Hirayasumi Volumes 1 – 5 Manga Review (Minor Spoilers)

Synopsis

Hiroto Ikuta is a former actor who now makes ends meet with part time jobs. His young cousin Natsumi is a college student and budding manga author. The two of them live together in an old house in Tokyo that Hiroto inherited from an old woman he used to be friends with.

As the days pass peacefully, Hiroto and Natsumi cross paths with many others on their own roads through life. Hiroto’s best friend Hideki is married and has a baby on the way. Yomogi, a real estate agent who keeps running into Hiroto, struggles at home despite her high salary. Meanwhile, Natsumi befriends her shy artist classmate Akari. Will these lost souls find success and happiness? Does success really bring happiness?

Hangout comics

Hirayasumi is the newest series by the artist Keigo Shinzo. After breaking into the manga industry with his one-shot Nankin, he scored a New Face award at the prestigious Japan Media Arts Festival with his series Bokura no Funkasai, or “Our Eruption Festival.” Since then, he’s had a film (Moriyamachu Driving School) and a television drama series (Tokyo Alien Bros) adapted from his works.

In my earlier review of Tokyo Alien Bros for Yatta-Tachi, I wrote that Shinzo specialized in “hangout comics” – that is, stories about people you like spending time with each other. Hirayasumi ramps up that spirit of hangout-itude to an even greater degree. Hiroto is a relentlessly pleasant main character, who always tries to do well by others while bringing out the best in his peers. It’s a pleasure to spend time with him even when he’s doing nothing important: fishing in a pond, eating dinner, staring out at the rain.

Hirayasumi is further buoyed by Shinzo’s cartooning. He draws people as pleasantly rounded caricatures with the occasional realistic detail. They squash and stretch like animated characters but also have a genuine sense of weight to them when they jump in the air. For another artist that might be enough, but Shinzo can draw everything else, too: clothes, flowers, houses. His people and backgrounds share the same sense of reality: not necessarily photo-realistic, but consistent.

Many flavors

It would be enough for me to write a positive review of Hirayasumi. “A heartwarming read,” I would say. But worthy of a nomination for Best Continuing Series in the American Manga Awards? Well, Shinzo has a few tricks up his sleeve. The first is that Hirayasumi isn’t just a story about Hiroto. It’s also a story about Natsumi, who at eighteen years old is at a distinctly different stage in life than Hiroto at twenty-nine. Both are young adults, but the struggles of a young college student and an adult in his late twenties are not the same, and Shinzo knows this.

What this means is that Hirayasumi can tell many different kinds of stories instead of just one. Natsumi’s life at college and growing career as a manga artist has a distinctly different flavor from Yomogi the real estate agent. Shinzo also keeps looping in the perspective of characters at different ages; for instance, Hanae, the old lonely woman who left Hiroto her house when she died. That means that no matter how old you are, and what experiences you may have had, it’s likely that at least one character’s story in Hirayasumi will hit you where it hurts.

Lost generation

Believe it or not, Hirayasumi does hurt sometimes. While the series is first and foremost a cozy read, there’s a darkness that comes to the forefront whenever work is involved. Yomogi lies to her customers daily in order to thrive at her job. Hideki suffers under the yoke of his manager so that he can earn a salary and provide for his family. Natsumi struggles to meet her manga editor’s high standards. Even Hiroto takes on a few too many odd jobs to pay for house repairs, and suffers as a result.

There is no escape from the curse of labor in this book. Whether you’re an artist or a salesperson, you are expected to sacrifice in order to survive. Only successful people can be proud; if you’re a loser, society has no place for you. In this respect, Keigo Shinzo draws stories about the same “lost generation” that inspires Inio Asano and Kengo Hanazawa, although this is a kinder book than you’d see from either of them.

Something else I appreciate about Hirayasumi is that it isn’t linear. The characters grow at different rates. Sometimes they even regress. Shinzo is honest enough to let someone struggle for a few chapters before throwing them a bone, rather than resolving their problems right away. It can make the series a tougher read than you might expect at times. But I admire that kind of honesty about how and when people change. Those moments of frustration always come out of the characters and their mistakes rather than an authorly intention to drive conflict.

The Verdict

Hirayasumi is Keigo Shinzo’s best comics work translated into English so far. It is also his longest, which I think plays to his strengths. The series captures so much of the human experience without ever seeming to try too hard. Happiness, ambition, and suffering are depicted vividly on the page. However, its scope of subject matter means that not every story might land for you. But I figure that at least a few of them will; whether you’ve been abused by your boss, held yourself to high standards, or thrown everything away to live quietly and peacefully–but at what cost? Shinzo may say: “Hey, let’s hang out!” But he knows there are no easy answers.

If you like Hirayasumi, you might like…

• Honey and Clover
• Solanin
• Tokyo Alien Bros

Credits

Story and Art: Keigo Shinzo
Translation: Jan Mitsuko Cash
Touch-Up Art & Lettering: Elena Diaz
Design: Jimmy Presler
Editor: Holly Fisher
Published in English by VIZ Media LLC

Article edited by: Anne Lee

Featured Sponsor - Shoujo Sundae

Love shoujo and josei anime? Shoujo Sundae serves deep dives, laughs, and sweet takes every other Sunday. Let's dig in!

Visit Shoujo Sundae's Website