This manga is a great mix of some of the humor from Princess Jellyfish and art a little bit like... Twin Spica? Or perhaps Saturn Apartments is what I’m thinking of. Also indie manga generally.
I’m a sucker for calm slice of life and strange found families living together under one roof, and this series hits all those marks very nicely.
Reading this story gives me another gentle reminder - and to all artists out there - that the stories you have to tell are far more important than your technical artistic “skill.” I wonder if manga differs significantly from novels in that sense... well, in both cases, I think as long as one’s art / words are legible to the reader so that the story or emotions or intent can come through, that’s the essential thing. I think for a lot of creators, whatever your medium, it’s too easy to let others tell you, or to let you convince yourself, that you’re not “good enough.” I can totally imagine someone saying that to the artist of this work, for some of the awkward elements of the art - “the proportions are weird, the heads are too big”, “the art looks clumsy”, whatever... but there are plenty of manga out there with much more technically “skilled” or “impressive“ art that didn’t move me anywhere near as much as this series has, or make me laugh as much - never mind make me look forward to the next volume.
And I think this kind of art has its own value in the world and lends this work its own personality and sentimentalism. I really like it.
I doubt it will ever see an official English release, but I wish it would, be a it would be lovely if more people could enjoy this author’s thought-provoking work.
Water flows to the sea- Naotatsu recently just moved to his uncle's house. And it turns out, the 26 year old lady living alongside him, Chisa bears a complicated relationship with Naotatsu. In the past, Chisa's mother eloped with Naotatsu's father, a double affair.
The art is lovely, it's very nice to look at and the story is heartwarming, I love the references the author put inside the work.