So a long time ago, I started reading this manga but fell off because I couldn’t find further translations. It was really beautiful, really fucking fantastic. Consistently made me weepy.
When I realized that it was made into an anime (and somehow no one licensed it for print in English yet…) I jumped in right away. The animation is great, fucking beautiful, and I present to you the second opening:
Now, I’m fucking crushed. I love it. The series makes me feel so much. A lot of people have said that they has to stop because they couldn’t deal with the art style, which is reminiscent of older manga from the 70s and 80s. The anime has tidied it up quite a lot:
Versus this spread from volume 1:
I truly think that anyone who was hesitant with regards to the artstyle should give it a second chance. It’s a show with all the shounen traits— belief in oneself, friendship, family ties— with amazing character arcs that make you realize a character is struggling and trying to overcome parts of themselves that they realize is not part of the person they want to become.
It’s also, uh, maybe younger kids should not watch it. It’s not shy about showing people spurting blood and all. Which you might have noticed in the opening above, if you watched it. The story was actually originally intended to be a children’s picture book but grew so big that the author turned it into a manga instead…
