The Journey of Shuna

The Journey of Shuna
Front Cover of The Journey of Shuna
シュナの旅 (Shuna no Tabi)
Genre	Adventure
Manga
Written by	Hayao Miyazaki
Published by	Animage JuJu Bunko, Tokuma Shoten
Magazine	Animage
Published	15 June 1983
Volumes	1

The Journey of Shuna (シュナの旅, Shuna no Tabi^?) is a one-volume watercolor-illustrated graphic novel written and illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki and published as a single softcover booklet, on 15 June 1983, by Tokuma Shoten under its Animage Ju Ju Bunko imprint. The story was adapted into a 60-minute radio drama which was broadcast in Japan, on NHK FM, on 2 May 1987.

The story opens with Shuna, the prince of a small mountain valley undergoing famine. One day, an old dying traveler arrives carrying a bag of dead golden seeds. Before passing away, he tells Shuna how he was once a young prince in a similar position to him and how he began his quest for the living grain after encountering the previous owner of the seeds. The magnificent golden grain is said to have originated from a land in the west where the moon resided. He also explains that the grain would save his people from starvation. Shuna leaves, journeying to the west over harsh landscapes astride his elk-like mount, Yakkul.

After countless months of traveling, he has a near fatal encounter with a group of female cannibals known as the Goor Tribe. After successfully driving them off, he encounters several abandoned villages and arrives at place known as "castle-town." It is a deteriorating city inhabited by slavers known as "man-hunters" who preyed on those who were defenseless and bartered using slaves or loot from raided villages. There he finds the golden seed but discovers that it has already been threshed and so is dead and ungrowable. While there, he meets an enslaved girl named Thea and her sister. While he initially tried to buy their freedom, he was turned back by the merchants. Later that night, he met an old traveler who explains that the seeds came from a land further west that is the home of the moon and where the mythical beings known as god-men grew the grain and traded it to the man-hunters for fresh slaves. However, before falling asleep, he warns Shuna that no man had ever gone there and returned alive. When morning came, and the old man disappeared, he rescues Thea and her sister from the slave-traders. After being pursued for two nights, they come to a cliff and Thea and her sister part ways with Shuna, taking Yakkul with them. Before departing, Thea learns of his plans and tells him to find them in the north if he survives. After defeating the pursuers with a trap, Shuna sees the moon sweep across the sky and knows that it is heading over the cliff in the direction of the land of the god-men. He descends the cliff, at the bottom of which is a turbulent ocean. Shuna sinks into a sleep of exhaustion, and upon awakening, sees that the ocean has calmed and a sandbar has appeared connecting the beach to the land of the god-men.