jekutree's review against another edition
4.0
Fantastic, surreal and experimental, Red Colored Elegy explores the relationship between Ichiro and Sachiko. It’s a beautifully hypnotic read that doesn’t quite reveal its hand without some picking at it. A rewarding read if you’d like to dive in on its loose plot and a visually exciting one as well. Seiichi Hayashi experiments beautifully with rhythm and paneling to create a really mesmerizing flow to the book.
I can’t wait to reread this again very soon, I imagine it’ll get that 5 star rating someday. For now, it acts as the most experimental and hypnotic Gekiga I’ve read thus far.
I can’t wait to reread this again very soon, I imagine it’ll get that 5 star rating someday. For now, it acts as the most experimental and hypnotic Gekiga I’ve read thus far.
kricketa's review against another edition
2.0
i was so confused during the first read that as soon as i finished i went right back to the beginning and started over. it helped a little bit, but i don't know enough about japan in the 1970s for this to have meant anything to me.
nobody3am's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
zorpblorp's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
anya_reading's review against another edition
2.0
I have never seen a New Wave movie, so maybe that's part of why I didn't understand this comic. So much angst and drama between two people, who have as much to recommend their characters to the reader as Tom and Daisy from The Great Gatsby. I think I probably enjoyed the artsy cuts the most.
This comic was very difficult for me to understand - at some points, I debated whether I was not reading the panels in the correct order, as characters seemed to jump from emotion to emotion and the dialogue did not make sense (I was reading left-to-right). The artistic choice to not even add text to some speech bubbles further confused me.
By the time I got to the essays at the back, I realized I was in over my head. I just couldn't get into this comic, and was honestly disappointed.
This comic was very difficult for me to understand - at some points, I debated whether I was not reading the panels in the correct order, as characters seemed to jump from emotion to emotion and the dialogue did not make sense (I was reading left-to-right). The artistic choice to not even add text to some speech bubbles further confused me.
By the time I got to the essays at the back, I realized I was in over my head. I just couldn't get into this comic, and was honestly disappointed.
stefanvalenti's review against another edition
2.0
I can see why someone would really like this book, but personally it wasn’t for me. The art is really great in places though, and the sequential storytelling is pretty inventive, so that earns it an extra star. I’d probably give it a 2.5 out of 5 if that were an option.
alsopato's review against another edition
the french influence & negative space is really memorable. great.
ferzemkhan's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
tangerineteeth's review against another edition
5.0
Not the easiest to follow (though not a whole lot happens), but I was absolutely enthralled by the art.
testpattern's review against another edition
5.0
Holy motherfucking shit. This is amazing.
So, it's just a story about a Japanese hipster couple in the 70s, being broke, fucking, fighting, breaking up and getting back together. Sometimes it's touching. Sometimes it makes me feel shitty about all of the awful things I've ever done in a relationship.
And then I turn the page, and I just can't do anything but bug out my eyes at how damned good Hayashi is. He moves in and out of different styles with a bewildering fluency. The bulk of the dialogs between the main characters are drawn in a weird hybrid style, cartoony, simplified profiles and vaguely articulated bodies cast against slightly more realistic backdrops. The characters only have noses when viewed from the side. Closeups are done in a more focused, sort of ligne-claire realism. And then turn the page and it's a black and white photorealist montage. And then a page will superimpose a simplified figure against a the bough of a cherry tree, carefully inked to evoke classical Japanese painting. As far as storytelling is concerned, Hayashi is one of THE masters of the form. I picked this up at the library, opened it to a random page, and knew that this was one of my favorite books without out seeing anything further.
So, it's just a story about a Japanese hipster couple in the 70s, being broke, fucking, fighting, breaking up and getting back together. Sometimes it's touching. Sometimes it makes me feel shitty about all of the awful things I've ever done in a relationship.
And then I turn the page, and I just can't do anything but bug out my eyes at how damned good Hayashi is. He moves in and out of different styles with a bewildering fluency. The bulk of the dialogs between the main characters are drawn in a weird hybrid style, cartoony, simplified profiles and vaguely articulated bodies cast against slightly more realistic backdrops. The characters only have noses when viewed from the side. Closeups are done in a more focused, sort of ligne-claire realism. And then turn the page and it's a black and white photorealist montage. And then a page will superimpose a simplified figure against a the bough of a cherry tree, carefully inked to evoke classical Japanese painting. As far as storytelling is concerned, Hayashi is one of THE masters of the form. I picked this up at the library, opened it to a random page, and knew that this was one of my favorite books without out seeing anything further.