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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It, was pretty good overall, especially character wise and emotionally. The ending was probably the best part letting you create your own interpretation of the story, and how much of the book was "real".
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fujimoto has an uncanny talent for making seemingly mundane events so gripping, tinged with hard to pinpoint oddity. By the final third, I was lost in the storytelling, and left kind of confused by the ending. Strange thing is, I think that’s kind of the point.
Now having read two of Fujimoto’s standalone stories, I’m starting to believe he’s a master at them. His scratchy art style adds an incredible charm to whatever tale he is unraveling for the reader, and I couldn’t get enough of it in Goodbye, Eri. I love the way he was able to capture the style of seeing everything through a camera, with character forms seeming shaky with an almost double silhouette.
This was just so so good, I can’t even think of what to say. At this rate, Fujimoto is quickly becoming one of my favourite mangaka.
Now having read two of Fujimoto’s standalone stories, I’m starting to believe he’s a master at them. His scratchy art style adds an incredible charm to whatever tale he is unraveling for the reader, and I couldn’t get enough of it in Goodbye, Eri. I love the way he was able to capture the style of seeing everything through a camera, with character forms seeming shaky with an almost double silhouette.
This was just so so good, I can’t even think of what to say. At this rate, Fujimoto is quickly becoming one of my favourite mangaka.
The art is amazing and i love the story a lot. Totally worth a quick read if you are looking for something a bit introspective with AMAZING art! Goodby Eri follows Yuta, a young filmmaker from middle school into his late adulthood as he learns to process grief and death through filmmaking. Yuta films, by request, the death of his mother and later his friend Eri. He turns both of these experiences into films but continued to be haunted by their memories until he learns to handle his grief and pain. Outside of the distressing themes, the story flips between fiction and reality frequently and it can be hard to know what is real or not. It's meant to be a provoking story that leaves the reader with the ultimate decision on what they think the ending means or what really happens, so readers who don’t enjoy meta narratives may not enjoy this story or may struggle to understand it.
The manga is drawn in a way to replicate a handheld/shaking cam movie and is almost entirely from Yutas first person perspective behind the camera. The art style and panels are a huge highlight for his story because Fujimoto does a great job of replicating the shakingness of a handheld camera and it was overall very beautiful to look at. However, one of my favorite aspects was that Yuta’s dialoge was always part of the gutter of the page when he was behind the camera which helps hit home the point that he is disconnected from the story and his feelings. The story, although dealing with some really heavy subject matter like death and suicide, wasn’t very gloomy or upsetting to read. I would describe it as a solemn, reflective story with lots of moments of comedy. The parallels between Eri, Yuta’s mother are also very poignant. I saw a lot of people online talk about how it was a love letter to film and art and I totally agree.
Summary (SPOILERS)
The story starts off on Yuta’s 12th birthday where his mother, who is dying from some disease, asks him to film her until she dies. Yuta films almost alway up until she passes but he chooses not to go into the hospital during final moments. As this story unfolds we find out that Yuta has cut this footage he shot of his mother into a film he entered into a contest for school but instead of not going to see his mother, the hospital blows up in an action movie like sequence. His classmates make fun of him and his father is mad about the film so he decides he is going to jump off the top of the hospital his mother died in. Before he can, Eri, a girl from his school stops him and invites him to go watch movies with her in an abandoned building. Eri tells Yuta she loved his film and wants him to film her until she dies too. Yuta and Eri come up with a story that essentially follows the plot of the manga but Eri is a vampire instead of a regular girl. After Eri passes, Yuta shares the movie and its received very well. However, we found over the course of the story that Yuta’s mother was a TV producer and made Yuta film her thinking it would make a good documentary after she recovered. It becomes clear that his mother was cruel and abusive to him and his father. After Eri’s death, Yuta and her only other friend talk about how she was a “bitch” but that they will always remember in a good way. Yuta struggles to get over Eri’s passing and recuts the film multiple times in his life. After he is the sole survivor of a car crash that killed his father, wife, and children, he decides to kill himself in the abandoned building he watched movies with Eri in. However, he finds Eri in the building the same as the last time he saw her and she explains she really is a vampire and she had been resurrected many times but always loses all her memories but this time she had the film Yuta made. Yuta leaves, finally finding some peace in his life and he ends the film/manga with the abandoned building blowing up.
I love that the ending is ambiguous and can be left for interpretation.
The manga is drawn in a way to replicate a handheld/shaking cam movie and is almost entirely from Yutas first person perspective behind the camera. The art style and panels are a huge highlight for his story because Fujimoto does a great job of replicating the shakingness of a handheld camera and it was overall very beautiful to look at. However, one of my favorite aspects was that Yuta’s dialoge was always part of the gutter of the page when he was behind the camera which helps hit home the point that he is disconnected from the story and his feelings. The story, although dealing with some really heavy subject matter like death and suicide, wasn’t very gloomy or upsetting to read. I would describe it as a solemn, reflective story with lots of moments of comedy. The parallels between Eri, Yuta’s mother are also very poignant. I saw a lot of people online talk about how it was a love letter to film and art and I totally agree.
Summary (SPOILERS)
The story starts off on Yuta’s 12th birthday where his mother, who is dying from some disease, asks him to film her until she dies. Yuta films almost alway up until she passes but he chooses not to go into the hospital during final moments. As this story unfolds we find out that Yuta has cut this footage he shot of his mother into a film he entered into a contest for school but instead of not going to see his mother, the hospital blows up in an action movie like sequence. His classmates make fun of him and his father is mad about the film so he decides he is going to jump off the top of the hospital his mother died in. Before he can, Eri, a girl from his school stops him and invites him to go watch movies with her in an abandoned building. Eri tells Yuta she loved his film and wants him to film her until she dies too. Yuta and Eri come up with a story that essentially follows the plot of the manga but Eri is a vampire instead of a regular girl. After Eri passes, Yuta shares the movie and its received very well. However, we found over the course of the story that Yuta’s mother was a TV producer and made Yuta film her thinking it would make a good documentary after she recovered. It becomes clear that his mother was cruel and abusive to him and his father. After Eri’s death, Yuta and her only other friend talk about how she was a “bitch” but that they will always remember in a good way. Yuta struggles to get over Eri’s passing and recuts the film multiple times in his life. After he is the sole survivor of a car crash that killed his father, wife, and children, he decides to kill himself in the abandoned building he watched movies with Eri in. However, he finds Eri in the building the same as the last time he saw her and she explains she really is a vampire and she had been resurrected many times but always loses all her memories but this time she had the film Yuta made. Yuta leaves, finally finding some peace in his life and he ends the film/manga with the abandoned building blowing up.
I love that the ending is ambiguous and can be left for interpretation.
”Yuta, you have the power to decide for yourself how you’ll remember someone. That’s an incredible thing. I think maybe Eri wants you to choose how she’ll be remembered.”
I didn’t expect much of this, from what I heard it was just ok so I entered with low expectations and that should be acknowledged, but I checked it out because I like Fujimoto’s work on Chainsaw Man. This one-shot manga from 2022 screams Fujimoto’s art and writing styles, with some of the characters almost looking like they came from Chainsaw Man. This book had a nice blend of comedy, sad moments, and dramatic reveals to keep it interesting and be a quality one sit down read. I will say it’s not as strange as Fujimoto’s other work, but that tends to serve this book for the better. It was a nice story that I would argue is a good entry point to kind of ease people into the Fujimoto-style of writing and plot devices.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and even got a little emotional when I was about done with it. The only weakness of this book is the fact that it suffers what many one shots suffer from and that being that many of the characters are not as fleshed out as I would like, but that does not take away from the total plot of the story being good. I would recommend it to anyone that wants an enjoyable one-sitting read or to those who enjoy Fujimoto’s other works.
Overall Score: 8.5/10
https://rayburnreading.blogspot.com/2023/08/goodbye-eri-2022.html
Overall, I really enjoyed it and even got a little emotional when I was about done with it. The only weakness of this book is the fact that it suffers what many one shots suffer from and that being that many of the characters are not as fleshed out as I would like, but that does not take away from the total plot of the story being good. I would recommend it to anyone that wants an enjoyable one-sitting read or to those who enjoy Fujimoto’s other works.
Overall Score: 8.5/10
https://rayburnreading.blogspot.com/2023/08/goodbye-eri-2022.html
Loveable characters:
Yes
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Mana pirmā manga. Man ļoti patika stāsts un tā attainojums. Tik vienkārši un tik dziļi vienlaicīgi. Traģiski un cerīgi tāpat kā pati dzīve.
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Opened the book with the mindset of “I’ve heard it’s sad, but I probably won’t cry I don’t feel like crying.” I cried.