Undercurrent

This is something I don't mention often when reviewing, but readability is something I find myself struggling with often when reading manga. Sometimes speech bubbles look like they're coming from nowhere and it makes it hard to tell who's speaking if it's a dialogue. Sometimes the unofficial translations are aso bad it's hard to keep up with the plot. Sometimes the panelling is messy or bad and it's hard to tell what's going on. Well, this manga stood out in how perfectly readable it was. The panelling was so crisp and clear, I never felt confused or had to read back a bit, the speech bubbles were always precise and I never had troubles with knowing who's speaking. It seems like such a simple thing so I don't mention it often, but when I think back on it I realize just how often manga tends to be messy and hard to read.

This manga was such a delight. The main characters were adults and their interactions and conversations were just so... chill to read, the story was interesting and the ending was satisfying. The story is about a bath hosue owner, Kanae, whose husband went missing with no traces left a couple months ago. As she's coming to terms with it she decides to reopen her bath house and she gets an assistant to help her with the maintenance. Eventually she tries to find her husband with the help of a private investigator. The story is very character driven and I loved the focus on dealing with a personal tragedy, and how hard it can be to let other people in your life know that such a thing happened to you, and how almost embarrassing it feels. We are also left with the message that it's really hard to truly get to know someone, and how humiliating and suffocating it must be to have your spouse go missing without you having any inkling of their whereabouts, possible reasons for it and so on. Personally, I think people often don't make enough of an effort! And this is also something Kanae begins to think about herself through the story. The humor was sparse but it was well mixed into this relaxing mystery.

The artstyle reminded me a lot of Yuki Urushibara's work, including the overall atmosphere and the way the story is executed. There's no light supernatural themes in Undercurrent but if you enjoyed Mushishi you'll probably like this story too!