Mizu wa Umi ni Mukatte Nagareru

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This was such a pleasant read that after I had finished reading it, a few weeks later I went ahead to read the whole series again (it's not that long after all). This is one of my very favorites. While certainly no roller-coaster-esque experiential masterpiece of the likes of Oyasumi Pun Pun (I would argue this is still a 'masterpiece' in its own right), Mizu wa Umi ni Mukatte Nagareru captured my heart with its riveting drama that explores awkward relationships and family situations without exploiting its story for melodrama. It portrays these matters in a grounded, yet somewhat mundane manner to reflect a sense ... of our real world, never succumbing to simplified black or white moral situations or overly transparent emotional cues.

Aside from the sensitive approach to its narrative, it is the fantastically way that the characters have been written that ultimately steal the show. Characters here feel lived-in with their believable personalities that shift and react consistently to the changes of the story - however slight, their amusing quirks that serve to develop and provide characters with a sense of history instead of for superficial comedy for readers to laugh at, the believability of the character's thoughts that provide depth, where even the 'innocent' main character has some 'bad' thoughts, and the incredibly written dialogue and conversations (which consists much of the manga) that finely walks the thin line between humor and drama, reminiscent of how actual people talk, where we try to obfuscate serious topics with slight comedy to lighten the mood. Not to mention the mundane and slower pace of the manga helps give a sense of routine and life to the characters.

The art style is whispy and light. Lines sometimes look like thin pencil strokes, and character designs are incredibly simple. It has a... sort of minimalist storybook aesthetic to it. It's the sort of thing that is up to preference, but for me, I think it fits the unconventional tone of the story, at once being able to express lightness and comedy, but also a minimalistic beauty in the serious, dramatic moments. I also just really like how refreshing it is compared to the conventional anime-esque aesthetic that mangas usually shoot for. We need more unconventional art styles. I also just love the sense of distance the drawings appropriately provide in some emotional story moments. With the 'wide shots' and by occasionally turning the characters' faces away from us. It suits the narrative tone, and it never gets the reader too close to the drama to make things sentimental, but not too much to reduce our emotional connection from the character and their situations. It's a good middle ground is what I'm saying. Also, I don't know what's up with the paneling, but though deceptively simple, they flow incredibly well - they pick up the nuances of the characters and their personal dramas so darn good.

While the comedy here is perhaps not laugh-out-loud funny like in a gag manga, I found it incredibly endearing nonetheless, and it has some genuinely funny moments. The romance is at the same time very well-paced and believable. It does not succumb to overly cliched romantic developments that one might find in romantic works and instead develops in a rather realistic manner. Not to mention, the story ends when it needs to and finds no need to stumble around for another story arc. This is great, great storytelling. It may not have the one million dollars, conceptually exciting story idea, but by sheer finesse, in the way, the story was told and the way the characters were developed and written, this is, in my humble opinion a 'masterpiece' in its own right. (It does have its flaws, though the pros outweigh them tremendously imo) Anyone who likes slice-of-life, or perhaps is a little sick of the overly saccharine romance that anime and manga like to push for should at the very least give this a shot.

Initial review:

The demographic tag says Shounen, but with the story's themes, I think it would be much more appreciated by an older demographic.

Short but sweet, humorous but mature. I expected that I would feel the same as I would in typical drama; especially with the premise sounding like a typical affair drama. No, as I read through the first stages of the story, I felt I had this toneless expression (much like Sakaki-san) when their baggage are being slowly hinted. This is not to say that it was a bad thing, I'm not sure if I am/will be making sense when I say that I ... felt emotional while also looking emotionless. It might be because I speed through reading the 24 chapters (I wish I could have took my time, but the story was just too compelling to make me move from a chapter to the next).

I like my drama manga to stir me up, I love/hate how it hits close to home when the story tackled past traumas.

I like how characters are acting human in their actions. Although their words, especially a 16-year-old's, have a bit too much wisdom for their age.

I would like to reread this.

If I was told that there was to be only one manga to survive some cataclysmic catastrophe, it would be this one, the beautifully drawn and written Mizu wa Umi ni Mukatte Nagareru. Somehow, I felt as if this 24 chapter manga was able to bring a story on the level of a good 50 chapter manga; somehow, in spite of its brevity and wispiness, it was delightfully compact and deep.

It is a family drama, a genre I normally detest due to the melodrama and oft-used clichés that are employed, but this story did not unfold like that. The structure of it was unconventional ... (at least to me). Rather than directly situating itself before or during the drama (a double affair between the Sakaki and Kumazawa households), it instead takes place much after, where the upfront consequences have died down and things are seemingly normal. The drama is somewhat reignited (emphasis on somewhat) when Kumazawa Naotatsu, the young son of the Kumazawa household, moves to a boarding house where his uncle lives and coincidentally meets Sakaki Chisa, the daughter of the Sakaki household. From there on, starts a subtle and melancholic exploration of their strange relationship with an ending that is crisp and somewhat ambiguous.

The characters are wonderfully subtle: deceptively simple, yet the story offers hints about their multifaceted personalities. Sakaki Chisa is a young twenty-six year old woman who breathes normalcy, yet the story exposes a childish side to her, where she stubbornly refuses to do love because of the double affair in her past. Naotatsu himself is a young teen who acts and talks a bit precociously, but his own thoughts reveal a fear of abandonment and selfishness that is inherent in most youths. The professor (another boarder of the house) is a more minor example, but nonetheless a great one still. He is an eccentric and often childish older man, but reveals in dialogues with Naotatsu and Chisa an old wisdom which understands the implications and consequences of the double affair.

The art is wispy and minimalist, yet paradoxically expressive, something that reminds me of Yotsuba!, another manga I enjoy greatly. Although it is sometimes distracting to see the characters’ noses being disconnected from their mouths when drawn in profile, that doesn’t detract from the overall quality.

One thing I would like to make a point on are the references. Most references in stories are generally used to show-off the author’s cultural knowledge or to make some symbolic gesture. In this story, they are used not merely for showing off the author’s cultural knowledge, but to make the characters feel like real people. People constantly are consuming media and thus are bound to talk about them in real life. This is just another great addition to the charm of its story.

TL:DR this is a great slice of life manga whose greatest strength is in its subtlety and compelling depiction of a family drama