Hikari no Hako / Box of Light by Erisawa Seiko

A couple of weeks ago I met a friend for coffee at a Barnes & Noble. While I was there, I did my usual scan of the various manga titles. I would have loved to have taken home all the titles that seemed interesting, but, due to budget constraints, I had to pick just a couple.

One of the ones I picked was Box of Light. The back of the book describes it as a story about a connivence store that exists on the crossroad between life and death. And, I thought, “Okaaaaay, sure! Why not?”

SPOILERS

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I actually started reading this manga immediately after I first bought it, but then set it down. I didn’t pick it up again for several weeks. Unfortunately, I think that’s because it’s not nearly as compelling in execution as it is as an IDEA.

The idea is solid. There’s this convenience store that people wander into when they’re on the verge of death. The first story is a prime example. A woman dying from overwork doesn’t quite know how she got away from work long enough to find herself wandering the aisles, but now that she’s here a snack or two sounds like just the thing to get her energy levels back so she can return to work. The whole book is full of these kinds of stories. Part of what is always in the reader’s mind is… oh, no, this person doesn’t know they’re already half-dead.

This should be a pretty riveting plot device.

Something about it doesn’t quite work for me. I’m not sure exactly why not.

I found myself far more interested in the chapter where the otherworldly bad guys attempted to replace the two parttime workers with self-checkout machines. I am also weirdly invested in the continued good health of “darkness cat,” a cyclops cat-shaped monster made of “darkness” (a kind of evil miasma) which is normally a bad thing, but this one eats other darknesses to protect the store for some reason.

And, I think that’s part of my issue with this one at the moment.

Usually, by the end of a first volume, I have a good sense of who is who and what the story wants to be. But, this one seems to be part anthology of stories of random people who are near death, and a light exploration of the world around the convenience shop. I think it might be better served if it were one or the other. I know I’d prefer a story about what the heck is this place and what purpose it serves and what exactly are shades, etc., etc.

I think that my sense that I don’t quite connect to this yet is that, outside of the cat/not cat, a lot of the art seems sort of uninspired? A bit flat?

It’s not a BAD manga, however. Maybe I just need to read more of it. I see there’s a volume 2 out (and scanlated.)