For Immortal Children in the Galaxy

Immortality as a painful and lonely experience has been done to death at this point, but there was something charming about exploring this idea through the perspective of children. Forever young and innocent, curious and hopeful, an immortal child can never grow up. Pi and Makki have infinite time to be children, living in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity is gone. But to be forever trapped in youth has its complications.

Even through the melancholic and somber moments, the story retains this sweetness. And by no means would I say this is a fluffy story, but it’s… kinda cute I guess. Depressing shit happens and grief and loneliness might be eternal, but the love was there blah blah (or however that quote goes). The overarching themes about life and death were done pretty well and surprisingly never felt that heavy. At its core, I think the manga was a celebration of life’s fleeting beauty, an acceptance of death.

75 Days With Mimosa

Oniyama Mizuki’s artstyle absolutely slaps but sadly that’s where most of my praise ends for this manga. Not to say it’s completely horrible, the components of the manga itself are all things that appeal to me, but the execution fell flat. The pacing was the main issue. Three volumes just wasn’t enough time, and it kind of feels like we speedran the story.

It’s a shame since I feel like the concept had potential– yakuza, crime, blood, and two unlikely people trying to find happiness by forming a makeshift family. I was so ready for even a surface level dissection of the concept of family. To dive into this headspace of a kid who doesn’t quite understand family but is willing to do anything to attain his idealized notion of it, latching on so strongly to the first person he meets who is just as starved as he is. Mimosa might not understand family either, but she understands Shuuto, and that’s enough. But as the story unravels, maybe this bond formed out of shared longing actually isn’t enough. Shuuto must come to understand what truly makes or breaks family.

And while that sounds great, it was unfortunately lackluster. I couldn’t really get that invested in the characters. Shuuto goes through development at a rapid pace, basically every chapter he’s having some new epiphany. I can follow the trajectory of his character arc, but it just needed more fleshing out as a whole. Regardless, I fuck with the aesthetics ദ്ദി˙-˙ )✧