SUMMARY
I Want to Eat Your Pancreas by Yoru Sumino follows the story of a girl, Yamauchi Sakura, who has pancreatic cancer as she befriends an introverted classmate, Shiga Haruki. Sakura approached Mahiro at school because, on one unexpected day, he discovered her journal at a hospital, in which Sakura records her daily life as well as her cancer condition.

In the beginning, Haruki wants nothing to do with Sakura because she’s popular and has lots of friends, unlike him, who is a loner. He doesn’t understand why she wants to hang out with him. That is until she tells him she doesn’t want any of her friends to find out the truth, fearing they might start treating her differently.

Although Haruki doesn’t want anything to do with Sakura, he still hangs out with her at her request. Kyoko, one of Sakura’s friends, finds Haruki a bit suspicious because he always declines to hang out with him, but Sakura assures Kyoko that he is a good person.

One day, she doesn’t come to school, and he learns through a text that she is at the hospital. While Sakura remains in the hospital, Haruki thinks about what she had told him in all their previous interactions. In summary, he needs to open up to other people around him.

She is finally discharged, and they decide to meet at a cafe. Haruki arrives and gets a cute text message from her about running late and how she’ll make herself cute just for him. Sadly, she never came. Later that day, he learns through the news that Sakura has passed away.

After her funeral passes, he finally gains the courage to pay her his respect and blessing one more time. Sakura’s mom greets Haruki; he respects Sakura and asks to read Sakura’s journal. Sakura’s mom momentarily gets shocked as she realizes who he is. She quickly goes to get the journal. Just when he thought he was done reading it, Sakura’s mom told him that Sakura had written something in the back of the journal and believed it was for him.

A year passes, and Sakura’s death anniversary is approaching. As Haruki struggles to walk uphill in the heat and is out of breath, Kyoko tells him he is still weak. Together, they both pay their respects to Sakura.

REVIEW
I initially thought this was your typical manga, with one of the protagonists being the popular kid and the other being almost an outcast. This is a common trope seen across anime and manga, which sometimes can get old and boring. However, one of the things I like about this is that Haruki doesn’t immediately become popular after hanging out a few times with Sakura. He still has no friends because he’s not interested in getting entangled with other people. Even after Sakura’s death, he only has one friend, Kyoko, as shown in the ending. That’s realistic and relatable for a character initially portrayed as somewhat anti-social.

There is no romance between Sakura and Hiroki. The best part of their relationship is to see how their friendship progresses. Plenty of times, the two of them can be seen discussing different things, but the one topic they discuss the most is relationships. Sakura believes that it’s important for people to interact somewhat with other people, while Hiroki doesn’t. Seeing their different perspectives is interesting because neither of them are correct nor right. Building relationships can help a person develop their emotional intelligence, but why bother if you or the other person will get hurt sooner or later?

Unlike novels, in mangas, sometimes there is barely any character development. When there is, it doesn’t make sense; if there is, you have to examine it closely, or you will miss it. Hiroki’s development is clearly made when he begins to realize and admits that he only avoids the relationship because he’s afraid of causing harm to the other party and himself. He also begins to change slowly as he slowly gets worried about Sakura, and he tells her he wants her to live. Hiroki’s other significant development is towards the end when he asks Kyoko to be his friend.

For someone living with cancer, Sakura puts her best effort into living her life to the fullest. She continues to do what she wants to do, knowing that her days are getting shorter, and she doesn’t want her friends or family to feel apologetic toward her. She’s like a bright ball of positive energy and really symbolizes the definition of life being short and what it means to live life to the fullest.

My least favorite part is how Sakura died. I should have seen it coming because I have never seen or read a strong foreshadowing in all my years of reading. At the beginning of the manga, while Hiroki is eating breakfast, on the news, there is a report about a woman’s body found in the next prefecture. The foreshadowing was as clear as day, but I forgot about this minor detail because I was so engrossed in the plot and characters.

Overall, I enjoyed every single moment of it, and it quickly became one of my favorite mangas. Now, be aware that it is not a series. The manga only has ten chapters. So, in Japan, the manga was published in two tankobon volumes, and in the US, all ten chapters were collected and published in one complete volume. If you’re in the mood to read something sad, yet light hearted, this is a good choice. It was heartwarming and heart-wrenching, not enough to make you cry, but enough to linger on your mind for a few hours after finishing the manga. Enough to make you think about the manga whenever you see or hear the word pancreas.