The Winter 2021 Manga Guide

Young, Alive, In Love

What's It About? 

Makoto uses a Geiger counter to measure radiation, and Mana can see ghosts. The two fall in love. What is more important, decontamination or spirit cleanse?

Young, Alive, In Love is scripted and drawn by Daisuke Nishijima and Star Fruit Books has released the physical version of the first volume of the manga for $15.00.

---

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

There's something stark about Young, Alive, In Love. More than its art style, the word aptly describes the mood of impending doom that's finally realized in the final pages of the volume; the sketchy, minimalist style is deceptively simple, much like the way characters Mana and Makoto discuss the “water heaters” that loom over the town. If I had to attribute that feeling to any one thing, though, I'd say it was the fact that we the readers absolutely know what the “water heaters” are with a single glance: nuclear reactors, looming like ill omens over a town that does its best not to think about them.

The only person who seems to care is high school third year Makoto, and even he's unwilling to call the towering structures what they really are. He spends his days trying to tune them (and the rest of the world) out, until one day three things happen that force him out of his shell: a teacher cuts his earbud cords, he meets Mana (who barfs on him), and there's a small explosion in one of the water heaters. Immediately Makoto finds himself thrust into a world where he feels like he may be the only one who can really see what's going on. Other people deny the explosion (and the two that follow it), tell him the Geiger counter app he downloaded is lying to him, and try to placate him by more or less talking down to him. Mana believes him, but she thinks it's all due to ghosts, which she claims to be able to see. Can she really, or is it a coping mechanism after her mother's death? And since her mother died after the family moved to live in the shadow of the “water heaters”, and her dad works for the company that manages them, could her mother's death have been due to the radiation?

That would make sense. Mana throws up every time there's an explosion, which is either meant to show that she's ill, too, or that she's having a psychosomatic reaction to reminders of what killed her mother. She talks about ghosts because that's how she can cope with the danger, by thinking that she's in communication with the afterlife, something she may be afraid of joining herself. In her own way, she's just as worried about the structures as Makoto and fed up with the placating words of the adults. And honestly, if I had her father, who makes several misogynist remarks about her in her presence, I'd be looking for comfort from somewhere else as well.

This is an odd book, but I liked it. (Well, except for the anti-Semitic comment Makoto finds on the internet.) It's ominous but in a low-key way, with characters like the health-obsessed old woman who lives near Makoto adding in a dose of dark humor. I don't always like grim, but I'm very curious to see where this goes next, even if I have a strong suspicion about what the creator's end message is.

---

MrAJCosplay

Rating:

Considering the fact that this is a three-volume series, it does feel a bit weird only reviewing the first volume compared to the other series being reviewed for this guide. In terms of style and presentation, this feels like one of the most unique considering its simplicity. While there's nothing overtly mature or edgy about the series, it still seems to carry this atmosphere of foreboding. In a lot of ways it kind of reminds me of FLCL in that the main plot, while present, feels secondary to the little character moments and asides that occur between story beats. This does feel like a story that is more interested in getting you in a particular mindset rather than giving you a satisfactory answer to whatever mystery seems to prevail this town. For this volume in particular, I would almost argue that things are a little bit too simple since it is a little hard to ascertain what is supposed to be an important bit of foreshadowing and what's just randomly thrown in there. Again, considering that the series as a whole seems to be so short, this extensively feels like reading the opening act of a three-act play. I don't know if you would be sold off of the cover like I was, but I can see myself tracking down the remaining two volumes if only to see exactly what all of this means for our adorable young couple.