Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Shuzo Oshimi sure knows how to surprise readers in his vampire-horror manga series “Happiness”. After the unexpected ten-year time jump towards the end of volume 5, the story surprisingly shifts its attention to Yukiko Gosho’s life, who seemed like a pretty minor character until now. But like I wrote in my last review, I will just have to stop treating any one particular character as the primary protagonist of this ever-evolving tale.
Recap of Happiness Volume 5: Makoto Okazaki is captured by armed forces and then taken to a facility where he is restrained for experimentation; what really happens to him isn’t shown. Meanwhile, the weird new character Sakurane, who befriends Gosho, makes her lead him to Yuki. Smeared with blood and regret, a repentant Yuki (he murdered his girlfriend and parents in volume 4) asks Gosho to kill him, but in a twist, Sakurane slashes Gosho’s neck, then asks Yuki to drink her blood and leave with him to someplace far.
After the multiple deaths and violence in the previous volumes, Shuzo Oshimi slows down “Happiness” in volume six, which largely follows Gosho’s daily life and a male colleague’s attempts to pursue her. But you don’t know if a sweet romance is going to bloom between Gosho and new character Sudo, or if something twisted and tragic awaits the young woman. However, the edition is surprisingly devoid of all the shocking deaths pervading previous volumes, so the artwork is a lot more relaxed in tone, without frantic lines, spirals, and blood splashing the pages. Readers who were expecting more horrifying twists and shocking murders will most likely be disappointed by this issue, but I really enjoyed this unexpected change of pace.
Gosho had been a slightly one-dimensional character as a high school student, but now she is a young woman, a survivor of a horrendous attack that should’ve ideally left her dead. Gosho escapes with a ghastly gash on her neck as proof of her ordeal and now lives an almost ordinary office worker’s life. But the past, of course, continues to haunt her. While Sudo helps Gosho navigate her trauma, he cannot grasp the gravity of Gosho’s past or her reawakened desire to find Makoto and Yuki, which can only throw her on the path of danger once again.
Volume six serves as an interesting turning point for “Happiness”. It gives readers a slice-of-life kind of break and ends with a cliffhanger that will most definitely bring back all the chaos and violence that pervades the last few volumes.
Rating: 4 on 5. You can read “Happiness” on Kindle Unlimited.
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