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Title: Good-Bye, Chunky Rice
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I saw a movie recently called “The Triplets of Belleville,” which is a animated movie that contains very little dialog or story development, but the animation, music, and emotions expressed in the movie make the whole journey worthwhile. And that’s kind of how the story “Good-Bye, Chunky Rice” is; it never gets too deep in the story that it’s trying to tell, but the emotions are strong enough that you get involved in the story anyway. This story is simply about the troubles of having to say good bye to a lifelong friend. The story involves a young turtle named Chunky Rice, who is planning on leaving behind his whole life to go out to sea. Chunky however also has to leave behind his best friend Dandel, and that makes them both sad and depressed. However Chunky feels his place is out at sea while Dandel believes her place is right where she’s always been.
So the day finally comes when it’s time for Chunky to leave his hometown, and once he’s left he immediately starts to wonder whether or not he made the right choice of leaving behind his best friend. Meanwhile back at home Dandel gets into a routine of collecting bottles so she can write messages to Chunky, while she visits places the two used to visit all the time. Despite that fact that she still does the same things she's always done, she can’t help but feel like something is missing by doing her daily routine by herself. At this point some people may realize that Chunky is leaving his hometown, and we have no idea why. This may sound like there is poor story telling here, but the author here is trying to give us an emotional ride, not tell a story. And when it comes to creating an emotional ride, being too specific usually defeats the entire purpose of the story being told.
When my best friend Zach went to Texas for an unknown period of time he explained why he was going, what he would be doing there, and all that jazz...and quite frankly I didn’t really care WHY he was going, I just knew that he was leaving and wouldn’t be back for a long time! As you might expect I was like Dandel. I didn’t collect empty bottles so I could sent messages through the sea, but simple things like watching my newest anime DVD alone would turn into a depressing time as that was something me and him did a lot. In real life an explanation means nothing, and everyone can sympathize with the fact that you will miss your friend. In a comic book giving a solid reason to why the person was leaving may steal the emotion away from the story. Why you ask?
Because it’s much harder to sympathize with a comic book character who is leaving when you know why the person is leaving in explicit detail. After all you don’t know the character personally, so you wouldn’t feel any strong connection to Chunky or Dandel, and that in turn might make the reader feel as if Dandel is being selfish to not be wishing Chunky good luck on his journey. However by keeping the reasons mute, Dandels feelings of this whole situation being unfair is easily identified with. Anyway getting back to the story Chunky meets some odd characters on his new home, including a Motown hating captain, a cook who’s face you never see, and a pair of siamese twins. Throughout the book these people will help Chunky overcome his loneliness, and eventually teach him how to let go of his home to begin his new life, while Dandel must come to grips with the fact that while Chunky is off for a fresh start with his life, there never are good bye’s.
As said before “Good-Bye, Chunky Rice” is not a story driven book but an emotion driven book. Why Chunky leaves his home exactly is never fully explained, but the characters in this book have real feelings, with real emotions, that lead to real touching moments. The art in this book is also very beautiful and gorgeous, there are very few unique styles that are wonderful to just look at, but Craig Thomson’s artwork has a life of it’s own that no other artist will ever be able to duplicate. This was in fact Craig’s first solo comic book to create, and it was a gamble that paid off very well!
For those of you who like emotional books to read, this book will not disappoint you one bit. While the lack of explicit story development might disappoint some people don’t be fooled, this is easily one of the most unique, emotional, and heartbreaking stories to come out in a long time from an American artist, and this is definitely something to look into if you love tear jerkers.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -