You Only Live Twice (novel) was released in 1962, and Bond's personality was somewhat skewed towards the screen persona rather than simply to Fleming himself; Sean Connery's filmic depiction of Bond affected the book version, with "You Only Live Twice" giving Bond a sense of humour and Scottish antecedents that were not present in the previous stories, although Fleming himself was part Scottish. Correspondence dating back to 1960 shows that Fleming contacted a Scottish nobleman to help develop Bond's family history, in particular seeking a Scottish "Bond" family line. Fleming's first trip to Japan was as part of the "Thrilling Cities" trip undertaken for "The
You Only Live Twice (film) early Bond flick." However, most reviews pointed out various flaws in the film. James Berardinelli said that the first half was good, but "during the second half, as the plot escalates beyond the bounds of preposterousness, that the film starts to fragment", criticising Blofeld's appearance and stating "rockets that swallow up spacecraft are a bit too extravagant." Roger Ebert criticised the focus on gadgets, declaring that the James Bond formula "fails to work its magic". John Brosnan in his book "James Bond in the Cinema" compared the film to an episode of "Thunderbirds" with a reliance on gadgetry but admitted