It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons. ~Johann Schiller
Genre: Mystery/ Drama/ Seinen
Review Status: Full (3 Volumes/ 3 Volumes)
Licensed: Unlicensed in the US
Art: The characters look like vaguely cartooned-versions of people you would meet on the street. Very nice, and very appropriate for the story. The art is consistently good.
Summary: “Takeda is diagnosed with cancer and feels that he has nothing to live for. Hopeless, he decides to end his life. But when he is about to hang himself, the phone rings: the police have just found the corpse of his daughter, Sawako, who disappeared more than 14 years ago. Under Japanese law, the statute of limitations for murder only lasts 15 years. Takeda has only six months left: six months to live, six months to find his daughter's killer and deliver him to the authorities. After 14 years of silence and obscurity, the family ties are reborn...” (ANN.com)
Review: This is a story of a man’s search for justice for his daughter. Takeda starts out as a man who believes that he has nothing to live for, since the disappearance of his daughter and subsequent loss of his wife means he no longer has family. When he is diagnosed with a fatal cancer, the same type that killed his wife very slowly and painfully, he believes that the best way to end the pain is to die. However, he is reinvigorated with a desperate will to live when he finds out that the police have found the body of his long-missing daughter, and the statue of limitations on her murder will run out in six months- the amount of time he is estimated to have left to live.
This is as much a story about his finding the will to live on as it is a story about a man who is desperately trying to find his daughter’s killer before time runs out. There are times when it doesn’t seem like he’s going to make it, times when it seems impossible for him to keep on going, but he does. The art is very well done, bringing to mind the works of Naoki Urasawa. The story is very engaging, gripping at times. There are times when the clues to her murder seem contrived, but it doesn’t really detract from anything. There is also a bit of a time-jump, however, that is because there is a period of time where no new information is found. There are intriguing twists to the story, wonderful characters, and an ending as heartwarming as any.
Overall, this is a very good manga. Perhaps not the best mystery manga, perhaps a little on the short side, but awesome nonetheless.
Recommended: Yes. This is a beautiful manga, with lots of drama and twists to the story. I’d recommend 12 and up due to the somewhat graphic violence, but if they can handle CSI or NCIS, they can handle this.
Other series you might like: A Distant Neighborhood (manga),
Detective Conan (manga or anime),
Quest for the Missing Girl (manga),
Flat (manga),
Bunny Drop (manga)
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