Hirayasumi

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Hirayasumi is written by the same author of Nora to Zassou and I like the art style, backgrounds and wipes.

The manga revolves around people living in a district of Tokyo and we follow these characters as they interact with challenges and life in general. All the characters are likeable, defined and slightly flawed, while having personal ideologies that is praiseworthy.

The flow and pacing of the manga is super chill and lovely and although the manga doesn't really have a plot, it does tackle a lot of themes, that I believe the japanese society sometimes struggle with: workculture, romance, feelings of belonging, striving to ... find meaning and your own place in the world, friendship maintainence, negative thought, mental health issues and fatigue. The manga is exceptionel to explore these topics from multiple perspectives in a non-condesending way.

The feelings that Hirayasumi leaves in me is gentle, kind and chill. The overall message is to slow down a little in life, to avoid regretting all the missed moments a high pace will result in.

That's the kind of manga that makes me like this genre. I like pretty much everything about it, from its story to the character, to the interactions they have. Simple yet so well executed and wonderfully portrayed.

Art (8) : Nothing much to say, it's a simple art but it is enough to emphasize the feelings the author wants to tell us, no need to have extravagant or handsome character design (not that i don't like pretty cd) because well, it's just talking about everyday life.

The story (10) : to put it simply, our protagonist, Hiroto, is doing part-time jobs left and right, is enjoying his ... life, meets a grandma, they become friends, and at her death she leaves her house to Hiroto, and then he welcomes his cousin to the house for her studies. And then his life goes on , encountering new people and facing everyday life's problems.


"Live each moment to the fullest" is an important key to the manga, as well as "what is happiness ?", is it being free to do whatever you want ? Is it owning expensive things? Is it having a family, friends or a good job ?

An easy example would be his best friend, Hideki. Unlike our protagonist, Hideki can be considered as successful by our society standards. He has a stable job where he works hard, a place to live, a wife and a kid that he tries to make happy. What could be better, right ? Yet he always thinks about the good old days he spent with Hiroto, while having hard times dealing with his job and family, especially his wife. He seems to not find happiness contrary to what's expected, he is even jealous of Hiroto, "why can a guy that does nothing but fooling around get to be happier than me who does everything and works hard, it's unfair."
So here instead of enjoying moments he can have with his family, instead of making things clear with his wife, instead of living each moment to the fullest, instead of reaching his happiness, he prefers to dwell in the past and run away from his responsibility, as we can sometime see him going to Hiroto's house whenever he argues with his wife. Which is clearly not the best solution to reach his happiness, because I believe that everyone has their own happiness and rather than chasing other people's happiness, you should focus on yours.

And almost every character has their own happiness, and like us they encounter problems or people that stand between them and their goal.
Like the cousin, who is trying to reach it by diving into the harsh world of manga and having troubles sharing her passion to her friends or even parents. "Living each moment to the fullest" can also be applied to her as she didn't realize how lucky she was to be living with her cousin until she had to live alone for a week. Don’t take anything for granted, enjoy every moment, even though it’s something you do on a daily basis, like eating without having to cook and washing the dishes, or going to bed without worrying about chores. You only start to truly realize how blessed you were until you can’t have it anymore. It might sound stupid, but I guarantee you this is not as easy as you might think.


There are also a lot of things to say about the other characters but there are just 37 chapters so far so I prefer to wait until this ends before writing any more because I think this manga has the potential to become something unique.
Overall 9/10

after reading the manga, one could believe that the music of nujabes was created to materialize the essence of hirayasumi so much we are facing something chill and lofi-esque.

it's a real ode to the simple pleasures of life that is presented to us; the work deals with the different worries, questioning, existential crises that everyone feels daily with always kindness, patience, empathy and self-indulgence as a solution; for oneself as well as for others. it's difficult not to identify with at least one character or situation experienced by them.

the author's pencil stroke, like his manga, is both simple and beautiful: without superfluous, it emanates a ... realism that makes the reading fluid and pleasant.

if you are a fan of jiro taniguchi's works, of yokohama kaidashi kikou, of mushishi or more generally of iyashikei mangas or of the mono no aware aesthetic, go for it!