Great art, as expected, and I laughed at satirizing Donald Trump as a female politician, but I just couldn't keep up with all the wacky characters and bizarre motivations and down-on-their-luck sad sacks. Too convoluted to keep my interest.

1 star. I didn't care for this at all. This is one of the worst manga plots I've ever read and I can't believe I read the whole thing. Review to come.

Due to being a high school teacher I am behind on writing reviews. Here is my initial thoughts.

A dedicated story by Urusawa that shows mystery and intrigue in a unique format for manga. Perhaps a better add to a library collection than the short story collections recently published.

My review for Booklist is here: https://www.booklistonline.com/Mujirushi-The-Sign-of-Dreams-Naoki-Urasawa/pid=9734898

The review was also cross-posted to Smithsonian BookDragon: http://smithsonianapa.org/bookdragon/mujirushi-the-sign-of-dreams-by-naoki-urasawa-translated-by-john-werry-in-booklist/

This was a good, political story. Beware that there are obvious illusions to Trump, so it may not fly in all library collections.

An absolutely beautiful reading experience as you will have come to expect from Urasawa at this point. Do not wait on this one, it will sell very easily to fans and can be given as some "high-brow" suggestions for people new to manga.

There is so much going on here that I can't begin to try and recap it, and I don't really like doing that anyway- I was never good at book reports. I'll just say a down-on-his-luck man and his daughter get sucked into a whirlwind of a story, filled with mystery, intrigue, and a whole lot of intricately plotted, seemingly loose ends that somehow get tied together by the end. I thoroughly enjoyed this story- what a wild ride! I heartily recommend this book!

#Mujirushi #NetGalley

I did not get a chance to read it before it got archived, but any Urasawa book is bound to be good. Definitely recommend it!

I always love a takedown of Trump and making his image a woman in this manga was divine. The story was odd, but in a way I thoroughly enjoyed. I will absolutely be passing this on to my coworker in charge of adult graphic novel collection development.

This was a strange mix of farce / seriousness, France / Japan, crime / love, absurdity / sentiment. And while I have no idea what it was about (the fact that nothing is as it seems and there is light and darkness and surprise in everything?), I really enjoyed the art and the well written characterizations. Even the stock and comedy characters had depth. I'll be reading more by Urasawa for sure, even if I'm puzzled during and after.

This was the first graphic novel that I have read. I have to say that I was confused and disappointed.

First of all, since this was a Japanese book, I had to read it on my iPad in reverse. It took a while to get used to reading the frames from left to right and to scroll the pages from left to right. When I would put the book down and pick it back up. It would never be in the right place and I'd have to scroll both ways to get to the right page and scroll in the proper direction. This is NOT a good book if using the kindle app.

Secondly, although the adorable girl on the cover plays a part in this story, she is by far the main focus of the book. I was hoping to read a story in which she played the main part. Instead this is a book which is predominated by an art thief who uses this child and her father in an attempt to steal a painting from the Louvre in Paris.

Thirdly, I have to say that I was immediately put off by the artistry of the portrayal of the president of the United States. This president is a villain and has covert dealings with "bad guys" The artist has portrayed Beverly Duncan, the president, in such a way that one can't help but think of Donald Trump on the first viewing. I hated the idea of American politics being brought into this book which should be for entertainment, not subtile indoctrination.

No, I would not recommend this story to anyone primarily due to the political nature of the drawings.

I may give another graphic novel a chance later, but this left a bad taste in my mouth for them.

'Mujirushi: The Sign of Dreams' by Naoki Urasawa is a manga about a little girl with a father who only seems to make bad decisions.

Kamoda is so eager to make money that he makes poor decisions. One decision costs him his wife. Another fill his warehouse full of rubber masks of the current US president. His daughter, Kasumi, wants things to be normal, but she and her dad get involved with an odd art enthusiast who has a plan to get them out of debt. Unfortunately, that plan involves a trip to France and a daring art theft.

This story has a lot going on, and I really didn't know where it was going, but it all came together nicely at the end. The odd character running the French Research Institute is a throwback to a manga character named Iyami. His character is hilariously over the top, though, so it's fitting. I did like the art and the story, though, so I'm glad I read this.

I received a review copy of this manga from VIZ Media and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this manga.

What are dreams? To many, they are something to strive for. To others, they are forgotten relics of the past. They can keep someone motivated in times of duress, or become a fatal reminder of what could have been. "Mujirushi: A Sign of Dreams," sets out to give us a taste of how several people live with regards to their dreams. Hey guys, it's Marion and today I'm here talk about Naoki Urasawa's latest English release. Originally published in Big Comic Original from October 20, 2017, to February 20, 2018, this Shogakukan original has made its way stateside thanks to Viz Media in the form of a single collected volume.

Mujirushi starts off incredibly bleak, as a family hits hard times due to a father named Kamoda making repeatedly terrible financial decisions. His wife runs off with the man who runs the cleaner's after winning a luxury cruise, and before long is unable to hide his weariness and suicidal thoughts from even his own daughter. Frankly, Kamoda's character was very grating to read. He's gullible, gutless, and almost incapable of making his own informed decisions. Every misfortune that befalls him is the result of wanting the easiest possible solution to his problems. It's far from noble, and I would have been less harsh on him if at any point he said that he just wanted to make things better for his daughter Kasumi, or the family as a whole, but his choices only seem to come from desperation. It was incredibly disappointing and sad to see him not rise up to the task of making the morally right choices right in front of his grade school daughter. Luckily, Kasumi has a functioning moral compass, so it wasn't as if he was a particularly disastrous influence on her. Unfortunately, without this blundering buffoon of a parental figure, we wouldn't have much of a story, so it was very much necessary to move the narrative forward.

The story follows the Father-Daughter duo as they encounter a peculiar sign, which is labeled with the eponymous kanji that make up "Sign of Dreams," or "夢印." It leads them to one certain Fujio Akatsuka character many of us may recognize from Osomatsu-kun, who remains unnamed within the story--Iyami. He stands out among the cast for being someone clearly not originally created by Urasawa, with his accentuated features like an overbite, slicked hair, and tiny eyeballs. But, much like in Pluto, Urasawa gives his own flair to make the style not clash with his own. Iyami is known in other works to be a scheming Francophile, who swindles and purports to have visited France many times, without any actual proof. In this story, that comes into play with the scheme that ultimately wraps up Kamoda and Kasumi into traveling to the Louvre. I found Iyami's inclusion to be fairly interesting, with Kasumi repeatedly pointing out contradictions in his story and just his general appearance in such a serious looking manga being humorous. What helps is the fact that Kasumi, while wise for her age, still acts like a believable child while interacting with him. She is suspicious of a stranger like Iyami, but also tries drinking his cafe au lait with the croissant how she was shown. She also doesn't want her dad to steal, and calls out Iyami when she thinks that's exactly what Iyami did.

Like most Urasawa manga, Mujirushi has multiple concurrent threads that begin to weave into a vibrant tapestry of events. Iyami's scheme to get Kamoda out of debt is sniffed out by an investigator in Japan who has connected the dots and realized that several pieces of art have been stolen from the Louvre by a ring of French smugglers with a Japanese ringleader. As this detective goes out of his way to inform police in France, Kamoda and Kasumi make contact with a former songstress named Sylvie and a fireman raised by a Japanese woman named Kyoko, who has a mysterious connection to Iyami. On top of that, we also have a caricature stand-in for Donald Trump in Beverly Duncan, a business mogul who is running for President of the United States. All of these elements come to a clean conclusion by the end, and I'd be lying if I didn't say I was impressed. Everyone who gets to have their own conversation and isn't just mentioned in passing manages to convey their personal motivation and moral standing, which made for believable characters. In a plot-centric story, like most Urasawa manga, it's easy for a lesser writer to neglect their cast in the pursuit of making the narrative as tight as possible. Thankfully, the cast of Mujirushi act like real people, and tend to have their own desires and wants, and even dreams.

What ultimately makes Mujirushi satisfying, aside from the typical hallmarks of an Urasawa manga, is the motif of dreams. It comes up multiple times from different characters, and with different spins on what it means to them. Iyami first brings up dreams after talking about how France seized his heart. His convoluted story and plan for getting Kamoda out of debt is ultimately for the sake of returning the stone with the Sign of Dreams on it back to the museum. Kyoko's dream was provide humanitarian relief to African children through food, water, and schools. Michel the Fireman was inspired by Kyoko, who also asked him to return the stone with the Sign of Dreams to the Louvre, should any Japanese person arrive with that same motive. While the operation is underway, Kasumi looks at the stone and feels that things will turn out alright. The stone itself is what saves Kamoda from being spotted by a policeman, and Iyami's words about "Doubting until you see for yourself" is what gets Kasumi to action after being detained. She remembers him saying "Visualize your dreams!" and that "Only the dreams you wish for will come true!" I really loved that line. Kasumi repeats that line as she stacks boxes so that she can escape from a room through a window. The added implication that the actions you take are what lead dreams to come true is the intratextual link elevate "dreams" as a vague concept into being something attainable. I think it would have worked fine normally, if this was a novel. But the visual image of Kasumi physically acting in order to escape the room, because she wanted to save her father, is emotionally moving! I also find it appropriate that while the adults philosophize or reminisce about dreams, the sole youth in the story is the one with the gumption and drive to realistically act towards actually achieving their goals.

Mujirushi may have started off bleak, but eventually it connects the threads to lead Kamoda and Kasumi getting their happy ending. It was very amusing seeing the Beverly Duncan plotline converge with the welfare of Kamoda's family. Iyami's connection to Kyoko, too, ended up being a slight surprise. It flips our already met expectation of him being a no-good schemer into a lovesick soul who uses sycophancy for the sake of memorializing his feelings in a palpable way. If you have no idea what this means, you should probably read the book. Mujirushi is out now in print as of July 21st, 2020. I am a fan of Naoki Urasawa's works, but I wouldn't say I'm a diehard fan. I started off a bit cold due to Kamoda's character, but after the pieces on the metaphorical chessboard started moving, I was content to let the story play out before my eyes. If you're a fan of 20th Century Boys, you might enjoy this, but just be aware that because it's a single volume, you should temper your expectations for the stakes accordingly.

I so wanted to love this book. The art was great, but the story fell flat. I feel like this could easily have been made into a series, and it would have been soooo good. I was actually way into this story - it was weird and kinda creepy, in a good way. But it was all so succinct and short-lived - this title needed at least another 4 volumes to do the story justice (and maybe not be concise to the point of being confusing).

Kasumi's father, Kamoda is always looking for easy money. He is incredibly gullible and his schemes never work the way he hopes. After another failed attempt that leaves him with debt owed to the government and no business left to run, his wife leaves him and his daughter. Just when Kamoda is ready to give up, he receives a sign that leads him to The Director. Kasumi does not trust The Director but despite her warnings, her dad buys into the scheme which leads the two to Paris, France. In an attempt to pull off an impossible heist, Kasumi and Kamoda enlist the help of two kind strangers.

The beginning of the story was hard to follow with so much going on. However, it quickly became clear what was happening and that Kamoda was truly as gullible as he seemed. His relationship with Kasumi was comical and sad. Their interaction with other characters was comical and they both presented opposite perspectives. There is a lot of mystery woven into the plot which keeps readers entertained and interested. The Beverly Duncan character was a light-hearted satirical quip at Donald Trump and his continued schemes. Experiencing France and the Louvre through the perspective of two characters who can't speak the language was entertaining. The art was reflective of the moods and emotions, transitioning from color to black and white. I would eagerly recommend this to readers interested in humor and adventure.

I'm always here for a heist, so this intrigued me immediately. That being said, this was unexpected in a lot of ways. Based on the subject and the art style, I thought it might be a little bleak, but it's actually a really hopeful and tender exploration of dreams deferred and the lengths people will go to for family or even the memory of family. The characters are really well sketched both literally and figuratively, having totally understandable motivations even as they're thrust into this bizarre situation. I also found the subplot with the US presidential candidate pretty hilarious, and loved how it all tied together in the end. I'm really excited to check out more work by Naoki Urasawa.

Recommended for anyone who wants a hard luck story with a twist and a little magical realism.

I can't say as I'm especially fond of this one. It's an interesting idea, I suppose but I don't know that I fully grasped everything that was going on, all of the context and its meaning. I certainly understood the ideas of desperation and manipulation. But I never fully grasped all of the elements. I kept expecting to get more information about the director, but that never happened. He remains a mystery. I can see what the plot is aiming for and how on the whole it actually works. I might have liked it better as an anime, so we'd get more facial expression and body posture changes for context.

I received the ARC copy of the book from Netgally in exchange for an honest review.

I have to say upfront that the reading experience for me was odd, as the format of the PDF wasn't right. It wouldn't work properly in any of my devices, (phone, tablet, laptop) it wouldn't download with kindle, so I used Digital editions as I normally would with any graphic novel or manga, it still didn't work properly, every time I try to change the page it would go to a random place in the book, or it wouldn't swipe at all, so I had to "manually" go to the main menu and click "go to page __" so it took me a while to get really into the book and also to finish it.

*Please read the blurb before hand as I'm only giving my opinions here.

Besides that, I enjoy the book. Good whole rounded characters, and a very interesting plot line with twists and turns and quite a bit of political satire directly taken from the USA 2016 elections, which makes this book very entertaining and fast paced.
I really love when a set of characters with not obvious connection, somehow get intertwine with each other creating a story that is well written implacably sketched (sometimes coloured) and masterly knit together bringing everything into place right in the last pages.

I'd recommend this book to anybody who is just starting reading manga as it's a short story, usually manga takes many volumes, this one is only 2 or just one according to the edition you are interested in. It's also good as a "palate cleanser" as a book to read in between books.
If you really are into manga I think you might find this one a little underwhelming. But it's not bad, just a very short ride.

Those who follow the work of Naoki Urasawa will know that in the past his series have involved crossing paths with the work of other artists. For example, his series Pluto is based on Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy. This single-volume work also sees him working with another well known creation.

Mujirushi follows Takashi Kamoda, the owner of a factory that makes resin goods, who is struggling to make money. He thus avoids paying his taxes, and asks his wife what he should do with the money they save. She says they should take a cruise. However, Kamoda is caught and is subsequently punished for non-payment. His wife meanwhile wins a luxury cruise from a street lottery and goes away on her own, leaving Kamoda to look after their daughter Kasumi alone.

Read the full review at Anime UK News: https://animeuknews.net/2020/07/mujirushi-the-sign-of-dreams-review/

Mujirushi offers a completely different angle to the struggles of life. Well, at least the first part. Those that follow are completely out of this world, but entertaining to read. We don’t really take joy in the misfortunes of others, but there are those like Kamoda’s that make us sympathize while being intrigued. We have no idea what is going on in his mind, but he definitely has some weird ideas. Most of which, we don’t approve, but we do find entertaining. All in all, Mujirushi is a great and interesting read.