Saltiness

Second manga I've read by Minoru Furuya, the first one being Himizu. I have to admit I liked Saltiness a lot more!

Saltiness tells us a story of a true and honest local small town weirdo, Takehiko, who above anything only wants happiness for his younger sister, Ai. His sister works as a teacher in the local middle school, and they both live with their grandpa. Their childhood is quite depressing which probably attributed to Takehiko being the way he is, but he makes no effort to change. UNTIL... his grandpa accidentally lets it slip that he talked with Ai about her marrying and moving away, and she says she will probably never find a partner because of her brother being who he is. So, as any loving brother would do Takehiko sets out on an adventure to Tokyo to make money, win at life and find Ai a husband and ensure her happiness lmao. The story is stupid and wacky, and Takehiko is the "idiot with good intentions that manages to always mess shit up" but with a twist, he's quite good at manipulating people and has a pretty magnetic personality.

The art definitely has improved compared to Himizu. Himizu was by no means bad, but at times the characters would look pretty disproportionally buff and big. I feel like Furuya's recognizeable style stayed (I kind of grew to like the exaggerated faces now, they're also a bit more toned down...) which is nice. General panelling and physical comedy and stuff is really well done. I also really loved all the creepy monster designs. Lastly I think this manga really excels at character interaction and silly communication. I don't know, I just love random haha humor sometimes.

I'll always enjoy stories about people that live on the margins of society because they'll always include... depraved characters..., and it's nice that the story being told here isn't completely doomer tier despite it including the usual philosophizing about life and society.