Natsu Tadano brings a sweet yet clear-eyed and always humane touch to a story of love doomed by illness. Her vivid art brings this quiet love story alive, and undergirds the surprisingly deep philosophical themes of the text. Ichika and Prof. Yurugi (her philosophy teacher and an expert on Heidegger) must decide if the pain of losing someone is worth the moments of happiness and comfort they can afford each other. At the age of 16, Ichika Sendawara learned that she only had two years left to live. Now a 2nd year college student, she lives a busy, upbeat life, despite never knowing when the end will come. Everything changes when Ichika meets Professor Yurugi - for the first time she feels she has something to live for. But then Yurugi quietly leaves the university, and Ichika is left wondering why, and what could have been... A gentle love story that grapples with the deepest existential questions we face in life. As the Shuji Terayama poem quoted in the text says, "If life is nothing but goodbyes, who needs life?"

333