#verticle

Review - 4/5 

Content Warning: Discussion of s*cide and similar themes, bullying, absent parents, and animal cruelty/abuse.  If any of those topics are triggering to you, or upsetting, feel free to skip to links

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Volume 1 of The Golden Sheep was a single sit read for me! I read the majority of it in the car, and for the most part it was a great first volume! This series is Kaori Ozaki’s second manga, preceded by “The Gods Lie” in 2013.

The manga, itself, deals with heavy themes from the get go.  Main character, Tsugu Miikura, and her family struggle with an absent parent. Their father stays in Tokyo as the five girls move back to their old, rural town. Here, she meets up with three of her old friends: Asari, Sora, and Yuushin.

However, the group begins crumbling beneath Tsugu’s feet. Asari, jealous by Tsugus connection and relationship with Yuushin (her childhood crush), begins to neglect and ignore her. The group Tsugu used to eat lunch with abandons her, leaving her to eat alone.

Tsugu, awhile after, realizes Yuushin isn’t the same “good kid” with good grades he was when she moved. His father was revealed to have slept with a high school girl, and the school quickly turned on him. Saro began to leave Yuushin behind, avoiding interacting and hanging out with him. As a result, Yuushin begins to gain ties with the bad crowd. He begins to bully Saro, beating him and stealing his money.

Tsugu realizes this when she’s on a walk with her sister’s daughter and finds the group standing on the bridge, with Saro about to jump off at Yuushins request when Saro had come to get his dog back from the other.  Saro runs off, and Yuushin leaves with his friends.

Following this event, Tsugu attempts to return the dog to Saro after finding that Yuushin is about to allow his friends to stone the animal to death. However, when his grandmother reveals he hadn’t come back, she goes on a search for him. She finds him locked in an abandoned car, in an attempt to pass from the exhaust from an open flame cooking some meat, and breaks him out using her guitar.

They speak for awhile, Saro fills her in on what she’d missed while away in Tokyo. The two decide to run away to Tokyo to live out their respective dreams, Tsugu a guitarist, and Saro as a manga illustrator.  There, they find Tsugu’s father after he responds to one of her texts. The manga ends when they arrive to an apartment he’d told them to stay at.

I really enjoyed the story! There aren’t too many manga out there that depict those in Saros situation who, instead of getting help, react negatively. As someone who’s struggled how he has, I know the feeling and could really feel myself in him. The four main characters feel real and alive, they don’t just feel like plot devices to either feel sorry for or to hate. They’re complex characters motivated by the wrong reasons, or their own problems. The content was raw and unfiltered, providing a warning at the beginning, and it was almost comforting to know that my old struggles, and so many’s current struggles, were real and that it was okay to go through.

I think my only issue was Asari and Tsugu as characters. I felt they were rather plain, but Tsugu got better as the story progressed. I felt myself having to close this manga more often than others that deal with serious topics as well. I felt like I couldn’t bring myself to read it, but couldn’t bring myself to stop either.

It’s probably one of my favorite series of this genre and I can see myself picking up the second volume.

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Links - Shop, Reviews, etc.

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Amazon

At the time of writing this, the paperback version of “The Golden Sheep” is unavailable, however the kindle version is available for $7.49 

https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Sheep-1-Kaori-Ozaki/dp/1947194801

Barnes and Noble Available for both paperback and kindle with $12.95 and $7.49 (respective) pricetags

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/golden-sheep-1-kaori-ozaki/1130055509?ean=9781947194809

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Review!

Kodansha US https://kodansha.us/series/the-golden-sheep/

My Anime List https://myanimelist.net/manga/113409/Kin_no_Hitsuji

Good Reads https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/45554788-the-golden-sheep-vol-1

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That’s all for now! Thank you for reading and have a good day <3