Hello my darlings you’ve got Glamour on day 7 of the big 15!! Today I’m covering a manga version of Les Miserables. I’ve had a slight fascination with plays and classics reimagined in manga and or anime format. To that end I remembered a manga I picked up a while ago. Now let’s get going shall we?
His name was Jean Valjean and her name was Fantine…. They started their stories apart but in the way the world treated them was the same. They were outcasts that ‘normal people’ wouldn’t want anything to do with. In desperate times Fantine needed money to care for her daughter but no one would give an unwed mother a job while No one would give Jean Valjean, former prisoner, food or a place to rest. After Jean was given a new lease on life Fantine tried to do the same after entrusting her daughter to what she thought were good people.
Throughout the story I always favored Jean Valjean versus the usual emphasis they would place upon Fantine and her daughter Cosette. Jean Valjean was a man who went mad from his mistakes in desperate times but also gave his all to protect a daughter he took under his wing. Meanwhile Cosette did not have a lot of mental development since there was more of an emphasis on her suffering at the hands of her ‘caregivers’. The story did somewhat hit on the history and the original play and I found it for the most part highly accurate versus let’s say Romeo and Juliet versus its manga/anime version Romeo X Juliet.
The artwork was not particularly interesting aside from the contrast from poorer conditions to better ones. One such condition may be the changes underwent by Fantine when she lost her teeth, her hair, and her dignity. All in all I very much enjoyed the book and the fact it didn’t deviate a lot from the other versions of Le Miserables I’ve seen. I also like that this like Romeo X Juliet (although more accurate than Romeo X Juliet) invites newer generations to witness the classics. Especially with the emphasis on true suffering because let’s face it…. ‘Newer’ generations are oblivious to what true suffering is or what true strength is. I don’t know everything about either one but one small book is a good start. With that my darlings don’t be like Javert at the end of the book/play/story and good night my dears this Hatter is out!!
A Hatter of The Details 