Renowned animator and movie director Hayao Miyazaki’s first standalone graphic novel, Shuna’s Journey, is receiving an American launch by way of the Macmillan graphic novel imprint, First Second. Translator Alex Dudok de Wit describes the guide as an homage to the standard emonogatrari comics of late ‘40s and ‘50s Japan, rather than a contemporary manga.

Full of massive watercolor illustrations and minimally narrated through captions, Shuna’s Journey, initially printed in 1983, exhibits visible and narrative themes emergent in a few of Miyazaki’s later characteristic movies. “Fans of Princess Mononoke and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind—there are millions of us—will delight in finding early hints of these masterworks in gorgeous watercolor pages by Miyazaki’s own hand,” Mark Siegel, editorial and inventive director of First Second, mentioned in an announcement to press (by way of ABC News).

The story follows Prince Shuna as he makes an attempt to discover a resolution to his kingdom’s barren lands. As he units off, he meets a captive lady named Thea. After rescuing her and making enemies of her captors, he makes an attempt to proceed his journey west, hoping to seek out the golden grain that may carry prosperity to his individuals.

In a thread on social media De Wit defined that “[Shuna’s Journey] is based on a Tibetan folk tale, and the fantastical pseudo-Central Asian setting has a lot in common with the world of Nausicaä.” Miyazaki’s fascination with this panorama could be seen in one in every of his earliest printed works–Sabaku no Tami (People of the Desert)—a serialized sketch that ran from 1969-70 and in addition emulates the emonogatari model of comics.

The guide, which de Wit describes as “[somber] and luminous,” will probably be launched November 1. Miyazaki is without doubt one of the world’s most well-known animators, who, alongside Studio Ghibli, has gained worldwide popularity of films akin to My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), and The Wind Rises (2013). Spirited Away, which stays the second-most commercially profitable anime movie of all time, gained the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001.

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