by Eden
The title character of Joséphine is a 30-something single woman navigating career, family, and her love life. Pénélope Bagieu’s comic isn’t necessarily treading any unexpected ground, but it tackles its subjects with playful humor.
On the surface, the story should work effectively as a movie, but Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) is mostly an odd mess and one that doesn’t do the tenderness of the graphic novel justice.
Kyoko Okazaki’s Helter Skelter is a surreal look into the dark side of fame. While it’s a well-tread territory, Okazaki’s skill at presenting Liliko’s descent is disturbing and harrowing as she pulls more and more people into her immoral world.
The comic is funny, to be fair, but the movie just feels a bit looser and more playful as it heightens the slapstick elements and the absurdities of everyday life.
Ai Yazawa’s Paradise Kiss is more than 850 pages and the most surprising part is how little time passes. From the beginning to the end (minus an epilogue), it really only takes place over about a month. Paradise Kiss packs in so much, it still feels like an intense epic.