is a Japanese

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...

series written and illustrated by Inio Asano. It was serialized in

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of Japanese dictionaries, dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are to ...

's '' Weekly Young Sunday'' from 2005 to 2006. In North America, the manga was licensed for English language release by

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

. The manga was adapted into a

live-action film Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video g ...

directed by Takahiro Miki and starring

Aoi Miyazaki is a Japanese actress. She is known for her roles in '' Nana'' and '' Virgin Snow''. Career Miyazaki started working in the entertainment industry at the age of four. Initially she appeared mostly in commercials, magazine advertisements, and ...

as Meiko. It was released in Japan in April 2010. In the same year the band Asian Kung-Fu Generation released the single " Solanin", with lyrics written by Inio Asano, author of the manga. The song was featured in the movie version. The band also provided the ending theme to the movie. In October 2017, eleven years after the manga's original publication, a new epilogue chapter was published by Shogakukan as part of a new Japanese edition.

Plot

Meiko and Taneda graduated from university two years ago. Having no real goals or direction, they step into society, clueless. Meiko works as an Office Lady to pay the rent for her apartment, while Taneda works as an illustrator in a press company, earning just enough to take some of Meiko's burden. While Taneda often meets up with his bandmates from their University days to jam, he still feels something is missing. His bandmates know what it is: they need to step out, promote themselves and let their songs be heard by a larger crowd; which has been their dream since their first meeting in their university's "Pop Music Club". Unhappy with the rhythm of their "normal" graduate lives, things change when two important decisions are made: Meiko decides to quit her job, and Taneda decides to devote time to write his first proper song for the band. Having broken free of their old routines, they now find themselves uncertain of where their new life will take them. Slowly, Meiko and Taneda come to embrace their unpredictable future together but an unexpected tragedy occurs, changing their lives and the lives of their friends forever.

Media

Manga

''Solanin'' is written and illustrated by Inio Asano. It was serialized in

's '' Weekly Young Sunday'' from 2005 to 2006.

published the manga's two ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or m ...

'' between December 5, 2005, and May 2, 2006. A combined edition featuring colored illustrations and a new epilogue chapter was later released by

on October 30, 2017. The manga is licensed in North America by

, which released the manga as a single volume on October 21, 2008. The manga is licensed in France by

Kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...

, in Poland by Hanami, and in Taiwan by Taiwan Tohan, which released the manga's two ''tankōbon'' volumes between June 23, 2005, and September 24, 2006.

Live-action film

The manga was made into a

directed by Takahiro Miki and starring

as the female protagonist. It was released in Japan on April 3, 2010. In the same year the band Asian Kung-Fu Generation released the single " Solanin", with lyrics written by Inio Asano, author of the manga. The song was featured in the movie version. The band also provided the ending theme to the movie.

Reception

''Solanin'' was nominated for the 2009

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...

for Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Japan. It was nominated for the 2009

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that we ...

for Best American Edition of Foreign Material. About.com's Deb Aoki lists ''Solanin'' as the best new one-shot manga of 2008 along with ''

Disappearance Diary is a manga by Hideo Azuma and published by East Press in Japan in March 2005. The manga is a somewhat-fictionalized autobiography of part of the author's life and of his alcohol dependency problems. It has received multiple awards inside an ...

''. Pop Culture Shock's Katherine Dacey criticises the manga's backgrounds, saying they look "like dioramas or collages". Deb Aoki from About.com commends the manga for capturing "the angst and uncertainty of a young adult's life with humor and heart." Mania.com's Greg Hackmann commends the author for his attention to detail, "especially when it comes to the manga's many cramped urban settings".

Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (previously the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County) is the public library system of the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. About Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is one of ...

's Lawerence T. comments on the manga "accepting what life has to offer".

References

External links

* * {{Takahiro Miki 2005 manga Coming-of-age anime and manga Inio Asano Manga adapted into films Music in anime and manga Romance anime and manga Seinen manga Shogakukan manga Slice of life anime and manga Viz Media manga Japanese romance films