I’m actually an existing fan of Sagan Sagan’s work, but when I first came across Handkerchief Motte, Time Machine Matte, Last Scene Damatte, (ハンケチーフ持って、タイムマシーン待って、ラストシーン黙って、), I never got as far as the mangaka’s name before being captivated by the opening colour page below (disappointed this never made it into the full volume!). There was that instant sense that this was something special, so I hit pre-order and patiently waited for the first volume to release. So patiently, or perhaps I was simply intimidated by the large page count, this has actually been in the backlog since February. But better late than never!
The story follows Hanatora Inokuma, a part-timer at an izakaya who ends up taking on far more responsibility than he should for the role he’s in. It’s while he’s on his way home from work one night that he encounters a strange man called Kani Kunpei. Kani is crawling around on the gorund, but since there’s a love hotel right there, Hanatora assumes he’s simply drunk. In reality, Kani is a private investigator who specialises in lost pet cases, and right now he’s looking for a missing cat. He seems like a bit of an oddball, but Hanatora finds himself wanting to spend more time with Kani, and an opportunity soon arises when he manages to get close with the cat Kani just so happens to be looking for.
Although there is a romance element to the story, by and large it’s a slice-of-life series about our protagonist’s daily life and the lives of his friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Not always good, not always bad. A story about identity, boring adult responsibilities and the weight of the world bearing down on you for being who you are. In Hanatora’s case, being gay and sporting very long hair that people in his life have constantly told him to cut. It’s really hard to put into words what it is that makes this one special; I suppose it’s the whole atmosphere of the work and how it’s depicted.
I first found Sagan Sagan’s work through Old-Fashioned Cupcake (which I love!), and I suspect that is the same for a lot of people since that and its sequel are the only series licensed in English so far. Since then, I’ve gone on to read Haru to Natsu to Nacchan to Aki to Fuyu to Boku (春と夏となっちゃんと秋と冬と僕), but with the third entry in the Cupcake series on hiatus for several years, I didn’t expect to see anything more from them. And yet now we have this series, and the things I like about this are the same as what drew me to Sagan Sagan’s work in the first place. The panelling, the atmosphere and the cast.
Some artists go for a less-is-more approach when it comes to manga. Fewer panels, or perhaps less detail in backgrounds and characters. But Sagan throws caution to the wind and goes all in on filling pages with panels. And while this could be overwhelming, it always works because the little transitions between them are so important. There isn’t always a lot of text (chapter 1 has the most, generally speaking), but when necessary, it spreads across the page in a sort of rambly way that feels very human and suited to the characters. It’s well designed and very intricate. You can easily understand how there have only been six chapters since this started in 2024.
This is just one of those manga where I picked it up and instantly knew it was special. This first book is labelled as Volume 1, so hopefully there will be more to come. I’m sure it will take a long time, but it’s more than worth the wait. This could easily be the best-looking and highest-quality volume I read all year. It stands out that much from everything else for me.
©Sagan Sagan / Taiyoh Tosho