What a Wonderful World 2

Inio Asano – Vz – 2009 – 2 volumes

Wow.  I like this.  I like it a lot.  It’s just… it’s overwhelmingly positive.  Even when it has no right to be.  It’s got drama, and sadness, but in the end, the characters always find something to be happy about, which is just about the best message a story could possibly have.  I know I like to read soapy dramas, but I love seeing that kind of thing balanced out here.

In the end, I think I did like these stories better than Solanin.  Solanin was somewhat positive (though very, very sad) and had character development, but I can’t help but love the number of ways these stories illustrating… well, the characters just coming to terms with their lives and being happy, even if it doesn’t seem like they should be.  Guy who just lost his part-time job and fell down the stairs?  Well, he’s still alive, and so is that stray dog he saved the other day.  Guy who died unsatisfied because he only went from job to job looking for something more to his life, rather than just enjoying it?  He comes back to life satisfied, because… well, he’s alive again, and his girlfriend forgives his fickleness concerning work, and that’s enough.  Boy whose girlfriend succombed to a disease which makes a person like a vegetable for the rest of their lives?  He still has her, and she still appreciates the cherry blossoms, and hey, he just got a new part-time job.

As one of the characters put it, the characters in the stories aren’t heroes, just background characters.  And they’re all ultimately satisfied with that.  I thought the last chapters were especially appropriate ways to end the book.  The character who experienced his own death, then was given another chance by the shinigami, the little black dog that appears in almost all the stories in this volume that seems to mourn the death of the homeless man, and the last story, with the girl who “caught a disease” and no longer responded to events in the world… that story in particular was quite touching since her boyfriend simply takes it in stride, and cares for her and does what he can anyway.  We never seem him despair or complain.  He just does what he can to make her happy, including trips out to see the cherry blossoms and dinner conversation she is completely unaware of.

There’s not much else I can say in praise of these stories.  The simple pleasure I got from always reaching the end and seeing the bright side of the situation is one that I probably can’t adequately express, but just know it was fantastic.  I am forever Inio Asano’s fan now, and will be keeping an eye out for any future work.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.