This was a beautiful and touching story about three young people all dealing with their own hardships, coming together, and healing.

I d the simple art style and, even though I have not yet watched the movie, looking at images of the characters in the animated form, I tend to their manga version better.

It has a wonderful message of empathy and hope and a melancholy you will feel on every page. I think the most impactful scene is near the end of the story, where two characters have a confrontation - one of them has had thoughts of suicide for a long time, and the other is dying due to an illness- and the pain in each of them is so palpable, so real you cannot help but tear up. The sick person tells the other that they are selfish for throwing their life away because of something as trivial as bullying. They think it's cowardly and a waste. Meanwhile, the other character says that they have no place to criticise them for this choice. They have no idea how bad it hurts and how lonely they've been.

I think this scene illustrates the message and theme of the story perfectly. People have different lives and experiences, different pain thresholds. Something that would break one person could be nothing to another. It's important to always be kind, empathetic, and patient.6 s Mark2,177 189

[CW: suicidal ideation, bullying]

Three random teens, Tomoya, Aoi, and Ryo, meet up and go in search of the Summer Ghost, a spirit who appears at an airfield. When they meet her, it turns out that she only appears to those who wish to know death and this trio has more in common than a mere ghost story.

This is a very good story that cusps on being great, but is unfortunately hamstrung by being a movie adaptation. I the characters, I the premise, I where it goes, but it bottles it in certain aspects that drag it down a smidgen, ly to fit into its cinematic running length.

The three leads are a good fit for one another and each is suffering in their own way. One is being destroyed by expectations, one is being relentlessly bullied, and another has very little time left. It makes sense that they would go ghost hunting and bond, just because they have nothing left otherwise.

And it’s very believable how they all become fast friends, but are prone to lying to one another and themselves over just how ‘fine’ everything is. They’re constantly trying to put their best feet forward and inevitably tripping themselves up.

Turning the Summer Ghost into an actual character was another smart touch, although they leave a lot on the table with her. It’s probably not fair of me to lay into an adaptation, except it’s kind of annoying how things play out when they aren’t given enough time.

Ayane, said ghost, might not have killed herself as everybody thinks and I guarantee that you have already guessed the truth here but not how infuriatingly little they do with it. It’s mostly to deepen her bond with Tomoya, but even that could use a touch of shojo manga classic Yurara.

Tomoya is probably the person with the most interesting story and, as it happens, probably the most drive to kill themselves. His experience is basically one of being crushed by parental expectations and it’s quite good, even if his mom mashes the villainy button a little too hard.

Aoi, meanwhile, is being bullied and her situation is very grimly presented, as befits the subject matter, and she’s the one who gets thrown the biggest lifeline by the trio coming together. Some of her insights are quite brutal and she can explain her desire to end her own life with depressing aplomb.

And Ryo is the one with the most to live for, but the least time to actually be alive. He’s the most cheerful, but this is pretty obviously an act and he keeps pushing away his old friends even has he embraces these new ones, to an extent.

And so we explore these four souls as they learn to appreciate life or don’t and we get the expected lessons about treasuring the time you have left to yourself. It makes some great points and has some solid lines, but it’s doing too much and that leads it to underwhelm once it reaches the ending.

Ayane is woefully underdeveloped and winds up feeling more of a catalyst than a real part of anything. The way the conflicts get resolved is really limp in most cases - Tomoya somehow does something (whatever his outcome, how he gets there does not benefit from being so nebulous) and the resolution of Aoi’s bullying is so thin that it’s practically diaphanous.

Ryo gets the most definitive resolution only because of the inevitability of his story’s conclusion, but I will give that it’s rather neatly done, even if nothing here tugs the heartstrings the way I think it wants to. The story seems to go for the wrong things to use as the climax pretty much every time.

That’s not a great batting average. The points the story raises are important, the way it has three different, yet similar, perspectives on death is quite strong, but then it doesn’t do enough with them. It’s a long walk for very little payoff, even if the bones of the story (whoops) are strong. In the moment it’s fine, but it needs to clinch the ending to excel and it does not.

4 stars - the meat is pretty good, but the bread holding this one together is… not so much. It’s a real case of all bark and no tree and the lack of a satisfying resolution to some of the storylines really brings the conclusion as a whole down with it. Worthwhile, but definitely a flawed piece of work.4 s Claire2,669 37

This is beautiful, probably not as creepy as I would have d but it is a lovely story. I love these characters. The end is heartbreaking and for more than just one character. But I do love the little ghost holding the scythe keychain. So cute! I'll have to find the anime.manga read-20243 s Kastie PavlikAuthor 6 books42

I haven't seen the movie so this manga is my only exposure to these characters. I think it's beautifully done, for the time that it has, and I'll admit to having a lump in my throat by the ending. The despair is palpable. The character study we get for each of them takes priority over the greater plot and how it all gets resolved, but that's honestly ok. The point, to me, is about them, how they relate to each other, and what they learn about themselves and each other. Just because someone is smart or smiling or planning a trip doesn't mean they aren't battling some dark metaphorical demons. This isn't a scary book, so I didn't mark it as horror.7-seas character-study drama ...more2 s Makenzie25 1 follower

I cried
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