Steady decline from volume 12, to a brief glimpse of saving itself, to an unsatisfying ending. Now don't get me wrong, the death of Hayama plays with the themes in a great way, we saw what it means to push through personal barriors(Oda), to find yourself and put your values elsewhere(Katori), to push through the cruelty of time in terms of ambitions and unfairness(Hayama, Joshua, Katori's dad), but this was a weak portrayal of the cruelty of life and dealing with loss. Now that I mention it, the portrayal of 9/11 and Coyote was also weak in this sense. It's so clearly apparent because this is a very good topic for Bambino to explore, and it could explore dealing with loss so much more in depth and in such a more meaningful way.
The message and theme of this manga is firstly, to live life happily, one must find themselves, whatever that may be whether it's leaving everything behind for ambition(Ban), or leaving ambition behind for family(Katori), or coming out of your shell to improve your skills(Oda), or you get the point, this works for everyone. And secondly to put your head up and push through everything life does to you. Bambino isn't afraid to show the harshness of life and time in general every chance it gets, but the point isn't that, the point is that the only way to truly lose everything is to give up. We see almost every cast member who has a character arc realize this, and as Ban said early on ""Be a man an' suck it up, Ban Shogo! All I gotta do is lift my head up high and walk forward"! This ultimately making the message, and all of the themes representing the sentiment of "find yourself and be true to yourself, no matter what comes in your way, no matter how cruel life is, never give up, for giving up is the only true defeat".
And man, was Bambino freaking beautiful! The entire cast was great and complex, everyone had just as many positive traits as negative in an incredibly human way. And everyone had to deal with the message of the manga in their own way. The character development of Ban was great and I've never read a manga or seen an anime that had me as happy as Bambino, nor as sad as Bambino. The way Sekiya creates such a cruel and cold portrayal of life, and more importantly of following your ambitions/what's true to you, yet ends with such an inspiring message is incredibly impressive. This is one of the best slice of life anything I've ever seen, and the hands down best portrayal of this message. FLCL did finding and being true to yourself as good, or better, but the second part it doesn't even attempt to touch.
If Bambino kept its quality and didn't have the New York arc it could've been a 10, but as soon as we hit volume 12 the story the world took place in started to revolve around Ban, and the story beats were absurd and ridiculous. Through these story segments we had less and less and less of the fantastic character writing, and more of the little one shots with Joshua, or Hayama, or Etsuya, or Coyote surrounded by weak story writing. It was really disappointing to read, but as I said earlier, this volume savored it at least a bit.
My thoughts on how to better this manga would've been to remove the New York arc, and rather focus on other things leading to an ending where Bacconale & its chains close and Ban is forced to gather everyone together to open another restaurant. It would end open ended, and the sequel would follow that. It both retains the themes, and is a great open ended ending to follow with a sequel. Despite loving it so much, I need a break before I continue to the sequel. I would've preferred a satisfying ending right here.
Overall, Bambino would have been a 10/10 easily up until the New York arc, sadly the pretty lengthy decline makes it clear it loses that edge. Even with these flaws the life lessons Bambino taught me will not leave me anytime soon, nor will any of the loved cast, specifically not Ban, Oda, or Katori. I give Bambino a 8 or 9/10, I will have to think about this decision more as I go on.
In the worlds of King Krule:
When positivity seems hard to reach
I keep my head down and my mouth shut
Cause if you going through hell
We just keep going
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