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Hikari no Machi/City of Light (2004–2005) is Asano Inio's third release and my second reading by this author (first one: Solanin, his next work). This manga certainly deserves a score stats of 8.0, 8.5 or as scored in my personal mangalist, 9.0. Why?

Have you ever played Jenga? It's simple: during the game, players take turns to remove a block from a tower and balance it on top, creating a taller and increasingly unstable structure as the game progresses.
Well, I can easily say City of Light is a Jenga Tower. One of the characters, Inspector Mizutani, even mentions that the buildings remind him of ... this toy. But not only physically, City of Light is a Jenga game happening right in from of your eyes. Jenga is derived from a Swahili word meaning "to build" and that's what you see the characters doing. They're building their lifes, doing what they can to survive in this world, removing the blocks and building a new structure to try reaching something above themselves... But if you keep removing the blocks from the bottom, this unstable new structure will eventually fall.

City of Light consists in 9 chapters, bringing many different stories. Some are regular slice of life, like a mangaka and his wife, two girls talking about random yet deep subjects and on. Others have more intense and heavy subjects, such as suicide, kidnap or murder and these are the most interesting ones, Tasuku and Hoichi's chapters. Still, all of the 9 chapters are necessary to create the City of Light environment in your head and all of them are connected to each other somehow. It's incredible how slowly you get into this city, knowing about the stories based on the character's opinion, you will easily hate this character in the first 1-4 chapters and then, love the same one on the last 5-9. There is no manichaeism describing the characters, "he is the evil one and she is the good one", all of them have done good things and bad things, all of them are humans, there's no villian, they're just victims of life, quoting Kurt Cobain: "Nobody dies a virgin... Life f*cks us all".

Carrying a realistic storytelling as well a realistic art style, City of Light tells us about the dark side of the humans, how far they can go to achieve something or how far they go just because they're bored. Shows how connected people are, how weak or strong bonds can be and how one's attitude changes the entire scenario.

You should give a try to City of Light if you are looking for a manga with a melancholic atmosphere and deep subjects. City of Light brings this bittersweet feeling, life is happening. "People staying, people going". The same Sun lights us all while we remove blocks from our own Jenga towers, balancing in insecure choices and building a unknown and unstable future.

While I write this review, the intro of Moanin' by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers is playing inside my head. Not just that, for two weeks, all I could hear was pure and awesome jazz songs. Of course it's Sakamichi no Apollon's fault.

Music. Do you know how powerful can it be? C'mon, I bet music changed your life or your day, at least once. Now, jazz songs. Jazz is contagious, you hear it and starts tapping your fingers, moving your shoulders or doing weird footsteps under the table. It's magical! In the end, you're smiling and you don't even know how that ... happened. You're just smiling, even if you got some problems here and there... And this is what this manga is talking about.

In the late 60s, we got a freshman high school student Kaoru, who not so coincidentally looks like a American jazz pianist, Bill Evans, in the early days. He's our honor student kind of character and just moved to Kyushu to live with relatives. In school, he's not the most social guy, but destiny brings two new friends, Sentarou and Ritsuko. Sen introduces him to jazz music and after being told he can't play other music style, 'cause he's a "piano-classic-songs boy", Kaoru accepts the challenge and try to learn how to play jazz, without knowing he'll not only change his music style, but change inside, change himself.

The story goes by. New characters appear, revelations, some little plot twists that make you feel a tightness in the heart. It's a slice of life, don't expect action or explosions, don't expect the answer to the Universe. This is simple and pure slice of life. Their lives, their thoughts, their feelings (oh, their feelings!) and their problems. That kind of manga you read and say: "oh man, I'm this character" (hey, Kaoru, I'm with you!). The characters aren't ORIGINAL, you have seen a lot of characters like them, "big brother mentor", "childhood friends", "delinquent", "cute girl" and "megane". Yes, they aren't original, but they're UNIQUE. Little details makes you love them... I like how things happen, isn't your "oh, let's put 60 chapters and solve things, I don't know, in the 59th chapter". It's your "Oh my, is this really happening? But it's only chapter 14... Oh, oh, go for it! But wait, oh my" (I'm sorry, that's my inner self talking).

So, you ask me: "Why should I read this manga?" Because it's good. It has quality! Doesn't matter if it isn't the most original one, it's unique. Introduces you to a Japan in the 60s with culture and costumes being corrupted. We got japanese christian, which it's the first time I see it in a manga. We got a imaginary triangule and "love hurts" from a new perspective, not your shoujo-type "He hates me, sniff sniff, I want to die". This is Josei, people are dealing with their problems, they're facing past issues, changing little by little. The art is a little retro too and I like the artist style. The music recommendations are the best too! So, please, give it a try. If you don't like it, I'm sorry, but I'm in love with this story.

Put some jazz, read it and travel with the characters to the beginning of japanese summer in 1966.

** This isn't yaoi or shounen-ai. Bromance? Well, maybe a little, if your idea of "friendship" is "boy huging boy? gay!", but for me is just friendship, two friends laughing, facing life and being comrades. I watched the anime first and I got to say: the anime exaggerates a little bit if you compare it with the manga. But, well, that always happens!

Since I read this one-shot, his title, “Hanshin”, keeps appearing in my mind. I heard some readers of this short saying: “The title is a bit strange... This may be a metaphor, but it may mislead certain readers”. It’s true, the japanese word “Hanshin” (半神) means demigod/half-god in english and its definition is: ”The term demigod is commonly used to describe mythological figures whose one parent was a god and whose other parent was human; as such, demigods are half human, half gods”, Hanshin isn’t supernatural nor tell us about a demigod tale. However, I do have my own personal interpretation: Our twins Yudy and ... Yucy are the personification of one demigod. Yucy is compared to a angel in the highest state of pure, becoming the half-god part. Yudy, ugly, ambitious and naturally capable of wishing bad things or having mixed feelings is the human part. That way, these two contrasting girls attached at the hip are a exposed semigod with the human's and god's parts separated in each one, where Yudy is the perfect beautiful angel and Yucy the ugly face of a human.

Story: Have you ever heard the phrase: "Love and hate go hand in hand"? That's what Hanshin is about, it tells us how a person can love and hate another at the same time. Connected twins, you become a shadow when you have such a perfect sister. She's pretty and pure, on the other hand you're ugly because she uses your nutrients to survive and you even have to take care of her. Doesn't that make you angry? Does she deserve to live? I don't deserve to live? "Where does one girl begin and the other end?" She was a part of me? What am I now? Quoting a The Hives song, "You became what you hate or you hate what you become?".

Art: Published in the 80s, the art style is the classic old school shoujo. The eyes and hair shine to create an angelic face, the facial expressions are more dramatic and, classified as psychological, some panels are based on character's close-up looks while showing their thoughts. One thing I admire in this style is how the secondary characters react in the story, some of them are really rude with the main character (same goes to Iguana no Musume, how the mother says hurtful things to the daughter) and they are always smiling despite their own words. When I’m reading a 80s manga, I never trust a character, since they always are more deep or have dirty personalities, I love how a truly happy face can be a mask hiding a demon's face (Gilbert from Kaze to Ki No Uta is a good example) and old school art style is the best at hiding it with those pure eyes.

Overall: Judging the time, the number of pages and the author's talent, I must say: This is a masterpiece. There are just a few one-shots I truly like out there and even less with creepy, but at the same time interesting stories. In a provoking way, Hanshin tell us about life and how you can turn into another person, a reflex (in this case, a real "clone") of your own secret desires.

Quote: "I loved you more profoundly than love. I hated you deeply than I could bear."

"A word before we start: laughter and screams sound very much alike." Okazaki Kyoko "Helter Skelter"

When I finished chapter 9 of this manga, I felt a intense need to listen Beatles song "Helter Skelter" to complete the feeling that "Helter Skelter", the manga, started in me. Do you know all the definitions of this title? Originally, Helter Skelter is a amusement park ride with a slide built in a spiral around a high tower. On Paul McCartney's explanation to the song we got: "Using the symbol of a helter skelter as a ride from the top to the bottom; the rise and fall of the ... Roman Empire—and this was the fall, the demise". Charles Manson, a serial killer who believed Beatles songs contained a coded prophecy of an apocalyptic war, defined it as: “Helter Skelter is confusion. Confusion is coming down fast. If you don’t see the confusion coming down fast around you, you can call it what you wish”. It's pure chaos and that's what we slowly see in this manga, we got confusion and chaos, a ride from the top to the bottom with Riroko.

Story: Our main character is the anti-heroine Riroko/Ririko. We enter her celebrity life following her twisted mind since the beginning when her perfect body starts to crumble. When your work is based on using your body image, you start to do everything to achieve the world's beauty concept and to maintain it as time pass by. But, unfortunately, isn't enough. Even with more and more surgeries, the time will come. "It's a rat race".
Helter Skelter introduces us a lot of subjects, be it in dialogues, little panels showing high-school girls talking, quick and smart quotes, small jokes or in one of the character's thoughts. Talks about the media and how it controls the news, about how a person can be loved by millions and still be lonely, makes you question if the person became that way because of the world, the pressure or because of her own choices... and it doesn't give the answer. Tells us about relationships and how weak they can be... Makes you thinks in your principles. Are they right? Aren't you filled with conformity?
This manga has background stories too. The characters are connect somehow, a police detective doing a investigation can be "a feather of the same wing" with Riroko. Her manager Hada, one of those who suffer with Riroko imposing herself, can choose a path that she never imagined.

Life is full of decisions. Are your decisions based on your principles? On the world's ideals? On the others orders? Which one?

Development: I like the development. Some details in the story you can consider overdone a little, but still amazing how everything happens. Like Riroko bruises, surgery after surgery... Can we consider Riroko a Josei creature from "Frankenstein"? She's compared with a chimera, built with every fashion sense of that time, "a unnatural face, it doesn't match". Riroko's story is compared with Norma's from "Sunset Boulevard" too. The way the fashion industry influences womans everywhere, "I want to become her, I want to be like her!". Easily hearing a "I just sleep and eat what I want" from the ideal successful model makes you yearn even more for it. Where did her fall began? People stopped liking Riroko a bit, she became even more twisted and bothered, people stopped liking her even more... It's a vicious circle. For the background stories, the way Okazaki Kyoko connects it is just great. A detail here and there in chapter 1 to 6, one page for the mama, the manager, the clinic... And in chapter 7 to 9 everything collides.

Art: I must say, I wasn't happy with the art style. Since we were dealing with the concept of beauty, I was expecting a detailed art with a perfectionist touch. I was expecting more beauty. Then, I stopped to think: "What was I expecting...? Was MY concept of beauty. What I find pretty." and a quote from the previous chapter snapped in my mind: "Her beauty is a manifestation of our own desires"... Oh, you got me there, Okazaki Kyoko. So, giving a second thought, you realize the art style is just... necessary. Specially for the quickly transformation of beauty to freaky, which is just so easily and well done with a alternative art like this (Nakamura Asumiko is a great example too of how quickly a calm face can change to a face full with anger). How I can't give a 10 to a manga who answered my question with its own character's dialogues?

Overall: You have to read it slowly to enjoy everything. Or read it fast to have a quick ride from the top to the bottom. I don't know. I'm pretty sure this manga is not for everyone and that some won't appreciate it. I was thinking in a 8 when I started it, a 9 in chapter 6, but I could only give a 10 when I finished and started thinking about the quotes and the way she connects everything in the end.

Remember: "Youth and beauty are not synonymous. Youth is beautiful, but beauty isn't youth". What is beautiful for you?