Sayounara Minasan

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Sayounara Minasan is a love story. An odd one for sure.

We follow a highschool girl named Mina-san who gets fired from her part time job after rejecting the manager who asked her out on a date. She then has a series of encounters with a bunch of different characters, all of them male btw. These meetings are told in a very expressionist way, preferring to use metaphorical imagery and indirect dialogue. Each encounter tells a different story, which is mostly just the guy showing off their character flaws to our MC. They either complain about their own life, or they project their insecurities onto ... her.

So, you might be wondering; why is this happening to her? Well, the reason these guys are even approaching her in the first place is because she’s a very nice girl. She shows unconditional love to these strangers (not in the romantic sense). And because of that love, these guys pour out their feelings to her to seek comfort or understanding. But sadly, they are met with confusion or rejection, because our MC here is a little dense.

This 'dense' part of her is the main conflict of the story. She needs to be able to recognize ‘real’ love, not be afraid of it, and learn to accept it. Though, due to her airheaded-ness, this is not an easy task.

The manga portrays her struggle very well. A lot of her issues come from her inability to understand the other characters, and their monologues are as equally confusing to the readers as it is to her. The guys express themselves through metaphors and symbolism. One of them even reference a classic Japanese story (No Longer Human). The art helps them immensely, going for a more cartoony style to allow for a more natural feel when abstract symbols are used.

We, the audience, will spend the bulk of our time trying to infer all the ‘hidden’ meanings in this manga. Which can be annoying, especially if you don’t even have an idea of what’s happening. I honestly felt lost for 3 of the 9 chapters. It does take a few reads to understand.

However, the story can still be followed, as the ending alleviates most of the confusion I had. It ties up everything pretty nicely. I started really enjoying it on the 2nd read. Though, I’d understand if the ending might feel a little too on the nose for some people. But seeing how it ends with her accepting other people’s help, I think it fits pretty well.

7/10



SPOILERS BELOW

notes:
- Forgot to say that Mina is actually a very compelling character imo, she’s not emotionless and even rejects some of the guys hilariously. Comedy actually plays a big part in this manga, even if it's not that funny.
- The title ‘Goodbye Everybody/Minasan’ refers to Mina saying goodbye to being passive to everyone, just going through the motions, keeping to herself a little too much, and not accepting other people’s help. She’s saying goodbye to her old self (Mina-san) and to everybody that bothered her, moving on, leaving them behind.
- This passive attitude is symbolized by the teddy bear in chapter 1, comparing her reaction to conflict if it was done by a bear and a human.
- Pretty obvious, but the bike symbolizes love.