Kaori Ozaki

A woman in her thirties returns to her childhood home on a small Japanese island with one suitcase and a whole lot of emotional baggage. There she meets a man with his own tragic past but who bears the burden differently due to his possibly neurodivergent personality.

It's an entertaining mash-up of two other manga series I like, mixing the odd relationship of Tramps Like Us with the quirky island life of Barakamon.

The first half is tinged with melancholy as we await reveals about the show more characters' histories, but the second half takes a turn and verges on screwball comedy at times. It turns out to be a tasty cocktail.

FOR REFERENCE:

Originally published in Japanese as Inu To Sandobaggu (犬とサンドバッグ) Vols. 1-2 by Shogakukan, in 2022 and 2023. Inu To Sandobaggu (犬とサンドバッグ) was serialized in Gekkan! Spirits Shogakukan, 2022-2023.

Contents: Chapters 1-10 -- Final Chapter -- Afterword show less

This review covers “Love Letter”, the short story found in the second half of “The Golden Sheep” v3. The review for “The Golden Sheep” trilogy can be found under the v1 listing.

**SPOILER ALERT**

“Love Letter” is DARK and creative. This yet-to-be-born soul, depicted as a cute, little, Casper-like ghost in the manga, falls in love with his mommy before he was ever born. He chose her, despite knowing she’s a 17 years old runaway. ‘God’ and those at the ‘Birth Office’ show more discouraged his choice – “It’s clear to see it’s not a very favorable environment to grow up in.” Alas, he was insistent that she was the one. He, without saying it out loud, had boundless love to give. As ‘God’ puts it, “Some people like to start their games on the most difficult setting. I admire the brave.” This little soul stays by her side via different forms, watches out for her, and shows her life is worth living.

This shoujo manga could be very triggering given its dark theme. Ozaki chooses to depict and view this tale from a positive light. The little soul never grew up enough to become angry or upset. His memories and viewpoints are positive and joyful. She was forever his loving mom, despite her actions. His mom needed saving, and he stayed by her side, however way it may take. Unconditional love and redemption dominate these 60-ish pages. There are also mentions of social media, in a ‘who are we to judge when we are not directly involved’ kind of way. What an intriguing tale in so few pages, a manga no less.

eBook from the library show less

I say to myself: hey this looks cool! It can't be tragic! EXCEPT IT IS AND I CRIED AND GAH.

More sensibly, if you're a fan of Hosoda (THE BOY AND THE BEAST) or Shinkai (CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES) or even Takahata from Ghibli (ONLY YESTERDAY) you'll find a lot to enjoy in this one volume manga.

11 year old Natsuru is ostracized by the girls after rejecting the advances of the class princess. He's cool with it though as long as he has soccer. Unfortunately a new soccer coach and the rising show more pressures of graduating elementary school for middle school make it difficult for him to understand why everything suddenly has to change.

Rio meanwhile is trying to protect her younger brother Yuuta while waiting for their father to return from crab fishing. She's desperate to keep their situation secret so the authorities don't come, but the stress of her secrets are making it difficult for her to survive.

Summer break becomes an important milestone for the two as they struggle to cope with what it means to grow up.

There's a certain amount of realism to this manga that struck me. Both kids are in situations where adults have let them down for different reasons. For Natsuru, the new head coach--some big shot who is affiliated with the JFA and is a professional--is constantly on his back about his skills before ultimately telling him "well your birthday puts you at a serious disadvantage you know". For Rio, her father basically abandoned them and left her to handle everything with no way to communicate at all (and when you find out WHY god I never wanted to punch a fictional character so much). The fact that they come together and create their own family for summer break is heartwarming and sad at the same time.

This is a sweet innocent tale that ends on a hopeful, but sadly realistic note (think 5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND). Having never read this manga-ka before I think I'll seek out more. With plenty of tissues ready. show less

I was really disappointed by this series. The characters outside of Sora didn't get much growth that felt sincere and not rushed. Tsugu finally drops the mask and reveals her true feelings about her loneliness, aversion to change, and her parents' divorce, but it just gets brushed aside. Yuushin gets shoehorned redemption as well (ain't no way I'm cheesing with someone who drove me to the point of suicide; we can be cordial, but that's it!).

Perhaps, a lot of the pacing and flat development show more issues are due to the length of the story. But as it is, The Golden Sheep is beautiful to look at and easy to consume but very shallow.

Also, no thank you to the “let men cheat. don’t break up a happy home” propaganda. The story really tried to slide in that Yuushin’s mom was strong for staying with a man who groomed a high schooler. >.> Iyanla Vanzant voice "NOT ON MY WATCH!"

Really liked that Sora’s future changed. yeah, he was good at manga, but he decided to pursue cooking instead.

The oneshot included at the end was depressing and strange. I’ll say it’s refreshing to initially see grace given to a teen mother, but for this situation, it seemed really inappropriate. And a bit like Stockholm syndrome. show less