Tatsuki Fujimoto will forever be known as the author of Chainsaw Man, one of the best-selling manga series of recent years with over 24 million copies sold. Whilst that title is ongoing, Fujimoto still has time for other projects, such as a couple of one-shot web manga including Look Back and Goodbye, Eri – the latter of which is finally getting published by Viz Media for Western readers.
If you have read the short stories that Fujimoto was doing before Chainsaw Man (and even Fire Punch), Goodbye, Eri feels more of a kind with some of those narratives where youthful outsiders are going through a coming-of-age journey with a hint of fantasy.
Shortly after receiving a smartphone as a birthday present, Yuta Ito’s terminally ill mother assigns him the task of filming her and compiling a movie about her in the event of her death. After she dies, Yuta premieres the movie at his school but is met with heavy derision over his decision to end the film with him running away from an exploding hospital. Bullied and ostracized, Yuta decides to commit suicide, until he is stopped by a girl named Eri, who reveals she actually loved his movie and urges him to make another one.
If Look Back was Fujimoto’s way of exploring what it means to be an aspiring manga artist, Goodbye, Eri is his weird love letter to cinema. Fujimoto has previously acknowledged his love of cinema – the opening credits of the Chainsaw Man anime is a montage of film references. As the story is directly driven by the dynamic between Yuta and Eri, you have the former with no real understanding of how a movie should communicate with someone, whilst the latter has the filmmaking knowledge to help instruct her Padawan. Though you don’t see any of the various movies that are watched for inspiration and education, Eri’s filmmaking advice is enough for any young aspiring soul to get into the medium.
Due to Yuta’s reckless decision on how he ended his documentary “Dead Explosion Mother” which left a bad taste to anyone who watched it, the element of fantasy plays a huge role in the narrative, where truths are revealed whilst providing enough ambiguity that can cleverly trick the reader. Although the central duo eventually decides to make a semi-documentary about themselves, albeit with various exaggeration and fictional elements, it reveals a warmth towards these characters, including Yuta’s father who felt initially distant due to his son’s recklessness and learns to open with honesty and positivity.
There are plenty of touching and witty scenes where Yuta and Eri bounce off one another, but the story is more impactful through the many silent pages. With nearly every page presented in four wide panels, the manga could have been an artistic exercise through panel division and other effects such as the video footage jitter. Fujimoto’s work (along with the number of assistants involved) is incredibly detailed from the expressions and little actions of the characters, to the mundane surroundings they inhabit.
Although Chainsaw Man remains as entertaining as it is popular, Tatsuki Fujimoto is at his best with the one-shot format as Goodbye, Eri is a masterful coming-of-age story that plays with reality and fantasy through its discussion of filmmaking.
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