Manga Review: Castle in the Sky Volume 1

Castle in the Sky, Vol. 1 by Hayao Miyazaki

The first volume in a four-part series adapting Miyazaki's classic animated film. Set in a steampunk world of airships and industrial revolution towns, Castle in the Sky tells the story of Pazu, an orphan boy who helps run the machinery in a coal mine and is working on building his own flying machine to find the legendary sky-castle Laputa, which his father caught a glimpse of years ago.

Into Pazu's life comes Sheeta, who literally falls out of the sky. Her airship was raided by pirates, and Sheeta escaped with the help of a mysterious stone that allows her to defy gravity.

Pazu helps her to escape from two factions of enemies: The air-pirates, and a mysterious force of government agents who seek to control the power of the stone.

This is a fast-paced story with fun and likeable characters in a stylish and imaginative setting. The artwork consists of cells from the actual film, which don't always do justice to the film's beautiful art, although a lot of the larger panels look great. The dialogue is in English, and the sound effects in Japanese with a translation guide provided at the end of the book. The book is laid out in right-to-left format.

This volume doesn't come to much of a conclusion, so you are going to want to read the remaining three manga volumes or see the film to get the full story. But it is definitely a story that's off to a great start here.

Castle in the Sky Volume 1 was book #11 in my goal of reading 50 books in 2009. It rates an 8.5 out of 10 on my comic review scale.