Naoki Urasawa is beloved by many, and is by far one of the most talented creators in manga. That said, readers aren’t always interested in a long-form story. With how little time there is in the day, we often want something short to pass the time. Viz Media’s most recent Urasawa release scratches this itch: Sneeze: Naoki Urasawa Story Collection. Can Urasawa continue to deliver in a smaller page count?

Sneeze compiles eight short stories from Urasawa’s career. While Urasawa is often associated with writing thriller manga, here he explores a much broader set of themes. There are certainly more traditional stories in this collection such as “DAMIYAN!” and “Throw Toward The Moon!”, but Urasawa balances them out with some surprising additions. One of my favorites was “Henry and Charles”, which focuses on two mice attempting to traverse a kitchen to get cake, all while avoiding a fearsome cat. It feels reminiscent of an old Warner Bros. cartoon, making it a humorous read from start to finish. Sneeze is a testament to Urasawa’s versatility as a writer, showing that he is more than a master of a single niche.

Urasawa also has a well-known passion for music, and it’s aptly showcased through “It’s a Beautiful Day” and “Music Nostra”. “It’s a Beautiful Day” centers a story told to Urasawa by the late musician Kenji Endo. While the story isn’t solely focused on music, you can see the admiration that Ursawa had for Endo and his peers during its opening pages, and how he was fascinated by the tale. Meanwhile, “Music Nostra” details Urasawa’s personal travels in Los Angeles, where he got to attend Woodstock and meet the former president of Apple Records Jack Oliver. Ursawa’s enthusiasm throughout the experience is infectious, and it’s easy to see why music has had such close ties to his work.

At this point, it should be no surprise that Urasawa’s artwork is beautiful. Each of his stories has a meticulous amount of detail, even in the minor mannerisms of characters. As “Henry and Charles” shows, this isn’t limited to human beings, as the mice in that story are just as expressive as the rest of Urasawa’s designs. He can bring a sense of realism to the most absurd of premises, making his work an addictive read. Urasawa is by far one of manga’s greatest talents, and Sneeze reminds readers of that on every page.

Sneeze is another brilliant manga from Naoki Urasawa, showcasing his skills in short-form storytelling. Readers will be impressed by the variety of stories showcased in the collection, and will be left wanting more by the end of their read. Bless you, Urasawa!

Maybe you already know manga artist Naoki Urasawa from his acclaimed works like Master Keaton, Pluto, Monster, and 20th Century Boys. Perhaps you don't. Either way, Sneeze: Naoki Urasawa Story Collection should be on your radar. Suppose you're unfamiliar with Urasawa's work. In that case, this collection of short stories offers an exquisite taste of what he's capable of creating. If you already know him from his series, this book compiles some deeper cuts into an easier to grasp format. The most striking thing about the collection is Urasawa's versatility. The stories in this collection vacillate from sci-fi tales involving psychic powers to personal journals about seeing Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan perform in Tokyo. And yet, each of the stories carries Uruasawa's signature ability to imbue his characters' faces with powerful emotion and make perfect use of silent panels. Come and see a master at work.

While I really enjoyed Urasawa's Mujirushi (and highly suggest that work to all readers), I just wasn't blown away by Sneeze. I usually enjoy short story collections much more than I did this one. It's possible I expected too much from it, but it was honestly a bit dissapointing. The art of course was gorgeous, even though I wasn't sold on the stories themselves. Suggested for larger manga collections or collections where Urasawa circulates well, but otherwise I would have to suggest passing on this one.

Sneeze: Naoki Urasawa Story Collection is a collection of short stories by Naoki Urasawa.

Sneeze: Naoki Urasawa Story Collection
Written by: Naoki Urasawa
Publisher: Shogakukan
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: October 20, 2020


Before starting this review, I have to admit that while I’ve heard of Naoki Urasawa over the years that I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve never actually read any of his works previous to reading this short story collection. I’m glad to have the opportunity to read this volume and get some exposure to Urasawa’s writing.

The first story in this anthology is titled, “DAMIYAN!,” and it was originally published in Big Comic Spirits in 2016. A young man who is obsessed with online games and has spent a ton of money on them, has gotten fired from his job. He’s now in debt and approaches a gang about offering his services and getting paid. His companion is Damiyan, who had been teased over the years. Damiyan appears to have a supernatural ability to inflict misfortune and injury to others by staring at them. After the gang is convinced of Damiyan’s ability, they utilize him to accomplish their goals. When I first was reading this story, it felt like it was a little on the strange side, and a little “over the top.” However, I did appreciate the ending of this story, especially the lesson that one of the members of the gang learns. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that kind of a twist at the end. It was the ending that made reading this short story worth it.

The next story is “Throw Toward the Moon!,” which first appeared in Aera Comic in October 2006. At the beginning, a young boy comes across an old man lying against a tree. After the boy gives the man an apple, the man tells the boy that he will become a reporter and win a Pulitzer Prize. The kid doesn’t believe him, but we see that when he grows up, he’s working at a newspaper office. Unfortunately, it’s a third-rate paper and he’s in charge of the obituaries. He stumbles across an obituary submitted for the old man… but the obituary says he is still a week away from his death. He learns the old man is a psychic who supposedly helped with various investigations over the years. The main character decides to learn more about the old man and is intent on proving he’s a fraud. His investigation leads him to some clues the old man had told him at the time they met, and he stumbles onto something he didn’t expect. This story was kind of dense for the amount of pages that it’s told in, but I was riveted by the story and kept wanting to read it to find out what happens next. Of the stories included in Sneeze: Naoki Urasawa Story Collection, this one was one of my favorites.

Next is “The Old Guys,” which was originally published in Jump X between May 2013 and July 2014. This is one of the music-themed stories included in this compilation, and it’s from the point of view of older men who grew up listening to acts like the Beatles and Bob Dylan back in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s. As someone who has an appreciation for American music from that era, I liked this piece. I loved seeing how sentimental these old men get when they see Paul McCartney on the stage, and it makes me think I’ll probably be like that too when I’m that old and reminiscing about the music from my youth.

This is followed by “Henry and Charles,” which was originally published in Okina Pocket in 1995. While some of the stories in this volume has opening pages in color, this story is completely in color. It stars two mice named Henry and Charles. Henry is a braggart and claims to have done things that he really hasn’t done. His buddy, Charles, wants to get a piece of cake for his girlfriend, so he starts wandering out without being careful, even though there’s a cat sleeping on the floor. The whole story sees Henry trying to stop Charles and saving him from disaster on several occasions in order to keep the cat from waking up. As Urasawa mentions in the author’s note at the end of the volume, he grew up with an appreciation for American cartoons like Looney Tunes, and that he was going for that kind of a vibe with this story. I think he accomplished his goal in that regard, and I think it works well for the story that he’s telling.

“It’s a Beautiful Day” is a short story that recounts the event that happened to a Japanese musician named Kenji Endo. He passed away in 2017, and this story appeared in Monthly! Spirits in November 2018. In the author’s note, Urasawa says he knew Endo personally and had intended to draw a manga about this event for Endo before he had died. Unfortunately, he was in the middle of a serialization and didn’t have the time. Endo passed before he could draw this one, so he ended up writing and drawing this short as a tribute to Endo. Urasawa commented that he actually did all of the work on this story himself, which he hadn’t done in a long time. From the story itself, to what Urasawa mentioned in the author’s note, it’s clear that Urasawa cared about Endo and telling this story.

“Musica Nostra” a four-page piece about guitar players. Urasawa talks about the faces that male guitar players make when playing their instrument, as well as how painful it can be. He then talks about female guitarists that he saw on YouTube and compares the women to the men. It’s interesting to note that when it comes to the art, it looks like more effort went into drawing the female guitarists than the male ones.

This is followed by a five-part “L.A. Music Travelogue,” which details Urasawa’s adventure of going to the Desert Trip rock festival. First, it was interesting to learn that Urasawa himself is a musician. Second, it was kind of neat to see some of the notable people he interacted with: a musician named Mike Viola and Jack Oliver, the former president of Apple Records (the Beatles’ record label). In the part where Jack is talking to Urasawa about his time at Apple Records, I loved the detail that went into the drawing of the younger Paul McCartney. It looks so much like the younger Paul. I just thought these five travelouges were just neat. They ran in Grand Jump between 2015 and 2017.

Next is “Kaiju Kingdom,” which was originally published in Big Comic in 2013. This story taps into Urasawa’s love of the kaiju he grew up watching. It focuses on a kaiju otaku from France, who comes to Tokyo for the tourist attractions related to kaiju. In this alternate universe, kaiju have actually attacked Tokyo, and the city has made it a prime part of its tourism. This kaiju otaku gets more than he bargained for when he stumbles upon a couple of members from the Science Ministry’s special giant organisms research team. One of them is a woman, who is the older sister of a kid the otaku met when he first got to Japan. After learning that the female scientist lost her parents in a kaiju attack, it makes him realize he never though about the human cost of the kaiju attacks. In the end, the otaku plays an important role in a kaiju attack. I have to admit, I didn’t expect this kind of an ending for the story. I appreciate how Urasawa was able to do something unexpected with a couple of the stories included in this anthology.

The final story included in this compilation is “Solo Mission,” which was submitted for a publication in France. Because it was done for a Western market, this one reads from left to right instead of from right to left. This is another story that was done completely in color, and it focuses on a man who is a superhero. We see the strain this puts between him and his wife, though, when he’s summoned to take on a dangerous mission at a planet that’s referred to as “the demonic death-death hell planet.” It’s rather short, and it simply focuses on the rift between the superhero and his wife. It’s not bad for what it is, but it was my least favorite story in this compilation.

Overall, though, I was very pleased with Sneeze: Naoki Urasawa Story Collection. If this is a good representation of Urasawa’s storytelling and art style, it looks like I’ve been missing out. If someone like me, who isn’t familiar with Urasawa’s work is impressed by this volume, then I think readers who are fans of Urasawa will enjoy reading this short story compilation.

Sneeze is a nostalgic trip of various stories by the legendary mangaka, Naoki Urasawa. Whether it be the Looney-Tunes inspired “Henry and Charles” where a couple of mice try to get a slice of cake while avoiding becoming food for a sleeping cat to the autobiographical account “Musicaia” where Urasawa sees Neil Young and Paul McCartney perform live in Los Angeles, there is a lot of fun and admiration to be experienced. It is endearing to read Urasawa’s musings of his life as well as some of his long-overdue works; notably “Endo” - a tribute to the real-life Japanese musician where he found album art inspiration after a drunken night at a strip club. There are also stories that serve as an interesting blend of the culture that enraptured him such as “Kaiju” – a story embracing and critiquing the exploitative nature of a rabid fandom by setting it in a tourist location that often gets attacked by the monsters. As great as these stories are there are a few that pale in comparison, “Solo Mission” while an interesting point of how far his publications have come (going all the way to Europe) is still a lackluster short, and “Old Guys” reads more like outtakes of an enthusiastic music nerd than a cohesive purposeful addition.

This is a good collection of stories, yet I can only see this working for those who are familiar and have an affinity for Urasawa’s works. This does not read as a cohesive thematic collection as it is a compilation of the mangaka’s works thus far. Marketing the stories – the aforementioned LA concerts as well as his encounters with Jim Woods and Endo - would be a good start.

This may be an artist reminiscing youthful vigor through various published short stories, and yet the opportunity to experience such enthusiasm will remain timeless.

As a fan of Naoki Urasawa’s work, I was crazy excited to read this collection of short Manga stories. I was not let down. The eight short stories range all over the board from humor to fantasy with Naoki Urasawa’s art bringing them all to life. If manga isn't your usual graphic novel read, try Sneeze and enjoy something new.

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.