is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

novel written by

Miyuki Miyabe is a Japanese writer of genre fiction. She has won numerous Japanese literary awards, including the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers, the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature, the Shiba Ryotaro Prize, the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize, and the Na ...

. It was serialized in various regional

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

s between November 11, 1999 and February 13, 2001, before being published in two hardcover volumes by

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines su ...

in''Brave Story'' has spawned into a substantial

media franchise A media franchise, also known as a multimedia franchise, is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work of fiction, such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or ...

. The novel was adapted into a manga by Yoichiro Ono and Miyabe herself, who wrote the new story for the manga, which was serialised in

Shinchosha is a publisher founded in 1896 in Japan and headquartered in Yaraichō, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinchosha is one of the sponsors of the Japan Fantasy Novel Award. Books * Haruki Murakami: ''Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'' (1985), ...

's ''

Weekly Comic Bunch is a Japanese manga anthology marketed to a ''seinen'' audience that was edited by Coamix and published weekly by Shinchosha from 2001 throughout 2010 and became monthly since 2011. The collected editions of their titles are published under th ...

''. Shinchosha collected the chapters of ''Brave Story'' in twenty ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes and released them between April 2004 and May 2008. In the manga version Wataru is slightly older and already in high school. In 2006 the novel was re-released in two new editions, a three-volume softcover version of the earlier hardcover release intended for mature readers and a

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

version marketed for younger readers. These were intended to create interest in the

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

film adaption by

Gonzo Gonzo may refer to: People * Gonzo (nickname), a list of people with the nickname * Radislav Jovanov Gonzo (born 1964), Croatian music video director Radislav Jovanov, also known as Gonzo * Matthias Röhr (born 1962), German musician whose sta ...

released in Japan by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

in July 2006. The film was nominated for "Animation of the Year" at the 2007

Japanese Academy Awards The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...

and also released on

home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...

in Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Taiwan and Germany. The novel was loosely adapted into three

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...

's PSP game '' Brave Story: New Traveler'',

Namco Bandai is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

game ''Brave Story: My Dreams and Wishes'', and Sony Computer Entertainment's

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

game ''Brave Story: Wataru's Adventure''.

Plot

Novel

Wataru Mitani is a quiet and unassuming fifth grader in Japan. A new student called Mitsuru Ashikawa begins attending Wataru's school, though he is in a different class. There are also rumors circulating about the Daimatsu building, an empty, unfinished building near Wataru's school: witnesses claimed to have seen a ghost wandering behind the building's blue tarps. One day after school, while out with his uncle, Wataru witnesses an old man entering the abandoned building. Wataru follows him into the building and stumbles into the strange world of Vision. In Vision, he is told that the portal he crossed, called the Porta Nectere, opens only once every ten years for ninety days. People from his world are strictly forbidden to enter Vision unless they obtain the status of Traveler from "the gatekeeper". Unfortunately, he is also told he will forget everything of his visit. Upon re-entering the Porta Nectere, his uncle wakens him and he finds that Vision was a dream; Wataru supposedly fell from the stairs of the Daimatsu building. Wataru's uncle brings Wataru home only to discover a terrible truth: the boy's parents are divorcing and his father is leaving with his mistress, leaving his wife and Wataru behind. Both Wataru and his mother are shocked, and to add to Wataru's stress, he finds his memories of Vision slipping away. Later, Wataru's father's lover confronts Wataru's mother over who Wataru's father really loves. After this encounter, Wataru's mother attempts suicide by leaving on the gas in the house. Mitsuru visits him, warns him of the gas, and tells him to go to Vision if he wants to change his fate. Wataru struggles to remember, but he finally goes to the Daimatsu building to cross the portal to Vision. Thus, Wataru's journey in Vision begins. When he arrives in Vision, Wataru meets an old man who calls himself the Wayfinder. He tells Wataru what he must do to change his destiny: Wataru has to collect five gemstones to go to the Tower of Destiny, where the Goddess grants each Traveler one wish. Each stone has a different quality: charity, bravery, faith, grace, and the power of darkness and light. Wataru encounters friends and foes during his adventures, and he ultimately comes to terms with the nature of himself.

Manga

While basic plot of Novel and Manga don't differ, some of the details are changed. Eg. Kaori Matsushima is a secondary character with little connection to the plot in the novel while she is made another License-holder and third Deuterogonist in the manga. It is also revealed that she is connected to Matsushima Shrine which owns Daimatsu building and that building is source to her family's financial trouble.

Production

March 10, 2006,

announced the establishment of a charity enterprise “Our Brave Fund”. ¥10 for every box office ticket purchased for the ''Brave Story'' film is donated to

United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...

, which aims to "assist children infected with

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

and its repercussions in Asian and African nations, particularly children in the Republic of Malawi" with the funds. The production cost of the movie was estimated to be one billion

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...

Manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...

Yoichiro Ono comments that although he has kept his drawing style as close as he could to boys' manga, the story's is aimed at an adult audience and resulted in the first volume of the manga being "a lot more serious than it ended up being... and more mature".

Media

Novel

wrote and illustrated ''Brave Story'' and

released both volumes of the novel March 3, 2003. Kadokawa Shoten released a special volume April 7, 2003 and an official guide book July 3, 2006. The English-language version of the novel is licensed by

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

. August 14, 2007, Viz Media released the novel as an 824-page book. It was translated into English by

Alexander O. Smith Alexander O. Smith is a professional Japanese to English translator and author. While his output covers many areas such as adaptation of Japanese novels, manga, song lyrics, anime scripts, and various academic works, he is best known for his sof ...

. The novel is to be re-issued by Viz Media under its

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

, Haikasoru.

Manga

The

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptation of ''Brave Story'', written by Miyuki Miyabe and illustrated by Yoichiro Ono, came about after the novel won the Batchelder Award. The manga serialization in

's seinen magazine (aimed at young adults) ''

'' ended March 14, 2008. Shinchosha collected the individual chapters into 20 ''

'' volumes, and released them between April 9, 2004 and May 9, 2008. Tokyopop licensed the manga for an English-language release in North America. The English print of the manga had all the sound effects in the Japanese language only with no English captions. The first ''Brave Story'' volume was published on June 12, 2007. ''Brave Story'' is also licensed in France by Kurokawa.

Film

An animated film adaptation of ''Brave Story'' was produced by

. Directed by

Koichi Chigira is a Japanese animator and director who has directed several anime series, usually working with Gonzo and formerly worked at Madhouse. Chigira is best known for directing '' Full Metal Panic!'' and ''Last Exile''. Career Chigira joined Tats ...

and produced by Daisuke Sekiguchi, Hiroyoshi Koiwai and Koji Kajita,

released it in Japanese cinemas July 8, 2006. Warner Bros. is handling worldwide distribution of the Brave Story movie. Warner Bros. announced its planned release of ''Brave Story'' on DVD,

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

HD DVD HD DVD (short for High Definition Digital Versatile Disc) is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video. Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to th ...

and UMD November 12, 2006. The movie was licensed in Australia by

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatri ...

, in the United Kingdom by

Optimum Releasing StudioCanal Limited, operating as StudioCanal (formerly Optimum Releasing), is the official branch of StudioCanal in the British Isles. The company releases many films, including foreign, anime (mostly Studio Ghibli), independent, art, British, ...

, in France by

Kaze Kaze may refer to: * KAZE, an American radio station located in Texas * KAZe, a Japanese video game developer * Kazé, a French publishing company * Kaze-Forces for the Defense of Democracy, a political party in Burundi Fiction * ''Kaze'' (tel ...

and in Germany by Anime-Virtual. Juno Reactor composed the soundtrack for ''Brave Story''. ''Brave Story'' was showcased by

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

during the 2007

American Film Market The American Film Market (AFM) is a film industry event held each year in early November. Historically, more than 7,000 people attend the eight-day annual event to network and to sell, finance and acquire films. Participants come from more than ...

. Pony Canyon promoted ''Brave Story'' along with ''Umizaru 2: Test of Trust'' at the 2008 American Film Market.

released the film in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2008. The movie's ending theme was by

Aqua Timez was a Japanese rock band signed to Epic Records. Overview Futoshi and OKP-Star met on with9.com in 2000 and attempted to start a band together. Unable to agree on the band's future, the two disbanded. In 2003, the current band members gathered ...

Cast

Games

released the

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

, Brave Story: New Traveler on

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

in Japan July 6, 2006. In United States,

Xseed Games Xseed Games is an American video game company founded by former members of Square Enix USA. It later became a subsidiary of the Japanese game company Marvelous, providing the localization and publishing services for video games and related mat ...

released the game July 31, 2007. Both were developed by

Game Republic was an independent video game developer based in Tokyo, Japan. The company, which employed just under 300 individuals before its closure, was founded on July 1, 2003 by Yoshiki Okamoto after he departed from Japanese game developer and publis ...

. July 6, 2006,

released an

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

game, called . Sony Computer Entertainment released

game, July 6, 2006.

Soundtracks

On July 24, 1996, Avex Trax released a soundtrack of ''Brave Story'', sung by TRF using the lyrics of

Tetsuya Komuro is a Japanese musician, songwriter and record producer. He is recognized as the most successful producer in Japanese music history and introduced contemporary electronic dance music to the Japanese mainstream. He was also a former owner of the ...

. July 5, 2006,

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

released an animation soundtrack CD for ''Brave Story'';

Juno Reactor Juno Reactor is a multi-national musical and performing group, primarily based in Brighton, UK. Known for their cinematic fusion of electronic, global influences, and orchestral symphonic approach, collaborating with composer Don Davis and compo ...

composed the songs. November 29, 2006, Avex Trax released a ''Brave Story'' soundtrack, which featured lyrics by Tetsuya Komuro and Takahiro Maeda, and sung by TRF.

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...

released another soundtrack CD of Brave Story September 3, 2008, with lyrics by

Yuki Sakurai Yuki, Yūki or Yuuki may refer to: Places * Yuki, Hiroshima (Jinseki), a town in Jinseki District, Hiroshima, Japan * Yuki, Hiroshima (Saeki), a town in Saeki District, Hiroshima, Japan * Yūki, Ibaraki, a city on Honshu island in Japan * Yuki, ...

and sung by

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

Reception

''Brave Story: New Traveler'' was generally well received by critics earning aggregated scores of 76% from

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

and 79% from

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. The ''Brave Story'' film was nominated for "Animation of the Year" at the 2007

. John Li from MovieXclusive commends the film for its animation, saying "pleasing soft pastel colors and the occasional computer animation is still refreshing and pleasant to look at". Mark Schilling of ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'' compares Wataru to ''

Doraemon ''Doraemon'' ( ja, ドラえもん ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fujiko F. Fujio. The manga was first serialized in December 1969, with List of Doraemon chapters, its 1,345 individual chapters compiled into 45 ' ...

s Nobita. He compares "the "quest for five jewels" motif" to the ''

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters colle ...

'' series and ''

The Chronicles of Narnia ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven high fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' has been adapted for radio, telev ...

''. John Smith from Impuse Gamer commends the film for its "beautiful animation techniques and some great sound sequences". Mania.com's Chris Beveridge commends the

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...

version of ''Brave Story'' for being "very expansive in its use of the surround channels during some of the action sequences". He also commends the film for its visual quality saying, "on our 50" set at 720p, the only "problems" I could find was that I had to be six inches (152 mm) from the screen and looking at the pixels to see some of the shiftiness in the animation in the scenes where dark blues and blacks mix". Mania.com's Dani Moure compares the film's "old-fashioned" character designs to

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and ha ...

's. Anime News Network's Brian Hanson criticises the film as "being one of the worst-looking big-budget anime films of recent memory, the story is a mash of bizarre coincidences held together haphazardly by forced and annoying bouts of exposition, with irritating and one-dimensional characters chirping throughout". Erkael of the french website ''Manga News'' gave the anime film 18 out of 20, and describes it as "''Brave Story'' is a real phenomenon in Japan, in addition to the film which required more than four long years of work, This superb film, from the Gonzo studio, in itself is a guarantee of quality. The quest for sacred gems is only a pretext to explore this vast world and develop the character who will become aware of the suffering of others once he has stopped focusing on his own. Indeed the film is deeper than it seems, it goes beyond a simple Heroic Fantasy adventure, it encourages reflection and knows how to be very touching on many occasions. In short, this film is a masterpiece to own, it is already a great classic!". Joe Dodson of

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

commends ''Brave Story: New Traveler'' for its visual and

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

s but criticises its "homogenous and never-ending" monsters.

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

commends the game for "vibrant graphics, small load times and solid presentation on the whole" but criticises it for "some too-familiar aspects of story and gameplay, story may be too "kiddy" for some." Louis Bedigian of GameZone commends the game's graphics saying that the game "pays homage to the 3D

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

games". Matt Paddock from Game Vortex commends the game on its faithful translation by saying, "if any of the ''Harry Potter'' books had been translated as faithfully, the game versions of Rowling's work would be selling gold and platinum right now".

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. The site has a databa ...

's Kashell Triumph commends the game's character designs, describing them as, "well designed, detailed, expressive, and fluid". Greg Miller at

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

criticises the game for having "a set of exactly the same events -- random battles, dungeon, random battles, boss".

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

's Steve Steinberg criticises the game for its first three hours of gameplay as it shows "very slowly and methodically—the basics of a generic and less-than-compelling game".

was awarded the Batchelder Award in 2008 for publishing ''Brave Story'' novel. Matt Paddock from Game Vortex ponders on the "family dynamics and the pain of divorce or marital dysfunction is still so great in Japan that readers there are transfixed by this kind of stuff. Sad to say that American readers are probably inclined to care a bit less when Wataru's mom and dad are splitting up, since at least half of most marriages fail for whatever reason these days." He criticises Miyabe for not introducing the "fantasy world much earlier to capture the imagination of her readers". Katherine Dacey of ''Pop Culture Shock'' describes "Miyabe’s dark fantasy" as "a Frankenbook, stitched together from pieces of ''

EverQuest ''EverQuest'' is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed by Verant Interactive and 989 Studios for Windows PCs. It was released by Sony Online Entertainment in March 1999 in North Americ ...

'', ''

Guin Saga is a best-selling heroic fantasy novel series by the Japanese author Kaoru Kurimoto, in continuous publication since 1979. A record 100 volumes were originally planned, but the final total stands at 147 volumes and 26 side-story novels, ...

'', ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'', ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'', ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'', and '' The Wizard of Oz'' to create an entertaining, surprisingly adult adventure story whose seams sometime show." ''Brave Story'' was ranked fifth on an

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...

poll for the best shōnen manga of 2007. A.E. Sparrow from

commends ''Brave Story'' manga for Yochiro Ono's artwork and he compares them to "some of the more recent

manhwa (; ) is the general Korean language, Korean term for comics and print cartoons. Outside Korea, the term usually refers to South Korea, South Korean comics. is greatly influenced by Japanese Manga comics. Modern Manhwa has extended its rea ...

(Korean) titles that have also come out of the

Tokyopop Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licensed J ...

camp". Mania.com's Nadia Oxford comments that the " unforgiving landscape" of the

fantasy world A fantasy world is a world created for/from fictional media, such as literature, film or games. Typical fantasy worlds involve magic or magical abilities, nonexistent technology and, sometimes, either a historical or futuristic theme. Some wor ...

"Vision" "seems to somehow reflect the mental state of its inhabitants". Scott Campbell from ActiveAnime commends the manga for its "detailed art and involving story". Snow Wildsmith from Teenreads commends Miyabe's "talent for switching between reality and fantasy, action and pathos, humor and seriousness, which helps make her story both more interesting and more believable". ''

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

s Carlo Santos criticises the manga for its opening plotline by saying it is a "remarkably bland rendition of the "young hero sucked into alternate world" formula, and it's easy to mistake this at first for some kind of lame-duck ''

Rayearth is a Japanese manga series created by Clamp (manga artists), Clamp. Appearing as a serial in the List of manga magazines, manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from the November 1993 issue to the February 1995 issue, the chapters of ''Magic Knight Ra ...

''/'' Twelve Kingdoms'' clone". Katherine Dacey of Pop Culture Shock comments on ''Brave Story'' "distinguishes itself from dozens of similar series by fleshing out Wataru’s personal life. Wataru is no swaggering shonen stereotype: he’s insecure, hesitant, and crushed to learn that his dream girl has the hots for someone else." She also commends Wataru's parents sudden divorce "leaving Wataru to comfort his dumbfounded and grief-stricken mother while coming to terms with his own sense of loss. These scenes add an unexpected emotional depth to the story, demonstrating Wataru’s essential decency while providing him with a powerful motive for saving the world: he loves his mother".

References

External links

* at

* {{Gonzo 1999 Japanese novels 2001 novels 2001 fantasy novels Kadokawa Dwango franchises Children's fantasy novels Contemporary fantasy novels Isekai novels and light novels Japanese children's novels Japanese serial novels Novels by Miyuki Miyabe Novels set in Japan Works originally published in Japanese newspapers Anime films based on novels Adventure anime and manga 2004 manga Films with screenplays by Ichirō Ōkouchi Shinchosha manga Shōnen manga Viz Media novels Tokyopop titles Warner Bros. animated films 2006 anime films Films based on fantasy novels Films based on Japanese novels Gonzo (company) Nintendo DS games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation Portable games 2001 children's books Isekai anime and manga