Manga Review – Return to the Labyrinth by Jake T. Forbes and Chris Lie (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Manga/Fantasy
Length: 208 pages
Publisher: TokyoPop
Release Date: August 8, 2006
ISBN-13: 978-1598167252
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Return to Labyrinth series
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

I have had this book for a while to read and was excited to finally get to read it. I was a huge fan of The Labyrinth movie when I was a kid and was eager to revisit the story. The book ended up being a bit disappointing; both the story and illustration were okay but not great.

It’s been many years since Toby left the Labyrinth and he notices that things come easy to him, especially when he is under pressure or stressed…little does he know that Jareth, the Goblin King, has been helping him out in not so subtle ways. Now Toby, who is sick of Jareth messing with his life, journeys down a secret tunnel into the Labyrinth to confront Jareth.

This series had a lot of potential but I was left wanting more. Sarah is in the book only briefly as a somewhat sad and downtrodden teacher who has given up any belief in things like imagination and fairy tales. This was kind of depressing. Toby is a selfish teenager, who whines a lot and complains about his lot in life. I didn’t really enjoy either character. There are lots of cameos by other characters from the Labyrinth movie; some of these were very well done and most were in keeping with the movie.

I was also a bit disappointed in the drawing. It was okay and pretty easy to follow, but they used this dot-type of shading for grey areas and it was distracting and took quite a bit away from the drawing. The characters definitely looked similar to how they appeared in the movie, but the backgrounds could have used more detail.

The big twist of this novel is that Jareth names Toby as the heir to the Goblin Throne…which was kind of anticlimactic. But don’t worry Toby whines about that too. There are some interesting side stories going on in here; so those do add something to the story.

Overall an okay continuation of the Labyrinth story. I wasn’t a huge fan of the characters or the illustration style. I did enjoy seeing some of the old favorites from the movie and did enjoy how some sidelines were added to complicate the story. I just didn’t find this engaging enough to keep reading it and honestly I wouldn’t really recommend it.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge