We Were There 5

This book ended on the worst cliffhanger in the history of manga.

That is all.

Not really.

The story ended in a horrible place, and I was initially upset that the last quarter or so of the book was a short story, but thankfully it’s a story about Motoharu and Take and their friendship.  I really appreciated the background on the two of them after the main story in this volume.

So, if it wasn’t immediately apparent by my anguish in these last two reviews, Yano and Nana-chan are going through some rough times.  Take and Yano are fighting over Nana in this volume, and the relationship between the two is handled beautifully.  While it’s always been apparent that Take would try and move in on Nana at some point, he seems to be doing it as a method to spur Yano into action and out of his depression about losing Nana… later in the book, the motives aren’t so clear, though.  Actually, the motives are always clear, but things are very, very serious when the book ends.

The friendship between Motoharu and Take has been in the background of the series since the first volume, but I really, really appreciated the short story that shed light on just how much the two boys mean to each other.  Take says it best at one point when he mentions that he knows Yano better than his own family… and, well, we learn that neither women nor deeply offensive insults really get between the two.  It lets you know just how shaky things are where the story leaves off here.

Also notable is the fact that, while Yano is emotionally at rock bottom, he doesn’t break down and cry.  Most series would have had him in tears long ago, but… not this one.  I kept waiting for it, and it didn’t come.  Of course, in other series, tears would be used as a substitute for actually conveying the emotions (a character cries because he is sad/to let the reader know they are very sad, if that makes sense), whereas here the crushing despair is wafting off every page.

I want Yano and Nana back together stat, even though it somehow always feels bad when they’re together.  That is the magic of We Were There.  Even with all the sadness, the genuine love those two share comes across loud and clear, and I would like nothing more than to see the two of them pull through and be as happy as they always look on the covers of the books.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.