A 33 year old man in 1980 reminisces about the time in 1967 when he spent an unforgettable evening with a mysterious young woman on the overnight ferry to Kyushu. Despite being a fan of sci-fi, he finds her story difficult to swallow: though she looks 17 years old, she’s actually 3 billion years old! But is she yanking his chain - or is she really the embodiment of living memory of all life on Earth…?
Emanon, Volume 1: Memories of Emanon wasn’t bad. Just going by the cover and title, I was expecting a fairly generic romance manga so I was glad to be surprised by the sci-fi angle and I was engaged for most of the book. That said, not a whole heck of a lot happens which made it a less impressive read.
The set-up is cute: the overnight ferry is a new one and it was interesting to see how people travelled back in late ‘60s Japan (basically all crowded on an open plan deck). The chemistry between the young man and Emanon (“no name” backwards) is sweet, and the art is very detailed and appealing.
But besides the setup and the revelation of Emanon’s age, it’s a bit underwhelming that nothing much else happens. A lot of time is spent on Emanon talking about her past memories (it’s kind of a Russian doll-type story - the framing is a reminiscence that contains characters mostly looking back on the past) that didn’t add much and felt repetitive.
The ending provides an answer as to whether or not her story’s true but you kinda know already given how much space is taken up leaning in one direction. And it’s not the hammer blow ending I feel the creators thought it was going to be. It was more - and then…?, which is how I felt for most of the book.
Sci-fi angle aside, it’s really about the lives we could’ve led if different choices had been made when we were younger - who we’d be today if we were still with that person, etc. So it’s a very human story about regret, longing and mortality that most people will relate to and it’s those aspects that I liked the most about the book rather than the more far-fetched stuff.
A decent bittersweet romance story with a twist of sci-fi to liven things up, it’s a bit light in content but Emanon, Volume 1: Memories of Emanon was an ok read - I was never (too) bored but, unlike the narrator, I don’t see myself holding onto the memory of this one for very long.
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