12 year old Yuta is given a phone to film his dying mother’s last days, the footage of which he turns into a documentary for a school project - and is soundly mocked for it by his peers. Dismayed by the reaction, he decides to kill himself by throwing himself off the roof of his school - which is where he meets the mysterious Eri who takes it upon herself to educate Yuta on films so that his next movie will be a crowd-pleaser. But Eri harbours a dark secret… or does she?
Tatsuki Fujimoto’s one-shot manga, Goodbye, Eri, is a bit of a head-scratcher. It has numerous twists and time-jumps so you’re never quite sure what you’re reading or how you’re meant to feel and the overall effect is slightly frustrated confusion. That said, it’s also original, keeps you guessing and is never too boring either, so I’m right in the middle with this one.
I’ll say SPOILERS for the rest of the review - for those of you thinking about checking this out, Goodbye, Eri is an easy enough read and fairly entertaining in its unusual storytelling style, so if you’re a manga fan and that sounds good, you’ll probably get something out of it - just don’t expect a satisfying ending!
The first part is schmaltzy but also touching and the severe left turn it takes is so very unexpected and kinda funny too. It’s an effective approach - to start with. The problem is that Fujimoto does this too many times throughout the narrative so that you don’t know what you’re meant to make of the whole thing.
Are we meant to see this as a criticism of how technology has warped our collective worldview (how Yuta can’t experience life besides through a camera lens)? Is the entire book one long movie (most of the panels are wide/short, like a phone tilted sideways, Eri tells Yuta that his next movie will tug on the heartstrings, which the part with Eri kinda does, and the book ends on an explosion, like Yuta’s first movie)? Something about how social media presents a lop-sided view of a person (Yuta’s mother was secretly physically abusive to him, Eri was kind of a bitch, but both were presented as angelic in Yuta’s movies about them)? Or do we go the literal route and believe that Eri really is a vampire?
Even if Fujimoto meant to convey any or all of the above, the effect is still underwhelming as none of those interpretations are especially meaningful or inspired. And the way that it’s left so ambiguously doesn’t help either, making it even less impressive. It’s like Fujimoto tried to be too clever for his own good and tangled himself up into knots. Maybe it’s the corny route, but the story might’ve been more powerful if he’d chosen a simpler narrative about young love, Yuta losing Eri but treasuring their time together through the movie he eventually makes about their relationship - might.
It could just be that Fujimoto only wanted to tell an entertaining story (doubtful given all the twists to make it more complex, but still) and he didn’t fail with Goodbye, Eri - I certainly think it’s better than his more popular but less compelling manga, Chainsaw Man. I don’t know how I’d categorise this one - slice-of-life, literary, mystery - but if you’re a manga fan who wants to try something a little different, Goodbye, Eri is worth a look.
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