Ep. 29 - To Your Eternity vol. 1, by Yoshitoki Oima

The English title of this book is To Your Eternity, but in Japanese it's called 不滅のあなたへ (Fumetsu no Anata e). Whatever you like to call it, Yoshitoki Oima's second hit series isn't quite like anything else, in any medium. 

The elevator pitch is impossible. Child meets immortal thing in the forest. Alien thing becomes all different stuff, including a wolf, and meets a boy. Is this a story about people trying to go ice fishing, who then get lost? In some ways, it is that. In many ways, it isn't.

Even just the first chapter of volume one is a heart-breaking, self-contained story. From there, typical shonen storytelling tropes are subverted because the extraterrestrial shapeshifting protagonist is constantly in the process of learning, in real time, how to become a convincing facsimile of a person. Meanwhile, a human sacrifice must be made to a gigantic bear god, in the forest. Look, there's a lot going on here. It's a heck of a way to start a series, is what we're saying.

Get in touch with us!
Email: mangaroospodcast@gmail.com
Everywhere else: @mangaroos