Nao Brown is a half-English/half-Japanese young woman with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. After a visit to her dad in Japan, she returns to London to work at her friend’s kitschy Japanese toy shop where she meets and falls for an alcoholic washing machine repairman. Also Buddhism and Ghibli-esque stuff.
Glyn Dillon, little brother of the late, great Steve Dillon who co-created and drew Preacher, among many other famous comics, turns out to also be a talented comics artist himself… not so great a writer though. As pretty as The Nao of Brown looks, the story itself was no great shakes and, if there was a deeper point here, it completely went over my head.
The romance between Nao and Gregory is meh. I suppose you get an idea of what having OCD is like. The Ghibli-esque interstitials probably have some symbolic meaning that feeds into the main story in some way but it was so boring that it was totally lost on me. I guess it’s good that Nao uses Buddhism as a mental tool to help with her OCD rather than prescription drugs?
It’s a unique story, I’ll give it that, I just don’t know what Dillon was shooting for here. An unremarkable romance story with a measure of spirituality, mental health stuff and a smattering of fantasy sprinkled throughout… to say what? Who knows. Not me. And even if there is no meaning, what there was wasn’t interesting.
It is really gorgeous art though - the Dillon family seems to produce remarkably talented artists. I liked the art generally but I especially loved the Ghibli-esque parts where the art is really something. Great use of colour, very arresting imagery - shame about the words. Which is how I’d sum up my experience with The Nao of Brown too, which turned out to be a forgettable and unimpressive read.
No comments:
Post a Comment