Mizutamari ni Ukabu Shima
Island in a Puddle

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This is alright. I'm not too sure if Sanbe-sensei managed to complete this manga the way he wanted to, but it did feel a bit rushed towards the end. This isn't sensei's best work, but it's still fairly compelling throughout. This manga is probably worth a reread further down the line, but it's hard to see this work as anyone's favorite Sanbe Kei manga.

The artwork is his usual style - somewhat middling but has an uncanny look to it that suits the mystery and crime genre very well. The writing is good overall. Generally speaking, past a certain point in Sanbe-sensei's career most of ... his stories manage a to deliver to readers a passing grade consistently.

There is a lot more potential here that is left unexplored by the end of this series, but it is not a bad read by any means. A solid 7/10 grade for me and maybe a 6/10, or an 8/10 for some. Did the editors cut this short or did sensei himself decide that there he had better ideas in his head that can only be realized with something new? While it is slightly disappointing that Mizutamari ends at 5 volumes in total, sensei does wrap up most things so that readers aren't left hanging and fumbling for answers in the dark.

This is the story of two very different people swapping bodies. The first is an elementary school boy named Minato, who has to take care of himself and his younger sister on his own due to how their mother is away from home for long periods of time. The second, Kuromatsu, is a professional hitman, who was recently screwed over by his employer and is now on the run from the police, his former employer, and the yakuza. The plot involves Minato doing his best simply to survive and ensure Kuromatsu doesn’t harm his sister, while Kuromatsu does his best to take over Minato’s life ... while also trying to extort money from his former employer.

This manga is a very fast paced thriller full of twists and turns. It’s the type of manga that’s easy to get sucked in and just breeze through the whole thing at once. It’s all really messy, but there’s a charm to that because the chaos fits the premise really well. After all, you would expect Minato and Kuromatsu to be absolutely terrible at living each other’s lives. So it makes sense that leads to all sorts of unexpected consequences and unrelated story tangents, though most of them don’t go anywhere.

Minato is ultimately fleshed out incredibly well. He handles things much better than I would expect a kid to. But at the same time he is really emotional as you would expect of a kid, and that that can hit pretty hard. He’s just a child, but he really loves his sister and tries really hard for her. Nagisa is a really cute kid too, so this is really heartwarming and both of them are really likable and easy to get invested in. Kuromatsu on the other hand wasn’t fleshed out enough. It’s clear what the author was trying to do with him and you can see bits and pieces of it, but overall it wasn’t enough. As such, stuff related to him in the finale doesn’t really land all that well.

The final stretch overall was kind of rushed. There are some overarching plot threads that include some deeper connections between Minato and Kuromatsu and a true overarching villain, but the way they were written felt like they were being forced in. The mother who is absent for the vast majority of the manga also had her own story going on that was deeply linked to that, but everything related to her was relegated to an infodump in the epilogue. Still, in the end the ending does explain essentially everything that matters and resolves things well enough. Thus, even if the ending was rushed, I was satisfied with it.

The art is the typical Sanbe Kei style, which is kind of rough and plain. Though compared to his earlier works that I’ve read, I feel like in this one the mangaka wasn’t even trying to make it look good other than the cover art. That surprisingly seems to fit this manga reasonably well. While it never looks amazing, it’s incredibly clear and easy to follow. That combined with how you don’t need to slow down to appreciate the art results in it being a really fast read, which is a plus considering how suspenseful this manga can get.

tl;dr: A manga that’s messy and has a rushed end, but is still overall a pretty enjoyable quick read.

Most readers who know Kei Sanbe know him for Boku dake ga Inai Machi and how great it was. So after liking that the next logical step was to start reading his latest ongoing manga.

The beginning of Mizutamari ni Ukabu Shima feels a bit samey compared to Boku dake ga Inai Machi with having themes of broken families and crime solving, but after a few chapters it differs enough for it to be a whole different story. Some elements still feel the same though atleast at the time of writing.

The art is what you would expect from Sanbe. You either love it or hate it. ... Although the artsltyle often makes characters look similar to each other.

The characters are suprisingly fleshed out even so early in the story, and somehow I don't hate the "villain"/main antagonist in the story. I actually like him and find myself rooting for him at some points.

Overall I would say that everyone who liked Boku dake ga Inai Machi should give this manga a shot and see how it turns out. I don't think it's going to top the performance of Boku dake ga Inai Machi, but I have high hopes for this one.