The art style isn’t bad but the use of realistic backgrounds works superbly. The bottom line though is that the characters and their situations are so easy to relate to for the simple reason that I’ve been there too. Or, more to the point, I’m still there. It hits really close to home for me, so there’s quite a bit that I can’t put into words here.

So yeah, I’m glad you enjoyed it. It’s not so much a monument to our directionless generation, or any such grandiose thing. It’s just a warm and observant depiction…maybe it’s that sense of understanding on the part of the author that shines through. I don’t know. I’ll just say it’s brilliantly done.

@usagijen, the aniblogger community is decidedly very, very small and mass readings/watchings are thus easy to get started because everyone knows what everyone else is reading and it’s hard to stay off the boat if everyone is tweeting incessantly about it. :P At least Solanin hasn’t reached the epic scale of Onani Master Kurosawa yet? XD

It’s every twentysomething’s story, even those that think they know what they’re doing (which, for the record, does not include me). My friends and I manage to talk about the future all the time without actually talking about the future, so it’s hilarious ironic that it takes a story like this to drive things in deeper for me. It isn’t like I hadn’t realized all of those questions and doubts before, but having them presented to me so clearly is like discovering them all over again. And it’s unnerving. And terrifying. And depressing. And something I’ll have to deal with again and again until I figure something out for myself. As I said, Solanin doesn’t really offer any answers

Yeah this.

By the time I was 25 I hardly even knew what I was doing only that I knew I needed to do something (or keep doing the things I’m doing until I find something better). The worst that I could imagine was to completely stop, and get disconnected like a NEET.

For me, it was having a tangible goal; something in very concrete terms: be able to marry this lady I met and fell in love with. It mattered less what I did (not that it doesn’t matter!) but I had far less angst about it. I rolled up my figurative sleeves and went to work.

I was 27 when we started dating, 5 years later I got stuff I’m doing that really fulfills me. Not the work itself. I am not a worker for the sake of activity. More like goals aligning and steps identified. But there’s really nothing for me to prescribe.

I only think that the manga is awesome in that it allows strangers like us to have conversations like this. Cheers.