Omoide Emanon

The year is 1967 and a broken hearted college student is headed back home on a ferryboat. Laying on the floor covered in his blanket with a sci-fi novel in his hand. A woman sits next to him with a cigarette in her hand. One thing leads to another and they end up having a conversation at the ferryboat's diner. The mysterious woman shares her story about her life.
An unbelievable story no one would believe except for a young man with a love for science fiction. Saying it's about a man meeting a unique woman while heading back home is not good enough. It's a realistic story about 2 people who feel very real. The story the woman tells makes herself feel like she comes from a dream even though she herself feels so real.
This is the first manga that has touched my heart. I read this a while back and I still think about it to this day. I highly recommend this manga. Reading it makes it much better then reading a synopsis about it.
It's one of a kind.
(This is "similar" to the review I wrote on amazon so don't say I plagiarized someone else.)

Will make this review short. Thanks for reading in advance.

Story - 7
Art - 8
Character - 8
Enjoyment - 7


Memories of Emanon is a short, sad story of this wander with no name possessing a 3 billion-year-old memory of life on earth, not just human life, the life before as well, the entire evolution. Whilst the premise may seem great, the story is just a cut of one of the multiple different eras the wandered dubbed 'Emanon' goes through. Emanon is interesting, she leaves you with quite a bit of vague denotations such as a one I will give. You can tell that she has been wandering for a very, very long time. This in itself is an understatement. Thorugh this grand journey, she has come as far as to have lost her name. She has probably been named so much that her original/first ever name just isn't something she can't remember, which would be a contradiction, depending about how you look at it. As for the unnamed narrator, who by the way narrates for quite a stretch of time considering the size of this story which made for the flow to be a little bit boring at the start, is just a plain dude with a deep love for sci-fi novels. He is one of the many people Emanon has encountered. I find him ironic about how he has never been named in the duration in the story, yet he gives the Emanon, an anagram of 'no name', a name. One could perceive this as the writer's way of showing that Emanon has, is, and will go so far on this roam that the dude's name would have never made it to the future anyways. Or the writer was just lazy. I prefer (and believe) the former. The story is good at leaving little details to make you think, kinda like Emanon and her thoughts with the sci-fi dude.

The art is really good. When I first saw the cover you could tell that this was a style that if you were to come across again, your mind would instantly refer back to this. The art has been made well, the only reason I am not giving it a 9 or 10 is that it isn't groundbreaking. It is a coined style that has its glory but doesn't have the bright shining light to go with it.

This isn't the most enjoyable thing in the world but it makes you think, namely, about Emanon and the countless encounters, sights, places she has been associated with over the past evolution of life. That is where the enjoyment lies, the enjoyment of thinking about such a power.

Overall - 7.5 (8)


I recommend this manga, I read it in about 1 hour and it is one of those short stories that need to be added to one's collection of manga that needs to be read.

It is sad.
It is sweet.
It is unreal.
It is mysterious.
It is deep.

Memories of Emanon can show you all of that.

[Spoilers ahead!]

Essentially it's only 2 long chapters, but there's a lot to unpack; mainly the strong theme of existentialism. Emanon is haunted by her unique ability and the narrator is just some guy who doesn't really know what he's doing or where he's going in life. The narrator could easily be a projection of most young adults (the writer himself was a university student when he first conceived the story, after all!); the transition from teenagehood to adulthood with all its ups and downs is a period of life often ignored or not explored enough in fiction, so it was nice to see the main character being just an average joe who's thinking about life.

Emanon on the other hand, could be interpreted as the collective of all life on Earth. Just as a person is unique because of the life they've lived and in essence their memories, so is Emanon the uniqueness of life on Earth.

The second chapter is what really ties it all together and the last few pages which are essentially about finding one's place in the world leave a positive message to an otherwise sad ending.

The artwork is pretty good too. The two main characters show a variety of detailed expressions throughout the course of the story and even side characters have very expressive faces. The artstyle is a bit more Western, especially for the narrator, which is a nice touch.

An amazing read through and through. Highly recommended!

A work that doesn't sell itself by the conceit, it just sells the conceit.

Its awesome how something so short can be so fascinant, I got really involved by the idea and by the interaction of the characters, even though it was brief.

The conceit.

The conception of Emanon is consistent enough for the story get close to perfection. The Emanon's billions of years were pass on a few of pages and have a shallow explanation, but it gives me space to imagine satisfatorily how was to Emanon. Even though its absurd to imagine that one generation had survive for billions of years, and that all of them have procreated (as the idea is awesome, I obviously already imagined myself in her place, and I would worry about the next generation, since I couldn't die without giving birth).

The "No Name".

As the conceit, Emanon is also a great character. By her vision, the decades are like just some hours for us, and its very well reflected. Her behavior and ideals are justifiably amorals and on the same time, perfectly humanizated. The pages without dialogues, that we don't know if its break of time between one of another was of some minutes, or if was of decades, they are so engaging that I got myself looking at them by some time. Its incredible how the manga really pass to me how lives the No Name.

The artists

Also, the art is particullarly beatiful, just like Emanon (isn't a commentary that I made previously, neither for my waifu...), its charts have excellent angles and it helps in the immersion of scenes. Simply, an excellent work to the illustrator.
And the writer made a great job as well, his subtle character characterization and his philosophic and ellegant metalanguage make a consistent and deep atmosphere. Even though the narration was a little excessive, his story is pratically perfect for its propose.

My personal experience.

I had a block to get emotionally involved with the work. It passes a lot of feeling by an indirect way, almost imperceptibly, and it can be a problem if you want to get personally involved by the drama, because at least with me, the story was just interesting.
By the way, I get involved after all, at levels so complex that I can't explain easily. I loved the idea, and really imagined myself on the situation of both main characters, because both are well structured the sufficient to open space for that. I yet didn't read the season 1, but I really hope that be a literally sequel and that doesn't push a second plot cannon in the story, becaute for me, the "empty"'s conceit is absolutelly interesting, I'd like to see Emanon's natural life.

Conclusion.

If you have interest in meet some different manga, with ideas and approaches differents of anything, take it a shot. As mush for the experience of reading something so different as for the baggage of knowing that something like Emanon exists, the work is worth it.

Imagine having a three billion old memory that encompasses everything that has happened, even that of the origination of life itself. Is it possible to cope with it? How will your life and surroundings affect you and vice versa? Omoide Emanon is a heartwarming and fascinating tale of a 17 year-old girl who possesses an ancient memory that dates up to the creation of life.

The approach on the narrative is utterly fascinating and well done; it is narrated in a span of a couple of hours, then makes a jump to the future. The story is established in 1967, which starts off by slowly building up the scenario and introducing the main characters. The protagonist Emanon, financially low on resources, decides to return on ship to her hometown in Hokkaido. Therein she encounters a young sci-fi lover: through soothing and everyday dialogues, the story transmits the personalities and emotions of the characters well. Emanon will ultimately reveal her secret to him, which leads to the past of the lead character and other reflections she has from current society and how it changed.The reader can really begin to appreciate and ponder about humanities nature, and specifically how such a memory would have potentially affected their own life (and that of Emanon), the decisions and hardships.

The cast of characters in the manga is composed of the two mentioned previously. There is Emanon, who continually fell in love in her childhood and adolescence due to her memories. After enduring one rejection after the other, she decided to travel, in order to explore and search for answers about herself. Then there is the young man who is a sci-fi lover. Because the manga is short, little character development takes place, but the reader gets to appreciate the characters personality. It is interesting to see how the man represents how most young, optimistic people turn out to be: having a decent job and a family, without changing and adapting themselves to society.

The art of Omoide Emanon is fantastic. Stunning and realistic character designs, detailed backgrounds; almost every panel had a background, which enhanced the realistic setting and overall narrative. There were some inconsistencies to be appreciated throughout the manga, but this was a minor issue.

To sum up, Omoide Emanon is a brilliant story with a fascinating idea that was well executed and presented to the reader. With the fantastic art and good pacing of the narrative, this manga fulfilled almost every aspect it thought to explore, though it doesn't go into too much detail. It could have had the potential to be a longer series, but nevertheless I would highly recommend this to any reader.

Thank you for reading.

I randomly came across this manga when i was in the library with some friends. The cover caught my eye and i curiously lifted the book off the shelf. After inspecting both the front and back cover i had my hopes raised. I was hoping for a sad, slow-paced story about a lonesome girl and the ocean, and i got more than what i was expecting.

The art. Yes this was the main point that i loved about this manga. I simply love rugged, imperfect backgrounds with plenty of detail and shadows. You can probably tell by my profile, but this was more than i asked for. On several occasions, i had to stop reading in order to grasp the picture, grasp the detail and relive the effort that the artist had when drawing every single brick, powerline and railbed.

For me, the story was nothing special. However, i know what the author felt like when making this story. When i am bored, i occasionally daydream. I create beautiful scenarios that i feel that only i can enjoy fully. I dream of playing with a girls soft brown hair while sitting in a train coupe. The wooden benches are uncomfortable, but her presence makes me ignore that. The morning sunrays sift through the small white curtains and land on her face. We pass dense forests, open lakes and even large hills. Where are we going? To be frank it doesn't matter.

For us dreamers, this is complete bliss. Even though i cannot appreciate Emanons story good enough, i know that for the author, it was a fantastic daydream. So good, that he turned it into reality.

Emanon is a fine character. It's the girl of our authors dreams - different and mysterious.

Those are my thoughts on this great manga. I am glad that my eyes stopped on this blue book during that tired afternoon, it filled the rest of my week with happiness and enjoyment.

Whether its just a few hours or several decades, her memory coagulates forever without degradation. She has so many memories that her perspective of time is an infinite scale, where everything that has ever happened is instantaneous in her mind. She learned from probably thousands of experiences that having only a few good memories with a person is much better than waiting for the eventual bad memories to stain them. Likely she was looking for hundreds of years to find the perfect person like him, once again, so she could do just that. So before there was any deeper connection, before there was anything but memories of a happy time, she left him to continue his life.

Truly a masterpiece, highly recommended.

Omoide Emanon has a lot of poetry and a pure atmosphere. I felt very calm (but quite bored) when i read it. There is only love and beauty, with good art. The characters are well introduced and have depth.

However, the plot is a bit dull, there is a lot of nonsense like :

[spoiler]
mother loosing part of their dna memory when they get a child (???)
[/spoiler]

Nothing will really happen in the manga, and the plot twists are spoiled in the beginning. the characters pretty much spend the manga talking.

It was boring to read but the overall atmosphere and the immortality depiction is pretty well managed by the author, so i would still recommend you reading at least the beginning. If you don t really enjoy it, consider dropping it since there will be nothing much more happening.

Hello, everyone.

Well, I’ve finished reading this anime and it’s for me to give my opinion.
I have to say the illustrations illustrations of this manga are really good, I think few artists take the time of think of every detail , this is something I really thank.

However, I didn’t like the story at all. Sorry. I think both characters spend a lot of time talking in the restaurant, even their theory of Emanon’s gift to remember everything, becomes a bit boring. I wish we could have seen Emanon telling a story of waht she lived and a bit more of love the main characters.

I’m surprised the boy believes her when she tells him she can remember everything, the authors could have made things more difficult for her, she should have done something to make him see she’s telling the truth. I think he’s too immature and not developed at all.

I wish they had deepen more in their relationship and more in her memories of the past.

I really find it difficult to talk about Omoide Emanon. I think the word I'm looking for is alexithymia. It really is rare for me to read something like this, actually this is the first thing I've ever read of this kind. I picked this up from a list of one of my friend and I'm glad that I had the pleasure of stumbling upon this little gem, quite frankly I think this is one of the best one-shot manga ever written. This was originally published as a story by Shinji and later Kenji's editor asked him to start working on this. And later it was serialized and released as one volume manga.

Despite being a nine chapter one-shot, Omoide Emanon goes considerably deep into philosophy. It splendidly manages to transact a poignant and beautiful tale of reminiscence and wonder. It is surprisingly lovable and astonishingly emotional. After I was done with the reading, it left me wondering how short we live and how ephemeral everything we do is. Omoide Emanon serves as a catalyst for our brooding illustrates how abortive things we strive to do are. My manga reading journey is short and plain fruitless, and I enjoyed reading this than I had in a while. It certainly succored to evoke some thoughts and has affected the way I see things. This IS really a short read, and also I'd recommend anyone to read this, in fact, if you're reading this then please spend an hour of your day to read Omodie Emanon.

Emanon is definitely a fascinating yet enigmatic character portrayed. She confides in the protagonist that she holds a 3 billion year old memory that dates back to the beginning of life on Earth and spans entire lifetimes. There is a hint of nostalgia in her words as she talks about her past lives. Yet despite her vast knowledge, she travels alone and doesn’t seem to make many close personal connections. It is their shared mutual loneliness that leads her and the protagonist to make a connection during the night aboard the ship, and they end up talking about a variety of topics from pop culture to philosophy. There are numerous hints at her background, and it’s a bit disappointing that we don’t get to learn more about her past lives.

The art was definitely great and stroked well with the manga. The artwork carries the beauty of the manga perfectly, it was also due to artwork that the complexion was so gripping. The colored pages are actually water colored were beautiful to look at and firmly rooted in reality, will be waiting for a full colored version, hope there'll be one.

In short, Omoide Emanon is a unique science-fiction on a large scale and I promptly fell in love with the story and the characters. There are two more sequels and I've started reading one of it already, though it is shame that I think we don't get into the depth of Emanon's past, nonetheless I'll be definitely reading the sequels.