Tag: nostalgia

What It Means to Live – Hirayasumi – Manga Review

I’m a glutton for slice-of-life manga, and Keigo Shinzo’s Hirayasumi now ranks amongst my favorites in this genre.

A quick disclaimer: the manga is not yet complete, and I have only read the first seven volumes.

So, let’s get straight to the meat of it. What does “hirayasumi” mean? The word is actually a portmanteau of two Japanese words: hiraya, which means a single-story house, and yasumi, which means rest or break. The title of the series is, in fact, a literal reflection of the story’s main ethos, which is all about living a slow, peaceful, and carefree life. Our main characters, Hiroto and Natsumi, are cousins who live together in this cozy one-story home.

Hiroto inherits the house from Hanae Wada, an 81-year-old woman with whom he becomes acquainted and whom he affectionately calls “Granny.” The logic of an old woman giving away her inheritance for an acquaintance doesn’t make sense, and is the bait that drives you into Hiroto’s daily life. Within the walls of this one-story home, we get to indulge in Hiroto’s day-to-day exploits alongside his cousin, the people they befriend, and the unique circumstances that shape their lives.

Peppered throughout the story are flashbacks that capture Hiroto’s time with Wada and help inspire him to move forward with his life.

Besides Hiroto and Natsumi, there is an engaging cast of characters that Shinzo weaves into the story, each with their unique backstory and take on life. Despite their individual differences and personalities, the cast of Hirayasumi is connected by their insecurities. Each character’s story is riddled with subtle insecurities that shape their decisions and misadventures. These insecurities illustrate their alienation from life, a reality expressed through questions like, “Where am I going with my life?”

This is a common feature of the slice-of-life genre, but Hirayasumi provides a uniquely breathtaking and bittersweet experience as we immerse ourselves in the lives of these characters.

Behind Hiroto’s cheerful countenance, there is a deep sense of remorse and nostalgia for dreams and ambitions that he ultimately couldn’t live up to. In contrast, Hiroto’s cousin, Natsumi, endures the daily frustrations that accompany the pursuit of one’s dreams and expectations.

Similarly, with the other characters we meet in Hirayasumi, there are diverse worlds to explore, all centered on the fragility and, by consequence, the beauty of life: its uncertainty. The manga’s art style complements the characters’ ordinary yet raw and genuine emotions. For my part, I related most to Hiroto’s remorse over an unfulfilled dream and Natsumi’s frustrations as a creative trying to establish her future. Hiroto’s struggle to find closure and Natsumi’s efforts to cultivate her own path truly struck a chord in my heart.

Writing, especially in recent times, is a career filled with uncertainty, and there are days I find myself questioning my own resolve and drive. Hirayasumi has much of that emotion and more. There is also a point to be made about how the main characters fall back on their relationships to anchor their resolve. Friends, family, and connections can take us a long way and help resolve our personal insecurities and misgivings in the most unexpected ways.

Most importantly, to the extent I have read so far, the manga emphasizes the importance of being willing to take a shot at your dreams. Every chapter offers the reader something memorable for contemplation, be it the nostalgia of younger days gone by or the simple pleasures of life we often miss. Much like how Winnie-the-Pooh says, “Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering,” Hirayasumi reiterates, “Don’t pointless things have a place, too, in this far-from-perfect world?”

In today’s fast-paced world, where we all face the pressures of living up to the judgments and stereotypes that proliferate in society, Hirayasumi reminds us that sometimes, taking a step back, enjoying the moment, even when it means simply “doing nothing”, holds genuine value.

With an upcoming anime adaptation set to premiere in January 2027, Hirayasumi is a gem of a manga by Keigo Shinzo, and I highly recommend it for all you slice-of-life savants out there. A live-action adaptation is also available on Prime Video, covering content up to the first 6 volumes of the manga.

Living in the Past, ’96: A Movie Review

This post is a first for me as it is a review of a 2018 Tamil film which made waves in my home state of Tamil Nadu, India upon its release. Having watched the movie only recently, and being a Tamil movie enthusiast, I was left wondering how I had missed it at all.

’96 is a romantic drama starring prominent Kollywood actors Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha Krishnan in the lead roles of Ram and Jaanu, two high school sweethearts from the 1996 batch meeting again at a reunion, 22 years after their initial parting.

The plot progresses periodically between episodes of Ram and Jaanu’s past in 1996 when they were classmates in high school and fell in love, to their present state 22 years later. Their reunion, and subsequent interactions in coming to terms with their present lives form the crux of the film in an excellent eulogy capturing the nostalgia of first-love, the inevitability of time, and the power of memories.

A movie succeeds when it is able to make its audience part of its story.  Unlike most movies where I have played the classic part of the audience as a third-party individual looking in at the protagonists’ journey from a removed space, ’96 offered a refreshing and unique experience where I felt drawn into the world of Ram and Jaanu as though I were one of their close friends relating with their journey.

This is achieved largely through the original background score  of ’96. The music is evocative, providing  a unique dialogue that embraces the subtle emotions and silence reflected in the company of the protagonists, while simultaneously transcending the story by drawing the audience into their journey.

Indeed, Ram and Jaanu’s experiences reminded me of my very own efforts in writing Our Last Summer: A Personal Memoir as well as A Little Bit of Everything. Both books were motivated by my desires to capture and immortalize cherished memories from high school and the last few years of my life. The fundamental themes of love, memories, the inexorable passage of time, and the very act of remembering and living in the past as evidenced by the characters in the movie touched me deeply and served as an additional reminder of my personal life resolution to “cherish the memories of the past, live the present, and happily anticipate the future.”

I learned this lesson in the company of a tragic event in my life. It has helped me since to become stronger as an individual in making my future by remembering the past that builds my present and appreciating the subtle and simple things that I often tend to take for granted in my day to day adventures. 

Ram and Jaanu face those very same questions and find their answers in ’96. I leave it to you, my readers, to find out their journey’s end and be inspired to engage in your own drive down memory lane. ’96 joins the prestigious group of a select set of movies that have come from the Tamil film industry that I believe transcend its culture and language. I highly recommend the film for all my readers as it is readily available on Youtube, Google Play, or Einthusan.

Nostalgia – A Celebration Of The Past

Listening to music is a favorite pastime of mine when it comes to sitting in front of my computer and writing away my thoughts be it my journal, my novels, or just plain old school work. I don’t necessarily identify with any particular genre of music (vocal and instrumental alike), and as such go with any piece that suits my mood further aligning with the fact that my selections vary wildly from artist to artist.

Over the last few weeks, my efforts have predominantly revolved around the completion of a literature review about my PhD research. I completed the draft just a few days back. Relishing in the bout of relief that ensued, I lounged back into my chair while listening to a randomized instrumental playlist on YouTube. I would soon alight upon a particular piece that would kindle the memories of my past, drawing my eyes back to the screen of my laptop, where I was welcomed by the opening to a show I had watched in my childhood.

It didn’t take long for my bout of relief to transform into one of nostalgia. Indulging in the bittersweet bliss of the feeling, I sank into the warm and fuzzy emotions of fond memories from my past, subsequently delving into the late hours of the night on a marathon of memories that took me over. This particular scenario was most apt, relating to my earliest inspirations that engaged my creative skills and fueled my love for writing and music, namely, Cartoons from the 1990s. In that vein, I could relate, or for lack of a better word, restrain myself to a few cartoons that struck my nostalgic chords the most all the way back to my childhood, long before anime ruled the roost of my creativity.

It all began on a sunny day jog back home from school to meet my two friends, Christopher Robin and Winnie-The-Pooh. 

This would officially be the first of the may cartoons I ever watched as a kid, taking me back to my days in my hometown in Madurai, running home from school, only to sit down in front of the TV and share in the whimsical adventures of my two friends Christopher Robin and Winnie-The-Pooh.

We would also be joined by two other friends from the distant lands of Arabia: Aladdin and Genie.

With no idea of how vast the world was at such a young age, these four would be a large part of my childhood where I learned to

and when it came to being a mischievous kid  that

all in the time-span of an hour’s limited streaming of cartoons on the single channel that ran on the T.V.

Soon, I would be lucky enough to have my chance to explore the world when my family first moved to Egypt. This time there were two T.V.s in the house though the cartoons were still a limited treasure to come by.

The cartoons would usually broadcast around a three hour session early every Saturday morning when my baby sister (half-asleep most of the time, if I may add) and I would sneak over to the T.V. room while our parents were fast asleep. This time my adventures would alternate between outer-space and our planet as I accompanied Flash Gordon and his crew (the animated feature of 1996) hovering over to futuristic and past timelines with good family friends in the Flintstones (celebrating Christmas before the birth of Jesus Christ), the Jetsons (who would be the preface to my own experience of the technology boom that followed the late ’90s), and a pinch of freakishness to add to the concoction in the Addams Family.

Along with a whole host of other characters each with their singular adventures, I would find myself surrounded by an ever growing family of friends who served as my inspirations in the Cartoons I watched as a kid.

You had the anthropomorphic cats T-Bone and Razor from Swat Kats, who were my first taste of being a legitimate bad-ass, to the incredibly fun Mystery Inc. gang and their impressively subtle mysteries, as well as a slew of others from the manly Centurions, the infuriating Dee-Dee from Dexter’s Laboratory, and the Elvis Presley of Cartoon characters, Johnny Bravo, of whom my mother wasn’t necessarily a fan (in retrospect, I could see why), and his far more adventurous and wiser cousin in Johnny Quest.

But everything that has a beginning has an end, and so as the years passed I would soon find other interests that would catch my attention.

Diverting as I did from the cartoons of the yester-years, I would delve into anime and other forms of entertainment in a world that gradually evolved into a social media frenzy. But that transition is indeed what makes those very memories so nostalgic.

Funnily enough, I’m now at a stage in my life where as I ponder about the future, I only seem to find more pit-stops where I visit and relish the company of the friends of my past. I would have never known then as a kid that one day I would aspire to become a writer/artist, and here I am following in the footsteps of my dreams propelled by those very same inspirations of the past.

Though life is an adventure filled with beginnings and separations, nothing can deny the eternity of memories, and in that sense, this bout of nostalgia was in essence a celebration of the past, and a merry precursor to the good weekend’s rest that has followed!