Happiness

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Happiness was what i would consider the pinnacle of good manga. It had a story that was short,sweet, and most of all pack with content. Each chapter asked as many questions as it answered and left me with a vague sense of wonder. To put it simply, it was an incredible experience.

Warning: very minor spoilers

Story 7/10 : I felt that the story was quite short featuring few real conflicts. However, it was great seeing the world develop as you slowly see the world become affected by the main character. You see the world shift due to their actions and how the world bites (heh) back. ... Overall, the story could have been longer and built upon more things. But it was still enjoyable and pretty easy to digest.

Art 10/10: Wow...just wow. While the characters themselves have very realistic proportions and the blood is drawn very well, the real beauty is in the backgrounds. During one of the MC's many points of hysteria, you can see the background is similar to the famous artist Vincent van Gogh. This creates an amazing feeling of loss and confusion for the reader that helps emulate how the MC is perceiving the outside world.

Character 8/10: The manga goes through many time skips especially near the end. It gives us a good sense of conclusion for each major character and allows us to feel some closure that would have not gotten under usual circumstances. Every surviving character has come to terms with their situation and is trying to live their best life. They are living each day trying to find happiness(heh) in some form or another.

Overall 9/10: I would highly recommend this manga to anyone who has the time

Happiness' first few volumes are great; Aku no Hana with vampires, what's not to like? Unfortunately, things spiral out of control pretty quickly, as this spooky Let the Right One In-esque romance-horror becomes a Tokyo Ghoul/Ajin wannabe around chapter 15 or so. We're left with 35 chapters of shady government agencies, cultists, a villain straight out of a Dean Koontz bargain bin book, two semi-interesting characters getting sidelined for what feels like forever, one uninteresting character getting mutilated for what feels like forever, and time skips. Lots and lots of time skips.

It's all so...typical. A damn shame considering the manga's early promise and the ... mangaka's track record for non-commercial weirdness. I guess if there's a lesson to be learned it's this: selling out may lead to large amounts of cash, women and fame, but you're gonna get a lukewarm internet review from an unemployed thirty year old who still reads comic books, and to win him back you'll have to write incest-horror (see the excellent Chi no Wadachi).

A final note: the art is fantastic. Just look at that cover. There's also quite a bit of Van Gogh and Edvard Munch inspired panels scattered throughout. Alas, the rest of the material is not nearly up to the art's high standard; you're probably better off doing a google image search for the best bits and skipping the rest.

Story doesn't really go anywhere and the character pale in comparison to Shuzo's other works. Replace the psychological drama and horror of his previous and future works with uncomfortable body horror and you already know the extent of what Happiness has to offer. It's really unfortunate cuz some of the art is a real treat. I love how the vampires of this world see the night sky as if it were a Van Gogh. It's their home and thus they find beauty and comfort in it, so it works in tandem with the story as well as looks good. The problem here for me, was ... the characters. They're all so one note and none are given any back story or real attention except for the main antagonist and at the point where his origins are shown, which is done in a very well illustrated sequence of paintings, you have already seen him do some really fucked up shit. Because of this his back story honestly serves no purpose. You already hate the dude its not gonna make you hate him more to see him do more fucked up shit to characters you've never even seen before. I feel like there was a lot of wasted potential here and if more time was put into character development rather than torture porn, I think this could have been something great. Ultimately it stumbles in almost every way and is a slog to get through. I kept pushing through hoping at the end of the grotesque violence there would be some deep, captivating moment but it never came.