Sunny

Sunny, named after the 60's model of Datsun Sunny, is a manga about children in "Star Kids Home", a foster home. The plot is set around late 70s, judging by all the cultural references (very thankful for all the great translator notes) and also because it's based on Taiyo Matsumoto's real childhood that was partially spent in a foster home. The rusting Datsun Sunny can be found in the Star Kids Home backyard, used as a reprieve from adults and a place to play in. The main cast consists of about ~7 kids and the adult caretakers, and we get a snippet of all of their struggles, dreams, hopes or pasts through the 37 chapters.

This is very much a slice of life drama, with chapters either centering around one character or the Star Kids Home as a collective. You get to meet most of the kids in detail, and the portrayal of children is handled with a lot of care and realism in this manga. From kids with constant snot in their noses, to the liars, to the ones ashamed of being in a foster home and developing a complex about it, to the ones that desparately want their parents to take them back, to the ones with a vivid imagination, to the ones that don't want to leave, to the ones that want to drop out of high school in their last semester, to the ones that throw tantrums and disobey. The cast is genuinely so varied, and it shows a certain aspect of Japanese society we rarely see depicted in this way, parents that have to abandon their children for one reason or the other. Like yeah sure every shonen protag is a lone wolf with dead parents and a tragic backstory but how many times do you actually get to read about children in foster homes and how their parents deal with it too? More than a handful of chapters had me sobbing, frankly. I really enjoyed the adult characters as well, especially the main caretaker, Adachi. I'm a sucker for endlessly kind and understanding caretaker characters. Him being able to drive a bus so he could take kids on trips? Adorable. Amazing. I already have teary eyes.

I have a lot of personal experiences with foster kids and orphanage kids, because my school was almost right across the street from an orphanage, and for some "strange" reason my class was the designated "poor people and orphanage kids" class. No joke, in my second semester of second grade they split the class I was in - into the class for the well-off children from better neighbourhoods, and my class, visibly poorer, working class parents kids + the troubled/violent/adhd kids + adopted or children from the orphanage. You would think they split us by the neighbourhood, but no, we also had kids from a notoriously "well off" neighbourhood but their parents weren't doctors or business owners. So. Yeah! This rant aside, a lot of my friends and classmates had all sorts of family situations growing up. We didn't really bully these children because.. well they weren't really the minority lol! It was "the normal" to us. One of my classmates now actually works in the orphanage and it was always her dream to be there, which I find so inspiring... Last time I met with her she told me all sorts of stories and man... This stuff hits me hard honestly! Personal tirade over lol.

I can't single out a favourite character or story, but there was one moment I really felt was pictured perfectly. Imagine this - you find out really good news, you brag to everyone about it, you're so happy you could die, you get a goodbye party, the whole shebang, but only moments after you return in shame because the situation changed completely. Everyone welcomes you kindly, you can see they pity you, but they love you, so you join them back and know they're going to give you some space to process through everything.

This to me, is a nightmare scenario. Something akin to this happened to me multiple times in my life, and each time I feel such an overwhelming amount of shame, and for no good reason, because things like these - well they happen out of your control most of the times anyway! And your family and friends will always welcome you back with open arms! Yet, this is my personal nightmare. Reading this chapter made me feel such.. idk release, catharsis. It's silly now that I'm writing about it but, oh well. I guess I hate showing any weaknesses to people I love lol.

Anyway, Sunny easily became one of my favourite manga I've ever read. I strongly recommend this to anyone that likes chill stories with well written characters that you've probably encountered in real life before.