Comics / Manga

Sunny: Volume 3 manga review

By Leroy Douresseaux
April 16, 2014 - 07:58

Sunny Volume 3 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T” for Teen is recommended for ages 13 and up

Sunny is a manga series from Taiyo Matsumoto, who won an Eisner Award for his series, Tekkonkinkreet.  Sunny is set at the orphanage, Star Kids Home, where there is a car called “Sunny,” a place where the children find solace.

Sunny, Vol. 3 (Chapters 13 to 18) opens with a visit from Nishita, a former resident of Star Kids Home.  Now, an adult, he wants to apologize for a terrible incident he started years ago that brought harm to Granpa, who heads the orphanage.

Next, Megumu decides to attend a party with a group of friends from school who live with their parents.  Her Star Kids “siblings” are not crazy about that, and Megumu feels conflicted.  Also, a TV station news crew visits Star Kids Home, and two brothers recall a visit to see their sick mother.

THE LOWDOWN:  The Sunny manga reads like an honest account of children adapting to life away from their parents and in an orphanage.  I often find myself racing through shonen manga in order to keep up with the action.  I also find myself fighting the urge to jump ahead when I read Sunny.  It is a character drama that is vivid and alive, and creator Taiyo Matsumoto makes me chase his narrative, as if it were shonen.

Sunny is heartbreaking and poignant, but it is even more upbeat and positive.  Matsumoto depicts the children of Star Kids as being imaginative and open to new possibilities.  Some may want their lives before Star Kids to come back, but that does not mean they won’t make the best of their new lives.  It’s a lesson we could all learn.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers who want to read good comics want something Sunny.

 

Rating: A- /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12