Kokou no Hito: The Loneliness of the Climber
This was awesome. Based on a somewhat real story as the author mentions; this is one excellent manga to read. The whole aspect of mountaineering covered with such a dark portrayal. It’s about Mori’s growth as a person, all throughout… how to deals with his issues, how things go bad for him one after another, how the death of people continue to affect him… All of it was really good. What i liked most was the abstract portrayal of many intense scenes, be it climbing to reach a peak or sex, or loneliness and the agony… It was portrayed very creatively and uniquely and the intensity stepped up by miles. The excitement was palpable, the intensity and thrill was so very invigorating. One has to read it to get the feel of it. That said, it does at the beginning give one the vibe of your typical edgy shonen character, all about ambition, loneliness and what not. If one has read enough manga, something like this could be a bit boring… Though, slowly but surely, it does get a lot more exciting, more dark and with very serious undertones. A lot of psychological introspection done well. The way it related the pain of climbing with the whole human experience, you get to know a lot more about the characters, a lot more about their condition. It does give off an impression of fear, and horror during some moments; and steeps up the credibility of this a manga of psychological genre. Sports genre, but definitely not a generic one. You don’t get competitions and victory and what not… This is different. A lot, and I should reiterate, a lot of background thought and research probably went into this manga, considering how very well described everything regarding to mountaineering and climbing was. Each and every detail regarding the sport, equipments, and even mountain geography and terminologies are mentioned. So, it’s an incredible work in that regard. Overall, a definite must read for seinen fans.