Synopsis:
Meet Me in the Unkept Garden is the debut comic of painter and illustrator Soejima Asuka. It follows the story of a young “adult” woman battling to navigate the uneasy transition into whatever adulthood is supposed to be. She struggles with difficult questions like who she wants to be, what she wants out of her love life, and what “growing up” even means, all while keeping up the house as a stay at home wife.
The Good:
Meet Me in the Unkept Garden feels like a manga version of a poem, in an extremely complimentary sense. I’ve seen so many people these days discussing “adulting” and how most of the time, they have no idea what being an adult truly means. Adulthood often imposes a rigid script of success — an escalator of milestones deemed necessary to ride by mainstream society, regardless of whether its destination aligns with an individual’s true desires.
As children, we see adults as people who have mastered the map of life. Only later do we learn that no one ever found the map — we’re all just stumbling forward together. It’s extremely easy to identify with this story’s protagonist who feels like a kid in an adult’s body, who went through all the motions, did everything they were told to, but still didn’t feel happy. It captures just how messy adulthood’s improv routine can be. Just like any good improv show, those who lean into it and follow their own rhythm usually leave the happiest at the end of the night, even if they leave a bit of chaos behind.
Beyond the story itself, Soejima Asuka does a great job of marrying the simplistic art style with the poetic story. The ease in which the eyes can take in the art allows the reader to focus more fully on the words, the events taking place, and the emotions they carry, which feels important in this kind of introspective story. It’s a story that feels extremely relevant to a wide swath of readers in current times.
The Bad:
This manga is short, just 32 pages long! Meet Me in the Unkept Garden absolutely manages to tell a complete and compelling story in that length of time, but part of it doing so comes from what happens after the reader is done flipping through its pages. It’s meant to provoke thought, to be sat with a while, maybe read over again, and even a third time, while pondering its contents. Still, it is particularly short, even for a one-shot.
Just like a poem, the story has bits of ambiguity, symbolism, and the dialogue is sparse at times. That’s not a knock against the manga by any means! It’s just not the kind of book for someone looking for a short little curious one-shot to read, which is worth mentioning so people don’t pick up Meet Me in the Unkept Garden expecting it to be something it isn’t.
The Verdict:
Meet Me in the Unkept Garden is the kind of book that if someone stumbled upon it in a Free Little Library, it might change their life forever. It packs more into its 32-page introspective love story than several full-length series manage to do with multiple volumes. It’s the kind of book that, if engaged with properly, will be something that sticks with the reader for a long time after and leaves them wanting to lend it out to their friends who may be facing their own struggles with adulthood so they can get the therapeutic benefits of its poetic illustrated pages.
Anyone who feels trapped by the expectations of life should give this book a try and see if they can get as much out of it as I did after reading it.
Meet Me in the Unkept Garden is available from the publisher Glacier Bay Books.
If you liked Meet Me in the Unkempt Garden, you might also like…
- Pink by Kyouko Okazaki
- To Strip The Flesh by Oto Tooda
- A Smart and Courageous Child by Miki Yamamoto
Credits:
- Writer and Artist: Soejima Asuka
- Translator: Molly Rabbitt
- Lettering: Lauren Eldon
- Editing: Emuh Ruh & zhuchka
- Design: Emuh Ruh
Thank you to Glacier Bay Books for providing a free copy of this manga. Receiving a free copy had no impact on the reviewer’s opinions.
Article edited by: Bill Curtis
The Good
- Poetic and enjoyable
- Simplistic but effective art
- Extremely relevant in current times
The Bad
- It’s extremely short
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