Customer Reviews

Adolf, An Exile In Japan (Adolf)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I didn't like this so much as the first book in the Adolf series. Although the Adolf series proposes to tell us the stories of three Adolfs, Toge is our narrator so we focus heavily on him. Here we get to see Toge get tortured, then beat up, then tortured, then shot... and so on. That's a picture of him on the cover: screaming and getting tortured.

In the opening to An Exile in Japan Toge recovers the important documents that could totally destroy HItler. As we already know, the documents prove that Hitler is a jew. Personally I doubt that they could be so damaging to Hitler. The Nazi party could just claim that they are fakes. The Japanese secret police know that Toge has some important documents, but they don't know what they are about. Representatives of various countries also know that Toge has something important and they come and offer him large amounts of money. Toge is emotionally involved because his brother died to get the documents to Japan, and so he resolves to use his position as a reporter to publicize them. The secret police promptly get him fired and evicted and harass anyone who tries to help him. So the documents are safe but they aren't going anywhere soon.

Meanwhile Toge meets one of our Adolf's mothers. The recent widow of a German intelligence officer can't forget Toge. We see her son, Adolf in a prep school in Germany. He is at the top of the class and so shakes Hitler's hand at a ceremony. He still considers the third Adolf, a German jew who is staying with his family in Japan, to be his best friend, and so he can't accept some school doctrines.

The Adolf series is good so far, but this particular book didn't read so well. Mostly it is watching Toge get harassed and driven to absolute rock bottom by the secret police. And in keeping with the story it ends badly. This is a good series, but start on another book.

This is an excellent follow-up to ADOLF: A TALE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. If you enjoyed the first book, this is a superb addition.

The artwork is fantastic, and the story is great. Adolf Hitler's characterization is realistic and funny at the same time.

The only drawback is that not all of the three Adolfs featured in the first book are in this addition. However, that doesn't detract from the ongoing story.

I've got volumes two through five but I've been waiting on volume one for the past five years!!!! What the heck happened??? The entire print-run of volume one just sold out but nobody bothered buying up the rest of the series???? Do I have to resort to stealing my local public library's mangy dog-eared copy???? (I won't!) Does the publisher want this fine series to die out, selling out its remaining stock (consisting of only volumes two through five, evidently) and leaving the series in OOP status???? Hello, is this thing on????

Stories continue to build and become more complex, the half-Asian Adolf fights being sent to the Hitler Youth. If you managed the monumental task of getting your hands on volume one of this series it is worth your while to get hands on volume 2.

Admitedly, I've been reading the sequence of volumes in this series out of order. In fact, this was the first volume that I started with. With that being said, Tezuka's storytelling and plot pacing is compelling enough that I did not feel 'lost,' in this complex tale of WWII with it's assortment of characters and subplot. Within the first several pages I was more or less hooked into this epic tale on the racial origins of Adolf Hitler and the globe trotting antics of several parties to reveal and conceal the truth.

If you do decide to read this series, do it right the first time around and start with the first volume in the series: "Adolf: A Tale of the Twentieth Century."