A health scare triggers a midlife crisis for a 42-year-old office worker.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Sumako Kari
Translation/Adaptation: David Bove
What They Say
Sawako Honna, 42, single; she works hard at a film promotion company. One night, all of a sudden, her heart palpitates, and her body goes cold… Could it be that she’s going through menopause!?
Not as hard-working as in your 20s. Not as flippant as in your 30s. The mental and physical changes, and the obstacles you face in your 40s. Sudden illness, menopause, fatigue you can’t get rid of, changes in working patterns, money worries, life plans for the future…
“What will happen to me tomorrow?”
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sawako Honna works at a film promotion company. She is dedicated to her job, constantly picking up the slack of a flaky coworker to ensure her projects succeed. But one night, heart palpitations send her running to the ER. Confronted with her mortality, she takes a hard look at the life she’s created.
The back cover blurb insinuates that Since I Could Die Tomorrow is about a woman undergoing menopause. While menopause is mentioned several times in this volume, it’s a broader story about women struggling with changes in their bodies and their identities after passing their prime.
We see events primarily from the perspective of Sawako, a single Tokyoite with a career most would consider to be glamorous. However, in Chapter 3, the story delves into the life of another middle-aged woman, Sawako’s high school best friend Toko. On the surface, they are very different; unlike Sawako, Toko stayed in the suburbs where she married and became a stay-at-home mom. But Toko has also been struggling with her gradually aging body and the changes in how people perceive her.
When Toko takes her otaku daughter to Comiket in the city, the two old schoolmates reunite. Interestingly, each sees the other as having taken the better life path, but instead of letting envy consume them, they regard each other with admiration. Moreover, despite their very different personalities and life experiences, they are able to connect and find the understanding they’ve been seeking with regard to the changes they are undergoing.
The manga is categorized as a slice of life, and it certainly is that. It doesn’t pull any punches with job stress, flaky coworkers, unpleasant customers, unintentionally hurtful comments, and health problems. For anyone in the 40 and up crowd, the story is relatable. It is a bit thick on the heavy end of reality though. Despite her health scare, four months pass without Sawako able to make any real changes to her life. The acquaintance she was attracted to turns out to have cancer. Toko is not really rocking the boat with her suburban lifestyle either. It’s difficult to tell where the story is going. Unless the plot starts picking up, this manga is going to feel more like a public service announcement about aging rather than entertainment.
The cast is middle-aged and not at all glamorous, so character designs aren’t exactly eye candy. The artwork does the job of conveying Sawako’s stress and the nuances of aging though. The formatting and placement of some of the text is off. Aside from a footnote converting Japanese currency to dollars, there aren’t any cultural notes, so you are on your own to look up references such as okara and Comiket.
In Summary:
Aging sucks, and Since I Could Die Tomorrow drives that point home with its middle-aged cast. Everyone is physically on the decline with gray hairs, frozen shoulders, and even cancer, but no one feels as if they’ve accomplished what they truly wanted even as they become increasingly aware their days are numbered. While there are bits of humor, like TMI moments between Sawako and her much younger coworker, the story thus far is kind of a downer, and I hope things take a (positive) turn for Sawako and Toko in Volume 2
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B-
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: TOKYOPOP
Release Date: February 6th, 2024
MSRP: $13.99
