The Golden Sheep

Kin no Hitsuji is about change and growth. Both are essential aspects of life for most of us, which causes the story to be relatable. The four main characters are stuck in their past and are suffering because of it. In general, this is a good story. Tsugu is the force that brings about changes and development in the plot. She's energetic, upbeat, naive, and strong ( mentally). She lives in a house of women: If I recall correctly, the family is made up of her mother, her sister, and two little girls (her sister's daughters, I believe). I highlighted that to show Tsugu issurrounded by independent women and therefore is one of them. It's an essential quality for the series. I'll explain better. However, Tsugu and her friends are all stuck, she's the one who actively faces the problem and tries dealing with the situation and eventually cause the others to do the same. Their problem is not the biggest or the most serious in the world. One could think, "oh, that's silly, they're overreacting..." and it wouldn't be wrong, but I think that's what relates to us, average problems that most of us have experienced or, for the younger ones here, are still experiencing. However, the core of their difficulties relates to all of us, regardless of age. The story doesn't delve into the characters, and the reason is that I think they are too many for such a short story. Still, I do believe it's enough to enjoy the story. Now, about Love Letter, the great one-shot that comes with it: This is a pretty impressive view of the subject of love. For such a short story, it manages to make good characters and a great quality plot. Love letter chooses to show the big picture, showing the gray areas in our concept of good and evil. At the end of the story, I felt sadness and pity for the main characters. When I saw the situation that leads Asako to despair, it was difficult to classify her as evil or good. Like most of us, she`s someone in the middle, making her a person deserving the reader`s attention and care. (I`m not trying to justify her actions) As an average person, when pushed to the edge, it`s evident that her story wouldn`t end up well. On the other side, Tomoya`s (had to look for his name; it appears only once in the story, rsrs) love for her mother (Asako) amazed me. It`s Love with a capital letter. We can`t classify that as a love of mother and son or between friends or any sort. It`s love truly beyond form and limit. It`s caring at the utmost level, and it`s a choice. This love is wholesome, beautiful, and sad—the meeting and matching of two souls.

This is going to be my 1st review, but I feel obliged to do so, as this manga has torn me apart this much (one of the only ones to bring a tear to my eye). From an outsider's point of view, this is a classic romance/friendship manga. The drawings, magnificent and rather cheerful in appearance, could not have made us doubt for a second that the author would talk about so many serious subjects in just 16 chapters. But despite the fact that the story talks about all these subjects, the author's intended message was this: Renewal, but above all forgiveness and rebirth. Every characterhas suffered the consequences of his or her actions, even if it was through the actions of others. All the characters were relatively well-developed and complex, despite the series' length. Let me conclude by saying that I highly recommend this series, which will take you through every possible emotion. Don't get hung up on preconceptions or the drawings, and throw yourself into this story, which I'm sure will leave a lasting impression on you =D

This manga had a lot going for it. Its story is something that appeals to me a lot. The idea of your friends not being the same people as they were when you left is something I feel like I'd like t see explored more in ways similar to this. I won't say it's the most unique structure, but it definitely is engaging. Not to mention, it even went the whole running away on an adventure to become stronger plotline which is almost like an instant appeal point to me. That said, my overall feelings on this manga were a lot more mixed, sometimes negative.I'll start off with positives about this manga first because I want to be able to show that there is value to be found here and it isn't a 6/10 for me because it's mediocre all around. Edit: actually tbh 4/10 haha after letting it sit in I did not like it. First of all, the art is very good. There's a certain flare to the expressions of the characters that makes it evident what they're thinking or feeling without any dialogue boxes used. You find something as simple yet effective as this most commonly in larger, more important scenes in most manga, but this is one of the few that does it consistently even during the smaller moments. Next, I think the general story is good. I explained at the beginning why I feel like this manga ahs story beats that immediately appeal to me. It's still a bit iffy in execution which I'll get to later, but the very structure of the story I think was good and made for some decent developments to occur. And last notable positive, Sora and Tsugu are good characters. Their struggles, guilts, everything all make sense within the scope of the story and most of the decisions they make (key word being most) are all in line with such. And on to the negatives, which is conveniently right after I talk about the two good characters in the story, because the other two of the main, sick girl and boxer(can't be bothered to write their names) are downright horribly written. Not only are they horribly written, but their dynamic with the two good characters I mentioned earlier sours my taste for even them, as it sort of muddles the point of their arcs. Spoilers incoming. Both the sick girl and boxer are just downright horrendous people. I'll start with boxer first. The concept of his character is that he used to be a nice, upstanding kid, but after he started to get bullied due to his dad getting into a pedo scandal(which btw also makes it hard to sympathize with the dad when that's what they decided to make his scandal. They should've chose something more forgivable or make him a victim of false accusation if they wanted to portray him as sympathetic, but that's very subjective I guess.) Anyway, in desperation he asks Sora if he wants to go boxing with him, but Sora, not understanding at the time that it was a cry for help, declines. Eventually, when they get to high school, Boxer turns Sora into his and his group of delinquents' punching bag. The guilt Sora feels after realizing that he pushed Boxer away first is a really good motivation that explains why he takes the beatings and literal physical abuse(they throw darts at his back) without any resistance. However for Boxer, this just makes him all the more look like a bad person. Doesn't help that he was about to throw a rock at an innocent dog that wasn't even attacking him. For me at least that is enough to make him almost irredeemable. Actually when you stack the shit he did to Sora yeah definitely unforgivable. Even so though, if the author wanted to make it so that the group forgives him, they should've put a lot more effort in doing so. To my memory, not once does he apologize or feel genuine remorse for the things he put Sora through, which may I remind you includes MAKING HIM ATTEMPT TO KILL HIMSELF. And then there's sick girl. Always jealous everyone got to hang out while she was sick. And eventually by the time we reach present day she starts to bully and go along with the plan to exclude Tsugu from their group because she's jealous that she's getting closer to Boxer when she knows she's in love with him. Eventually when she's left alone in school the other girls start to bully her (for the same reason she bullied Tsugu) whatever whatever. She wasn't just fucking boring but she was also a total prick for no reason. I abhor this character and she gets away with her behavior with even less scratches than Boxer. At least Boxer got socked in the face and his ass handed to him by a pro boxer and his fellow delinquents. This girl gets bullied, yes, which is bad, but she never has to face her sins to the people she wronged. Not in any meaningful way at least. Which makes the rushed conclusion so much worse. I like the idea of spending more chapters having the characters mend each other's relationships. They don't need to fully forgive but I just need them to be able to develop a bit more instead of accepting things from the get go. Author had the right idea to make Sora dislike Boxer for most of the story and refuse to help him, but it doesn't feel like it pushes through ever. Overall this manga is a victim of having two severely mishandled characters ruin a lot of the emotional core and developments it had set up. It was too rushed and the destination, while fine in a vacuum, came in far too soon for it to have a genuine positive effect. Do I recommend this manga? Well sure, it has a lot of interesting story beats still. I just personally found it too distasteful in how it treats forgiving two of the characters that it soured most of my experience in the latter half of the manga. 6/10