Solanin

If there is a manga that is so fitting for me right now, it's Asano Inio's Solanin.

This manga has been on my to-read list ever since I went to the Manga Realities exhibit a year ago. Maybe it's kismet that I read this now at a time when it echoes my own thoughts.

Solanin is a story about a twenty-something Meiko who is feeling aimless about her life, probably encountering the so-called quarter life crisis that plagues most of us during that age. She quits her job and, together with her live-in boyfriend Taneda and their group of college friends, decides to find the answers to what freedom, purpose, and happiness really means.

Here are some of the notable quotes from the manga:

Freedom without any purpose feels a whole lot like boredom.

The lyrics I struggled to create are only made up so I would have something to sing. Nothing genuine can come out of these flat and boring and ambiguous lives we're living, out of faking your worries for the sake of it.

It's because you haven't found that something you simply have to convey to people.

That's why we're using this moment to change the days spent using the rest of our lives to the the days building the rest of our lives.

But at times I remember that I'm making no contribution to society and I feel like the dead, someone who doesn't exist. It's terrifying. It keeps me up at night sometimes.

Manga Realities

I don't know many people who like to go to museums nowadays. It may be that our country hasn't got an impressive collection like in other countries, but young people today would rather go to malls or watch movies instead of paying to look at paintings and stuff.

I live a few blocks aways from Ayala Museum in Makati, yet I've only been there twice. The first time was with my friend, just to get it off the list of the things we always put off doing because it's always there. The second time was the day before my birthday to catch the Manga Realities exhibit.

I'm an avid fan of anime and manga. As soon as I saw Nodame on the poster, I immediately made up my mind to go.

I loved looking at Tomoko Ninomiya’s Nodame Cantabile exhibit because I simply love the series. This was the one that made me listen to classical music and watch those orchestra performances. Nodame is one of my favorite characters in manga/anime and her love story with music and Chiaki-senpai is just so wonderful.

Other series displayed in the exhibit were Harold Sakuishi’s BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad (which I'm currently watching and enjoying right now), Solanin (Asano Inio), Sugar Sugar Rune (Anno Moyoco), Children of the Sea (Igarashi Daisuke), Five Minutes from the Station (Kuramochi Fusako), Sennen-Gaho (Kyo Machiko), No. 5 (Matsumoto Taiyo), and The World God Only Knows (Wakaki Tamiki).

I discovered something from the exhibit and that was Kyo Machiko's Sennen-Gaho. 

 I looooove it! The work is very visual so you don't need to read Japanese to understand it. It's just a small comic that usually has a surprise in the end. 

 

Sorry for the sucky quality of the pictures. I was only using my (also) sucky phone. I didn't bring a camera because I wasn't sure if taking photos was allowed. But the author has already released a book of her previous works and it is now one of my wishes to have that book. For more of her works, check out her blog.

My second discovery was Solanin. I haven't read this one yet, but I'm planning to just basing on the words that were printed on the exhibit.

One of the best parts of the exhibit was the manga section. I almost cried when I saw their collection. Monster! Nodame Cantabile! Sennen Gaho! Ouran! All in English! So unfair! You can't read all those in just one museum visit!

Manga Realities sadly ends today, October 2. But the good thing is that all the manga is forever there in cyberspace, bookstores, and screens. There's a whole world out there that people might be missing because they think that manga is just comics for kids. I dare you to say that after reading Urasawa Naoki's works. It will blow. your. mind.

And now, a pic spam...

 Hehe... feeling like I'm part of the manga.

Somebody just had a decorating idea! (That somebody is me, btw)

I didn't steal this. Even though I want it. Badly.

And finally, my alone/selca shots using the secondary camera mode. Blurry!

***

Organized by the Ayala Museum and the Japan Foundation in cooperation with the Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito in Japan, the traveling exhibition Manga Realities: Exploring the Art of Japanese Comics Today will be on view at the Ayala Museum from 16 August to 2 October at the Ground Floor Gallery and at the Glass Lane and Luna and Amorsolo Rooms at the Third Floor.

Ayala Museum
The Japan Foundation, Manila