✒️📖ARC REVIEW📖🖋️

I have always been a fan of all renditions of Sherlock Holmes. It’s nice to see that the manga did A Study in Scarlett justice.

I will note that since this is a manga with full color images (some liberties were taken with character design to make it more inline with modern “pretty” anime style of the main characters) not all of the words where there as the images do some of the heavy lifting. The sweeping narration that is customary to Sherlock’s discoveries from deductions is all there.

There are some character drawings included in the back. Needless to say…I am excited for the next one.

I was provided a free advanced reader copy courtesy of Udon Entertainment via NetGalley. I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.

#arc #advancedreadercopy #NetGalley #MangaClassics #UdonEntertainment

This was a delightfully inventive and refreshing take on a well-known and often-retold story.

I've read many Sherlock rewrites and spinoffs over the years, and rarely is he portrayed as a person. Most writers so often treated him clinically, as though he is a machine. Maybe telling his story in a manga is what did the trick?

I am in love with the approach to the story, and the artwork was exquisite, which further helped to humanize Sherlock, and give better context for Watson. Outside of the BBC/Netflix series featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, I haven't found any portrayal more relatable than the one in this manga.

Five stars.

A good manga adaptation of a classic Sherlock Holmes story, about as accurate as any adaptation that has to deal with the limits of the chosen medium. There’s never enough room in a comic to really delve in a mystery, so many corners were cut, making it seem like the mystery was solved rather miraculously. Suspects sprung up out of the blue, and the real killer even faster.

This is the first Holmes story where he and Watson meet. Their cohabitation was brushed on, with Watson being much more understanding of Holmes’ eccentric manners than usually. For his part, Holmes was less obnoxious than in other versions. They were drawn very differently than is the custom, a bit of manga and a lot of steampunk, though I wish the artist had gone with some of the other styles they considered for Watson, shown at the end of the story, as all of them were better than the one selected. In general, the art wasn’t terribly accurate historically or geographically, but it was full colour and pretty. If you want a quick recap or introduction of the story, this will work fine.

We all know A Study in Red, but it is also worth rereading as manga, with the two characters engaged (at least in my opinion) in a kind of bromance. Maybe it's a YAOI and I didn't know it, anyway it's cute.

Uno studio in rosso lo conosciamo tutti, ma vale la pena anche rileggerselo come manga, con i due personaggi impegnati (almeno secondo me) in una sorta di bromance. Magari é uno YAOI e io non lo sapevo, comunque é carino.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

A very faithful adaptation of A Study in Scarlet. Follows the beats of the original very closely and the dialogue appears to have been lifted directly from the book. The adapters did a pretty good job of pacing this ~150 year-old story to the manga format without leaving out anything big from the original. The adaptation is close enough it might even get you through a book report! I didn't love it, but its possible my own familiarity with Holmes and this story in particular made it all feel a little rote. For fresh eyes, this seems like it would be a pretty good way of introducing readers to Holmes.

Received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

This is a manga recreation of the classic Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. I’ve watched various television and movie recreations but have yet to read the actual story. So, this was a nice medium to read the classic. The artwork beautifully captures the essence of Sherlock Holmes and the time period it was originally based in. The narrative perfectly captures the story well. I’ve read quite a few of these manga classics and have found each of them to be quick reads that could help young readers to actually read and understand the classics in a more modern medium. I definitely recommend these manga classics to teachers and/or parents.

I enjoy this take on Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet. It's a great manga adaptation of the original story. Some details I enjoyed was John have tan skin near the beginning, not many adaptations noticeably make John more tan even if it is mentioned that he is. Sherlock's outfit is top notch in my opinion, the hat that he wears is also more historically accurate than the iconic hat everyone knows of based on my personal visit to the Sherlock Holmes museum in London. This manga is certainly meant to follow the original content written by Doyle closely rather than taking a spin on the canon story like "Moriarty the Patriot" or the BBC Sherlock manga that was published in inspiration to the show, so this manga holds its own when it comes to telling the original story. I loved being able to see the sketches in the end to see what other appearances our characters could have had, its always a fun extra to see the artist through the creative process.

The art carries a more simplistic but easy to look at style that brings color to the black and white world of the Sherlock books. There were a few pages that I felt could have some adjustment or touch ups before it publishes, but the overall content and speech bubbles all did great to convey the original beginning of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson's adventures.

I think the illustrator did an amazing job with this story. The character art fit their personalities so well. They also did a great job on the actual story itself. This was my first time reading the manga classic series and will definitely be reading the rest of them! This Manga being done in full color too was a good surprise. Overall I have no complaints and am looking forward to reading more like this!

I love Manga Classics and was pleasantly surprised to read a full color story from start to finish. Sherlocks quirks and personality blended well with his manga illustration. Would definitely gift to a friend that enjoys literature and manga.

I have always been a huge fan of the Manga Classics series, so when I saw that they were coming back with a Sherlock Holmes adaptation, I jumped at the chance to read it!
And I was not disappointed!
Honestly I didn’t expect it to be in full color, so that was a pleasant surprise. The character designs were perfect, with Sherlock looking more on the wily side and Watson a bit more on the innocent side, fitting their personalities. I will always enjoy the fact that Manga Classics always keep the dialogue straight from the source story (or at least most of it) instead of turning it into more modern language, so it’s really just like reading the original work.
I can’t say I really have any complaints. If you love Sherlock and manga, you’ll definitely love this adaptation!
NOTE: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley for review purposes only. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was very fun read. Once I understood how the book flowed I was ready. It was a typical Sherlock Holmes story with him being awesome as always and Watson being the ever present sidekick. What I like about this is that it told a story of how they, Sherlock and Watson found themselves to become partners. Being my first Manga I was pleasantly surprised with the way the author was able to keep a decent pace with the story telling and how the images assisted in moving the story along, making the pictures almost a character in its own right.

I enjoyed this quick read, it was very relaxing between my epic fantasy reads.

I am leaving this honest review voluntarily thanks to the ARC received from Netgalley. Thank you to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Julien Choy for entrusting me with an ARC of you interpretation of a classic character.

This is an awesome read. I have read Sherlock Holmes before but to see it illustrated like this brings everything into perspective. It's like seeing Sherlock animated. Definitely liked the artwork and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never disappoints with Sherlock.

I love reading this Manga series to see how the classics are interpreted into visuals. I appreciate the simplicity and how difficult that is to achieve. This isn’t a favourite for me. Somehow, and I can’t put my finger on what, I couldn’t relate to the visual representation of Sherlock and Watson and, being so key to the story, that made it difficult to enjoy overall. Others are likely to differ entirely to my opinion so if you enjoy unusual storytelling says - such as Sherlock Manga - give this one a go!

I have not read the original A Study in Scarlet.

I really enjoyed this manga. The coloring was amazing as was the artwork. It was never hard to understand what was going on or who was talking. The characters were really interesting and I felt like they were fairly true to the source material. Honestly, I really loved this manga. It had me laughing out loud.

This was a fun and entertaining way to read about Sherlock Holmes. Holmes and Watson bounce off each other pretty well. The colorful illustrations are reminiscent of older generations of Anime art styles from the early 2000's. The pacing wasn't stuttered or forced in any way and the comic style was pleasing to see. the only problem I have is that some bubbles have a bit too much dialogue that makes it hard to read at times. But otherwise it was a great read!

I love Manga Classics because they make reading a classic novel so much easier. I’ve been waiting for them to do a Sherlock Holmes once ever since manga versions of Sherlock were published. I really love the design choices for both Sherlock and Watson. Manga/anime styles just really bring an elegance to the story. Also, Watson is so cute.

It’s great that it also includes text from the original stories. Of course, this one is an adaptation of A Study in Scarlet, probably the most famous Sherlock Holmes story, which is pretty typical for an adaptation. I hope they get the chance to do more because the art is so lovely. It's also so cool that they printed it in full color. The format works so well for the mystery.

3.5/5 rounded up.

I haven't read any of Udon's other manga classics before, so I was excited to try one out. In this case, it was a manga adaptation of the first Sherlock Holmes story in which Watson meets Holmes. Having read the original story previously, I feel that the manga does a good job of covering the source material. Sherlock's character is definitely much more likeable when drawn in this art style!

The artwork was striking, colourful, and used skillfully to tell the story. The choices of costumes for each of the characters were fun and expressed personality. Sherlock was portrayed as a bit of an anti-hero who always wears black, with Watson being the opposite. This led to a nice juxtaposition between the two.

The pacing of the story was good and didn't drag at any point. The panelling was quite comic-like, which suited the pacing and storytelling well. I'm looking forward to seeing how the manga develops in the next story!

I would recommend this to anyone who would like a fast introduction to the classic Sherlock stories, as well as those wanting to revisit.

A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes Manga Classic) art by Julien Choy, 205 pages. Udon Entertainment, 2025. $20.
Language: PG (2 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG
BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: SEVERAL
When Watson is looking for a new place to live, he ends up roommates with the enigmatic Sherlock Holmes—Holmes is incredibly knowledgeable in anatomy and sensational literature, completely lacks knowledge in philosophy and politics, and is a bad violin player. Inspector Lestrade calls on Holmes often, and now Watson and Holmes are suddenly involved in a murder case!
Reading Sherlock Holmes is always a treat because of his method of solving mysteries with his incredible observations and logic. Plus, Choy’s manga illustrations of the story added another element of entertainment, seeing these familiar characters depicted in beautiful manga-style London and dressed in new manga-style clothes. In short, I loved every page of this book.
The majority of characters are English. The mature content rating is for alcohol use, partial nudity, mild scary elements, illegal activity, kissing, and mentions of polygamy and sexual harassment. The violence rating is for blood and gore, weapon use, and murder.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

4★ // The world's most famous detective is introduced to the world for the first time in manga-form, with his first case to solve: A Study in Scarlet (originally published in 1887). In London, 1881, eccentric "consulting detective" Sherlock Holmes, joined by his new friend and companion Dr. John Watson, set out to investigate the murder of two American men. This story is the start of one of the most iconic duos in literature.

As someone who has yet to read the original Sherlock Holmes stories penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (but is loosely familiar with this particular story from watching the "Sherlock" TV series), I quite enjoyed watching the story unfold in manga form. The artists and editor did a great job capturing Sherlock's deduction skills and personality quirks, and making the murder-mystery plot easy to follow, all while remaining faithful to its source material.

I would pick up more volumes in a heartbeat!

I’ve always loved Sherlock Holmes and the many different renditions of his character and this one is so good! The art is so well done, the story was captivating, and Watson and Holmes’ budding friendship is so adorable! I can’t wait for more from this series!!