*SPOILER WARNING*


Am I a fool? I never knew what that word really meant. I still don’t. I spew out the word ad nauseum as a generic insult, never thinking too deeply about what I really mean. But what does that mean? Three Days of Happiness seeks the answer to that question. Does it mean to be dumb? Does it mean to be unsuccessful? Is it really just that: a generic insult? Certainly not. A person is not innately a "fool." While the word is too broad to assign an inclusive definition to, I can think of an interpretation: one who creates his own hell. And certainly--Kusunoki is a fool.

Kusunoki is a deadbeat who has effectively lost the game of life. But he is a deadbeat because he is a fool. His childish arrogance became a burden, a burden which defines Kusunoki's foolishness. Or so he thinks. Many readers will see a reflection of themselves in the early Kusunoki, and maybe I kind of did as well. His mindset deprecates from “I’m not happy”, to “I’m not meant to be happy”, to “I don’t want to be happy”. While depression often romanticizes itself in ways similar to Kusunoki's, it is Kusunoki's foolishness that let it deprecate so far. Many readers will find themselves thinking the exact same way. And this--this is what it means to be a fool. When Kusunoki was a child, he thought he was destined to be someone great. His slightly above-average intelligence gave him a snobbish ego, which he believes set his expectations too high, eventually turning him into the loser he is today. One thing leads to another, and he ends up in a shop that buys your lifespan.

I’m sure many of us have thought of it at some point, as it’s not too profound of an idea. But Three Days of Happiness gives great care and has cultivated it such a meaningful way. Three Days of Happiness not hold any punches: it immediately hits Kusunoki in the gut, valuing his life at a meager 300,000 yen. But it is not just Kusunoki, who is given a reality check. I think many readers of the novel will find themselves in similar situations; I know I did. We are all forced to realize what we really are. What the reader really is is up to them to decide, but it is this scene in such an early point of the novel that makes you realize what this story is really about. Thinking about it, I’m not sure if I would want to know the true value of my life. I think of it in the same vein as seeing my future. If that value was low, I would probably just give up then and there. And Kusunoki is the same way initially. However, he reluctantly sells his remaining 30 years for the appended value, leaving him with only 3 months to live. From here, Kusunoki comes to realize the extent of his foolishness and the concept of humility.

This leads to the next point. Are foolishness and happiness somehow intertwined? Can you have one, and still have the other? This is the fundamental metaphor of the story, from my point of view. When one’s foolishness diminishes, their happiness will aggrandize. And Miyagi is the proprietor of Kusunoki’s happiness. Miyagi is a girl assigned to watch over Kusunoki for his remaining 3 months. While initially cold at first, Miyagi comes to grow on Kusunoki, and the two eventually become an emotionally inseparable pair. While Kusunoki is initially dejected, Miyagi, unintentionally, comes to help him realize what he should be doing. He creates a bucket list, and while simple, is what he wants to do. These little things are what lead Kusunoki to happiness. Visiting small towns, gazing at the stars, riding a motorcycle in the countryside, buying drinks from vending machines. These are all seemingly insignificant things that once put together form something of gaiety for the pair. This is beautiful.

I read this book almost a year ago now, and this is what I think about almost every day. Little things. I don’t need to live some exuberant life filled with success and riches. I realized I love simply riding my bike around at twilight, sitting around reading all day, playing video games with my friends, watching anime, walking my dog with my dad, and just things that maybe improve my mood just a little bit. Unfortunately for Kusunoki, it took selling the rest of his life to realize it.

I just want to talk about Miyagi for a second. She is beautiful. Not just attractiveness, she is just a really beautiful person. She really showed Kusunoki what it meant to live, and maybe even me as well. Much of the story is just Miyagi showing Kusunoki more and more things about herself. She shares her dreams, aspirations, failures, and her downfall. Miyagi is bound by the lifespan-selling agency due to a debt her mother incurred while Miyagi was young. Due to the nature of her work, while on the job, she is invisible to other people. Miyagi is invisible, yet Kusunoki does not hesitate to talk to her in public. Their happiness is almost reciprocal because Kusunoki enjoys talking to Miyagi, and Miyagi enjoys when Kusunoki talks to her in public, regardless of the fact that he looks completely crazy. But by the end of the story, they are both truly happy. Neither of them care. And that's what life is really about: there is no meaning, so why would you care?

The story presents somewhat of a paradox - Kusunoki is happy, but would he be happy if it were not for the knowledge of his impending death? And this is the only true escape from foolishness: complacency with death. You will die one day, so why care? "Philosophical" debate over analogous pretentious topics such as "the meaning of life" can end at "there is no meaning." You're gonna die, idiot. This book has really stuck with me. The idea of being okay with death is something I’ll probably never achieve. But it presents something broader than that--the meaning of happiness, and the discard of foolishness through a topic seldom covered in the medium of light novels. The beauty of this story is something that I don't think I can define. But there's one thing for certain: if this story can’t be considered beautiful, then I’m not sure beauty exists.

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So, they finally added this to the website.

This book is incredibly painful, for all of the right reasons.

It is relatable in a cathartic and fire-starting way. The reader - typically a young man - will inevitably project all of their failings onto Kusunoki. In my case, Three Days of Happiness spurred me to take my own life a little more seriously.

That being said, it is also incredibly beautiful. Brilliantly written, it generates powerful images at every critical point of the novel. The author, Sugaru Miaki, manages to catch you completely off guard on a number of occasions. Especially in the final third of the book, Miaki mixes bitter and sweet deftly, creating a dark chocolatey miasma you can't help but read again and again.

This is one of only a handful of books I have ever bought and I am probably going to buy it in Japanese at some point. I number it among a select few that genuinely changed my life.

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