderful. It took some time for me to figure out the pattern of the illustration to read, but after that, it was really good. The character summary at the end really helped me understand the overall picture. Since the artwork is similar, it might get a little confusing to identify the individuals, but I don't think it hinders the reading experience though. Definitely going to read more of Japanese classics now !

Thank you so much Netgalley for the review copy. Detailed review will be up soon !

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher that gave me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
***
This is a comic version of the 11th Century novel by Murasaki Shikibu, and it's centered around one of the Emperor's sons, Genji, and his love life.
Genji's mother, one of the low rank Emperor's wives, dies when he's very young. One day, the Emperor falls in love with another woman because she's so alike Genji's mother. The child, knowing this, becomes very attached to her and starts considering her as a mother, even though she's only 5 years older than him. When Genji grows up he falls in love with her, and she with him, but they have to hide it from the Emperor because she's one of his wives and that would be considered treason. Along his life, he keeps falling in love with woman after woman as long as they remind him of his mother.
Genji is a nice enough character, and he's especially endearing because since his childood he's been living with an inner sense of abandonment and a longing for a mother's love. However, the fact that he's becoming romantically involved with all women who seems to look like his departed mother is incestuous and a bit creepy.
The illustrations are stunning, but unfortunately (to me) the story comes across as boring and confusing too, Often, characters contradict themselves and all of the sudden they jump from a subject to another, or they start talking about a woman and then suddenly it seems they're referring to another.
I haven't read the original novel, so I can't say if this version is faithful to it and these discrepancies belong to the original or just the comic version, but the confusion forces you to stop reading to go back and try to understand "what's going on". The fact that the women Genji loves look so similar doesn't help either, because some times you don't understand which one is she.
In conclusion, I truly wanted to love this book, and I found it beautifully illustrated, but unfortunately I didn't enjoy reading it because of all the issues above.

This is a story I have been meaning to get around to for a while so when I saw this manga version it was a must.
Prince Genji lost his mother when he was very young and his father the Emperor married the young Princess Fujitsubo as she so closely resembled his late wife.
Prince Genji lacking maternal love falls deeply in infatuated love with Princess Fujitsubo, however it is a forbidden love, she is his Fathers Wife and his Stepmother.
Married off at 12 in an arranged marriage Genji moves through adulthood from lover to lover having affairs behind his wife's back, often using a flower to symbolise the lover but always in his mind is his first love Princess Fujitsubo.
Although morally wrong the story is certainly captivating and the stunning artwork really brings it alive. It's compulsive, once I started it I had to keep reading and did so all in one go!.
I really enjoyed Waki Yamato's notes at the end, glimpses in to the artists thoughts/feelings of the story and how it altered how she translated the images.
I'm hoping to see more Japanese translations like this as this was brilliant and makes it very accessible for the UK audience.
My thanks go to the publishers, artist and Netgalley in providing this arc for a honest review.

I didn't realize initially that this is a translation of an older manga, and I think a lot of my disappointment with it can be chalked up to a mismatch of stylistic expectation. If you like manga from the era of Rose of Versailles, I think the art has that kind of old-school shojo aesthetic, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I was hoping for the full-blown over the top set pieces of xxxHOLiC or the incredibly detailed costumes of A Bride's Story, and Tale of Genji definitely does not have that. There's a lot of white space. The story is... uh, let's go with complex, but I was able to follow along pretty well despite not having any prior knowledge of Tale of Genji (I did cave and google mid-manga to confirm my suspicion that Genji is eventually going to marry the child he adopted because she resembles his stepmother who he has a crush on because she resembles his mother... y i k e s, and also yes he 100% grooms this girl to be his eventual perfect bride but that's ~literature for you), and there's a family tree at the back of the book as well. I did very much appreciate the mangaka's note at the end of the book laughing at Genji the dirtbag and his massive Oedipal complex! Like, at least we can all acknowledge that he is objectively a terrible person.

This manga is based on the medieval tale of Prince Genji, the illegitimate son of the Emperor who is born and raised in luxury and has a penchant for falling for the wrong women. He has an incredible number of affairs, one in particular a forbidden one with his own father's new wife, a young woman barely 4 years older than Genji who had been close to him after the death of Genji's mother and had eventually grown dangerously close to the young and amorous teenager…

The art is beautiful, so if you think that the story itself is something you can be into, this manga will be an incredible reading experience

My thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for a review copy of this one.

This is the first volume of the graphic novel/manga version of the eleventh-century Japanese classic, The Tale of Genji by noblewoman Murasaki Shibaku (believed to be the first novel ever written). It tells the story of Hiraku Genji the ‘shining prince’, son of the Emperor Kiritsubo, and a low-ranking lady at court who the Emperor falls deeply in love with. When his mother does, Genji is sent to his grandmother, and later brought back after her death. In the meantime, the Emperor hears of a young lady, Princess Fujitsubo who resembles Genji’s deceased mother, and she soon becomes his wife. But Genji ends up falling in love with her. His forbidden love and his estranged relationship with his wife lead him to seek the woman of his dreams elsewhere, and he ends up falling in love with a series of different women. This first volume of the manga series takes us through part of the story, giving us the tale of Genji’s mother, his initial years as a child, and the stories of some of the women he falls in love with.

Before I write about the story itself, I have to mention the artwork which is really gorgeous. I especially loved the coloured pages at start of the book and at the beginning of each chapter. These are really delicate and beautiful (faces and costumes), and reminded me quite a bit of the very first anime/manga I ever saw on TV Fushigi Yugi/Curious Play.

Back to the actual story, this was I thought a great way for someone like me, who’s heard about Genji but never read it to get a glimpse of what the story is about, in a fairly simple way (The book is supposed to be quite confusing and complicated, so far as I know). The book also gives one an idea of what court life, especially that of nobles and royalty would have been like at that point—customs, etiquette, leisure activities (poetry, music, games), and even love. That said, though I don’t know if it is a story that would appeal to me as a story though I would may be have read it as a classic work. Genji is a complex character certainly, but I didn’t find him a very likeable one. But then again, if he wasn’t as ‘lost’ as he was (or at least not as unaware about what he was looking for), there would be no story. Also, even in the manga version, there were points at which I found myself a little bit confused as to some of the female characters (who was who and such). There is however a helpful character guide at the back (which I should probably have consulted then).

This version isn’t simply an adaptation of the original text into art, but the author has imagined her own Tale of Genji, creating her own dialogue, associating different flowers and foods with the different women, etc., as she explains at the end. I think the author has done a great job translating the story into this much simpler version, with her own interpretation of the characters and conversations, and the book certainly succeeds in giving first time readers like me a broad idea of this classic. This was a good read, though not a great one for me as despite the lovely artwork which I enjoyed very much, and the author’s efforts that I certainly admired and appreciated, the story wasn’t something that really drew me in. (However, I would like to know where Genji ends up, so will probably continue with the manga version.) 3.5 stars.

This manga version was first published in the 1980s, and was published in English on 26 February 2019 in digital form.

This is a manga adaptation of the original tale, giving us the story of the shining prince, Genji as he tries to escape the shadow of his forbidden love.

The original book is still on my To Be Read list so I can't compare the story but I can say this book is pretty to look at but confusing. The art is pretty but I had difficulty telling people apart because of the style. It's delightfully detailed in some aspects; like the flowers and the clothes. But I had trouble with the faces because they were all designed so similarly. And the dialogue didn't help; leaving me baffled as to who was who in the hierarchy and why it was important. One day I'll read the original book but as a taste of it, this manga isn't so bad. 3 out of 5.

This manga version of The Tale of Genji is surely interesting and that we finally have this in English, when it was originally published in the late 1970s and 1980s(!). The story revolves around Hikaru Genji, a second son of Emperor Kiritsubo, who tries to find love basically. His mother died when he was a child and afterwards he was taken care of Princess Fujitsubo. Genji falls in love with the princess and they even have an illegal child that is kept a secret later on and they cannot really be together. Thus Genji goes from one woman to another in search of someone like her. He even adopts a girl in a way to raise her to be the perfect wife and names her Murasaki and somehow I have the feeling she is Murasaki Shikubu, the writer of the story perhaps?

The art looks like shoujo at the time so perhaps this doesn't appeal to young readers. The story is mature too in many ways and Genji makes love to everything basically. Either way this is an interesting look at the court life and Japan's history, which makes this intriguing and perhaps this is an easier version compared to the book. The manga is heavy with text and the panels are full, which makes this a slow read, but in a way it works with the story well. It's hard to remember the characters though, since the women look the same and their names are somewhat similar too. It'd like to see a fresh version brought to this day actually, it would be awesome. Still, this is worth the read and the translation works too.

A great manga adaptation of a classic of Japanese literature. The Tale of Genji is a monster of a book and this manga volume is the start of a wonderful adaptation of the work. The translation and art make a romance written in installments over 1000 years ago still fresh even when the surroundings are very different than modern Japanese or American culture. The art style, especially in the faces, is a little dated if one is familiar with today's manga but it is not a distraction. Overall, it is an easy introduction to the Tale of Genji and Heian era Japan.

The illustrations in this graphic novel are lush and beautiful. But the story is lackluster. I found myself bored and stopped reading the test. I just kept strolling to check out the artwork.

Despite not being very familiar with the original tale, I was pleasantly surprised that Kodansha Comics finally took the big leap to make this available in English. Well-deserved indeed! Now comes the catch: I have reservations on how the source text was translated.

The English dialogues do not reflect the historical setting and reads like soap opera instead; with no hint of refinement in the many and varied characters. Most importantly, it lacks discernment of the social hierarchy in ancient Japan which is an integral part of the story.

I was already 50% into the book when I felt the translation really was stripped of its most significant context in favour of plain readability. Aside from the beautiful illustrations, I am unable to recommend much else.

A 21st century way to experience an 11th century tale. The climate is right for a new generation of readers to meet The Shining One and his entourage. This graphic novel version tells the first part of the story: Genji’s birth, coming of age, and romantic exploits as a young man. Along the way, we are introduced to the nuances of court life In ancient Japan. There are so many possibilities for Waki Yamato’s work. Besides its appeal as an incredibly artful graphic novel in its own right, teachers of World Literature could find it an accessible way to engage students in meaningful discussion of their reading of the original novel by Murasaki Shikibu. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

This is a beautiful first volume in the manga-adaptation series of the Tale of Genji. The coloured chapter pages are splendid and the black and white story pages are beautifully drawn, very elegant, with a style that sometimes reminds of art nouveau or Mucha.

I did however find the story hard to follow. Possibly because I had no knowledge of the tale of Genji, but also because it is hard to distinguish between the different characters. The several ladies look quite similar and in some instances the same person has dark hair in one picture and light in the next.

Overall it was an interesting story and I enjoyed the style of the drawings.