Sunny, Vol. 2

Sunny #2

by Taiyo Matsumoto

The latest manga masterpiece from the Eisner Award-winning creator of Tekkonkinkreet.

What is Sunny? Sunny is a car. Sunny is a car you take on a drive with your mind. It takes you to the place of your dreams. Sunny is the story of beating the odds, in the ways that count.

It’s the brand-new masterwork from Eisner Award-winner Taiyo Matsumoto, one of Japan’s most innovative and acclaimed manga artists. Translated by Tekkonkinkreet film director Michael Arias!

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels, Japan, Seinen, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

216 pages, Hardcover

First published February 29, 2012

About the author

See also: 松本大洋 and 松本 大洋

Although Taiyo Matsumoto desired a career as a professional soccerplayer at first, he eventually chose an artistic profession. He gained his first success through the Comic Open contest, held by the magazine Comic Morning, which allowed him to make his professional debut. He started out with 'Straight', a comic about basketball players. Sports remain his main influence in his next comic, 'Zéro', a story about a boxer.

In 1993 Matsumoto started the 'Tekkonkinkurito' trilogy in Big Spirits magazine, which was even adapted to a theatre play. He continued his comics exploits with several short stories for the Comic Aré magazine, which are collected in the book 'Nihon no Kyodai'. Again for Big Spirits, Taiyo Matsumoto started the series 'Ping Pong' in 1996. 'Number Five' followed in 2001, published by Shogakukan.

Source: Lambiek website bio .

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sunny really starts to hit its stride with this volume. The first was alright, but now that we're familiar with the characters and the general vibe of the Star Kids Home it starts to explore that more. Kenji wanting to leave and do something more, Sei reluctantly accepting his place in the home while dreaming of his mom rescuing him, Haruo... Haruo is my favourite part of this volume. He finally gets to visit his mom and spends the whole time wishing she would let him stay. The final two chapters of this volume are gut-wrenchers and show how much more there is to Haruo than the loud-mouth brat you see in most other chapters. Complete with Matsumoto's heaving shading and beautiful character work, Sunny is really shaping up to be something special.

[Moira Macfarlane · Rating 5 out of 5]

bittersweet

[Remxo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most, if not all of Matsumoto's stories are about childhood. He draws the world seen through the eye of a child. Sunny is arguably his most personal work, as the story and characters are loosely based on his own experiences growing up in a home with a bunch of other kids from age 7. Like the kids at the Star Kids Home in Sunny, Matsumoto was only allowed an hour of tv a week. To escape daily life at the home, Matsumoto retreated into a rich inner fantasy world. And it's this imaginary world that provided him with the source material for his oeuvre as a manga artist.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sienen manga (aimed at men over 18) continues on with six more chapters which are more like vignettes than any sort of continuous story. Each chapter, like the first volume concentrates on one foster child and we, the reader, are getting to know the personalities and deeper heartaches of these children. A few of the children are beginning to stand out as main characters but still new ones manage to be featured as well. Each story hits upon a sad theme: realization of abandonment is a strong one in this book, others are also explored but while the stories are heavy, and bittersweet; they are never depressing. They show children's resilience and in this volume we also get a good inside take on one of the men who runs the foster home. These are poignant tales, a bit rough, and not with much of a plot or any action. It is all pure character driven and I'm becoming genuinely fond of all these lost children. The book itself is also handsome; being a quality hardcover with the first few pages of each chapter being full colour. Really looking forward to the next volume.

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second volume is stronger than the first - or maybe it's just that the overall story is deepening and the characters are becoming more familiar. Lots of impressive moments throughout and eager to see where this goes.

[Damon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huruo with the white hair visits his cold mother in Tokyo. Lovely story with a great pace.

[Livietta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inizia ad ingranare. Infatti mi spiace non avere già il terzo e il quarto a disposizione, ordinati in biblioteca.
Le storie di questi ragazzini sono veramente ben tratteggiate, questo volume ruota molto intorno ad Haruo, il ragazzino coi capelli bianchi della copertina del primo volume, il teppistello buono.

[Moka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Da strapparsi i capelli.

[Atefeh · Rating 5 out of 5]

لی اوت گرید ها رو توی این ولوم خیلی دوست دارم، به ویژه چپتر آخر! چشم نوازه.

[King]

Devastating

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Six more stories of the Star Kids (foster) Home, loosely connected, beautiful rendered. Sad. Feelings of abandonment, though there's also some sweetness, and kid strength. More tone-driven rather than plot-driven. Sei's and Haruo's personalities are developed, deepened, in this volume.

Maybe the best two stories are the last, and maybe the very best is about Haruo's visit to his birth mother in Tokyo. Pretty heart-breaking, but it's not too depressing, finally. And not sappy or manipulative, given the subject. It's more evocative than didactic.

[Sole · Rating 5 out of 5]

soy una romántica y mis historias favoritas son todas las que buscan un destello de amor y esperanza en medio de la más brutal de las realidades y los gestos más egoístas, sin perder nunca el sentido de la realidad. sunny es todo eso.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

As if it were even possible, this volume's even better than the first. We get more intimate insights into Sei's and Haruo's personalities. Poignant stuff for sure.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking, marvelous

[Isabela Moreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost cried reading this one especially during Haruo's stay with his mom. Very touching.

[Bogi Takács]

I liked this one even better than the first volume, but I'll probably only post about the series next once I've finished it; which might take a while, because the library doesn't have the last two volumes.
_____
Source of the book: Lawrence Public Library

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fucking heartbreaking dude.

[Daniel Andreu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha roto un poco el corazón la historia de Haruo y sí madre.

[Thurston Hunger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another visit to the Star Kids' orphanage or home or refuge. The initial stories focus on lies told to and by the children, but the latter half of this volume centers on Haruo, who would stand out even without his shock of white mop of hair. He has a very tough fragility, or maybe fragile toughness.

Or maybe just a strong survival response to whatever is thrown his way.

He visits his working/exhausted Mom. She's not ready to be a mom, and prefers her son call her Kyoko. Could be an echo of Matsumoto-san's own origin story. Or not.

Once again in a tale of children who are lost metaphorically, a child gets literally lost as Haruo goes on a baseball adventure. The kindness of random adults as much as the confidence of our anti-hero Haruo keeps him afloat. That and the scent of Nivea.

Great artwork, and nice small/large embracing of characters.

[Vittorio Rainone · Rating 5 out of 5]

La storia prende più consistenza e colpisce di più. Perchè al di là del chiacchiericcio perenne, dei bisticci e del frastuono dell'istituto di Sunny, conosciamo già meglio i protagonisti e sentiamo di più quello che sentono. I capitoli su Haruo sono molto belli, così come bellissima la parentesi del nuovo bambino che sembra destinato a restare, come gli altri, ma dopo poco viene ripreso dai genitori, e che ci consente di ripetere la dinamica di Sei, per poi portare un forte carico di delusione e disillusione (in noi e) in tutti i suoi ipotetici compagni di sventura. Lasciati a se.
Sunny si conferma un lavoro peculiare, poetico, coinvolgente. E i disegni, scabri ed emozionali, ma non privi di dettaglio, sono la ciliegina sulla torta.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of Taiyo Matsumoto's Sunny continues the excellence from the first volume, though I'm even tempted to say the series hits a new gear with this volume. Familiarity with the wide cast of characters allows Matsumoto to dig deeper into the lives of the various kids of the Star Kids Home, both inside the Sunny and out of it. Kenji, Sei and Haruo all get their shine here, but Haruo's story is definitely the most touching as we get insight into his home life previous to his time at the orphanage. There's a lot to parse about why Haruo is the way he is and Matsumoto delivers the emotional punches hard here. It's odd to call the second volume of a six volume series "pivotal", but this is really the entry that establishes this series as an all time great manga.

[JaumeMuntane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reseña global a los seis volúmenes

Un grupo de niños, abandonados u obligados por varias circunstancias a estar lejos de sus familias, viven en una casa de acogida.
Mostrando momentos de la vida de estos niños, Matsumoto nos ofrece un retrato emotivo: sus deseos, sus miedos, sus circunstancias que les han marcado....Ternura, inocencia, dureza, melancolía o imaginación plasman cada una de las viñetas, con un halo poético, que hacen un manga único y especial.
Mención especial al gran dibujo y a Sunny, viejo coche que se convierte en un oasis y puerta a la imaginación para huir momentáneamente de la dura realidad.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second volume of Taiyo Matsumoto's Sunny is an intermediary development in the overall narrative, as the author begins to probe his core protagonists in more depth. In this installment, we learn particularly the story of Haruo, the borderline "angry child", and his complicated relationship with his mother (who seems to be little inclined to take any role in raising him). It seems clear that Matsumoto is still laying the groundwork, given that there are four more volumes left to complete the series.

[Muhammad Rajab Al-mukarrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This manga won Shogakukan Manga Awards so we knew it must be good tho. And yet it’s really good.

I love how Taiyo made the different stories for each chapter and effortlessly made it so heartwarming. The part of Haruo met his mother—who asked him not to call her “mom” but call her by her name, Kyoko—making me realized how strong Taiyo could build a story of this manga.

[freckledbibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

My heart goes out to Haruo and all the kids in the group home. Unfortunately, this book is a harsh reality for many kids. You have children who want to be loved by their parents, but something or someone is allowed to get in the way of that. The discarded child is then forced to be someone else to mask their pain. Hurt people, hurt people.

[elif sinem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the dramatic subplots here - Kenji and Haruo in particular - really hit the spot in both their tenderness and their aching understatement of it all, and the art buoys it to something grander and charming but almost loose in turn. I don't have much hope that this series will bring all the disparate threads together but I'm starting to think that doesn't really matter anyway.

[Litos · Rating 4 out of 5]

En el segundo volumen de Sunny, Matsumoto sigue escribiendo historias trágicas y preciosas con una precisión y una delicadeza envidiables. Y como ya conocemos a los personajes, estas se vuelven más duras y tristes. Muy recomendado.

[gogo chloé · Rating 5 out of 5]

tellement triste à lire, mais tellement réconfortant aussi…
le pouvoir de taiyou matsumoto…
haruo, mon chéri, ne culpabilise pas, tu as le droit d’être énervé, tu es le plus légitime au monde, de t’exprimer de cette façon

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously shattering. One of few books that have done that to me.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like the 1st volume, there were things I didn't particularly like, but this story is so beautiful and I can't wait to see how it unfolds. Four more to go!