Eien no With

Synopsis:

Kurio Hitomi is a child who kept to herself and finds it hard to make friends. This is because her family always moves house after a couple of years. She also feels that her parents care for her baby brother more than for her. She yearns for a dog to keep her company. However this is also impossible because not every place they move to allow pets. Then, during a school trip, she found out about guide dogs (dogs which help guide blind people) and a program which gives a normal family a chance to help raise & look after puppies for a year before letting them go back to train to be guide dogs. These people are called Happy Walkers.

Hitomi begged her parents to allow her to be a Happy Walker so she could at least keep a dog for a year. After considering, Eye, a Labrador puppy finally join the household. His arrival and his subsequent time with the family brought many positive changes. Hitomi’s parents made more time to be with their children for family trips and so forth. Hitomi also finally open up more to the people around her and made friends with her schoolmates. Raising Eye taught Hitomi plenty regarding responsibility and love.

However, a year quickly past and it was suddenly the time for Eye to be brought back to train as a guide dog. Hitomi was heartbroken. She didn’t care for blind people whom have nothing to do with her and she was worried that once Eye is gone, her parents will not care as much for her anymore, she will be alone. She ran off into the forest with Eye chasing her from behind. While crying alone with Eye sitting next to her, Hitomi selfishly consider hurting Eye’s legs so that he will not be able to be a guide dog. But after thinking twice,she was not able to do it. The sky grew dark and Hitomi got lost in the forest. Luckily, Eye guided her safely back. This taught her about the helplessness that blind people feel and finally understand that Eye is needed to guide them. She finally let Eye go. She was also told that Eye will be able to return to them after he retired as a guide dog.

The years pass, and Hitomi is now working as a dog groomer. She has waited all this time for Eye to come home and her wish was finally granted. But all was not fine. Hitomi felt that she had become a stranger to Eye, who only looks out for his previous employer (Note: employer as in a person who employs Eye to be his guide... This means Eye is sort of like “working”). When Eye’s previous employer, Asai Hiroyuki (Hiro for short), decided to come by to visit Eye every month, Hitomi felt resentful towards him. She dislikes the fact that he decided to get a new guide dog but still pretends to care for Eye. She also hate that Eye always seems to be waiting for him to come. Finally things came to a headstand. Hiro purposely showed to Hitomi what happen when he uses Eye instead of Holly (his new dog) as a guide. Eye is now old and easily distracted. Instead of helping keep Hiro safe, he was instead endangered and even fell down. Hitomi cried when she saw all this and drop her resentments & anger. After that, Hiro became a close friend of the family and frequently come over to their home with Holly. He also began dating Hitomi.

Soon one day, Hitomi notice that was something wrong with Eye. A trip to the vet told them that Eye’s got a malignant tumor, in other words, cancer. Treatment is not very successful and percentage of recovery is very low. Eye might die. Hitomi got very depressed & even had a fight with Hiro. But after much thoughts and overhearing Hiro’s little talk with his dog Holly, Hitomi understood that she needs to keep her fighting spirits up and do whatever is possible to cure Eye. They started medication and taking care of Eye. After a long time, Eye finally seems to be cured, but he relapsed again and in the end, he died. It was an emotional time for everyone, but Hitomi was thankful for all the time that Eye was with her.

Review:

Recently, I’ve been surrounded by “dog-related” things. Last month, a friend welcomed a poodle into his home. Last week I read this manga (yep – the one I’m reviewing now!) and cried buckets! I’ve just watch Marley & Me (that’s a dog movie for those who don’t know) yesterday and cried again, & today just before writing this, another of my friend welcomed a shih-tzu to her home! We’re having dog fever here guys! Anyway, I dedicate this review to all my friends and their dogs and I can’t wait for the day that I get a dog of my own.

Seriously though, this manga is great even for those who doesn’t like dogs. Notice that it is only 1 volume long so it makes for a good short story even though the time span is from Hitomi’s childhood all the way to her adulthood (that makes about 17 years!) which included the entire lifetime of Eye (13+ years) as well a five year onward during the ending of the story. Although the story in itself is very simple – it’s about everyday life of a girl & dog – it is not at all boring as I had first thought. It is something that I can relate to myself.

Hitomi’s character is very well developed as we see her growing and learning. She’s not a perfect person. She has everyday flaws like us all. She’s selfish, she throws tantrums and she doesn’t always puts herself in other people’s shoes, which makes her misunderstand other people actions & intentions. But she is likable in spite of all this and she is willing to admit to her mistakes and make changes. And her relationship with Eye & later Hiro, is really something wonderful to see.

The mangaka herself is a dog lover (and owner) and had used her experience to write and draw this story. Most of her works are about dogs & their relationship with people. I’m really glad to read this kind of manga even if the ending is a little sad, but I know that death is imminent and that we can’t stop time.

Bottom line: Read it. And if you’re a person who can cry easily, prepare some tissues beforehand.

Labels: Oneshots/Single volume

Posted at 12:51 AM