Another random bookstore find that I really enjoyed. I always am hoping and checking for more YA graphic novels since fewer come out than those aimed at middlegrade readers, and this is aimed at around 14-15. Red Threads is about Hana, a high schooler from Tokyo who helps save a crow and then gets offered a scholarship at the Benten School of Esoterics, a fancy boarding school. On the train to the school, she meets another new student, Yoomi, a girl from Kansai whose family work for a shrine. It turns out that gods and magic are real, the crow she helped was a magical creature, and the school will teach her magic and how to protect herself from potential threats.
She and Yoomi become best friends and have to cope with the popular students’ bullying of Yoomi because she is of Korean descent. I thought it was a good interpretation of the discrimination people face in Japan eve their families came from Korea multiple generations ago. The overall plot deals with Hana learning how to deal with her new powers and with a series of attacks on animals and students that cause increasing concern and danger. I liked the world building here a lot — I’m a sucker for a magical boarding school (or really any school narrative, but if there’s magic involved, I’m especially there!) so this was like catnip to me. I thought the friendship between Hana and Yoomi was well depicted and I liked the way that they supported each other throughout some very fraught situations. I also thought the peril was well managed in terms of being frightening and having real stakes. The art was nice as well and I liked all of the character and creature designs. A good read and a nice entry into the YA fantasy graphic novel sphere.
Deals with bullying, xenophobia/racism, some animal death, and teens/adults in peril (one offscreen death).
