Manga Review: Goodbye, Eri
- Very Average Joe
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
English Title: Goodbye, Eri
Japanese Title: さよなら絵梨
Writer: Fujimoto Tatsuki
Artist: Fujimoto Tatsuki
Released: 2022
Length: 200 pages
Publisher: Shueisha (Japanese), Viz Media (English)
Yuta receives a smartphone from his mother on his 12th birthday. She is terminally ill and she asks him to shoot videos of her, so he has something to remember her by.
Yuta diligently does as requested, recording many hours of footage which he edits into a film and shows it at school. Because of his immature approach, the film gets panned. Discouraged, he contemplates suicide but then meets another student, Eri.
Eri gets Yuta into studying film in the hopes of making a film out of her eventual demise. The plot follows Yuta’s and Eri’s friendship as they spend time together and make the film.
The layout is mostly four widescreen panels per page, and shifts between Yuta’s phone’s POV, Yuta’s POV and third-person. Yuta’s phone’s POV is done by lowering the saturation and/or with fuzziness.
Obviously, there is the blurring of fact and fiction. The story is arguably not so much about what is reality as what is filmed is presumably real; however, as it is a story within a story, there is the question of how much of it, amount and degree, is an act.
Even if a given shot or scene is not intended to be an act, there is the question of Yuta not being a reliable narrator which he in effect admits. He has many hours of footage, and what is shown is basically Yuta’s edit.
So, the story is about, amongst other things, perspective and escapism in the context of coping with life and grief.
It is a decent short work with good pacing. Whilst there is a psychological horror-drama feel to it, it wisely does not try too hard to be trippy. Even if “story within a story” has been done before, there is just enough mystery to have some intrigue and maintain the tension. And although not intended to be a black comedy, Yuta’s immature approach to film and life—a bit too immature—elicits a few chuckles.
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