When I started this, I didn't know what to expect. When I was just past the first act, I thought it was cute and fun, with some interesting ways to depict character motivation. By the halfway point, I started really feeling something for the characters. By the two-thirds mark, I realized I was reading something that's along the lines of the abstractly unique. And, by the last ten or twenty chapters, I realized this was genuinely a once in a lifetime reading experience.
The way the story pans out, it makes me wonder how exactly the author planned it all out. Seeing Phosphophylite
There's so much to talk about here. The Lunarians
In the end, the whole story felt thematic. Kongo is especially...interesting, to say the least. The concept of
I have so many questions I want to ask the author about all this. What parts were even planned? By the end, it takes such an esoteric turn that I can only assume it was written in the heat of the moment. That, to me, actually makes it feel all the more special, because in turn, it makes the story feel like the musings of the author as it progresses. The way HnK tackles sense of self, perception of events, and motivation, borders on genius, and it all feels both like a natural evolution and like an evolution that progresses as the author wings the story. The whole world really feels 'alive'. Even though the story is relatively short, it's very open-ended, and very lively. It's an extremely impressive level of world building for a manga of its length - We know exactly what happened to get every character to the point they're at now, But, when reading, you'll have no idea whatsoever what comes next for anyone.
The art? Gorgeous. Some of the best paneling and shading you'll ever see. The character designs are simple enough, but when you see the way liquid mixes with rock, or the aesthetic of the Lunarians, you'll remember some of these pages for the rest of your life. The whole story is food for thought, and almost every page is a five-star feast for the eyes.
Ichikawa, I kneel.
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