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is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Inio Asano. It consists of loosely connected short stories about young adults in modern Japan and their life decisions. The manga was serialized in
Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hito ...
's manga magazine ''
Monthly Sunday Gene-X , often abbreviated as , is a ''seinen'' manga magazine published by Shogakukan. Like many other manga magazines, it is an "anthology magazine", with each issue featuring new chapters of several manga series. The series are also published in ''t ...
'' from 2002 to 2004 and is licensed in North America by Viz Media.


Release

The manga was serialized in the Japanese manga magazine ''
Monthly Sunday Gene-X , often abbreviated as , is a ''seinen'' manga magazine published by Shogakukan. Like many other manga magazines, it is an "anthology magazine", with each issue featuring new chapters of several manga series. The series are also published in ''t ...
'' by
Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hito ...
from the June 2002 to April 2004 issues. Shogakukan collected the 19 chapters into two volumes from May 19, 2003 to May 19, 2004. Shogakukan also included the manga in a collection of Asano's original works in 2010. The series was licensed in North America by Viz Media in February 2009, with both volumes published on October 20, 2009. The manga has also been published in France by Kana, in Germany by
Egmont Manga & Anime Egmont Manga (EMA, formerly ''Egmont Manga & Anime'') is one of the largest publishers of manga in Germany. It was founded in 2000 as a daughter company of Egmont Ehapa, after the manga boom in Germany became apparent around the turn of the m ...
and
Tokyopop Germany Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licensed ...
(republisher), and in Taiwan by Taiwan Tohan. Asano wrote a sequel to the 11th story "After the Rain" in the August 2008 issue of ''Monthly Sunday Gene-X'' titled "What a Wonderful World", which was also collected in ''Before Dawn and the End of the World''.


Reception

Reviewers have praised Asano's art and writing, but noted the limitations of the short story format for character development as well as Asano's overuse of character tropes.
About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...
's
Shaenon Garrity Shaenon K. Garrity is a webcomic creator and science-fiction author best known for her webcomics ''Narbonic'' and '' Skin Horse''. She collaborated with various artists to write webcomics for the Modern Tales-family of webcomic subscription serv ...
called it an excellent debut work which, while not as good as Asano's later works and lacking in some stories, has great art and writing. Deb Aoki called the manga "mysterious, humorous, magical and tragic all at the same time," adding that it "remind us that living can be the greatest adventure of all." Grant Goodman of PopCultureShock called the manga unique and solid, but felt that half of the chapters were not memorable and that the theme of "life's losers" made the stories feel repetitive and predictable. Carlo Santos of Anime News Network complimented the stories that were slightly surreal as well as Asano's penwork, but disliked the " woe-is-me" facet of the stories. David Welsh of ''The Comics Reporter'' disliked the use of overdone tropes in the stories, but praised the design of average-looking characters and the page composition, finding the stories "polished and effective," but not "linger ngin the mind". Johanna Carlson of Comics Worth Reading found the traits of the characters to be annoying but said that the detailed and expressive art grounded the story, making it more believable. Leroy Douresseaux of ComicBookBin praised Asano's ability to depict the struggles of young people in the first volume, but felt that this was downplayed by the large number of characters. He called Asano's ability to "balance and compare and contrast what is celebrated and what is ridiculous about life" the most engaging part of the second volume. ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' found that Asano's characters were "prone to platitudes" but not as much as in ''
Solanin is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Inio Asano. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''Weekly Young Sunday'' from 2005 to 2006. In North America, the manga was licensed for English language release by Viz Media. The manga was ...
'', with the shorter stories also making the characters more sympathetic, and called the artwork and storytelling attractive. Al Sparrow of
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa dist ...
noted the theme of survival in the stories, remarking that Asano portrays youth through an unfiltered lens. Greg McElhatton of Read About Comics found the stories to vary in quality, but called the manga charming and described the art as a "beautifully delicate creation".


References


External links

* {{Monthly Sunday Gene-X 2002 manga Comedy anime and manga Seinen manga Shogakukan manga Slice of life anime and manga Viz Media manga Inio Asano