Title: Sunny volume 1
Words and art: Taiyo Matsumoto
Publisher: Viz
Reviewed by John Anderson
There is a moment in Matsumoto’s science fiction epic Number 5 where one of the characters talks about what is most important to him: “The kids are playing on a hill bathed in sunset… Red bean soup and home baked bread on the table… The kids talk about their day… The sight of herons headed south… A mundane life… I’ll do everything I can to get that back.” It’s tempting to see this moment as a preview of his wonderful new book, Sunny.
But while Sunny is a sweet and thoughtful chronicle of the mundane events that make life worth living, it is also full of sadness. Its characters are children who live in a home because they have been separated from their parents. Sei vainly believes that his parents will come back for him. Kenji’s father is always drunk. Haruo doesn’t want to see his mother because when he does, he is just anxious about the moment when they will have to say goodbye.
