I'll be totally honest with you all, I've never been much of a traveller. I am very much a stay-at-home kind of person, I'm a user on Anilist after all, but the few occasions I have, there's usually been some person who I got along well with, but never got their name, nor any way to contact them. All you have left is the memory and the longing feeling in your chest. That feeling describes Memories of Emanon to a tee.
It's a feeling all of us have probably experienced at some point and the fact that this manga can replicate it is by far its strongest positive. The way that the art and the dialogue flow so naturally is truly masterful, and the fact that the writer and artist were not one entity, but two different individuals is nothing but mind-boggling. We've seen writer-artist teams make incredible mangas before, look to the creators of Fist of the North Star and Death Note for that, but neither of them had this much emotional synergy between themselves.
I've gone all this time without mentioning the plot, but I feel like going in with the least amount of knowledge is the best way to approach this manga. I'll give you a basic introduction: This story is about a young japanese man in 1967, riding home on a ferry ride, when he encounters a young woman. That's all I can really tell you without going into gritty details, which I will leave for the spoiler section.
As previously stated, the dialogue is superb, Emanon and the protagonist feel like believable people, having believable conversations. It almost makes you believe that this was a real story from the writer's history, I really can't sing its praises enough. The manga is very very short, I read it in under an hour, so the personalities of these individuals are incredibly fleshed out for how little screen-time they actually have.
Passing down memories from each individual in a family tree is a very interesting concept, dealing with humanity's pursuit for knowledge; it's handled very well. It gives it potential, and certain, answers to the questions, and drawbacks, that having something like this would bring, which is probably my favourite part of this kind of story. Having creative ideas isn't much when you can't present them in any meaningful way; giving legitimate and intelligent solutions is what makes so many science fiction giants what they are. Emanon is deeply affected by her "disease", while she seems to maintain a cynical demeanor, she is very clearly in pain, bearing witness to the entire history of life itself. It turns her into one of my favourite archetypes, the ancient knowledge holder, who is implied to have a lack of happiness in their lives due to the knowledge they possess.
If there is one thing I must criticise about this manga, it's the ending. I would've much rather it ended on the protagonist never finding Emanon again, and we're left to wonder if what she said was really true, or if it was just the ideas of a history nerd who also likes sci-fi. That would've honestly made this a 10/10, but it went the route of the cliché and made our protagonist meet her in her new form, and subsequently show what happens to Emanons after they give birth to the next. Other than that, this story does everything that it needs to do, and it does it well.
Overall, this is a very sentimental story. It perfectly captures the nostalgic feeling that you can only really know once you've experienced it. Even if you dislike the story, very few other mangas, anime, tv shows, or anything really can say they've also replicated it, and I think that is merit enough to read Memories of Emanon.
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