What can I say, I’m a sucker when it comes to the stories like this. Beautiful and bitersweet. And accompanied with such a striking artwork!
Okay, it wasn’t like that in the story.
But this button does seem magical in these times on steemit. Heh, a girl can dream.
Returning to the real story…
It was called “Annarasumanara”, written by Ilkwon Ha.
Here’s the description of this webcomic:
"Yun Ai wanted to be a magician when she was little. But now in reality, she is a high school student who cannot even afford new stockings. Since the day she met a real magician at a fair, she desperately wants to follow her dream.”
Well, at first sight it sounds really naïve, like the story for the little girls. But it is not so simple, and maintains the fragile balance between whimsical and realistical, tackling the important issues. What means “to grow up”? And to become an adult?
But firstly, let’s start with the atwork.
Artist combines different styles ingeniously. He plays with the colours, forms and factures to describe a certain emotion, state of mind or simply to create an unique atmosphere.
For example, how this piece of crumpled paper…
…Finally reveals us the broken man.
Or how the main heroine thinks to herlsef, that they are so different and can’t understand each other.
And another great examples:
I think you might be confused with the man on the last picture. I mean, what’s up with his head?
I was confused too, when I saw him firstly show up.
And everyone acted like he was NORMAL. Not even normal, but handsome. Only later, you also realise, that was made on purpose. In this story, he went through the metamorphosis and became ten times better in the end.
But at the start, he was the best student, arrogant, grown up in the rich family and lived in a ridiculous, just over-the-top house like this.
But he is not the main protagonist of the story, though, he plays an important role.
The main ones were the girl and magician. Yun Ai, as mentioned above, was a poor, hard-working student, who struggled to survive with her little sister, while she was abandoned by her both parents.
The most intriguing one was the magician, who she met at the amusement park. And this guy was a mystery from the start.
Nobody knew, who he is, what is his real name, why does he live in this amusement park. He collided with the main heroine many times and often helped her. Also, talked about magic and dreams a lot.
But in the end, all of this magical romantic stuff turned out to be more prosaic. Speaking frankly, this “magician” was just an insane thirty years old man, who had a dark past.
In fact, he was just left out, not fitting into the adult world.
When we found out about his real story, artist’s style changes again, to show his real struggles and slipping into the insanity.
I see them as the rough sketches of the shattered human mind. It’s dark and twisted, but always makes you wonder – do these people really see something that we don’t? Or it’s just their distorted reality?
The main problem, still, was all concluded in here:
Living by others expectations, wanting to fit in, to become the “respectable adult” with the nice job. I think many can relate to these struggles, especially, when you were really young.
Unfortunately, the magician can not take this pressure.
For some, he may seem as infantile, having such silly dreams as becoming a magician, never wanting to deal with any of the responsibilities. For others, hopeless romantic, chasing his dreams and who just doesn’t belong to this unfair, difficult world. He simply refused to live in it.
Either way, it was a beautiful story. Tragical and yet sweet, it wants you deep within to believe in magic.