Foot - Comparing Naruto The First Test and Pinocchio Vampire Slayer

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer and Naruto Volume 1 The First Test were interesting books with

similarities and difference. The biggest being I hated Naruto and actually enjoyed

Pinocchio. But, setting my personal preferences aside, and looking at the technical similarities and differences helped deepen my understand

ing of graphic novels.

Text and Dialogue:

The text and dialogue of the texts were different in that Pinocchio is told from Pinocchio's point of view - he's in almost every single panel and page. Naruto, on the other hand, doesn't necessarily have to be in every frame in order to move the story along. Both story lines are moved along by conversation.

The lettering or font in both texts vary according to what action is occurring, but Pinocchio is definitely more regimented. In Naruto there are many sound effects and the text changes drastically from the conversations to the sound effect.

Naruto had many more emanata's than Pinocchio. Explanation points inside balloon texts seemed the most common.

The most obvious difference in the books was that Pinocchio can be read in the tradit

ion way: front to back, right to left. Naruto takes an interesting spin and you read back to front, right to left. You do move down the page in both texts. I got really confused when I first started Naruto, but as I continued it became easier and easier to follow along and I eventually liked it. This page demonstrates reading from top right to left to the bottom of the page.

Visual Features:

Both books were drawn in black and white. I would have liked to have seen more color in Naruto. But with Pinocchio, which had a much darker theme with the vampires and Gepetto killing Master Cherry and all, so the black and white worked well. The characters were drawn differently - in Pinocchio the characters eyes are almost always totally white and not that the pictures lack emotion but it looks more like sketches. In Naruto the characters are more life like, if not slightly exaggerated. For example when Master Iruka is yelling at Naruto his head gets ginormous. Below is an example of how the darkness works in Pinocchio:

The scenery in both books was set in the village and in the woods. The differences were in how the scenery was drawn and Pinocchio is set in Italy and Naruto is set in Asia. I liked the way Pinocchio's scenery was drawn because it was easier to follow than Naruto. I felt like sometimes there was too much going on in Naruto panels.

Objects were present in both texts. In Pinocchio, like the original novel, Pinocchio's nose is an object of power. Pinocchio uses his nose to kill the vampires and it also acts as a lie detector. In Naruto, for example two objects were significant; his graduation head band and the sacred scroll Naruto stole.

The general layout and design:

The general layout and design of the graphic novels was similar in that there is a mix of bordered panels (the borders were thin black lines in rectangular boxes) and the gutters were about same size. There is a mix of open panels and splash panels throughout the story. My favorite panels were those that were open panels and splash panels because they were like a visual "Bam!".

Angels and Frames:

Both texts have close-ups, head-shots, full-figure shots, and extreme long-shots.

These panels demonstrate full-figure, close-ups, and head shots.

Rhetorical technique:

Both Naruto and Pinocchio have themes of growing up, being lonely, struggling to fit in, and discovering their true purpose.

Neither Naruto nor Pinocchio have parents and they have to make their own way in life even though their villages don't support them and the are outcasts. Both Naruto and Pinocchio have father figures in their lives: Master Cherry in Pinocchio and Master Iruka in Naruto. Both stories are full of action and the complexity of each character finding a quest and purpose for their lives provides an element of classical literature in these modern graphic novels.