Comic Thoughts: Solanin
A while back I read "Goodnight Punpun" which was a horrifically depressing manga I could't put down. Solanin is a short work by the same author, and while it doesn't come near the depths of awfulness that Punpun reached, it still manages to hurt in a way that keeps you reading.
Solanin follows a group of post-graduate young adults finding their way in life, with the focus on Meiko, a woman who hates her job as an "office lady" and abruptly quits without any real direction or goals in life. She struggles with finding meaning, pushing up against her group of friends and boyfriend who all suffer from varying degrees of listless lack of direction.
It's a story about growing up and facing reality -- it manages to be depressing and uplifting at the same time somehow. There's a lot of reality in between the ennui-drenched pages, and a lot of hurt, but still there's hope.
I think reading this as an adult past my "figuring it out" phase (though my own phase was much less dramatic) is a very different experience than it would have been if I had picked it up while in university or earlier. I'm glad I picked it up now when the angst has subsided. In a weird way this read ended up very much in-phase with my reading of Keep the Aspidistra Flying on that front.
It's a short and bittersweet read that was worth the time.