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I came upon Ichinose after reading Takopii and loving it. I think a lot of people missed the point here - I believe the confusion and the lack of direction is on purpose.

We have seen from Takopii that Taizan is capable of a storyline, capable of character depth. This work could have had so much potential as a seinen psychological manga because it captured severe mental illness in a way where the reader is pulled into it. You experience his confusion and and dread first-hand whilst knowing the threat of blind optimism. And yet you begin to cling to it as well. Despite some ... parts being rushed, it was so well done. Where the more you thought about it, the worse it got. It implores you to adopt the same mindset and just accept what's happening. Because it feels so much better to not make sense.

Taizan (across both Ichinose and Takopii) uses ignorant optimism incredibly well - which is furthered by the art style and focus on children as protagonists. The contrast of severe mental illness and hopeless cheer offers a sense of desperation that just tastes so good but so sickening to read. The way Taizan is able to express how family issues and childhood trauma cause mental illness feels so disgustingly raw and real, all whilst being able to keep the idea that children are innocent - though at times exaggerated, children are a product of their environment. Which contributes to my belief that the story and structure of this manga was honestly genius. To also give innate happiness to a character who has descended below rock bottom - Taizan has so accurately grasped the delusions of uselessly trying, hoping to be worth even the smallest amount, anything to justifying remaining alive and staying around despite an overwhelming need to end it.

Another aspect I really enjoyed was the correspondence of the 7 deadly sins to each family member. This may seem obvious, but I believe the translation of the Japanese title sounds something more like 'Stay with the Ichinose Family' rather than the actual English title: 'The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins' and it's a shame the author was unable to flesh this out further, because the way they combined each deadly sin with actual mental illness or deterioration was so good and could have been great.

Unfortunately, it was serialised in Shounen Jump and ended prematurely.

Overall, it's not going to be an enjoyable read. It's not even going to be a good read. It's going to leave u feeling worse - especially if you make it to the end and you get the most incredibly flaccid last chapter.

But if you've read my whole review, it sounds like you might just be interested enough to give it a go.