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.

We Were There 4

Wow.  This is like Sand Chronicles if it were about a hundred times sadder and somewhat more realistic.  Sand Chronicles is pretty good about portraying bittersweet moments in adolescence, but there is a lot of suspension of disbelief that goes on in that series, at least for me.  We Were There… I never have to wonder why the characters are doing certain things.  I can see that Yano is kind of a jerk to Nana because he’s selfish, and that Nana sticks with Yano because she loves him and can forgive him that.  Regardless of what happens, they will both be there for each other.  Nana is the one making most of the sacrifices though, since she’s more sensitive to Yano’s feelings than he is of hers.

Of course, there is the specter of Yano’s old girlfriend Nana hanging over the couple.  This is dealt with extremely realistically.  Yano isn’t constantly bringing up Nana-san (the story uses the “san” when talking about the older Nana) as an excuse to act the way he does.  Normally it’s someone else that brings up Nana-san, though you can see how her death what he says and does in Nana-chan’s presence.  It’s not stated explicitly, which I like.  I love it when series trust the reader to draw obvious conclusions.  There’s lots to be said about subtlety, especially in a series like this.

I’m also glad that Yano isn’t a total jerk.  He is somewhat sensitive to Nana-chan’s feelings, and when he acts out, he always apologizes afterwards and says he understands what he did wrong.  He also tells the truth to Nana-chan about something he probably would have been better off hiding.  It hurts her, but he did it in order to be as honest as possible in an effort to make their relationship work on trust.  The way he breaks this little bit of news to Nana is also handled in the most amazingly tasteful way possible, and it really conveys absolutely everything tragic and nice about the act.

More than anything, though, I like how the story goes about portraying the love between Nana-chan and Yano.  They both love each other and nobody else.  This is never questioned.  There is no cheating, and the only real problem with their relationship is Nana-san, who is dead.  The fact that I know Yano loves Nana-chan very much does a lot to make me forgive him when he’s being selfish.

The end of the book… Nana-chan brings up Nana-san and forces Yano to talk about her.  This conversation is exactly why everyone should lay off Yano about Nana-san’s death.  I cried a little about the outcome, and I sincerely hope things will get better next volume.

I know I said a lot of nice things about Sand Chronicles, but this series takes Sand Chronicles and does it better.  Sand Chronicles forces its sandess, whereas this just has the sadness welling off of every page.  I’ve never seen a dramatic series like this one with such well-written characters and emotions.  There is simply nothing as bittersweet as We Were There.