Houmonsha

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This volume contains four short stories. Two ended up my absolute favorite one shots by Moto Hagio, and the other two were okay. I will review each one.

1. Houmonsha (Visitor)
I have never seen before a story tackle this delicate topic before. I was so shocked, especially because this one was one of the first Moto Hagio manga I have read. The plot follows the life of a kid (one of the protagonists for Heart of Thomas) and his family life, the way he lives a happy life alongside his unhappy and more frustrated by the day mother and his sometimes cold and absentee father. The ... story is almost circular, the hunting trip the kid and the father have at the start is there to tie together the full plot, by the end.
I won't say more, because of spoilers.

2. Shiro (Castle)
I wasn't particularly a fan of this novel. It is quite simple, with another kid getting attached to an older student at a boarding school. It follows kind of the path of the angel (the older student) and the devil (another friend), and the complexities of being good or bad, and how the protagonist thinks this determines how much his parents love him.

3. Egg Stand
One of the most tragic Moto Hagio's stories I have read, and probably on the longer side of the one shots. It is set in France, during World War II, in a Paris occupied by the Nazi army. The protagonist is a cabaret dancer who adopts a teen she found in the park. They will meet people in the resistance, and in particular there is a small quiet beautiful love story between her and a French man, but the real protagonist of the story is how violence, abuse, sexual abuse and war can destroy someone's soul.

4. Tenshi no Gitai (Angel Mimic)
As all of Moto Hagio's story, this also follows the initial introduction of the plot that then reveals the real main topic only by the end/middle. While it is not a mindblowing story, it was a quiet exploration of the main character and their trauma. The story starts with a woman trying to kill herself and being saved by a man who will then become his friend.