What if I told you there was a manga which took a topic that could have otherwise been dark and depressing and made an extremely wholesome romantic-comedy story out of it? I'm asking you this because the manga I'm about to review fits this description I just gave yoy perfectly.

Description:

Cheerful Amnesia follows the story of Arisa, a young adult who lost all memories of the past 3 years of her life because of amnesia, and her girlfriend Mari. Despite her amnesia, Arisa falls in love with Mari once again as soon as they meet in the hospital. The story from here on out is all about this unusual couple re-learning once again all about each other and their life together as a pair.

Even though this could've been the premise for a really gloomy and dark manga, Cheerful Amnesia, as the title suggests, is cute and cheery, you could say even wholesome, both in its story, art and characters.

Speaking of characters, despite there being very few reoccurring characters, they all work really well in this setting. They're not necessarily realistic, but they all help the manga give off an even sweeter vibe than it would have done without them being there.

The manga is structured in a 4-koma fashion, meaning its chapters are made up of 4-panels strips, kinda like The Peanuts, if you ever read those. Even with this constraining structure holding it back, this is not an episodic manga in the slightest. The chapters are all tied together, that way the main goal of the story doesn't get forgotten in the long run.

The art style is bright and expressive and, while it's not really an art style worth of being called a masterpiece, it does work in a good way with this story and it's setting.

Thoughts:

I personally really enjoyed this manga, as it was not only cute and sweet, but it was also a very short and refreshing read, which I think is a very important thing for this kind of manga to succeed in the market.

This, as I said before, is not really a realistic manga, but that's because it's not supposed to be one. Cheerful Amnesia is supposed to be a relaxing and enjoyable romantic-comedy, and, if you ask me, it excels at doing just that. More than a few times I found myself grinning at the way the manga treats otherwise lewd or dark topics both in such a wholesome way.

Overall, I really wish I could forget everything about the last couple of weeks of my life and start reading this manga all over again, just as if I had an amnesia... a cheerful amnesia ;)

That being said, Cheerful Amnesia was a very good manga to read in my spare time, and it would give it nothing less than a whole 8 out of 10 in my book, as well as a Zen's seal of approval.