One Room of Happiness

What a ride Sachi-iro no One Room was, starting off strong and continuing to do so for a while. It's an emotional ride that doesn't exactly make you sad to the point of crying, but for you to empathize and understand what types of relationships there are. After finishing this manga, I can confidently say... It's good, but almost completely ruined by the ending. Crazy that other reviewers only read 3 chapters or so and make a full review on a manga, but I'll try to write this diligently. Story: 7 As I've said, the story starts off in a way that hooks you immediately. You startwondering why she's hurt, why he kidnapped her, and why she's fine with it. The story continues in this psychological manner that slowly molds and gives you small pieces both from the inside with the characters, along with the outside world slowly, we see the progression with time from their situation. Especially later on as the story slows down, you get to see these characters changing due to their environment and other, outside interactions. It's not exactly a Stockholm Syndrome kind of setting or story. I won't go too deep into it, but immediately you'll see why. There are still critiques I'd like to bring up. I'm going to bring up a few early points. The bullying plus abuse doesn't really make much sense and should've been delving deeper into it. They did at some points add a few more characters to help with the "bullying" topic, but felt out-of-place, as if the author wrote themselves against a wall, and needed to add more characters to make the story more engaging. For example, they met one other character in a similar situation purely by coincidence, and also coincidentally helped one of our main character's gather their resolve because of that. I can't really get into many spoilers, but I think it does a bit poorly around that topic. It also gets a bit shaky at a few plot points where you'd need to suspend your disbelief. There are also moments of not much happening for a few chapters. Obviously to build things up and to dive deeper into the characters, but sadly didn't always meet expectations. Hard not to spoil, especially a few chapters toward the ending, but sadly the manga took a nose dive by a certain action in the manga. Luckily, most of the manga has been written remarkably well and entertainingly so. Yet, there was a moment that felt very unjustified, and especially felt like the author wrote themselves into a corner. It wasn't a horrible thing, heck, we expected the manga not to end up in perfectly. Even throughout the early chapters, it was foreshadowed to end in tragedy, and one of our main character would try to lighten that up, no matter what. Despite being foreshadowed, the issue is for me, how it happened. Being foreshadowed should live up to it, not to show a knife in the background multiple times, and have you expect it to be satisfying to have a knife suddenly hit you. It's as if in Romeo and Juliet, the deaths caused was by one of their families throwing knives at them both. Sure, the theme and metaphor would still make sense. You'd still feel the out-of-place situation if a knife suddenly got thrown. It takes you out of the story, not because it happened, but that there's a knife's existence, and the reason why it was the cause in the first place. I need to remind this point; it's not the situation of the ending that's the problem - it's how it was handled. The execution, for me, just didn't sit right. And while the author did well in pulling you back in, at the end of the day, it was still a cheap way of doing it. Despite that, the author did really well trying to wrap it up. Essentially and to simplify the issues I had, it felt like the author, for all the foreshadowing, had it noted. Sadly, that also wrote themselves into a wall. Despite that, I respect the author for following it through. The idea for the ending is great, but the execution for it is less, as it ruins both a character, somewhat simplify the messages and themes. Characters: 7.5 Our two protagonists are incredibly interesting with how they're written. They are inseparable due to their situation, but also in the sense of dependence and reliance on each other. We start off seeing how broken these two characters are, slowly getting pieces of puzzles with each chapter what they've gone through, and what they became. We also see how the early chapters; the dependence, and reliance with each other start to become toxic. Having re-read it, you see dialogues that show how much they built it up, in addition to the foreshadowing. It's also fun to read throughout, that the characters cope through comedy. At some level it's a bit unnatural, but it still makes sense and not random. Their ways of conversing especially makes the manga interesting, as it shows more of the cracks. In the beginning, it feels childish but somehow fits into this eerie feeling. It builds upon their characters and shows that they are still humans living at the moment, something that they didn't have. Later on, the dialogues and thoughts almost feel philosophical, where they discuss in a deeper and more realistic approach how their relationship and existence impact others and themselves. As the story progresses, it becomes less "light-hearted", and much more tense. With the mystery unravelling and our kidnapper and girl start changing for the better, we see them able to stand up for themselves and become more genuine with themselves. We get to see other characters as well, which adds more and impacts their relationship dynamic, situations, and decisions. The other characters have a few clichés, and some that really doesn't really exist much but to serve a purpose. They definitely still bring something into story and especially our two protagonists. It's fun to read how our main characters react and bounce with everything that's happening. Smaller pieces that I found interesting are the public's reactions to it all; how they get used and constantly swayed. Sadly, later on, it does lose a bit of purpose and is relegated to only that, but overall I think it's a nice touch to have. One of the biggest issues I found, a few characters get a bit side-lined or almost forgotten such as the father, but this is due to both the rushed later chapters of the story, and also because another character that has been secretly revolved around - the mother. Once they fully introduce the mother, we start to understand just how nasty she is. She starts off incredible, with a weird air of mystery as if she's everywhere watching our victim as if she's an omnipotent being. This might be a bit spoiler-ish, so be careful reading further. Sadly, it all comes crashing down - the mother as a character, along with the nonsensical death of another character. Portrayed as a smart individual, the mother makes weird decisions in the latter part, that feel rushed along with the story. Then, for some reason as if it was needed, trying to explain why she did such things and why she was like this, in just barely a chapter. Having a grandiose villain, explained in a single chapter for a backstory, is just cheap. No matter how you twist in saying that it makes sense for her actions, there's just no sprinkling of her as a character. Just a sudden drop. The mother as a character completely twists the story in a way that, while not ruining the theme and story, definitely twists it as well. Her existence is fine; great even for the story. You genuinely get pissed off at her, but also a mysterious and terrifying presence. This illusion is quickly broken, and the fault sadly lies within the rushed writing. Her actions, later on, felt very much out of place, and sudden. This plays very well into the foreshadowing, you expect that the ending parts not being perfect and beautiful. But the issue is how it happened. I can't give the Characters section more than what it deserves, mostly due to this, as she plays too large of a role later on in how the story cheapen itself by the ending. Art: 6 The art compliments this eerie feeling with the manga's atmosphere, along with the characters' expressions. While the art style is the typical anime/manga look you've seen before, the artist does pay attention to the character's faces and their subtle expressions that often lead to interpretation, although their inner monologues do help lead and hint at what they were currently feeling. One large critique I have is towards a "detective". While obviously, they look young for a reason, I really don't think it was needed to make cheap jokes. There is also a little bit of the same face syndrome these characters has, as if to make all of them "handsome" in some way. It doesn't make it so you can't tell which characters are who with the help of distinct characteristics, along with only having a few characters introduced at a time. Overall: 7 Despite my complaint in the later parts, I can still recommend this manga to those that enjoy an emotional thrill or can relate to such situations. The art, while nothing crazy, does its job and does it well, to compliment the story and characters. Our two main characters showed how you could find hope in each other, but also ride the line of overreliance, in additions to the themes of self-love, abuse, and much more - which is done well through the conversations and internal monologues. I'd still recommend this manga to some, but I can completely understand if people get put off later on. Overall, it was an enjoyable ride with really interesting characters put in unique situations.