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Opération Mort (1973)

by Shigeru Mizuki(Favorite Author)

3.89 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

2915492638 (ISBN13: 9782915492637)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Cornélius

review 1: This is a "90% autobiographical" retelling of the author's WW2 experience. As you can probably guess from the title, it's quite grim - early on our group of heroes is detailed to go on a suicide charge, but commit the crime of coming back alive after news of their noble deaths has already been spread to the rest of the army as a morale-booster, and it only gets worse from there.Despite the sheer hopelessness of the material presented within, the author's style is so gripping that it's almost impossible to put down. Mizuki combines very realistic backgrounds (and tanks, planes, and ships) with cartoon-styled people, and this technique gives each person a lot of personality; it's impossible not to feel for these guys getting slapped around, not getting enough to eat, and wor... morerying about getting eaten by alligators. The grimness of the material is the only caveat I'd apply, and I would hasten to add that while you'll feel horrible after finishing the book, this is a story that deserves to be told.
review 2: In a similar vein to Studio Ghibli's film 'Grave Of The Fireflies', here a Japanese author takes a fictionalised version of events which played out repeatedly throughout WWII, gives it a cartoony styling, a firm grounding in realistic dialogue and human behaviour, then uses it to batter your emotions over the head.Just because it's completely obvious from the first page what will happen doesn't make it any less brutal or heartbreaking when it does happen, and it's a credit to Mizuki that even with a cast as dazzlingly large as the one he has assembled (there's a who's who guide at the start of the book, which should tell you something) it is still hard watching the men and their fates.Some of the artwork, especially that depicting scenery and the local wildlife is so minutely detailed and beautiful (in contrast to the cartoon humans) that I'm gobsmacked it's not digitally manipulated photography. less

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