The joy of looking back at the manga I loved as a child.

There are so many manga that I loved when I was a teenager.

I loved manga so much that if someone asked me, 'What are some examples?', I would immediately start worrying about unnecessary things like 'What should my search criteria be for picking them?' or 'In what order should I present them?' because there are just too many, to the point where I actually couldn't answer immediately—that's how much I loved manga.

Because of a post on Facebook the other day, I had the opportunity to force myself to choose five, and it made me realize something.

When you read manga as an adult,
there are so many things you didn't notice as a child, like the weight of the lines spoken in the story or the gravity of the situations.
You also find yourself interpreting things differently than you did back then.
You realize the depth of the work.

Sometimes you can even see how it has influenced your own life.
It's also fun to think about what it brought to you.

Well, it depends on the theme and content, so it's not always the case, but it's just a thought that sometimes that happens.

*****

Five works I absolutely cannot leave out when looking back.

Manga that I especially loved...

There are so many that it's hard to narrow them down, but I decided to 'just go with what comes to mind without thinking, and what I can't leave out,' and when I chose five, they turned out like this.

・The Five Star Stories
・Legend of the Galactic Heroes
・Mabataki mo Sezu
・B-Virgin
・DEAR BOYS

This is tentative, and there's a possibility it could change the more I think about it, but for now, this is the result of stopping myself from thinking to avoid that situation.

Note: At first, I put 'Kingdom' in place of 'DEAR BOYS,' but when I actually wrote it down and looked at the words, the era I read it in was different, I didn't have any particular emotional attachment to it, and it felt very out of place, so I changed it.

What I think about after actually writing them down is that it's not just about the fun, the sadness, or the nostalgia for the emotions I felt back then, but that these are 'works that had a major influence' on my way of life and way of thinking during certain periods that followed.

It's about how much I learned, and also the influence they had on my standards for action and judgment.

They became the basis for my way of thinking, my perspective on things, gateways to worlds I didn't know, objects of admiration, and even my values...

*****

Characters I could project myself onto were great, but so were the lines from characters I didn't identify with.
The lines from characters I didn't project myself onto.

What makes the manga I loved so exciting is the diverse cast of characters, their individual stories, backgrounds, dialogue, and their relationships with the protagonist.

Back then, I loved them to death, I loved them so much that I could recite every line throughout the entire story, and I read them over and over again.

During my teenage years, when I was still immature, naive, and yet at my most sensitive, they struck right through the center of my heart.

And come to think of it, the lines spoken by characters in manga...not only the characters I could project myself onto, but also the ones I didn't—those were the ones I admired, the ones that struck a chord, and the ones that gave me chills.

And what's even more surprising is that when I re-read them as an adult, even for the manga I loved so much and thought I understood so well back then,I realize there were still things I didn't understand—like the weight and true meaning behind the lines spoken by adult characters about things I hadn't experienced yet.

*Of course, the author's own experiences and the feelings they poured into their work might vary greatly from one piece to another.

For example,
the feelings of a character who lost their family,
the sorrow of losing someone you loved helplessly,
the feelings of a parent when their child leaves the nest,
the feelings of a parent, the feelings of a parent, the feelings of a parent.
The weight of a character's words regarding things I hadn't experienced.

*****

Thinking about the influence the manga I loved had on me.
It feels like a journey to explore my own roots.

For the five works I chose, what kind of influence did they have on me?
I think it would be a lot of fun to think about that,as it feels like a journey to explore my own roots.

- Why did I like them so much?
- What did I gain from them?
- What kind of influence did they have on me?

Also, being able to think about these things is something unique to being an adult.
I feel like it's a pleasure that only adults can truly appreciate, precisely because we have grown up.

The nature and value of relationships and friendships with friends.
How to build and manage relationships with colleagues and others in my environment.
How to overcome painful experiences and trials, and how to maintain one's mindset.
How to interact with someone for whom I have romantic feelings.

I find that I am influenced by manga in all sorts of places.

By the way, Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a treasure trove of famous quotes.
My views on individual conduct, political ideology, study, war, principles, beliefs, and many other things have been strongly influenced by it.

Even if you have no interest in the work at all, and even if you know nothing about the content, I would really like you to search for something like "Legend of the Galactic Heroes famous quotes."

I think that just by reading the famous lines that come up, almost anyone would be able to learn something.

※Postscript: It might be strange to include Legend of the Galactic Heroes in a top 5 manga list, strictly speaking. I remembered that I got into it through the OVA at the time, not the manga.

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The influence on my view of love.

Now, I know that other people's stories are something that doesn't matter at all, but since I have the chance, I'll write about my own candid side.

The guy I was in my teens was, well, just...
my view of love was...hopelessly naive.

It was hopelessly immature, and just remembering it makes me embarrassed. When I talk about old times with my best friend from high school, it usually goes like this ↓

I want to pull the covers over my head and scream "Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"

Something like that, yeah.

And I couldn't imagine a happy ending for myself; I always imagined myself in situations like a "too-sad supporting character," and I would get drunk on that feeling too.

To give an easy-to-understand example,
the guy who is just really kind to the main girl, always helping her out and staying by her side, but in the end, he can never be her romantic interest, and she ends up with another guy, but he supports her with a smile. You know what I mean?

In the first place, my main romantic history, or rather, the transition of my romantic feelings, has followed the following path.

*It's that style of exposing yourself even though no one asked for it.
Yeah, you could call it an M-type personality, but it's the Natsu-Papa style.

・1st grade of elementary school, first love with classmate Tomoko Otani.
・4th grade of elementary school, received a letter from a girl before she transferred, but I was too naive to reply.
・5th grade of elementary school, my heart raced for "Sheeta" from Laputa & I was jealous of Pazu.
・6th grade of elementary school, The Five Star Stories movie version made me yearn for Sopp and writhe in agony.
・1st year of junior high, DEAR BOYS made me admire Kazuhiko Aikawa, leading to a bit of a dark history.
・2nd year of junior high, Hot Road & Mabataki mo Sezu put me in a suit of pure youthful love.
・1st-2nd year of high school, dumped twice with the reason, "Why are you so kind?"
・3rd year of high school, B Virgin became my bible and I finally started to wake up from my girl fantasies.
・Winter of 3rd year of high school, realized I was in love with Uko Takiguchi only after I lost her, despite being unaware of it at the time.
・3rd year of university, eloped with a married woman on the borderline & attempted a double suicide.
・22-27 years old, gained experience.
・30 years old, got married.

It is no exaggeration to say that my view on love in my teens was almost entirely formed by anime and manga.

In my third year of high school, I was actually in love for real without even realizing it, and only noticed after it was over.
This is a real 5 Centimeters per Second state, and even now, when I suddenly remember it, I feel hopelessly frustrated or uneasy.
It's been aged to the point of driving me crazy. lol

Also, although I haven't mentioned specific titles, perhaps due to my sister's influence, I was actually reading even more shojo manga.

Maybe because of that,
if anything, I was pathologically longing to be the "boy who appears in classic old shojo manga," and I feel like I was also looking for girls to have the "psychology of a shojo manga protagonist." (Serious face)

Among them, I was insanely addicted to the works of manga artists like Taku Tsumugi and Ryo Ikuemi.

I couldn't help it, during my lunch break at work today, I searched for images on my PC, and although I didn't have a pencil and just used a ballpoint pen for a quick sketch, before I knew it, I was doodling on the back of the paper in front of me...

*An illustration like an insert for Taku Tsumugi's "Mabataki mo Sezu".

Man, it's naive, but it's nostalgic, and my heart is racing.

I want to punch my past self and say, "Wake up!!"

What was I talking about again?