Loss: An Author’s Interpretation
TLDR: Manga Author is a great artist while posing a question about how we should remember our loved ones.
Death has always been an interesting topic, a concept, and a law that has grown quite drab in recent years, but once in a while, you see something truly introspective. I’m back at it again talking about another generally morbid topic, this week’s being about a manga I read recently, “Goodbye Eri”. Written by Tatsuki Fujimoto, of “Chainsaw Man” fame, it follows the story of Yuta, a highschool boy who on the night of his birthday was tasked with filming his mother up until her death. To not spoil too much about the story, it covers the perception of death in society, something generally taken very seriously especially in most Asian cultures, with days and even dedicated shrines to ancestors in some cases. It also touches on how we should see loved ones after they’re gone, as we tend only to remember the fonder moments, a perfectly preserved image of what was. What I want to touch on in this blog is its innovative visuals and its discussion about the previously mentioned perceptions of death.
Fujimoto is a huge cinephile, this much is apparent seeing the various influences in his manga but a great example is its topic as well as the panels itself. The entire plot relates around Yuta’s relation to film, a clear representation of Fujimoto’s love for the medium, and to show this Fujimoto would frame his panels in a similar aspect ratio to films. Wide panels indicative of being in a cinema and most of the manga being seen from the camera’s perspective all to create a love letter to the feeling he wants to show to us. This manga as well as his breakout manga “Fire Punch” has always had this feeling as they draw heavily from film, references to “Star Wars”, “Alien”, even “No Country For Old Men”, it was almost certain he would incorporate it here, especially so due to the plot being about an amateur filmmaker.
Even after reading the manga, its meaning is so nuanced and profound it’s hard to narrow down an interpretation. My best guess is it’s pretty lax representation of death both in the fake film and the various deaths of Yuta’s loved ones. I assume the point is people tend to take death too seriously, a mindset that can ultimately slow down their process of recovery. It’s not that people shouldn’t care about the deaths of their loved ones as much as not be bogged down in trying to hold onto some idealized memory of the person. This goes on to the story’s next point, the idealized memory of loved ones, as the story progresses past Yuta’s mother’s death, it is later revealed that she wasn’t as lovely of a mother depicted in Yuta’s film. To not spoil it I won’t elaborate too much, but the point is that people try to wallow in the despair of losing a seemingly perfect person, somebody who never argued with them, insulted them, stashing any negative memory to keep a flowery version of the person that was. In doing this it begs the question whether or not it really is right to remember the person that was or the person you wanted them to be.
This manga was released for free online so if your interested here’s the link
https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/goodbye-eri-chapter-1/chapter/24305?action=read
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I never read manga, but I actually decided to read “Goodbye, Eri” earlier today because of your post. It made me feel a wide range of emotions, and there were definitely some times when I had a hard time distinguishing between reality and fiction in the story. I am also confused by the ending, but I would like to believe it was Yuta editing his movie and his way of accepting Eri’s death and moving forward. Like you mentioned, the meaning of “Goodbye, Eri” is open-ended, but the overall message does seem to be that we tend to idealize people after they die. The message does hold some truth to it: people prefer to cherish the good rather than the bad when it comes to coping. You mentioned that death is an interesting concept, and you’re right. Death typically makes people think about human life and existence in a variety of ways, and they may be reminded that communications and interactions aren’t forever. I think another message of the manga is that the way a person expresses themself is only a part of them, and we do not always see the other parts that they hide. The parts that are shown are not always the truth.
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