束の間の一花

TSUKA NO MA NO ICHIKA

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
3
RELEASE
March 26, 2021
CHAPTERS
31

DESCRIPTION

At the age of 16, Ichika Sendawara learned that she only had two years left to live. Now a sophomore college student, she lives a busy, upbeat life, despite never knowing when the end will come.

Everything changes when Ichika meets Professor Yurugi—for the first time, she feels she has something to live for. But then Yurugi quietly leaves the university, and Ichika is left wondering why, and what could have been...

A gentle love story that grapples with the deepest existential questions we face in life. As the Shuji Terayama poem quoted in the text says, "If life is nothing but goodbyes, who needs life?"

(Source: Kodansha US)

Note: Includes two extra chapters.

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

shinstarr
100/100
If life is nothing but goodbyes, who needs life?
"If life is nothing but goodbyes, who needs life?"

At first glance a rather depressing question. Paired with the "drama" and "tragedy" tags, it surely seems that this work is not as happy as the cover might make it seem. And yet, it felt uplifting and good to read this manga.

What was so good about reading it?
The characters, the art and the atmopshere. With light lines and heavy shadows, the author creates a world that carries a heavy weight but undoubtedly also gives the readers (and the characters) hope. Not only the drawings but also the story itself and the struggles that the characters face, all lead towards finding an answer to that question: "If life is nothing but goodbyes, who needs life?" And just as short as life itself, so is this manga on the rather short side; in my opinion a positive aspect rather than a negative one because as it is, it lends itself well to being read in a single sitting, which is what I would recommend as well.

What wasn't good about reading it?
At times the story felt disjointed and bereft of a cause. I caught myself wondering: what's the point? Where are we headed? Do I need to continue reading this? And surely enough, towards the end it all started to make sense to me. Everything is linked together, the same way that it is in real life: we don't really know where we're going and whether we will arrive anywhere good while on the journey and only at the end, enjoying our last breaths of air, do we conclude this question of there being a purpose or not to all the things we used to do. In a similar vein, this work might be confusing and even boring at times but I think the author tied everything together very neatly towards the end. Which, honestly, came a bit too soon, too abrupt and was a tiny bit too short as well, but alas wasn't this the whole point of it? Is there really anything negative to say about this work, considering that all it's deficits somehow turn out to be conducive to the whole experience?

Do I need to read it too?
If you enjoy the drawings, you'll be happy with this work. If you find yourself enjoying more than just the simplistic, yet profound drawings, then you will surely find many a pleasure in reading this. You might also experience negative emotions, given this is a "dramatic tragedy" and the description of this work (as well as the very beginning of it) clearly outline the destiny our protagonist is facing.

So if this work is nothing but goodbyes, who needs this work then?
Someone who will inevitably have to experience goodbyes and wants to know what happens afterwards.

Continue on AniList