See my full review on my blog, The Itinerant Librarian. Click or copy and paste the link on your browser.

Link to review: http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2013/11/booknote-47-ronin.html ( )

Decent art, but overall a very slow story. The history itself is interesting, but for a graphic novel this did a lot more telling than showing. The end result is rather dry and hardly as exciting I'd hoped. ( )

In the 18th century, forty-seven masterless samurai masterminded a secret plot, spanning over two years, to avenge the death of their master. Claiming to be the first historically accurate graphic novel accounting of the famed event, The 47 Ronin explores the deeply rooted Japanese engagement with honor, loyalty, sacrifice, and above all else, the bushido. Writer Sean Michael Wilson, editor of the groundbreaking [b:Ax: Alternative Manga|6928780|Ax Volume 1 A Collection of Alternative Manga|Katsuo Kawai|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1331427811s/6928780.jpg|7159010], and artist Akiko Shimojima stumble their way through the iconic tale. Both the script and illustrations, which suffer from brevity, often obfuscate rather than clarify. As a testament to the strength of the legend, The 47 Ronin overcomes these faults and ultimately proves a fascinating read. ( )

I was provided a copy of this graphic novel by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I had never heard of the 47 Ronin before, and the release of the graphic novel is timely with the movie releasing theaters now starring Keanu Reeves.

The beginning sucked. I couldn't tell who was who and had to keep going back and rereading parts and trying to figure the story out. It seriously needed a prologue for people like me who didn't know the story and couldn't keep track of the similarly named and looking characters. And it's as especially that the characters were drawn similarly that added to my overall confusion. The language was also unclear.

Then about halfway through the ruse and what they're (the samurai) are trying to do starts to make sense. It gets interesting partway through and I definitely felt hooked to continue.
I loved the ending; it was beautiful. The artwork was spot on, and it's definitely a great story.

Overall there's a lot of room for improvement. I liked the graphic novel portrayal but wish it would've had a prologue. If more was explained early on, it would've caused less confusion because I had to keep flipping back pages and rereading and trying to see what characters were who and what side. ( )

I found it difficult to differentiate the characters, and I also found the story hard to follow, most especially the beginning and the crucial conflict that sets up the whole rest of the book. The later sections of this book were a bit easier to follow and understand. There seemed to be a lot of panels where nothing was happening and I didn't understand the facial expressions, body position changes, etc..., so the art did not help me follow what was happening. ( )