Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas by Jun Asuka is a manga filled with lovely artwork!
I’m a huge Nightmare fan so I couldn’t wait to give this one a read during the holidays! Unfortunately, I didn’t really care for the organization of the dialogue and how it guided the story along.
My Thoughts on Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas by Jun Asuka
The artwork was definitely my favorite element of this manga. The texture and detail was so lovely!
The style around some of the text boxes was also great!
I really enjoyed that the actions were sometimes included in the illustration. Example:
My favorite scene from this manga was:
I really liked that the nod to the songs from the film were set in fancy font.
However, the transitions between the “song” bits and the normal dialogue in the panels were very abrupt. As a reader that knows all the songs, that kept throwing me for a loop. But if you can stop trying to finish the song, it will flow a little better. However, that being said, the story overall still seemed very choppy to me. More than a couple times I had to go back a panel or two to see if I had missed something…
Because this manga is rather short, I was worried that a lot of the plot would be left out, but it wasn’t too bad! The storyline captured the main arc of the plot in a decent manner. Though I do think I would have been pretty confused if I didn’t already know the story so well.
There was also this error… The “Sandy” should be “Sally.”
My Final Thoughts on Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
Overall, this was a fun read, but I was just very underwhelmed with it. The artwork was great but the choppiness of the storyline and dialogue really dragged it down…
Snag a copy through Bookshop to help support local indie bookshops:
Thanks for reading!
I hate that this didn't work for you! It's always so upsetting when something we love doesn't meet our expectations. However, I do love this movie! I will watch it randomly throughout the year, but I don't think this is something I will pick up to read. Thanks for sharing this!
Do You Dog-ear?
I'm the same way with the movie! I watch it many times throughout the year. It's just SO good!
I do love the artwork but it sounds like the storyline wouldn't capture me…
Have a nice Christmas!
Yeah, it was quite rough… Thanks for stopping by! Merry (belated) Christmas to you! 🙂
I've never read a manga before but I do agree I think the artwork would be the best thing about this one.
I've only read a handful. I really enjoy the format, though it does take a few pages to get used to the flow… but this one just didn't work at all 🙁
I've only seen the movie and thought it was quite entertaining. It's rare, but I wonder if this is a unique case when the movie is better than the book? Hmmm…
Lonna @ FLYLēF
For sure! The children's book version is lovely though! 🙂
I can't believe another Christmas has gone by and I still haven't seen this movie! I actually might read the manga instead though – the artwork looks so adorable!
😀