Shimeji Simulation

humans have this strange idea that all movement in one's life can be spurred by a single epiphany. that one singular experience can change someone's entire outlook on life. it misconstrues, stretches, and distorts the value of true growth. growing as a person is earned through a variety of experiences, both good and bad. it's easy to twiddle your thumbs and wait for someone to come save you. it's hard to change your shape. shimeji simulation pushes the very boundary of what's possible with a 4-koma structure. it's confusing, adorable, heartwrenching, and miserable and will leave you stunned by the end.. all while asking a simplequestion about what it really means to exist. tkmiz has such an incredible talent that's showcased as well here as it is in their other works, being able to write so freely and seemingly endlessly about the confines of our existence. if girls' last tour is about the beauty in the absence of knowledge in life, then shimeji simulation is about the terrifying presence of the unknown. the work feels very personal from all angles, from all of shimeji's introspection to the scenery of loneliness drawn onto the pages. i get the feeling that being able to draw such abstract shapes and concepts is refreshing for tkmiz and that they're really able to express themself more through their art in this manga. it's such an evolution of the style present in GLT that i can't help but once again compliment the experimentation done with the shapes of everything: characters, backgrounds, objects and all. tkmiz has really outdone themself. the pitfalls of this manga lie in the fact that it takes a bit for the ball to really get rolling. you really need to put about ~10-20 chapters into this before things really start taking off, and the entire experience feels pretty favorable to the ending. it's a worthwhile ending at its core but some readers will have a hard time putting in the investment and that's why i can't recommend it to everybody. if you're really a fan of slice of life manga though, i'd really recommend this for its take and commentary on the formula. shimeji simulation is a manga, plain and simple. a manga about pushing the limits of what's possible in reality, our hollow loneliness, and the beauty of company. it's a commentary on singularity as human beings. it's an escher painting, penned with impossible complexities and probability and published by love. or.. was it a flounder? i can't remember.

It took me a long time to gather my thoughts about it. It's one of those which just hits in that cord you don't think you know. Was the entirety of the first act so entirely different from the second and third one? YES. If you asked me right after I finished the first section of this manga if I enjoyed it, I'd say many times that I didn't. It was cute girls asking questions about life, and things around them, and sporadically, it went on and on about the why of life and why we interact with others. Super long-winded, and completely unnecessary, right?… No. It wasn't completely unnecessary, and I'd argue, reading every aspect of this small friendship Shimeji has with her classmate, and enjoying how it builds, and how they both connect deeper than many people do, it was entirely necessary. I loved in retrospect everything the first section had, and it ties SO WELL to everything that comes afterwards. This is a story you'll love thinking about, even if some aspects felt, or feel, too slow. It's a mundane philosophical manga that eventually puts those philosophies to the test. When the manga finally shifts, and yeah, it shifts, something happens which changes EVERYTHING into one of the most creative, most insane manga you've ever read. But, when you start connecting every dot, and every element, it all goes back to the true theme of this story, on why we need… friends. The mystery and the reason the manga is named that way isn't relevant. Even if that maintained my attention through the first section, when it all crumbles away, the message lands so preciously on your mind. You'll remember that person who motivates you to keep moving forwards. Someone who didn't do a lot to change your everything, but they did, and you didn't know how much they did until the world around you allows you to appreciate it. Alongside Shimeji, all we experience is the Evangelion perspective on why we need to connect, why we're humans, and why it's so beautiful to exist in this world. I cried. I cried so much when I saw Shimeji by herself, potentially lost to the universe. When told you can be alone and survive, when told you can live your life in isolation, we should never take it. Not for some logical reason like “I hate people”, or how more safe it is, but because we deprive ourselves of love. This manga is unlike anything else I've read, unlike anything else I've seen. It doesn't hide its philosophy, rather it challenges you to get it through how the main character experiences it herself. We might experience things which at grand scale mean nothing, and the manga knows this, but it still gives us the tool to understand. Whatever happens in the universe doesn't matter, when our lives can be filled with love. If we can love each other, if we can find at least one person who we believe understands us, then life was worth it. To live a thousand, millions, or trillions of years, or just a few, it mattered if we found someone we think about when reading this manga. 10/10. Imperfect, yes, of course, but in its imperfections, it was perfect. Two masterpieces by the same person. Tsukumizu, you've created two of the greatest manga I've ever read.

Hidamari Sketch on mushrooms (on head). Cozy, silly and surreal, but with an ominous atmosphere, like something bigger is happening, something special and strange. I love that feeling, especially when told in Tsukumizu's style of depression-infused optimism. The low-effort panels are charming and great, and the high-effort panels are so wild and creative that it's worth buying the Japanese volumes for the artwork, even if you can't read it (like I did). The odd moments we spend in West Yomogi would be worth reading 49 chapters on their own, but there's an actual story as well, and it's so good. It builds into something bigger, with lots to thinkabout and interpret. The supporting characters are the best. They all bring their own charm and strangeness to a manga that's already charming and strange. If you're looking for a 10/10 niche manga and can handle moe blobs figuring out how to get along when reality itself seems to be malfunctioning, jump in. It's my #1 manga, if that matters. Read it twice and spread the good word of the egg and mushroom. Do your part so we can finally get English volumes to collect.

There isn’t another manga or experience out there quite like Shimeji Simulation. No matter who you are or what your interests are I think there is something here for you. Even if somehow upon finishing Shimeji find yourself dissatisfied or disappointed I don't think you will forget the experience that this manga is. Shimeji Simulation is my favorite manga of all time and I didn't even realize how much it affected me until I took the time to think about it. I used to think when it came to media that unless it fit my extremely specific criteria or niche I wouldn't look into it. Howevertime and time again I found series that I never expected to like and series that blew my expectations higher than I could've have imagined. One of those series being Fooly Cooly which seemed practically made for me, and Shimeji Simulation made me feel the same way. Everyone sees things differently and I haven't seen one person thats thinks about this manga the same as anyone else. When you read Shimeji Simulation you should find what you think the series means to you, even if it means nothing at all. Reading Shimeji Simulation changed the way I think about manga in that within a manga anything can happen and that you can find something in anything. Sometimes a series may look boring or uninteresting on the surface but you'll never know what you will miss if you don't give it that chance.