‘What is happiness?’

The introduction at the first page brought the readers a question consisting of three simple words, but somehow it was quite difficult to find a satisfying response. The respective answer would depend on social, religious, philosophical and educational variants, takes different shapes from person to person, and in conclusion, there is for sure no definitive model. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that for kids, it’s family and friends, young adults, relationships, and for the pillar of society, grown-ups, to have what essential and necessary, which could all be summed up in a short word, yet still hard to interpret, 'love'. That is to say, I had expected more. There was a girl who has three different mysterious friends, and among them was a rift of age. She sought for what aforementioned at the starting point, and with a little help from her friends, she managed to do it. What wrong there is just that the time stood still. It did wonder with the first book, when she found what is needed for a child. However, in the following cases, something felt unnatural to me, and I figured out the reason. It was rushed in a short span of time, and certainly it was too much, even for a child that clever. The course of actions could have taken better places with her maturing, both outwards and inwards. In such hypothetic scenario, time would flow, the protagonist would expand her world, meet new people, and so on, the perception of her needs would change, for the greater good, instead of the easy-going manner the work was in. For example, the nine-year-old child would have a respective encounter with the seventeen teenager, the high schooler with the graduate, and as a part of my imagination for the end, the senior would give her wish to the then matured women. Still, there is no country for ‘When I’m Sixty Four’. XD

The following paragraph would be my pondering of the visualisation, which was a minor pleasure from the spent time. This manga was character-driven, therefore character-centric was a given. As a result, the framework very often was just a small part of the surrounding, and though the shifts in point of view among panels didn’t leave me stand in awe as with Aria, the background was finely wrought in detailed portrayal, which spoke a lot of how carefully the illustrator approached her creation.

Reaching to the last pieces in my wall of text, although there were more left to be desire, at the very least I had got a comfortable read. The concept was just exciting, and if someone said they had found 'gold', then I wouldn't exactly disagree. Due to the shortness, I would still recommend people to give it a shot. Maybe they would find what they are searching for, or realise that there are more (to bring into discussion) than those that met the eyes, but nevertheless have a chance of getting thought-provoked.