著者

横山 孝一

出版者

群馬工業高等専門学校

雑誌

群馬高専レビュー (ISSN:24339776)

巻号頁・発行日

no.36, pp.21-26, 2018-03-26

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This is an introduction for young Japanese learners of English to e-future (Korean publisher)'s new graded comic readers series of Vera the Alien Hunter (2016) written by Jason Wilburn & Casey Kim, and illustrated by Seungjun Park & Bioh Kang. The wonderful writing team of Wilburn & Kim reminds us of their former excellent works: Magic Adventures (2012) and School Adventures (2014), in both of which the charming siblings Jack and Bella are actively involved, leading the stories to happy endings. Compared to these adventures, the new illustrations are somewhat inferior to Jaehwan Jung's in techniques; the character designs are rather unoriginal (in fact, Luca will never fail to remind the reader of Japan's well-loved manga character Dora-emon). However, the plot of Vera the Alien Hunter is so well-made that the reader will never be able to predict how the series of Vera and Luca may be concluded. It can be read as a graphic novel of the teacher-student relationship where Luca earnestly teaches and trains Vera until she becomes the earth's reliable alien hunter.The theme is their friendship in a Western sense, but more accurately, the typical, Eastern cultural affection between teacher and student, which can be found similar to the relationship between the Japanese-like teacher Yoda and his disciple Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. In the theme song recorded in the attached CD, Luca says to his student, "You have to trust me. You have to do your best. I'll help you learn the things you need to know," and Vera answers, "Yes, I will trust you. I'll learn all I can learn. I will succeed if I believe in me." Interestingly, the message suggests that the reader will succeed in learning English if he or she trusts this set of textbooks. Through the interesting comic books, it might be possible to gain as great self-confidence as the obedient student Vera has done.