Happiness

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Another manga finished by Oshimi Shuuzō!!

He is definitely one of my favorite authors, always with different works and all great. I love how he can turn reading into something very enjoyable with the 3-panel layout per page... You float through an extremely captivating, mysterious, and interesting story, and the layout makes this even easier.

It's no wonder that I finish most of his works on the same day I start reading them. And this one, even though I didn't finish it in a day, I read very quickly...

I always feel sad when I finish a manga by this author because I know I'm getting closer and ... closer to finishing reading all of his works.

Happiness is probably his most well-known work (but not my favorite), and I can understand why. The mysterious setting of vampires and the main character's quest to adapt to his new life and find happiness in it really grabs the reader's attention.

However, I would say that this is one of his first works where, for me, the main character loses total focus to the second main character haha. Gosho is simply fantastic, and she serves to connect all the past and present events within the story in a magnificent way.

I won't deny that I was extremely nervous about the plot twist that happened in the middle of the story (those who read it will know what I'm talking about)... This kind of plot twist is very common in Oshimi-sensei's works and is always elaborated fantastically.

Happiness, unlike the author's other mangas, doesn't cling too much to puberty issues and goes for a more mysterious and eerie side (just like Chi no Wadachi), but I thought he managed to work this story very consistently. It's much more "simple" and straightforward but very well done.

The ending is also very good... another one for the author's recipe book of endings...

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Pt/Br

Mais um manga finalizado de Oshimi Shuuzō!!

Ele definitivamente é um dos meus autores favoritos, sempre com obras diferentes e todas ótimas. Eu adoro a forma como ele consegue transformar a leitura em algo muito gostoso de aproveitar com a quadrinização de 3 quadros por página... Você flutua por uma história extremamente cativante, misteriosa e interessante, e a quadrinização facilita esse trabalho ainda mais.

Não é atoa que a maioria de suas obras eu termino no mesmo dia que começo a ler. E essa, mesmo não tendo terminado em um dia, eu li muito rápido...

Fico triste sempre que acabo um manga desse autor pois sei que estou cada vez mais próximo de terminar de ler todas as obras dele.

Happiness é provavelmente seu trabalho mais conhecido (mas não o meu preferido), e consigo entender o motivo. A ambientação misteriosa de vampiros e a busca do personagem principal a se acostumar com sua nova vida e encontrar felicidade nela chama muito a atenção do leitor

Porém digo que essa é uma das primeiras obras dele onde para mim o personagem principal perde o foco total para o segundo personagem principal hehe. A Gosho é simplesmente fantástica e ela serve para interligar todos os acontecimentos do passado e presente dentro da história de forma magnífica.

Não vou negar que fiquei extremamente nervoso com o plot twist que teve no meio da história (quem leu vai saber do que estou falando)... Esse tipo de plot twist é muito comum nas obras do Oshimi-sensei e é sempre elaborado de forma fantástica.

Happiness, diferente dos outros mangas do autor, não se agarra muito as questões de puberdade, e vai para um lado mais misterioso e tenebroso (Assim como Chi no Wadachi), mas achei que ele conseguiu trabalhar essa história de forma muito consistente. Ela é bem mais "simples" e direta mas é muito bem feita.

O final é muito bom também... mais um para o livro de receitas dos finais do autor..

So far I read 4 manga from this author. Flowers of evil, Inside Mari, Welcome back Alice and Happiness, being the last one the only one that I didn’t find special in any way.

The usual eeriness that the author depicts is here masked by the inherently horrific theme and physical violence. I see no psychological horror or reflection on the human being. That alone doesn’t make the manga bad in any way, it just doesn’t deliver the same as the other manga I read from the same author.

What I think makes it more of a bad than a good product is the abrupt change in ... the story a little further than the middle point. Up to half the story it is interesting, engaging, the characters are advancing in their daily life, the horror fantasy elements advance too… everything alright. Not the greatest, but interesting enough to keep reading. But then the focus shifts and the events and characters are not really that interesting, especially compared to the first half.

Another problem I have with this manga is that I’m not sure what the message is, if there is any, or what the audience is supposed to get from this. As a fantasy story, it’s not really that interesting, and as a social commentary it feels very bland.

The art here doesn’t shine either. It’s not bad, and it has the same style as the other manga I read, but I didn’t find a single panel particularly interesting. Anyway, the art wasn’t the problem for me at all.

In my opinion, adding actual supernatural elements weakened the ability of the author to find horror and creepiness in realistic characters and settings and the final delivery is a not so interesting vampire story that doesn’t go anywhere and almost nothing is said.

If nothing else, this manga was extremely sensible. Usually, when ending a manga, you will think "Yeah, that's a good stopping point", "What the fuck? Where's the rest of it?", or "Yeah you should've ended this 50 chapters ago". This one was an "Oh, okay" ending. Everything in the manga was extremely clear, every action every character took made perfect sense within the context of the motifs of the manga, the small romance subplot made sense, the budding friendship made sense, the motivation of the guru made sense, and the conclusion of the arc with Nora made perfect sense. This series is incredibly well thought ... out and well planned in terms of the characters.

You might then wonder why I rated this a 4. The reason is simply that there is NOTHING good about this series beyond what I listed above. In the first few chapters, the series is actually very fun to read and the characters are really compelling and you can really get immersed into the thoughts and feelings of our main characters. Their dynamics are fun, and their relationships are enjoyable. You can kind of tell when things are about to go south from the atomsphere. The artstyle tells you this is not going to be a happy story. When things start to go south, everything is compelling, but then there is this blurry part in the middle, where while every action in the story makes sense, the events themselves don't feel congruent to the beginning. Then, there's essentially a cut and we read almost an entirely different story which is totally irrelevant to the original story besides the fact that these characters know each other.

Happiness is like reading two really good stories forcibly glued together, except when you get to the second good story, it feels like a slap in the face because you were hoping to actually finish the first one. So everything after that point feels like another slap in the face, because even though all of the character arcs are resolved in a way that makes sense, their resolution almost feels disconnected from the first story.

This book is honestly leagues better than most other manga I've read in terms of story, plot, characters, and introspection. However, in terms of manga ABOUT story, plot, characters, and introspection, it's just abysmal. It's just a ginormous disappointment when you compare it to greats like Koe no Katachi, Distant Sky, The Horizon, etc.