"Next time, don't you want to make them bawl their eyes out?"
Oh boy, this is going to be a lot to unpack. . . Well. . . To start things off, this has been sitting at the top of my to-do list for probably the past three or so months since I originally read ‘Goodbye, Eri’ for the first time. By Tatsuki Fujimoto, the creator of Chainsaw Man, this 200-page one-shot follows the story of Yuta Ito who is gifted a smartphone by his mother for his twelfth birthday with the request that he films as much of his mothers' day-to-day life as possible, as she’s dying. Following her wishes, Yuta is practically glued to his mother for the first few pages, recording everything she says and does. Moments of joy, embarrassment, and moments of despair are all laid out for the viewers. The first several pages showcasing Yuta’s mom, coupled with the in-between shots of Yuta’s father and Yuta himself demonstrate the toll her death takes on the family.
The atmosphere of the first part of the manga is heavy, sometimes uncomfortably so as we imagine what it would be like in the shoes of the protagonist and we ask ourselves if we could bring ourselves to record what is essentially another's death throes. It’s easy to see how much care went into the careful making of the design of the characters and the detailed structure of each of the panels. Several panels are wordless, but the emotions portrayed in those panels simply can’t be conveyed with words.
The first part of the manga ends with Yuta’s mom's inevitable passing, where despite her wishes, Yuta can’t bring himself to film it, breaks and runs. The final shots of this panel show Yuta running from the hospital before an explosion tears through the hospital, showering the parking lot in shards of glass, and it transitions to a school movie festival where he took the recordings of his mom's last days alive and turned it into a movie. The response is about what you would think it would be. Almost everyone in the school chastises Yuta, with other students and even a teacher telling him that his movie was disrespectful towards his mother with no thought to how he may be managing his own grief. The mocking eventually pushed Yuta to kill himself, and as he’s about to jump another student, Eri stops him. Explaining to him that she enjoyed the film. The two become close friends and start working on a film together to show up the previous film for its mocking by the other students.
Goodbye, Eri is a tragically short read. The art is clear and easy to follow with all of Fujimoto’s trademarks as an author and illustrator. The story is emotional and leaves an impact despite being relatively short for a manga, but its impact will sit with you for days after you’ve finished it. The story is personal and captures the grief Yuta is feeling, while also savoring the memories he wants to remember from his mother.
My conclusion? This manga had me ugly sobbing by the end of it. They portray the concept of “knowing someone” you’ve never actually met devastatingly well, the characters; Yuta and Eri, are easy to follow and leave you dreading the inevitable end of the manga as with each passing panel we get closer to closer of Eri’s inevitable succumbing to her disease. Whether you come from other works of Fujimoto’s such as Chainsaw Man or happen across the manga from a different source, this is worth checking out. Just don’t read it at three in the morning as I did then spend the next hour or so weeping.
-Ty