VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia
CARTOONIST: Taiyo Matsumoto
TRANSLATION: Michael Arias
LETTERS: Deron Bennett
ISBN: 978-1-4215-5969-8; hardcover (April 2014); Rated “T” for “Teen”
215pp, B&W, $22.99 US, $26.99 CAN
Sunny is a Japanese slice of life manga series written and illustrated by Taiyo Matsumoto. It was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine, Monthly Ikki, from December 2010 to September 2014 and in Monthly Big Comic Spirits from January to July 2015. VIZ Media published an English-language edition of the manga as a full-color, hardcover, graphic novel series under its VIZ Signature imprint from May 2013 to November 2016. Sunny is set at the orphanage, Star Kids Home, where there is a car called “Sunny,” a place where the children find solace.
Sunny, Vol. 3 (Chapters 13 to 18) opens with a visit from Nishita, a former resident of Star Kids Home. Now, an adult, he wants to apologize for a terrible incident he started years ago that brought harm to Granpa, who heads the orphanage.
Next, Megumu decides to attend a party with a group of friends from school who live with their parents. Her Star Kids “siblings” are not crazy about that, and Megumu feels conflicted. Also, a TV station news crew visits Star Kids Home, and two brothers recall a visit to see their sick mother.
THE LOWDOWN: The Sunny manga reads like an honest account of children adapting to life away from their parents and in an orphanage. I often find myself racing through shonen manga in order to keep up with the action. I also find myself fighting the urge to jump ahead when I read Sunny. It is a character drama that is vivid and alive, and creator Taiyo Matsumoto makes me chase his narrative, as if it were shonen.
Sunny is heartbreaking and poignant, but it is even more upbeat and positive. Matsumoto depicts the children of Star Kids as being imaginative and open to new possibilities. Some may want their lives before Star Kids to come back, but that does not mean they won’t make the best of their new lives. It’s a lesson we could all learn.
I READS YOU REVIEW: Fans of the manga of Taiyo Matsumoto will want Sunny.
A-
7.5 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You and Revised: Thursday, September 17, 2020
The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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