Happiness 1

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The main cast is interesting, and I liked the different ways in which they are initially developed and brought together. As mentioned by the mangaka (in his note at the end of volume 10), he tried to explore the psychology of multiple characters (while maintaining character quality) as opposed to focusing on just one. In this respect, I think he was mostly successful, and I generally enjoyed the different character narratives and perspectives. Furthermore, from what has just been written, it is not difficult to guess a possible source of inspiration for the creation of Nora. I like to think that Oshimi read Carmilla by S. Le Fanu, as the homonymous protagonist of this novel as well as being a vampire like Nora, is described as a very beautiful teenager, with a shiny white skin and very long dark hair. Furthermore, according to the story of the novel by S. Le Fanu, vampires are born when young people viscerally attached to the earthly world die in dramatic situations. Exactly what happened to Nora. As the story progressed, I feel that the theme changed from 'illness and death' to 'isolation from society'. And with that came the question: what is happiness for those who have been excluded? Or more: what is happiness for those who were born with socially unfavorable conditions, being innocent victims of unjustly caused wounds?" To put it plainly this is a Shounen manga. It might masquerade as something deeper and more mature with it's violent themes and nudity, but the level of character depth is really surface level, and the story has some pacing issues. I do have something positive to say about this novel – I didn’t expect the midway plottwist. In fact, I was going to write in this review that the novel is so predictable that I’ve guessed that it would end up with the protagonist somehow making his life more valuable, selling the rest of his life and freeing the girl from the debt. So it was nice to find out that his life was actually worthless from the start, the initial assessment was fake and so that will in no way happen. Sure, it makes no sense for the girl to give out her own money just so some random dude she literally just bet in her business hours doesn’t get even more sense, but at least it’s not predictable. Stupid, yes, but not predictable.

Happiness 4". Penguin Random House. Archived from the original on 6 December 2018 . Retrieved 5 December 2018. Boy Meets Ghoul: After a while, it's clear Nora chose to turn Makoto rather than kill him because she wants some company. Fully-Embraced Fiend: Both Nora and Saku are very old and have come to terms with what they are after forgetting their human lives. They don't want to conquer or enslave humankind, but they're not especially interested in it either. Saku in particular refers to humans in very dismissive terms. In the initial stages of building the scenarios and interactions involving the main characters, the reader follows the physical and emotional intimacy of Makoto (the protagonist) during a series of physiological and sensory changes arising from his encounter with Nora. There is a progressive structuring of the protagonist's interests and material conditions while the author presents a sense of hopelessness about his main character's new desires and possible psychosocial consequences of his actions.Fan Disservice: A pretty girl not wearing a stitch? Sounds nice. The same girl's corpse with her throat bloodily ripped out, or her being tortured by cutting her flesh? Not as nice. It's also hard to be be sure whether Nora is appealing or disturbing — she doesn't wear much (and sometimes she wears nothing), but she doesn't usually bother to clean the blood off, either. vampires through a "post-impressionist" artistic composition that values abstract sensations and emotions through efficient techniques of contrast and detail. This is easily understood thanks to two events in particular present in the manga. The first is Yūki’s death. In fact, after Sakurane devours his brain, Yūki’s consciousness/soul is trapped in the body of the leader of the cult, thus preventing him from regenerating and in fact killing him. The second scene is even more explicit. After Nora is dissected, her brain is kept intact in a container, Okazaki manages to perceive her voice and takes it with her. In the finale of the manga it is shown how Nora is slowly regenerating. The brain therefore as a primary organ, a symbolic choice because as the author himself says vampirism is the metaphor of the “rejection of society”, an existentialist theme, a thought, therefore mental, of the brain precisely. If this manga keeps going on its current path, it could be a truly great piece of work, one that I have waiting for years to finally happen. The setup is extremely promising, and has my extremely excited to see where it goes.

Initially, being a monster, happiness does not exist for Saku, an abstract feeling that he cannot try or understand. However, thanks to the meeting with Okazaki, Saku is slowly managing to re-emerge his humanity. Okazaki reminds him of concepts such as: kindness, attachment to life, friendship, love. Similar to the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast, Saku overturns the curse thanks to “human warmth”, and as a beast as he was he manages to return to being a person. To be happy, according to Oshimi, one must first of all be human. Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Makoto tries. He eventually succeeds. Nora and Saku are not examples, both saying they've been around long enough that they've become indifferent to human life and don't discriminate with their victims. However Oshimi is perfectly aware of how vampire works today are purely the prerogative of the mass, of mainstream entertainment. Just think of television series such as Salem‘s nights (TV series inspired by the novel by S.E. King among other things), or Buffy the vampire slayer, the Twilight novel/movie series, Blade, Underworld, and so on. The vampire genre has also “infested” the culture of anime and manga with works such as Hellsing, Blood +, Shiki, Vampire Hunter D, to name just a few. just not the target audience for romance novels, but I can admit the following story was well put-together and had more than a few pleasant moments until the ending. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the vampire theme is not used by Oshimi with the sole purpose of attracting a larger audience, instead it represents a decidedly existentialist theme.During the ending Miyagi sells the rest of her lifespan to die at the same time as Kusunoki because although the overarching message of the book is that love and life are precious things that you shouldn't take for granted, why use the memory of Kusunoki to enrich your life in the future when you can have what is essentially a glorified lover's suicide? Being restricted by magazine publications or the author’s working conditions, adding to Oshimi’s agonizing yet simultaneous slow burn pacing, spanning weeks after weeks, has made me significantly lose interest in Happiness, and as of now it has happened with A Trail of Blood. Gosho is completely obsessed with her past. Just take into account how much emphasis she places on her brother’s death. An event that torments her deeply, continuously, with which Gosho processes her experience, her entire existence, disrupting her perception of feelings, such as love, friendship, and so on, in an almost irreparable way. A clear manifestation is her relationship with Okazaki. Is it possible to call it love? No. Is it possible to call it friendship? Not even. I would call it more of a vocation. Gosho sees her missing brother in Okazaki, not only because of the physical similarity, but above all because of the uncertainty that Okazaki transmits to her. Makoto is in fact an innocent, pure boy who needs to be protected from the world’s adversities. And this is the mission that Gosho wants to accomplish: to protect Okazaki, she is convinced that in doing so she will be able to redeem herself for what happened to her brother. This is her reason for living. Happiness is a work that brings different innovations to Oshimi‘s writing. First of all, the author uses a choral structure for the first time for drafting the plot. In fact, the narrative does not focus on a single protagonist, but continually jumps between the points of view of the several characters that make up the cast of the manga. Happiness (5)] (in Japanese). Kodansha. Archived from the original on 25 September 2017 . Retrieved 4 June 2017.

With this character Oshimi begins to experiment by shifting his writing and his thought to the hypothetical, he begins to reason ad absurdum, leaving aside his experience, his autobiographical side. The exact method with which he conceived Boku wa Mari no naka. Again, this transition could work and renew the series into a thriller with moments of horror and action, but unfortunately, it fails to provide reasonable justifications for the new events and conflicts. Since this review has no spoilers, the examples below will be described vaguely and broadly. If you want to get the updates about latest chapters, lets create an account and add Happiness (OSHIMI Shuzo) to your bookmark.

I honestly feel that the idea of happiness wasn’t adequately explored (which can be frustrating for some readers). I see the theme of the false sense of normalcy as the driving theme for the entire work more than the idea of people finding their won sense of happiness. Happiness as a theme in this work is just an afterthought and a bit of a stretch to say it’s one of the main themes. The theme of sacrifice for what you believe in (whether through ritual, one’s humanity, or for someone you love) is more apt as a main theme in this work. Overall, the story could have been longer and built upon more things. But it was still enjoyable and pretty easy to digest. The narration of my stories is always the same, they start with a quiet daily life which gradually deforms to the point of no return.