Story

The drive of most traditional romance narratives either comes from people forming a relationship from nothing or overcoming an issue in a pre-existing one. Cheerful Amnesia combines the two. There is a pre-existing relationship where one of the girls, Arisa, gets amnesia and forgets ever going out with her girlfriend, Mari. Because of this, the couple needs to start from scratch, re-learning everything together, despite already being in love. This style of story enables there to be progression in their relationship even though they love each other like they have progressed to the perfect point in their relationship already, making for an incredibly wholesome plot.

• If you're looking for a realistic portrayal of a relationship then you may be disappointed; if you want a realistic portrayal of the effects of amnesia, then this manga may even leave you angry. However, if you can take the unrealistic amnesia as a plot device to facilitate very wholesome moments between a happy couple, in an unrealistically lovely relationship, then I think you will like Cheerful Amnesia. • There is something negative that I realised about the story when I re-read it. When re-reading there are times when it seems the author had not decided what the relationship was going to have been like before Arisa got amnesia. Points about their old relationship are raised by Mari, but they don't totally fit with the flashbacks which are shown later on. This is pretty minor though, to the point I didn't realise it my first time reading it.

Characters

The two main characters are Arisa and Mari. Their dynamic works very well with the amnesia aspect of the plot. Arisa gets amnesia, but falls in love at-first-sight again when she sees her girlfriend. She's a super exited character who can't beleive that she was in a relationship with someone like Mari. Mari's character is quite unassertive (she's by no means meek though), so she doesn't push the relationship right back onto Arisa. This creates a situation where they have to totally rediscover their relationship, almost like it were new in a really adorable way.

Art

The art does not create any beautiful landscapes to be in awe of or have detailed close-up panels of an emotional face. It's a 4-koma, so it's pretty limited in how extravegant it can be with its art. Even so, the art passes it's function of clearly conveying charming emotion with flying colours. The look on Arisa's face when Mari says something outlandish or when she gets jealous of her past self is golden. Her happy face fills my heart with pure bliss.

Conclusion

Good and wholesome ?. I hope the enjoyment I got from reading this can also rub off on you too.