primeideal

Okay, so, I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but Takahiro Arai's manga adaptation of Les Misérables is amazing. bobcatmoran has a masterpost of fan translations and info about where you can get the first volume in English.

First of all, why does Les Mis work well as a manga, in general? A lot of the character's interior lives/thought processes are okay in a book format, but not as easy to convey in theater (/film/TV but I'm not familiar with too many other adaptations). The manga allows symbolic representations of (for instance) a lion that symbolizes Valjean's "beast"/criminal side, that lets him argue with himself. (Or Fantine, arguing with herself about "it's all Madeleine's fault!") Having panels of different sizes lets you zoom in and out to give more important moments more prominence; the bishop's "But my brother, why didn't you take the candlesticks, too?" is an enormous two-page spread.

And the characters themselves are the sort of larger-than-life archetypes that lend themselves well to over-the-top portrayals. Superhero Valjean, swooping in with a tip of his cap to save the day, has a vaguely Phoenix Wright-esque stare. (I don't actually know anything about Phoenix Wright, I've just seen the memes.) Fantine's woobie arc is as melodramatic as any fantasy.

This particular version is clearly a labor of love, I'm not sure what constraints Arai was working under in terms of "space to include stuff," but it adapts lots of the minor details and subplots--Myriel gets an entire chapter (including the donkey and Baptistine's letters to her friend), so does the year 1817 with Fantine/Tholomyes and the others. It makes me wonder "what is a digression, really"--the Myriel stuff isn't a digression, it's a story about a person, and you can draw that! There are other sections that would be much harder, I think, I'll be interested to see how Arai approaches those. But for now I'm happy going with "a digression is something even Arai would cut because you can't really do it in another format."

The first chapter is Valjean's backstory with his sister and nieces and nephews, the theft, imprisonment, and then it ends as he's getting his yellow papers. Which I think is a good choice in terms of "give the readers something to ground themselves, this guy is the main character" (other than The Infinite), then cut to Myriel.

Some specific adaptational choices that I thought worked well:

In Valjean's prison sequence, we get a sequence about the inequality and injustice in society. He contrasts the outcast criminals with aristocrats and clergy. There's a picture of a priest in fancy robes with a French banner, setting up how he's predisposed to see Myriel as just another hypocritical priest. Okay, nice. What does the banner say, I can't actually read French..."Jeunés faites pénitence." Fasting makes for repentence. Rich people preaching about the virtues of doing without while Valjean is in prison for stealing food for his nieces and nephews. Cool cool cool, I'm fine. D:
The book spells out "Jean Valjean was born in 1769, the same year as Napoleon, but he was a simple tree pruner." Then in 1815, when his sentence is up, there's a wordless montage of a bird flying over his cell and then a bird flying over the battlefield with a tattered tricolor flag and a pile of bodies. Very nicely done.
bobcatmoran mentioned this in her posts and it just got reblogged because we got to that point in the year-long readthrough, but: they have a couple pages of elderly Myriel after he's become blind, feeling grateful and appreciative of all the love Baptistine has for him, and it gets across the over-the-top prose of the original without Hugo's weird gender issues. Love to see it!
They introduce Javert in the context of Fauchelevent. "Hey, inspector, you have to look into this mayor, I think he has something to hide." "A simple city inspector investigating a mayor duly appointed by the crown?" Like, Javert's objections are based on authority, because of course they are. Great characterization!
And they introduce Sister Simplice in the context of Fauchelevent's recovery. Foreshadowing!

And a couple things that were more like "hmm, caught my eye":

When Valjean is talking to the prison guard in Toulon like "I can't even spend the night here" there seems to be a guillotine sitting outside. Were guillotines common enough that you'd just have them in any random town square?
The jump from "Fantine sold her hair and her pearls" to "now a terrible client is punching her" felt super abrupt, but it's actually not much slower in the books. "Misery offers, society accepts" is a pithy line but Hugo actually downplays this part compared to the musical, and they only did that because they needed a women's song *eye-roll* Score another for Arai!

In conclusion, this is excellent and does indeed live up to the hype, and I am eagerly anticipating the next volumes!