If there is one mangaka that I want to know about, it’s Naoki Urasawa. I am still not the largest manga reader because I haven’t sold my soul and opened my wallet for tons and tons of manga volumes. The lack of money ad space plays a part here. A thing that is sad considering that there are great things out that that aren’t available in anime form. I’m lucky enough to watch Naoki Urasawa’s Monster in anime form and that’s almost perfect. I can’t imagine what Pluto, 20th Century Boys, or who knows what else are like. Maybe one day.

Sneeze is a collection of eight disjointed Naoki Urasawa short stories. They come in different lengths, tell different sorts of stories, and have different sorts of art styles. Collections like this are ways to dig deeper into a creator’s mind. What kind of stories they think about on their free time, what sorts of things they like, and so many other things from their free thoughts that they just want to draw. What do we learn from Naoki Urasawa from these stories? A lot actually. It’s pretty cool.


I feel like I know a few people like this.
Four of these stories are centered on grounding the super natural. The focus isn’t the super natural aspects themselves, but how people are effected by them. One part featured a person that can kill just by looking at someone for an extended amount of time. That ability was used in a criminal under world for someone’s gains. There is also a reporter that runs into a fortune teller, a weeb that visits Japan to see a monster attack and learns morality and humanity, and the wife of a super hero and the super hero arguing before he fights in the name of heroism. Ordinary things from super natural elements.

Naoki Urasawa also really likes western music. I’m not kidding you about this. One short story formed from him just google searching women and guitars. Another features him either going to or picturing himself going to Woodstock, watching the last Beatles live performance, and naming other things. He really likes the work of Bob Dylan and so do some of the characters and old men he draws in some short stories. It’s kind of cool because you know he loves something when he writes a chapter or two of manga about it. This is pure thought from the creator, after all.


That being said, this manga is titled Sneeze and that is what it is. A series of short stories of different varieties in on package and in different qualities. Even different art styles and panel usages. This is quite a unique package in that way. Some of these pieces are things that seem to have a point. Other pieces are there just to be there and don’t have a major point at all. I like reading it myself, which is why I am going to give it a good. Still, it’s hard to recommend because of the mixed nature of this manga volume. If you are a Naoki Urasawa fan though, easy recommend. No question about it.

Naoki Urasawa once again shows that a great story doesn't have to be a long one!

As an avid fan of Urasawa's works since my mid-teens, it always gives me a sense of joy to read his stories. "Sneeze: Naoki Urasawa Story Collection" has managed to cram the joy of a full series into multiple disconnected stories, all carrying the type of feeling you'd come to expect from the great mangaka. His writing is as impressive as always, and each story captures you even more than the last.

These stories are brought to us in English by the same translator-letterer duo that brought "Mujirushi" to our English-speaking minds: translator John Werry and letterer Steve Dutro. Werry's translation reads fantastically, and is complimented greatly by Dutro's beautiful lettering and custom-made personalized typefaces. I always know I'm going to see some great lettering when I see Dutro's name!

This is a must-have for any fan of Naoki Urasawa, and a great way for new readers to familarize themselves with the mangaka.

In his afterword, Naoki Urasawa says that this collection ended up being about things he's always loved since he was a child - things like music and kaiju. That means that every story in this book carries a very clear piece of the creator's heart, evident in both the art and the attention to detail in the storytelling. Each tale is unique - even when they share an overlap in terms of theme, like the music of the 1960s and 70s - and all of them carry a sort of happy melancholy, a feeling which should be contradictory but somehow isn't. It's just a very Urasawa book, and even if you've never read his work before, this is a collection that sticks in your mind.

A fun and engaging compilation of short stories! My favorite ones were the autobiographical ones about traveling to Los Angeles and music. The others were fictional and interesting as well.

Some of the stories were better than others in this because the collection felt disjointed overall. They didn't really have a theme. It seemed like they were stuck together more than anything else. But it was a good collection of the author's work.

Was not interested in this title. It was hard to follow. I first thought I had to read it like a manga. But the pages were in correct order. The storyline is not interesting.

Some Twilight Zone-esque stories that felt childish and sloppy with contrived endings full of villains monologuing so as to explain their motivations unnecessarily. Other stories were childish and unfunny. The nonfiction stuff was fine but nothing special - the author likes classic rock. Uh huh. Closes on a couple of bad sci-fi stories, one for a French magazine that was a plain flop, the other a bad kaiju story that was only ever annoying. The early Twilight Zone stuff was ok but otherwise this is a really weak collection of short mangas.

This is a short story collection, but I don’t think it was for me. The art was fantastic in every single one, but some stories were better than others. Some of the weren’t engaging at all, or were too over the top.

I haven't really gotten into graphic novels very often but here lately I have been giving them a try. This collection was okay, I wasn't really into the one's about music because it was pages full of a band singing lyrics and that's really it. But the art on all of them was amazing. I really enjoyed the ones In color. There's something about it that gives the story more life. A few collections in here made me laugh loudly while others left me asking ”what did I just read” all in all very enjoyable

I'm a fan of Naoki Urasawa's celebrated works (Monster, 20th Century Boys, Pluto) so I was excited about a short story collection. His cartooning and storytelling skills are well on display. But the stories themselves are just too nothing. Simple ideas, shortly told. Nothing bad, but nothing to really recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is a weird and disjointed collection of short stories, some of which are a bit creepy, some of which are funny, and some which just make no sense whatsoever. There's no real continuity or theme, they are just a bunch of stories from the same author.

This was a very cool collection of short comics. The topics were eclectic and ranged from a psychic who can cause people to trip to the author's musical travelogue to kaiju fandom as disaster tourism. The more fantastical stories are a lot of fun and often very silly, as with the case with the mice trying to steal a piece of cake.  The auto/biographical ones, on the other hand, are really neat slices of music culture.  It's a bit of an odd combination, but definitely worth checking out, and especially worth it if you're looking for a new manga-ka to stan. 

Recommended for people who like music, kaiju, psychic stories, and superheroes. It really runs the gamut and there's something for just about everyone.

As a fan of Naoki Urasawa’s work (having read both Monster and Pluto) this book did not disappoint, showing his usual flare at story telling. 

The book is made up of a series of short stories. There are similarities to Monster (Damiyan) and Pluto (Throw towards the moon, Kaiju Kingdom and Solo Mission) in terms of style. Other stories in the book are based on music - bands, road trips and his love of The Beatles. One story was based on story from a Japanese musician.

If you have read any Urasawa mangas, this book will be a treat. The artwork is his usual style- great facial expression and comic relief. Characters were well developed with enough background story to make this work.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

A music travelogue. Two mice humorously attempting to steal a piece of cake from above an unsuspecting cat. A teen psychic who can kill a target just by looking. A kaiju enthusiast in a world where monster attacks in Tokyo are real.
 I love a good short story compilation, and this one had lots of flavor, humor, and culture. I had never read anything by Naoki Urasawa, but I'm going to need to add him to my personal bookshelf at home. The tone in each of these was vastly different from each other, and it kept me fresh while reading. This was truly a delight to read.

Some stories were better than others, but overall I enjoyed this collection. It took me a while to get used to the backwards right to left reading, as digital manga reading sometimes is... but I can imagine this would be a pure delight as a physical copy.

A huge thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I greatly appreciate it!