Not an ordinary bus trip

Title: She Got Off the Bus at the Peninsula
Story/Art: Urushibara Yuki
Published in: Kondansha's Afternoon 2004-09
Scanlator: Kotonoha

Story

Kunizaki Mitsuko is a single mother who returns to her childhood place, the grocery shop once ran by her deceased grandmother. Located at the tip of a peninsula, the shop was mostly frequented by tourists and bus drivers who drove them there. Slowly, Mitsuko begins to recall the people who went there and things that happened near the shop during her childhood: the tourists who came to see the beautiful sights the seaside has to offer, and the few who came in order to leave to the their worlds behind and never to return again.

Review

If you're wondering why I make so much fuss about manga, then this is one of the reasons. Unlike the comic scene in the West or even here in Malaysia, manga has taken the art of pictorial story telling to new directions.

In this one-shot (a single release, as opposed to a running series or a mini series) story, we are taken for a walk in the shoes of single mother, who is trying to start fresh by returning to the life she once knew. She intends to close her grandmother's shop with the hope of moving on with life with her only son but in doing so she reopens a window to her own past.

The story borders on the supernatural but there's nothing too frightening here to send chills down your back. Horror fans, prepare to be disappointed.

The setting also sets the tone for main character's feeling. The shop, which is situated at the edge of nowhere, is metaphorical of the feeling of a single mother struggling on her own.

In just about 40 pages, the author manages to tell a poignant tale of hopeful souls looking another chance in life, where everything is never really what it seems and the road to better things is often concealed beyond the horizon.