Love, Laughter, sadness, tragedy….life.
I don’t read sad…anything. I prefer fluffy and funny (I’m a sap). But I had to read this one but I didn’t want read all the volumes and to be disappointed. So I did what any person in my shoes would do, I watched the movie first. Wow, that didn’t go as I planned at all. Further research proved that both end differently and having already gotten hit by one train, what was one more?
Summary:
Mayu met Takuma for the first time in the hospital. Her dad was doctor there and she was always playing around, pretending to be one herself. They were 8 at the time, they became best friends in a short time. She was fun and accepted him, saw past his heart condition. He was her friend. That summer they make a promise to each other, a promise they won’t be able to keep.
Characters:
Unlike most manga this one is one of it’s kind in plot alone but the characters are what give it that extra push over to amazing. I’m not kidding either. Takuma tells the story, which makes the movie different since it’s from Mayu’s perspective.
Takuma as a kid is cute and… pure you could say. As the story progresses you see him morph, change into the person he needs to. Making choices he feels he needs to make. He was strong and weak at the same time. He was strong through his weakness, if that makes any sense.
Mayu , she’s the person you want by your side always. I mean he noticed when he was 8, how great she was. She was determined and in love. To save him, to protect him. Those two qualities have indefinite possibilities when combined. In the first chapter she overhears something she shouldn’t and it changes her.
They did an exceptional at making you feel what they feel.
[going any further in summary or in characters will give spoilers and you don’t want those…really you don’t]
The other thing I liked, apart from what I stated above, was the time line in the manga. I hate reading anything and feeling like the days drag on and the whole book/manga finished and only 2 weeks went by. That’s not the case with this one. It shows cause and effect in a timely matter, you could say.
The art was good, and the drawings made what they were going through seem real and genuine.
This manga is hard to summarize, characters and plot are serious yet funny and you will laugh out loud but also cry. I’m a sucker for boys crying…
It has sorrow and pain but it also has laughter and life. It is by my definition a slice of life.
