“ Winter of junior year. Not quite able to become adults, we couldn’t stay as we were as children, either. Our tale explores a group of teenagers and their impatience and rebirth. “They say if you write down your wish, bury it under Sheep Tower and then dig it up after 7 years and 7 months, your wish will come true … ”Tsugu Miikura, a high schooler who loves to play guitar, had moved away due to family circumstances from the rural town where she spent her childhood. After several years, she’s back in her old hometown. She reunites with her childhood friends—Sora, Yuushin, and Asari—the friends she’d buried a time capsule with back in elementary school. Tsugu is overjoyed to be with her friends once more, but the bonds that she thought would never change have in fact started to grow major cracks … “
*Spoilers Beyond This Point*
For review, and links....
Review - 4/5
Content Warning: Discussion of s*cide and similar themes, bullying, absent parents, and animal cruelty/abuse.
If any of those topics are triggering to you, or upsetting, feel free to skip to links
Volume 1 of The Golden Sheep was a single sit read for me! I read the majority of it in the car, and for the most part it was a great first volume! This series is Kaori Ozaki’s second manga, preceded by “The Gods Lie” in 2013.
The manga, itself, deals with heavy themes from the get go. Main character, Tsugu Miikura, and her family struggle with an absent parent. Their father stays in Tokyo as the five girls move back to their old, rural town. Here, she meets up with three of her old friends: Asari, Sora, and Yuushin.
However, the group begins crumbling beneath Tsugu’s feet. Asari, jealous by Tsugus connection and relationship with Yuushin (her childhood crush), begins to neglect and ignore her. The group Tsugu used to eat lunch with abandons her, leaving her to eat alone.
Tsugu, awhile after, realizes Yuushin isn’t the same “good kid” with good grades he was when she moved. His father was revealed to have slept with a high school girl, and the school quickly turned on him. Saro began to leave Yuushin behind, avoiding interacting and hanging out with him. As a result, Yuushin begins to gain ties with the bad crowd. He begins to bully Saro, beating him and stealing his money.
Tsugu realizes this when she’s on a walk with her sister’s daughter and finds the group standing on the bridge, with Saro about to jump off at Yuushins request when Saro had come to get his dog back from the other. Saro runs off, and Yuushin leaves with his friends.
Following this event, Tsugu attempts to return the dog to Saro after finding that Yuushin is about to allow his friends to stone the animal to death. However, when his grandmother reveals he hadn’t come back, she goes on a search for him. She finds him locked in an abandoned car, in an attempt to pass from the exhaust from an open flame cooking some meat, and breaks him out using her guitar.
They speak for awhile, Saro fills her in on what she’d missed while away in Tokyo. The two decide to run away to Tokyo to live out their respective dreams, Tsugu a guitarist, and Saro as a manga illustrator.
There, they find Tsugu’s father after he responds to one of her texts. The manga ends when they arrive to an apartment he’d told them to stay at.
I really enjoyed the story! There aren’t too many manga out there that depict those in Saros situation who, instead of getting help, react negatively. As someone who’s struggled how he has, I know the feeling and could really feel myself in him. The four main characters feel real and alive, they don’t just feel like plot devices to either feel sorry for or to hate. They’re complex characters motivated by the wrong reasons, or their own problems. The content was raw and unfiltered, providing a warning at the beginning, and it was almost comforting to know that my old struggles, and so many’s current struggles, were real and that it was okay to go through.
I think my only issue was Asari and Tsugu as characters. I felt they were rather plain, but Tsugu got better as the story progressed. I felt myself having to close this manga more often than others that deal with serious topics as well. I felt like I couldn’t bring myself to read it, but couldn’t bring myself to stop either.
It’s probably one of my favorite series of this genre and I can see myself picking up the second volume.
Taste of Summer contains 6 songs allotting to a time of 17 minutes and 23 seconds, with an overall beachy/summery vibe to acompany the EP as a summer release.
Alcohol-Free
First Time
Scandal
Conversation
Baby Blue Love
SOS
The vibes are all there! I greatly enjoyed this entire EP compared to the other releases Twice has done. “Alcohol-Free” give me similar vibes to “Dance the Night Away” with their bright, upbeat tone fit for a summer dance party.
The rest of the EP matches the title-track well!
As the Wiki says for the EP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste_of_Love_(EP))
“The opening track and lead single, ‘Alcohol-Free’, is a summer dance track that combines hip hop and bossa nova, expressing the group's ‘unique colors’. Lyrically, it recounts the magical moments of falling in love.”
The combination of the two styles is able to accompany the lyrics well, alongside the voices of Twice themselves. It’s fit for a beach dance party late at night!
“Alcohol-Free” is the music video that accompanies “Taste of Summer”, and has a very bright color pallet to match the aesthetics.
The outfits were great, as were the hair styles. I find it very odd only one of the girls had brightly colored hair for this music video/comeback, it would’ve seemed fitting to have a wide array of brightly colored hair. However, I understand not wanting to dye your hair.
The music video also seemed odd to me. It felt like an Aeropostel/Hollister commercial, if that makes sense. I assumed that they would have gone for an entirely beach themed design over mixing the club theme and resort (?) theme with it.
I really enjoyed this comeback! I haven’t kept up with Twice since “Cry for Me” so it was a refreshing summer tune to jump back in from where I last left off! I generally enjoyed this comeback and “Alcohol-Free” fits my mental image of Twice. They aren’t a girl group that is overtly sexy, or tries to fit a very school girl esque image. They are a fun band with a bright vibe and this is the perfect song for them all as a group!
I can’t say much about Line distribution as, this time, I simply hadn’t looked into the distribution for “Alcohol-Free” as a title track or the B-sides! If I do, I’ll make sure to edit my post :)
Overall, it’s a good EP and a great start to the summer season!
Have a great day, stay safe, and thank you for reading <3!
I do not have much to post now, as I am not home and not next to anything to take photos with. However, once I am moved into my new house and settled in I’ll be here and active!
I hope this becomes something I stick to. As much as I like writing, I enjoy reading! I also hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!
