Shuna's Journey

"These things may have happened long ago; they may be still to come. No one really knows anymore. At the bottom of an ancient valley carved out by a glacier, there was a small kingdom which time had abandoned."

- Opening pages

Shuna's Journey (Japanese シュナの旅, Hepburn Shuna no Tabi, also known as The Journey of Shuna) is a one volume, six chapter Graphic Novel. The book was initially published in 1983, and an English translation by Alex Dudok de Wit became available--in the United States--in November 2022.

Shuna is the prince of a small village in a valley. The village isn't prosperous, the harvest isn't good, and people go hungry all the time. One day, an ill traveller, visiting the village, talks about the golden grain growing in a field to the west. Its harvests are plenty, and can feed the whole village. Despite this promise, Shuna should not travel to the field. He'll leave the safety of his village behind. In the village, he doesn't live well, but at least he still lives, and the golden grain is guarded—

Oops. Shuna left the village in search of the golden grain.

The journey isn't easy; it's the opposite of easy. Shuna stumbles across slave traders and bandits, and vast dunes of nothingness. Plus, his journey isn't quite over once he arrives at the rumoured field, for the place changes a person...

Oh, and the graphic novel was written and illustrated by a little known man called Hayao Miyazaki. You might know him from his obscure Studio Ghibli and films like Spirited Away. What is Spirited Away, you ask? It's the only Anime, foreign film, and traditionally animated film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Picture; all other winners are American 3D animation. The graphic novel is a precursor to Miyazaki's film works, and you can see his style develop. Parts of the book were incorporated in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, and his son's Tales From Earthsea.

"[Thea] is cousin to Sophie in Howl's Moving Castle (2004), San in Princess Mononoke (1997), and of course Nausicaä."
 * Artsy Moon: The moon is flat, more like an alien spaceship than a moon. When it sets, it deposits human bodies into a living structure that makes Shuna nervous.
 * Author Appeal: Hints of the Arcadia lifestyle, a complex tale of man vs. nature, exploits of capitalism, strong and independent female characters, and well drawn, detailed landscapes. Almost every Miyazaki staple is in there, except the Cool Plane.
 * Because You Were Nice to Me: Because Shuna was nice to Thea and freed her from slavery, Thea later nursed him back to health.
 * The Call Knows Where You Live: The call to adventure is a man who journeys into Shuna's improvised village, with the promise of golden grain to feed everyone in the village far in the west. Thus, Shuna's Journey begins.
 * Character Title: In Shuna's Journey, Shuna goes on a journey.
 * Crapsack World: Every human character you meet is either improvised or a slave. The gods who live where the Moon sets cultivate vast fields of grain, but demand human sacrifices for them.
 * Eldritch Location: The place where the moon sets would be this, with its Narnia Time, strange inhabitants, and how it . In addition, it's inhibited by many strange and exotic species, some of them Shuna believed to be extinct.
 * Fountain of Expies: Instead of a single character being exported over and over again, there are multiple characters exported to separate works at Studio Ghibli. The yakul species was exported straight into Yakul in Princess Mononoke. Shuna himself has traits from both Princess Nausicaä and Asbel, and his journey to the west resembles Ashitaka's story in Princess Mononoke. Thea resembles Therru from Tales From Earthsea, her hairstyle being a particular similarity.
 * The characters aren't the only things exported. Some locations were moved straight into other Ghibli productions. The farm where the golden grains grow resembles the forest in Princess Mononoke and the bottom layer of the Sea of Decay in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Shuna's village is analogous to the Valley of the Wind.

- Alex Dudok de Wit


 * Human Resources: The gods of the golden grain farm uses captive human slaves to do something. Shuna isn't sure what that something is, whether they are turned into the green monsters that farm the grain or the water that irrigates the land.
 * No Export for You: The graphic novel was published in 1983, but despite from one of the most beloved creators in Japan, it was never exported until 2022. There is perfectly good reason to export it, to capitalise on the Hayao Miyazaki name after the success of films such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, but that never happened. After a decade of no films from Miyazaki, the graphic novel was finally exported.
 * Year Inside, Hour Outside: In the land of the Gods, time passes differently, and the crops which need a year to grow are grown in a day. Plants quickly cover Shuna's gun, and he ages considerably once he leaves the place.