Nonnonba Review - A dive into Shigeru Mizuki's Yokai inspired childhood

For GeGeGe no Kitarou fans, this is a manga you can't miss. Based on the autobiography of the same name, Nonnonba recounts Shigeru Mizuki's childhood experiences, most notably those involving yokai (Japanese folklore monsters).

So how did Mizuki become so fascinated with Yokai in the first place? This is the manga that tells it. Back in the early 1930s when Shigeru was still a young boy, he was acquainted with an old lady he nicknamed Nonnonba. Nonnonba would regularly visit his family and would tell the young Shigeru stories about Yokai and how they interacted with the real world.

Many times in the manga, Shigeru would encounter actual yokai, and thanks to Nonnonba's many teachings, he would manage to get away every single time. For a yokai focused manga, this is not the only kind of story that the manga presents, as we also get to see a bit of family drama, such as the time when Shigeru's father who was a bit of a dreamer tried to quit his job to become a movie scriptwriter, or how Shigeru had these little clan wars with the other kids, (Obviously influenced by the actual Japanese Imperial Army of the time) where they would either beat up their opponents or throw rocks at each other. Additionally, we have a few chapters devoted to Shigeru's first romances, which didn't always end as you would expect as the harsh realities of the 1930s took over.

I can't speak for the newer generation of kids, but when I was a young lad in the early 1990s, my parents told me about the monster living in the hole in the ceiling at my old house which made Nonnonba's yokai stories quite relatable to me on that level. During my reading, it's made clear that Nonnonba didn't go to school, which explains why she had such an interesting outlook on life. She was part of the old wives' tale clique that died out in the 20th century with the advent of science and modern medicine. Those ghost stories we used to tell each other as kids or the supposed "cures" for my ailments that my mother told me all made me recall my own childhood.

But what's most intriguing about Shigeru and Nonnonba, is the simple fact that they both genuinely believed in the existence of yokai contrary to my parents who were just bullshitting me about the monster in the ceiling. They weren't just telling old myths. For them, yokai was a daily part of their lives. They were as real as you and me. Shigeru didn't learn about yokai from books, no, it was passed down to him as an oral tradition from Nonnonba. Even during the Second World War when Shigeru was deployed at Papua New Guinea (where he, unfortunately, lost his arm during an allied raid), he recounted encountering yokai. This yokai legacy left by Nonnonba carried his career, and most importantly, his whole life until his passing in 2015.

If you've been watching the new GeGeGe no Kitarou anime series, or if you even have a slight interest in yokai mythology, this is the manga for you. Nonnonba, in my opinion, is not only a great manga, it's also a perfect introduction to Shigeru Mizuki, as a person, and his works. He wasn't just a manga artist, he was undoubtedly THE Yokai ambassador of the 20th century.

Fun Fact: Nonnonba is also available as a 1991 Japanese live drama, which is unfortunately not subbed in English to my knowledge.

I bought my copy of Nonnonba while I was visiting the British Museum's recent manga exhibit on a vacation in the UK. Since I'm no longer there, I use Book Depository primarily to buy manga which ships internationally with no shipping cost. If you enjoyed my recommendation and intend to buy Nonnonba yourself, I'd greatly appreciate it if you used my affiliate link below:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Nonnonba-Shigeru-Mizuki/9781770460720/?a_aid=eaudebla