Mata, Onaji Yume wo Miteita
I Had That Same Dream Again

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Spoiler free!

How would you define happiness? That’s the question being asked by this thought-provoking story.

I’ll be honest I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this novel but the faint air of mystery and the brilliant, relatable characters are what kept me reading. I found myself wanting to read more whenever I had some free time. It’s never overwhelming but this is the kind of novel that will get you thinking about life, similar to that of Sumino’s other works. You’ll also be happy to know that in terms of endings a happy one awaits you, that’s not to say there are no emotional parts ... though.

This does take a certain level of maturity to understand the full depths of the story as it covers a vast range of topics and themes that some may find hard to read. That in itself isn’t really why you need that level of maturity it’s more the way that these topics and themes are presented to you. The story is told from the perspective of a very outgoing grade school girl, who doesn’t fully understand the things that are happening to those around her, meaning that the topics and themes lie under a feint level of mist. This is not a bad thing at all, it’s one of the most redeeming factors about the novel.

Overall this wonderful novel is definitely one to read whether that’s online or physically (which I recommend as Seven Seas have done a great English adaptation) as it taught me to do things a little differently in life.

This is an inspiring story about a little girl in search of happiness. It tackles the obstacle of the question itself: "What is happiness?". Through the whole manga the little girl tries to find the right answer or, as it turns out, more of them. She doesn't want and is not satisfied with a simple answer, even though she is aware that happiness is also found in eating sweets and delicious food, she is digging deep to find the real, core meaning.

What is even more interesting is that she is so very young to be facing such a difficult question in a difficult way that ... she choose to tackle it. Making a presentation about happiness was something they had to do for a school project and it's very fun to see how the majority of kids interpret it and how she does. The contrast between her and ohter kids is evry strong and it is defitintelly an aspect of this story that should not be overlooked.

At the first glance everything seems very normal, with the fact that she is, in a way, very mature and eloquent for her age (even though there are moments when she definitely acts like a kid she is). However, there is a twist, or a few! The ending itself blew me away and I love how the name of the manga plays a very big role through it and especially at the end. It is genious. She keeps looking for answers through others and mostly herself - which definitelly sends a big message across, even for adults: happiness lays inside of us and in people around as, as well as in the little things.

*The only complaint I would like to point out is very vividly shown self harm which is not necessary and there should be a TW, as well as censorship, in my opinion.

Mata, Onaji Yume wo Miteita is the story of an elementary school girl, "Koyanagi Nanoka", finding the meaning of "happinness". Right at the beginning, she is assigned by her teacher to find the answer to that. While thinking about it, she visits 3 friends, a teenager, an adult and a granny, named "Minami", "Skank" and "Granny", and discusses with them about what happinness means. Each one of them has different views on life and what happinnes is, as it is expected from their age gap and they also face different struggles. There are many sensitive themes, which makes the story seems dark sometimes, contrasting with ... the main character's innocent and optimistic perspective. The story has an interesting premise, good pace, variety of deep themes and good characters, as well as a twist to the three characters' connection with Nanoka and the name of the novel, which really surprised me. Regarding the main character's relationships, I think Nodoka and Kiriyuu's relationship was similar to Sakura and Haruki's one from Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai, so you may like that part of the story if you liked the author's previous work, despite the romance not being a major theme here, since the characters are just children.

Unfortunately, despite the gripping and sensitive themes, the way the story deals with them is rather simplistic and it never really goes deep into them. That has much to do with the main character being a kid and the story being narrated by her. The way she thinks, acts and even her humour is extremely childish and it gets boring quickly. There's nothing deep about her catchphrases "like is like..." and even her conclusions on "happiness" are obvious and ordinary. Another problem is that all the story becomes predictable due to a scene that makes everything crystal clear, which was a good moment but happened too early in the story.

It was a good read overall, the storyline was engaging and solid, but I think it's slightly overrated, as there's nothing groundbreaking, the plot is simple and has some problems like I said. I would recommend it, especially if you like other works by Sumino Yoru, but you should read it without high expectations. I also think I would get a lot more from this book if I read it as a kid, maybe it wouldn't be so redundant for me.