Penguin Highway (Manga) Review

I’ve been lucky enough to review Tomihiko Morimi’s Penguin Highway previously when Yen Press released the original novel in English. Now, five years later, the manga adaptation has made its way to the West, but does it prove an entertaining read? Let’s find out!

Our story takes place in a quiet town where our protagonist Aoyama lives. As a fourth-grader, Aoyama finds himself endlessly curious about the world he lives in and can often be found exploring and conducting research either by himself or with his friend, Uchida. One day, a group of penguins suddenly appear in the town with no explanation and Aoyama takes it upon himself to figure out where they came from and where they’re going.

Throughout his investigation, Aoyama realises that the penguins may be connected to other mysteries he’s been researching. This includes the attractive woman (who goes unnamed) working at his dentist’s office. For some reason, Aoyama finds himself oddly drawn to her and when it becomes apparent she can create penguins out of soda cans our protagonist becomes even more enamoured with her.

And if that wasn’t enough, there’s a mysterious sphere of water in the nearby forest. When Summer break starts, Aoyama and Uchida frequently spend their time measuring the orb and trying to figure out how it may relate to the appearance of the penguins. Is it a separate event or somehow connected to the bigger picture?

Penguin Highway is in many ways the very definition of a summer adventure. Aoyama is within that age range where he lets his imagination carry him away, which gives the series a whimsical atmosphere as you wonder what’s happening in reality and what might be embellished by the story being told from Aoyama’s perspective. There is certainly a fantasy element at play here so it’s not all in Aoyama’s head, which makes it all the more fascinating.

Yen Press has released the three-volume series in one complete omnibus, meaning just like the original novel or the animated film, we have the whole story here. In one of the three afterwords, mangaka Keito Yano talks about how they hope this adaptation proves to be a bridge between the novel and film as they strove to include elements that the movie didn’t have time to include. The character designs are also based on Youjirou Arai’s work for the film.

On the whole, I think Yano has succeeded in their desire to create something that captures the charms of both the original work and its adaptation. There’s less in the way of crude jokes, which was an issue for the novel (although Aoyama does still talk about appreciating breasts once or twice) and having the charming visuals showing the penguins and Aoyama’s idyllic town adds to the atmosphere of the tale. Most of the additional content that the film cuts serves to offer more development for Aoyama’s friends and family, which isn’t strictly necessary to enjoy the film but does prove worthwhile all the same.

While many of Morimi’s stories work better in their original form, Penguin Highway is one of the novels that benefits greatly from the more visual style of storytelling. It’s a more family-friendly work than Tatami Galaxy or Fox Tales, which depict older characters or more mature themes. Penguin Highway will certainly be quite appealing to a younger teenage audience in this form too; surely no one could resist those cute penguins! I like the structure of Morimi’s novel (which showed us the world through Aoyama’s research notes), so while I did enjoy the manga a great deal this isn’t my favourite way to experience the story. Still, as far as manga adaptations go I think it offers everything you’d want.

As mentioned, Penguin Highway’s manga comes to the West thanks to Yen Press. This release has been translated by Andrew Cunningham with lettering by Elena Pizarro. Cunningham worked on the novel release through Yen Press as well, so we’re in safe hands here in terms of consistency. Coming in at just under 500 pages this is quite a hefty book, but it does include all the colour pages from across the three volumes and the paper stock is high quality, so it makes for a nice addition to your collection. It is a bit uncomfortable to read due to the weight, but luckily there is also a digital edition if that poses a problem.

Overall, Penguin Highway proves just as entertaining here in manga form as it did in the original novel or its anime adaptation. As Keito Yano envisioned this works well as a bridge between the three different mediums, offering a work that’s enjoyable whether you’re a newcomer to the story or someone who’s already experienced it before.

Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors.