Ranking All of Yukio Mishima's Novels

Рет қаралды 36,957

Күн бұрын

The eminent postwar Japanese author Yukio Mishima (1925 - 1970) wrote a lot of books. Just for you, I've read every single novel (so no short stories, no Sun and Steel) written by him and translated to English (so no Kyoko's House.) As always, my rankings have zero credibility in assessing the literary quality of Mishima's work and is purely based on how the books affected me. I try my best to give a basic plot overview of each book, but there are some massive spoilers!
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Ranking All of Haruki Murakami's Novels:
• Ranking All of Haruki ...
Novels reviewed:
0:00 Introduction
0:45 Confessions of a Mask
4:03 Thirst for Love
5:49 Forbidden Colors
7:35 The Sound of the Waves
8:50 The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
11:25 After the Banquet
12:48 Star
15:05 The Frolic of the Beasts
16:40 The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea
18:52 Silk and Insight
20:24 Life for Sale
21:40 Spring Snow
27:00 Runaway Horses
29:20 The Temple of the Dawn
31:52 The Decay of the Angel

Пікірлер: 59

@_unseenhunter_5093 2 жыл бұрын

Temple of the golden pavillion was my gateway drug into mishima and in so happy there are more of his writings. I would disagree however, with recommending readers read his masterpieces first though, once atop the mountain, the only path is descent.

@ABooktubeChannel 2 жыл бұрын

That's valid, I just don't like that most people are told to start with Confessions. I feel like a lot of readers get turned off by that novel!

@KyriakosChri 3 ай бұрын

So what would you recommend instead?

@_unseenhunter_5093 3 ай бұрын

@@KyriakosChrisailor who fell from grace with the sea is a good starter and then move onto his masterpieces. It's good enough and gets you used to the style. Tbh do whatever you want, no wrong way to read mishima haha, it's your own journey and experience

@-alif7188 3 жыл бұрын

Life for Sale was unexpectedly very fun

@user-dm3jx9en5w 2 жыл бұрын

It's really good actually. However, everyone has it's own taste. I assume that as Westerner who was influenced by Anglo-American cultural hegemony for my whole life, my taste highly differs from that of Asian people.

@Lateralus1001 3 ай бұрын

Yeah its definitely a good book, it is far from his best but its still written by Mishima. Fun fact is that it was originally serialized in a mens interest magazine called "Playboy" (not the one you're thinking of, the same name but a different magazine).

@thesituation786 2 жыл бұрын

Just finished reading the sound of waves, and what a refreshingly straight forward love story. Such a charming book, and it goes to show great authors can absolutely nail the romance genre in a way that has literary value.

@ABooktubeChannel 2 жыл бұрын

Absolutely, I always recommend The Sound of Waves, and my friends are never disappointed!

@TheBober01 2 жыл бұрын

A wonderful in-depth analysis into a great literary mind. My copy of Spring Snow is now in the mail!

@ABooktubeChannel 2 жыл бұрын

Glad to hear it!

@DannyReguinho 3 жыл бұрын

great video, man! love mishima's work and just getting back into his stuff after deep diving a couple years ago. keep up the good work!

@ABooktubeChannel 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching, and good luck with continuing the reading!

@DannyReguinho 3 жыл бұрын

@@ABooktubeChannel I will say, the gall of you to put Life for sale so low on the list! I find that book to just be so much damn fun, one of my favourites!

@ABooktubeChannel 3 жыл бұрын

@@DannyReguinho I guess that's the nature of a tier list - some things need to be on the bottom!

@gabrielnieves3972 Жыл бұрын

Spring Snow is brilliant, its my personal favorite out of all the others

@ellelala39 3 жыл бұрын

Excellent analysis. Mishima would be proud.

@ABooktubeChannel 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@shinomustdie 2 жыл бұрын

Just finished my first one. The sailor who fell from grace with the sea. It did have odd pacing but was interesting and woven together nicely. Picking up the temple of the Golden pavilion after watching this.

@donniedewitt9878 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent overview

@ABooktubeChannel 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@heiner5945 2 жыл бұрын

Great content! Just got through Confessions of a Mask and was left out really inspired by its perspective. Not the same experience as yours, since I've read the portuguese version. One day i'll improve my japanese enough to read Mishima and Terayama in the original language...

@max_sall7440 3 жыл бұрын

I have currently two Mishima books at home, Confessions of a Mask and The temple of the golden pavilion. Do you think those are a good start for his literature? I would start with Confessions of a mask, but I don’t know if Temple is too big of a step after that. Would you recommend another book to read after Confessions?

@ABooktubeChannel 3 жыл бұрын

I actually think both are fantastic introductory books. Temple is not difficult to read, so I would just jump right into it. The Sound of the Waves is also a good intro text!

@max_sall7440 3 жыл бұрын

@@ABooktubeChannel thank you!

@PrinceOfMatcha Жыл бұрын

I started with life for sale first and just finished sailor who fell from grace with the sea. I can't wait to read more.

@disintegratingeros 2 жыл бұрын

great video

@ABooktubeChannel 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@remixisthis Жыл бұрын

So many of his books foreshadow his end. Spring Snow is a beautiful novel

@basilyeldho 4 күн бұрын

Hi im new to reading literature and i found yukio mishima and was interested in reading his books. Which do u think i should start with. I saw some people recommend to start with 'Confessions of a mask'.

@kurono1999 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent.

@DysprosiumJudas 3 жыл бұрын

I've read 9 of these 15 books (currently working on my tenth, Temple of the Golden Dawn), including all of The Sea of Fertility, so I found your ranking very enjoyable. Total Chad move reading the last paragraph of Runaway Horses with no forewarning lol. As can be expected, I have some slight disagreements here and there, but the only major disagreement I have is that Confessions of a Mask is bottom tier for me, I really think Mishima loses a lot of his magic when writing in the first person. His enigmatic and elegant style needs an aloof but sardonic narrator in order to avoid getting simplistic and preachy IMO. Thanks for making this. Also, if you haven't seen it, you should check out the film Thirst for Love (1967) by Koreyoshi Kurahara, featuring a cameo by Mishima. Although it kind of bungles the fire ceremony scene, it's otherwise an incredible and stylish adaptation that really gets Mishima's vibe. Criterion has an English subtitles edition.

@ABooktubeChannel 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching! I wish you good luck in your continued reading of Mishima. Confessions is an interesting outlier here because I believe it's his only "I-novel" but it's also many people's first read. My personal feeling is that he's pretty aloof/sardonic even in the first person! Also thank you for the rec I'll definitely check out that film.

@kunslipper 3 жыл бұрын

@@ABooktubeChannel I recommend his documentary movie "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters" The movie is like reading his book with his vibe. The plots and the protagonist is so meticulous work. It showed What's inside his thought.

@ABooktubeChannel 3 жыл бұрын

@@kunslipper Loved that film! Paul Schrader's work never ceases to amaze - a rich resource for Mishima lovers.

@MrMikkyn Жыл бұрын

@@kunslipper There’s another film called “Mishima the Last Debate” I highly recommend it too

@kunslipper Жыл бұрын

@@MrMikkyn oh thank you I'll check it out.

@rjmoney9 3 ай бұрын

I just read Life for Sale, it is the first Mishima I have read (only thing I could find in the bookstores near me). I’m glad to hear that it’s not considered very good, because I’m very disappointed. I’ll shoot for one of his better novels next time.

@xobile.123 Жыл бұрын

Just finished Life For Sale. First book I read from him. It's goofy I'll give it that.

@cameronsummers-borchard441 2 ай бұрын

the disrespect to forbidden colours which was my first Mishima read and one of my favourite books of all time. Yes, it is long but it so lyrical and the characters are so fleshed out that they feel palpable

@marinellamaccagni6951 11 ай бұрын

What an amazing project to rank mishima's novels! He is my favourite jap writer by far.

@thndrbltbuddhalovesyall 2 жыл бұрын

ive never touched a mishima book before till a couple days ago, im readin forbidden colors n so far i am enjoying it. im barely on chapter 3 mind you so my thoughts so far on it are still in its infancy

@thndrbltbuddhalovesyall 2 жыл бұрын

just finished it n THAT SHII WAS CRAZYYY

@trevorperry11 Жыл бұрын

@@thndrbltbuddhalovesyall LOL

@thndrbltbuddhalovesyall Жыл бұрын

@@trevorperry11 I KNOW RIGHT

@ericadler9680 Жыл бұрын

Snow in Spring is certainly a masterpiece, the later books in the series I thought got worse and worse; the second was OK at best but didn't really have any outstanding literary quality, the third I thought was bad and the fourth was just forgettable. Confession was well written but I thought the content was despicable, and Sun and Steel just felt cramped and full of self-loathing. I had had it with Mishima by then. Now I am coming back and I'm waiting for Golden Pavilion and Sailor, and the new biography by that Japanese governor.

@user-rk1xq5pi5z 2 жыл бұрын

ありがとう!

@cicada8790 3 жыл бұрын

where would you put sun and steel?

@ABooktubeChannel 3 жыл бұрын

Sun and Steel isn’t fiction so it’s hard to compare, but I remember enjoying it although I don’t subscribe to Mishima’s politics

@pitoblogg 2 жыл бұрын

The statues are Greek, not Roman.

@ABooktubeChannel 2 жыл бұрын

Good catch!

@zeyneptimurtas9460 Жыл бұрын

Tbh I think sound of the waves is pretty overrated everything about it is pretty simple tho I liked the way he used sea as a literary element i overall think it's pretty cliche-while reading it you know what will happen at the end. It doesn't feel realistic at all and I feel like watching a romance anime while reading it.