Happiness is manga written an illustrated by Oshimi Shuuzou, He’s popular for the ongoing series Chi no Wadachi and the completed series Aku no hana. Happiness manga started in early 2015 and ran up till March of 2019 where it was serialised in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine
Overview
Makoto is living what most kids in high school live through; bullying. His life isn’t very eventful, he gets pushed around like an errand boy, during these times the city he lives in is under high alert due to missing kids. Parents are stressed and nobody wants to leave their house at late night, One night Makoto gets attacked by a strange girl who bites his neck and asks him if he wishes to survive. Things turn for the worse when he realises his thirst can’t be quenched by water
My thoughts and opinions
Happiness is parallel to whatever it claims to be; happy. Not once have I felt pure joy in my heart when I read it, yet I kept reading it because it was that good. The idea of vampires is very fantasized about considering how popular fiction and Twilight is. Hot boys drinking blood? Hell yeah sign me up
Happiness however, refuses to give us whatever we already have seen with beautiful panels and remarkable expressiveness Oshimi swiftly takes our mind off the gloomy premise the manga takes us through. Happiness is much more than vampires, It’s a smart way of showing the complexity of emotions through easy means. Throughout the manga, the main character develops bit by bit, changing from a kid who’s bulled to somebody who can risk his life and sanity for his family. This change is accompanied by a supporting character who shows what would happen if you give in to the vampire lifestyle, Once you become a vampire you are practically immortal and indestructible. You can regenerate literally from shreds to full body but it takes time, and you don’t age whatsoever.
This is a heavy toll on a high schooler especially considering his life is already in shambles. The supporting character is called Yuuki who slowly loses control over his humanity and spirals out of control, meanwhile, another supporting character tells Makoto that he doesn’t remember any memory from when he was a human. Makoto finds himself on crossroad of finding himself and getting used to this new life, the government also seems to be interested in him and he is scared. Anybody would feel the same way if one day they woke up craving some human blood won’t they? This is magnified by the weird feeling going through his body and the strange new people he meets, Some are his foe and some his friends, he isn’t sure who to trust. On top of this there’s also a cult based arc in this manga which is so twisted you actually would need to read it twice, just to hate on the central character more. He is the definition of twisted.
The manga was an extremely quick read, by the way. I finished it in under 8-10 hours because most of the panels are less dialogue and more descriptive. It also keeps you on edge to know what will happen next, the manga doesn’t have a linear plot and just takes you through the developments in the characters life in 3rd person.
My high praises to it don’t mean that the manga was perfect it did have its fair share of flaws, especially its slow pace and confusing premise. Many chapters to me felt boring and sometimes I had to reread them to understand what is fully going on.
Happiness was one of those mangas which once you sit with it you’ll appreciate it a lot more, even though it isn’t very special or groundbreaking. Just teenagers going through puberty, vampire puberty OwO
It develops a good interconnection between web of characters whilst also showing you their weak and dark sides which compliment the story and makes you appreciate it a lot more, it’s a good start if you wanna get into drama or shonen/seinen type mangas.
Overall i would suggest this to all people who wanna feel an emotional void and bittersweet endings, somebody who appreciate good art and just a nice story. It’s not for everyone and at points if you feel like dropping it, it’s at those times you shouldn’t because it probably gets wayy better at that point.
Side notes and Conclusion
Happiness was a solid read for me especially when i was running dry on mangas, at this point in my life I appreciate them more then anime even though I was reading mangas since I was like 15 years old. I couldn’t really explain much about the manga except the fact that it was about vampires and what it made me feel but if I say anything more it’ll ruin your experience. It’s good and I felt some type of way while reading it and I think you will too. I got a lot more manga posts coming your way since I’m on a roll right now.
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Thanks for reading, do check out other posts ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
The FlyOtaku 