Shakespeare’s Hamlet: The Manga Edition
Written by William Shakespeare
Adapted by Adam Sexton
Art by Tintin Pantoja
Cliff Notes/Wiley
Cover price: $9.99; Available now

I have always been a huge Shakespeare fan ever since high school. I’ve read a lot of his play, from Romeo and Juliet to a Mid-Summer’s Night Dream. So, I was very pleased to find out that the book company Wiley was creating a manga version of one of Shakespeare’s best stories, Hamlet.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet takes place in Elsinore, a Danish royal castle, which has been recently haunted by a ghost. Guards who have seen the ghost say the ghost resembles the late King Hamlet, a fact that forces Prince Hamlet to investigate. When Hamlet comes face to face with the ghost, he learns a secret: Claudius, who is now also the new king, murdered King Hamlet. Hamlet goes on a mission to avenge his father, a mission that ends with disastrous results.

I admire the effort put forth by the folks at Wiley for doing their best to adapt Shakespeare into a graphic novel. Due to the length of the piece, Adam Sexton did what he could to abridge the classic in a way that would honor the work of the scribe but also maintain the spirit of the piece. Sexton achieves this but I did find some issue with some of dialogue that he chose to omit. I think that in any adaptation of Hamlet, there has to be a scene with Hamlet holding the skull of his old friend Yorick uttering the lines “alas old Yorick.” It just has to be there because it is such a pivotal scene (in my opinion) and should have stayed in the play. Overall though, Sexton does is a good job in adapting the piece and does it well. The thing I had a lot of issues with though, was the art.

First off, there is nothing wrong with Tintin Pantoja‘s art. Her art is perfectly fine, capturing the essence of what a manga book should be, which may be where the graphic novel comes across problems. I do not think that Hamlet was meant to be translated into a manga. Their dueling sensibilities just do not mesh well. Manga is known for its over the top violence/comedy, characters with big eyes, a young looking cast, and close-up shots, traits that do not fit the dark play.

I think the scene that bothers me the most was when Hamlet and Ophelia have a discussion about their relationship. In the scene, Shakespeare never states that Ophelia does anything to Hamlet at all but in the manga, she somehow cuts his eye, forcing him to wear an eye-patch. I am fine with artistic license but Hamlet’s words or actions do not warrant such a violent response from Ophelia. The sudden outburst of violence seemed out of place. In some cases, lines are taken too literally and what you get is an odd looking image. There is one line where Hamlet refers to another character as a fishmonger and while he says that line, he is actually eating a fish. The scene was just too over the top for my taste.

Several other artistic choices also bothered me. All the characters in the book all look too young. Hamlet looks only a handful of years younger than his uncle and his mother. Hamlet also does not look the part. I do not know if it is my multiple viewings of Mel Gibson’s version of Hamlet, but I sort of envisioned Hamlet as a dark, brooding prince. This Hamlet looks more like a teen pop-star.

Though the adaptation itself is perfectly fine, I personally would recommend this Hamlet adaptation to only manga fans. Fans of manga are familiar with the traits of manga and will embrace this very well adapted play. Others, like myself or a Shakespeare fan might be turned off by the over top tone of the adaptation.