Solanin

Solanin is a manga by Inio Asano. In the afterword of the book, the author says of it:

There's nothing cool about these characters. They're just your average 20-somethings who blend into the backdrop of the city. But the most important messages in our lives don't come from the musicians on stage or stars on television. They come from the average people all around you, the ones who are just feet from where you stand.

This book is about those messages. No one really comes out on top, they all just kind of come out to the side, but it is the way they accept their question marks that separates this one from every other indie comic about people drinking coffee, playing guitar, and asking huge questions about life. It's an acceptance of question marks as part of your own "certainties," kind of like asking "Didn't [insert name] die?" even though you kind of already know the answer, and then finding out something completely new about that person's life.


Read it if you come across it. It is the best piece of quarter life crisis fiction I have seen yet.