A lovely story with incredible art!

The visuals really carry this one. The lines are beautiful, and the shading is very well done, it really gives every single page lots of depth. I love how Nakamura used empty space to give some pages this feeling of letting the words float in the air, while some others feel horribly cramped. It really enhances the reading experience.

The plot is nice too. There’s a very sad backdrop to every interaction, and the way the main character (Mizushima) talks about life and death is a bit cringe, but there was still plenty of emotional weight.

It’s a one-shot, so there’s not much time to properly develop the characters, but I felt that things weren’t particularly rushed.

I love the themes of loss, trauma, and depression, and I really appreciated how much everyone around the main character cared for him. Especially Hanamori, of course. Mental health is a very serious thing, and seeing how much Mizushima struggled with his personal trauma really touched me, but I think a lot of authors, when they try to tackle these issues, end up putting their struggling characters in seemingly hopeless situations where everyone is against them, and it’s up to the main character to break out of their misery. Not here. The people around him care about him, and they try to help and support him, even if Hanamori was the main catalyst for his recovery.

I think that was really beautiful.

What do you think?

Rating: 4/5

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