The main character of the story is Hiroshi, who upon the opening of the story comes off as a slightly bitter old man, suffering from a hangover, who suddenly finds himself taking the wrong train and visiting his old home town. Upon visiting his mother’s grave he faints, and wakes up to find himself stuck inside his 14 year old body, reliving his youth. However, he still has his 48 year old mind, and he finds himself remembering lots of things of his past. He comes into contact with old friends who would later meet their death, that would move away, and dreamers who would end up forgetting their dreams and living an average life. This memory adds a beautiful sense of melancholy to the story, and creates for interesting character interaction and development.
However, the real story comes into play when Hiroshi release that not everything is happening according to his memory. Thanks to his 48 year old knowledge, he finds himself excelling academically, and really just enjoying the simple things of life; this change in personality does not go unnoticed by his peers. After discovering this Hiroshi takes it upon himself to pave the road to a different future, much different than the life he initially lived where his family was broken apart and suffering. This is the true beauty of the story, it is a story of change, regret, youth, family, and the simple beauties of life.
That’s not to say the story doesn’t have his flaws. A lot of times Hiroshi just seems to forget that he has a wife and kids in his real life as a 48 year old, he does briefly think about them a couple of times before the end of the story, but the moments are so brief and uncommon that you really begin to wonder if he cares that much about his real family. While that is a major flow, it doesn’t hinder any of the emotional impact later in the story, and the overall story still flows extremely well and is beautifully written.
Despite only being two volumes, each character in the story feels nicely developed. Whether it be the members of his family or several of the his classmates in school, most of them have time to tell their own stories, and each of them play their part nicely. Hiroshi is, of course, the most interesting of the characters. The mix between a 14 year old body and 48 year old mind gives him an interesting, reflective train of thought, and none of the dialogue comes off as unnatural despite the odd mix.
The art is well drawn and has good detail, none of the characters look incredibly handsome, there are no cheaply drawn comedic moments, no mysterious flower blooming in the background-in short it should appeal to the audience it was targeted at.
I can’t really recommend this enough, all the characters are realistic, likeable, and well developed, the story is outstanding and should gain some sympathy among the readers, and most importantly it’s just a fascinating read that contains all the elements needed for a good story. It’s a shame the story isn’t well known, A Distant Neighborhood is a simple yet engaging read that has all the elements to appeal to a large audience, I recommend this to any fan of emotional, well developed stories, but it really should appeal to anyone who finds the story idea to be good. Truly a hidden gem of manga.
