So I’ve been staring at these Match Seller and Lost Letters covers by Kusama Sakae forever, but it wasn’t until I found the combo of the first two covers on Amazon that I realized the covers are meant to fit together like this???
Looking at the pictures like this, it makes me love the series and Kusama Sakae even more. Even if each of the individual images tells a story of its own too, you can read so much of the characters’ relationships and stories from these combo covers. Like in the upper row where Hanashiro is looking away from Sawa, and the contrast of late night darkness and the brightness of dawn makes them seem even further apart, even if they are standing next to each other. You can also see that while Hanashiro is still doing his match selling thing, Kiyo is already there in the background. Likewise with Sawa, he looks clearly unhappy but a new day is dawning for him as Arihara (who’s standing behind him) comes to his life.
On the lower row, it’s still snowing for Arihara, but he now has someone looking after him (ie. Sawa in the background). I find it really interesting how you can read Arihara either as looking wistfully towards Kiyo who’s next to him, or turning towards Sawa who is standing behind him, since they are both important to him. Kiyo, on the other hand, is as cluelessly happy as ever. While he clearly seems to be looking forward a bright future as the clear sky and green grass suggest, he also seems ignorant of Arihara’s feelings, which he is too. Still, the cover in the lower left corner also sets mood for the whole story’s ending, and it’s full of hope and new beginnings as the characters are able to finally find some resolution and move forward in their lives.
Sigghh it’s also really tugging my heartstrings how we see Kiyo and Arihara face each other in both of the combined covers but Arihara’s posture is always really sad. It also makes me sad we don’t really see them interact in the manga. Their friendship and what it meant to them, especially to Arihara, is at the heart of the story, after all.
I totally got stuck on reading the last volume in Japanese now, sobbbb I just really love Lost Letters. ;;____;; Can’t wait for @sublimemanga to release the translation for the last volume.
