The second edition of Miyazaki Hayao’s original picture story “Shuna’s Journey” will be released after the release of the English version. As a result, the cumulative circulation sales since its publication in 1983 have exceeded 900,000 books.
“Shuna’s Journey” is a picture book drawn by Miyazaki Hayao in an all-color watercolor painting based on Tibetan folk tales. It depicts the adventures of Prince Shuna after meeting the girl Thea.
After reading the original story of “The Prince Who Became a Dog” for the first time, Director Miyazaki said, “Animation of this folk tale is one of my dreams” (from the postscript). He fulfilled his dream by drawing this picture book.
The official Studio Ghibli Twitter revealed secrets regarding the book, “Miyazaki-san took a tremendous amount of time to draw this picture book, and the release announcement in Animage magazine was postponed twice. As you can see from the original picture, it is drawn very delicately in watercolor. In particular, the face of the girl, Thea, used on the cover was redrawn many times, and face color and expression even were cut and paste many times till complete satisfaction.”
Following the announcement that the English version of “Shuna’s Journey” will be released for the first time outside Japan, 94 reprinted books of the original Animage Bunko have been announced. As a result, the cumulative circulation sales of the book since its publication in 1983 have exceeded 900,000.
“Shuna’s Journey” is priced at 660 JPY (tax included), and it is on sale at bookstores and online bookstores nationwide.
(C) Tokuma Shoten. All Rights Reserved.
