Manga 7375 Kokou No Hito

WARNING!: a bit spoilery.
Really recommend. The main focus if the story is how the protagonist devotes his life solely for the purpose of climbing, of reaching places high above where he finds peace, peace from others, being someone who's characters on the introvert side. His life goal is reaching a place that was never touched by man, not because of fame or recognition, but beacuse it would be the pinnacle of peace. Although, even if this is the main tangent of the story, he still manages to accept others into his life and to some extent understand what it means to grow futher beyond the ... peace of being alone.
The mangaka does something rarely done, he tells a story focusing the side of drawing and scenery rather than dialogue, portraying the Mori's emotions though panels,(in some scenes the author portrays anxiety as a rather claustrophobic scenery for example), he even further is able to display this narrative while keeping the Mountain theme of the story developing analogys that empathise with the protagonists story.
the only downside is that it can be confusing at times because how the narrative messes a bit with the cronology displayed.

When I opened the door to see Kokou no Hito, I wasn't expecting much but as I was reading, my expectations were blown out of the water and into the dark sky making it shine like a lone star and a lone star it is, it is one of the only manga about rock climbing in general, Kokou no Hito is a manga where our main character learns about climbing and becomes an absolute addict, trust me guys, climbing is like crack since you got chalk anyway which is also white powder!

So the art is very great well, I love it, the feelings you feel ... when he climbs a mountain makes you want to climb it yourself, also it does talk a lot about free solo but please dont free solo, you dont have plot armor.



Door closed

Yeah, it's sad. I found it to be really boring, i didn't managed to like one single character, i find all the choices the main character does stupid... it would be a 3/10 for me if it wasn't for the maestry of technical things Sakamoto - the mangaka, which i've read Innocent before, other of his works - did on Kokou no Hito. It is so beautiful, it has so many experimental things like characters getting crazy in the middle of the cold and their speech getting inverted in the speech balloons, the scene where Mori sees the dawn and there's an orchestra going on ... and the symbolism is really cool, the artwork is fantastic, that one chapter where he recommends us to read it while listening to Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" its pretty cool too. His paneling work is amazing too. So for technical reasons i gave it a 7/10 on AnimeNew, thought it would only be fair even if i didn't like the story or had any fun.

I think Sakamoto could do a big hit doing a collab with someone that can write better than him, and maybe a more lighthearted story. I mean, in the whole Kokou no Hito there's only one scene i've cracked a smile that is when Mori, our main character, gets out of the hospital and a little girl drops a flower and he gives back to her. This was literally the only scene where i felt empathy for Mori because he only do the worst possible decisions, it is astonishing even.

I'm well aware the work wasn't obligated to make me have fun, i watched Parasite (the korean movie that was the first foreigner movie to get Best Movie Of The Year by the Oscar Academy) and didn't have any fun, the atmosphere was heavy, it wasn't a movie made for you to have fun, and i get this. I think Kokou no Hit was probably made with the same intent. The problem is that in Parasite i could understand the characters, whereas the choices Mori did were simply forced so the story could end on a bad note because it is a seinen so it must end in a heavy way. Also Parasite was a movie, Kokou no Hito was a whole 100+ chapter manga. Mori does so many mistakes and simply doesn't learn with them. Also every single side character was forgettable and stereotypical seinen characters that do something bad and that's it, some even might try to redeem themselves but i really didn't liked it.

Sakamoto is probably one of the greatest mangakas we have as right now, he is amazing drawing, but a very uncompelling writer in my humble opinion. I hope he finds his way with a good writer someday.

That's just my opinion, i respect you if you think Kokou no Hito it's a 10/10 and think it is a masterpiece. It just didn't clicked with me and i don't recommend it to anyone besides those who want to see Sakamoto's amazing technical prowess at being a mangaka.