A quick review of "I sold my life for 10,000 yen a year"
This review is just going to be a collection of my thoughts and the questions I asked myself while reading "I sold my life for 10k yen a year".
The whole concept of "I sold my life for 10k yen a year" manga is really unique for a romance manga. Both protagonists have unique personalities and character traits. I liked both Kusunoki and Miyagi's characters. Again, it's one more manga where the protagonist is going through the lowest point in his life but another character, most of the time a girl (or probably every time), comes and saves the protagonist from what he's going through. Here there's a slight difference, Miyagi is not there to save Kusunoki's life, she's just an observer. But as she spends time with Kusunoki, she starts appreciating his good qualities. Kusunoki loses the things he valued the most in his life because of his own mistakes and when he gets his second chance, it's too late for him. But still, as Kusunoki enjoys his life in his last days, people start noticing him, he contributes to society in some way and follows his passion with a cute girl alongside.
The manga goes deeper than just "why every life is valuable", it tries to tell that "life is valuable but if you perceive its importance in your own way, it becomes valuable for you too." Most of the times people tell the importance of life and their perspective about it but they never tell how can one find that importance of their own life. All you have to do to know the value of your life is, giving purpose to your life. The manga tries to convey the concept of existentialism through it, that we create our own purpose, we shouldn't believe that some god or a specific person has given or reserved some special purpose for us. We should keep moving forward in the way we've decided for ourselves. The romance in the manga is also portrayed in a really good way, it's mature and fleshed out. The feelings that both protagonists have for eachother aren't superficial, they're well written and well drawn. The artwork of this manga is beautiful, which I personally did not expect before reading it. Even if the ending is not what I expected, it's actually really good. It depends on you if you like it or not. I personally thought the ending was fitting to the story. I expected a little more bittersweet ending but what I got was actually really good on a second thought. I don't know what is it but Miyagi's charm always puts a smile on my face. Her presence, the way she speaks, the way she slowly affects Kusunoki's life and how Kusunoki affects Miyagi's feelings for him, it's just so damn adorable (I couldn't find another word for it).
Kusunoki's character compliments Miyagi's character so well. Initially, I wasn't able to connect with Kusunoki but as the story develops, especially after the first half of volume 2, Kusunoki's character takes a flip and his character just feels so good. You actually feel really sad for him for what has happened with him and what is going to happen with him. The way Kusunoki's character progresses, it feels rewarding for the reader. There's also Himeno's character which has not given much time but still her character also felt well written and her emotions felt valid even if she's like an antagonistic character for Kusunoki and Miyagi's relationship. Overall, it's a really good manga which asks really good questions and that's why I really liked it. It's sad sometimes, it's wholesome sometimes. You feel all kinds of emotions while going through it and most importantly you really care for characters. This manga reminded me of a really old movie named "American Beauty" which I had watched a long time ago. There was a romance storyline in it similar to this, in which Ricky Fitts' character is also trying to find the beauty of life, the value of life.
"I sold my life for 10,000 yen a year" is a great romance manga, you should definitely read it and it also makes me want to read its original source material, "Three days of happiness" novel.