Sayonara Eri
Goodbye, Eri

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People come and go, but their memories stay with us, and it's our duty to keep them alive.

It's one thing to have a masterpiece under your belt at any age. It's another thing to have multiple, and it's ANOTHER thing to have four of them back to back before you've even hit 30. I may be biased, but I really do think that Fujimoto-sensei has already set the gold standard for mangaka moving forward, and this oneshot is the perfect guide on how he does it.

What I assumed was just Fujimoto talking about a dead relative turned into a story showcasing his obvious love of ... film, and then turned into a manual on how to move past loss and regret. Sprinkle some deadpan comedy into it and you have the perfect formula to get you attached to Yuta, Eri, and Yuta's dad.

Ever since his old one-shots, he's always geared towards normal, human stories with "a pinch of fantasy", and not only has he doubled down on it, he perfected the formula. The story comes to a close with a confusing-- for lack of a better term, parallel to the in-universe film that Yuta shoots. This just ties everything together so much more. This is without a doubt his most "complete" work. Even Look Back could've used a couple more pages to explore the character relationships. The formula seems to be nailed in here, though. 200 pages for a one-shot is insane, especially when you take into account how most tankobons fall just under that number even with the added extras.

The artwork is fantastic, by the way. The perspectives and use of a motion blur when the story is in "camera mode" helps get the message across very well, and the limited paneling does wonders as well. Fujimoto has always loved his empty space and repetitive, quiet panels, but it's never been as apparent as it has been here. There's a scene where two characters are shown eating at the table, and a couple pages are just dedicated to seeing their eating mannerisms. These may be characters on paper, but moments like that really help get the author's points across. It's the little things, yknow?

Fujimoto is here to stay, and we're all just along for the ride. I can only wonder what the hell he has in store for Chainsaw Man part 2, and whatever else comes after that.

Probably a lot of film talk... and explosions.

I believe that for manga of this length is overly complicated. The topics the author tries to tacle become a parody of their real life counterparts. After the last page you are left to decide whether everything or nothing really burdened the life of our protagonist, but the story looses all of its weight, you can't base the story on nothing, a possible dream, a made up story, within a story. Some may like this much unceratinity just to make their own conclusion and fit whatever they like into this very loose mold for but to me it's lazy writing, keeping the story so vague ... that you might find deeper meaning where there is none to find.

And I can't really agree with statements about the quality of writing as the characters folow a linear path with none diverting from the predictable paths they were given. The dialog is rather average.

My final thoughts are that the manga does have a unique feel but it's nothing memorable.

If you are interested in reading it, it's about a 30 minute read so it's not going to take much of your time.

+ The art is acceptable.
+ The paneling is praiseworthy here and there.
± The character designs aren't memorable.
- The characters can hardly be called that. They are just hollow shells posing as characters.
- The whole manga is basically a volley of plot twists that serve no purpose besides shocking the reader. Engagement of this approach wears off after the first plot twist. Writing a surprising plot twist is banal. Writing a surprising plot twist that is boldly foreshadowed, purposeful and not outlandish is not.
- It gives an impression of the author ineptly trying to mimic western mind-boggling movies like Inception.
- The dialogues are bland. The interactions ... between characters are neither entertaining nor profound.