Manga Shakespeare: Hamlet

Great read if you want to introduce Shakespeare's Hamlet to a younger generation in a way they can understand. My 12 year old read and enjoyed. At the end of the story is a explanation and correlation to the original story.

It reads in the normal american book direction, not "backwards" like real manga. Otherwise it is good book, classic story.

The abridgements are done well -- you get the gist of the story without ALL the talking. It is easy to follow the action across the pages. Some of the characters could be better distinguished, but on the whole it was pretty easy to follow. Nice futuristic setting. Well done.

The cover of this book is misleading---the size of the wording implies that the text is partly 'manga,' but mostly 'Hamlet.' Sadly, the reality is that the book is 3/4 manga, 1/4 Hamlet. The problems start with the cutting-edge, futuristic, dystopia setting. I'm not saying that Shakespeare can't be transferred successfully to other settings (because it can and has been done very well), but when people are talking to each through floating, virtual screens on one page, but a guy with a shovel is digging up skulls on another page, it just doesn't sync. Worse than the problems with setting, this text doesn't seem to have much appreciation or sensitivity to what Shakespeare was actually doing. Huge passages are removed. Important information is elided. Beautiful language is abandoned on the cutting room floor. I'm ranting now, of course, but it just seems that if you're going to do Shakespeare, you should trust him enough to make his material the top-priority. (For a great example of what's possible, check out the Classics Illustrated version of Hamlet with artwork by Tom Mandrake.) Back to the rant for just a second, using an ellipsis (e.g., "...") in every seventh dialogue balloon is gratuitous and uncalled-for. With that out of my system, let me say that as far as the artwork goes, the book is great. While the figures are distorted beyond plausibility (a person with proportions of 11-heads tall?! I know that's part of manga-style, but please...), other elements of sequential art are handled very well. The dialogue balloons caught my eye, I think because of the generous white space that helps emphasize the wording. But even more, the background textures and page layouts were wonderful. On several pages I thought, "Aahh, so that's what McCloud was talking about...." So, taken all in all, this version of Hamlet leaves quite a bit to be desired, but it's a great step towards what sequential art CAN do with sophisticated texts.

Flawless, I literally used this for my college essay in English and got a 98% never read the actual play mind you.

My daughter loves Hamlet. She has read the standard book version and seen the movie. Magna is another great way to experience a classic Shakespeare Tragedy.

Fun book. Quick delivery. Recommend

Great!

This is an excellent thing to own for any manga fan who wants to see just what great stuff can be done with this often underestimated medium, any Shakespeare fan wanting to see an interesting interpretation of the text or any student of Shakespeare looking for a highly enjoyable condensed version of the play. The dialogue has been condensed a little, mostly very effectively, so that the text doesn't overwhelm the visuals, but keeping everything important, and the best lines, in place. What's special here though, are Vieceli's visuals. This is her best work yet, her sketchy, minimalist manga style has matured and come into it's own here, giving a dynamic, yet dreamy feel to the story. Every bit of emotional conflict seems to be caught in Hamlet's highly expressive eyes. More impressively, the dark humour and the subtexts of the play remain intact too, making it more than just 'Shakspeare for Kids'. Definitely a triumph for the British manga scene.

A Manga retelling for Shakespeare's Hamlet. So different I just had to give it a go. While I enjoyed the illustrated changes (e.g. set in the future) I felt some key parts were cut from the story which was a little disappointing. In the end, to play with a classic is tricky and a risk. I feel it opened up this Play to soany new readers which is wonderful. I also enjoy that it was still written in the way in which Shakespeare wrote and spoke. The old English language was present throughout the text. I did enjoy the fact that at the end there was a recap of the original text which was nice to read. I do plan to try the other books in this series as I bought them all in a 'pack' on Kindle. 3 stars from me

Not bad, just a very weird reading experience. Hamlet is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, and I'm not sure it is represented at all well here. I feel that much of the subtlety and wit is lost, and the way events are presented here (especially from the perspective of the king and queen) is clearly due to the adapter's interpretation of the play. And I think that if they felt they had to move this to a cyberpunky science-fiction context, they should have handled it in a way that justifies this decision. The way I see it, it's mainly about having datajacks and representing all the messages and letters in the play as tiny datasticks.

It is written in Shakespearian language but the illustrations are created in a manga way with a futuristic vibe to it

I love Manga and I love Shakespeare, so this seemed a must. I wasn't disappointed and I now own Othello and Macbeth. I will eventually get the whole set. Art wotk is great, stories are true to original but with imaginative Interpretations.