After reading all 8 moving and tear-jerking chapters of Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan (Our Happy Hours) by Sumomo Yumeka, here’s my take.
When you lose something important/essential in your life it would either have 2 effects: Moving forward to keep living and striving to be normal or giving up on life and running away.
This is the story of Yuu, a murderer who is waiting for his death day, and Juri Mutou, a young lady who gave up on playing the piano due to her tragic past.
Right off the bat, the story establishes itself to be as hopeless and disconsolate to us readers having seen the crime of Yuu and Juri’s yet another suicide attempt.
But as you read on through the story it will slowly open a glimmer of redemption when the two characters cross paths. You would start to feel happy for the characters as they have found someone who understands each other without hypocrisy.
I would not spoil the story any further from here. I would say that the art for the story fits it perfectly, and I love how the words and art are given time to shine in the presentation of the manga. It narrated the story fluidly.
The characters’ back stories and motivations are well crafted and identifiable. Their characters are the driving force of the story so Yumeka-san nailed it there.
After I finished reading this piece, is when I truly understood what it meant when you say happiness, it is not just some shallow word to express your happy feelings, but it is something that is buried in the deepest part of someone’s life that you would need to take time on digging and uncovering to genuinely get the value of.
With that said, I would give Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan a perfect 10.
