Manga Review: For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams, Vol. 1 by Kei Sanbe

Yen Press
Jan. 29th 2019
192 Pages

As a young child, Senri Nakajou saw his family murdered before his eyes, and he’s lived for revenge ever since.

From his daily activities to his studies, everything is about attaining the power and money necessary to find the killer and make him pay-even if it means getting a little dirty himself…- Goodreads

If you have not read, Kei Sanbe’s manga Erased, you should do that now. It was fantastic and although the ending was a bit eh, it is still worth the read and buy 100%.

With that being said, because of how much I loved the first series, I started at this one. And let me tell you something, this man has a way of getting your attention in a short amount of time.

Senri had a rough childhood and this is even before he saw his family murdered. His father is abusive, his mother doesn’t do anything and the only person he has is his twin brother. The two share a very strong connection that goes much more than one twin getting hurt and the other twin feeling it.

Senri rage comes from seeing his families death but also because of his Twin. Without giving much away, he grows up bottling his anger, conning people of their money all the while going to school. When an opportunity comes to find and extract revenge on the person that ruined his life, Senri doesn’t hesitate but at the same time he doesn’t realize the mess he just put himself in.

I loved this story and I cannot wait to fully dig into it. There are several things going on at once but nothing is confusing, nothing is over complicated, nothing seems forced and everything is connected.

I was interested in the characters because their stories are building up this quiet world that is literally waiting to explode with the truth. The pace of the manga was good; actually surprisingly good. There is so much packed into these pages I thought it would move faster but it didn’t. The pace was thought out, not rushed but moved in as much real time as a book can get.

The artwork was a little bit off. Especially for a specific female character; her lips were almost as big as her face and this is something that was seen in manga in maybe the 70s or 80s. I wasn’t expecting to see it with a book by Kei because the art work in Erased was pretty good.

Overall, a must read for those that love themselves a murder mystery. However, I would recommend waiting until the second book comes out, which is in June.

5 Pickles

Manga Review: Boku dake ga Inai Machi 1 (Erased #1) by Kei Sanbe

Kadokawa Shoten
Published Jan 26, 2013

Satoru Fujinuma wants to make it as a manga artist but doesn’t know how to deal with people and relationships. So on top of his art, he works as a part-time pizza delivery boy. Looking from the outside in, Satoru is an average male but he has a special ability called “rerun” that allows him to see things before they happen and potently right a wrong. 

But when one of these incidents opens a long forgotten memory, Satoru average life takes a turn.

I sat on this review for a while. I had to sit and let everything I read process. I know what you’re thinking this must have been a terrible book. No, it wasn’t. It actually was one of the best manga’s I have read that wasn’t a high school romance.

It was complicated, emotional in a if I had a child type of way, it was a novel and I loved almost every minute of it.

I say almost because it started off pretty slow and I didn’t really like how it was ended. The issue with the ending is it didn’t provide the fulfillment that the main character had the ending he deserved. It just ended; not with questions but it simply ended. I still don’t know how I feel about that.

In between the slow beginning and the eh ending, the story was great. It had me at the edge of the seat with each page. Satoru doesn’t have much a personality; he isn’t the most depth person and if it wasn’t for his power he would just be a jerk that doesn’t know how to deal with society. But I don’t mind this because the author did an amazing job with the story. It wasn’t about him. It was about the surrounding characters and their lives. He was a feature; do not get me wrong an important feature (he being the hero and all) but a feature compared to those around him. I loved how the author did this. It focused on the story but it wasn’t short of character development.

Its a complicated story that moved fast but not too fast that you felt that something was missing. There was no predictability. When you realized what was going to happened it was already happening. Completely loved it.

The artwork was great as well because it was far from cliche. Everyone looked different, there wasn’t a subliminal sexual innuendo, and the characters had emotions; varying emotion. They felt human. The story felt real as if it happened before or it could happened.

There is an anime for this series but it isn’t complete. I recommend reading it because you will be upset with the way the anime stops.

Overall,

4 Pickles