Goodbye, Eri (One Shot)

Yuta got a smartphone for his twelfth birthday. However, there was a catch. His mother asked him to record footage of her because she was sick and likely to die. He did what he could, but he couldn’t be there at the end.

What happened?

After his mother died, Yuta edited the footage together to make a movie which he showed at school. It was not well received, especially the special effects at the end where he blew up the hospital as he ran away from it. Distraught by the reaction, Yuta planned on jumping off the roof of the hospital, but he was stopped by a young girl. She was in his school and saw his movie. She loved it, but also couldn’t help but notice its flaws. Eri wanted Yuta to make another movie to show next year that would leave the students sobbing.

They watched hundreds of movies together, analysing the plot and characters. Eventually, Eri pushed Yuta to write a story and then a script. She even agreed to star in it alongside him. The new plot was about a boy who filmed his mother’s final days but ran at the end. Since then, he met a two-hundred-year-old vampire who was about to die and was given the chance to rectify his mistake by filming her death. Eri would be the vampire.

While filming Eri passed out and woke in the hospital. She revealed to Yuta that she was sick and wanted him to film her to the end. He was reluctant to do so, especially after the incident with his mother. However, his father revealed that when he wouldn’t be there to film her death, he took over. He showed the video to Yuta which showed just what a bitch his mother was. His father asked Yuta why his footage only showed the best of her. Yuta revealed that he wanted to remember her that way. Maybe Eri wanted to be remembered in a similar light. He agreed to film her death and make it into the movie they had planned all along.

What did you think?

Before I get into it, I’m going to warn you that I will be revealing some spoilers about this book. They were probably the best parts of the book so if you want to really enjoy it, I’d read the book first and then come back here because we’ll have some things to talk about. All right, let’s do this.

I loved this book. The twists and surprises weren’t that surprising but they were incredibly satisfying. Of course, Eri was sick and going to die. That was obvious. The less obvious things were the idea that movie Eri was a vampire who was slowly dying and in actuality, she was a vampire who was dying. So, it turns out the vampire mind can only hold two hundred years’ worth of memories before it gives up. Eri is then reborn with no memory of what happened before. Only this time, she had a movie about the end of her life. That was a nice touch and made the ending that much better.

However, even with all of that and the tragic death of his family, I couldn’t help but laugh so hard at the final page. Yuta had gone to the abandoned building where they would watch movies. His entire family had died in a car crash and he was the only survivor. Fed up with life, he planned on killing himself. However, when he went inside he saw Eri just as she was when she died. She told him about the vampire part being true. She also told him that his movie was missing a little fantasy. The final shot was him walking away from the abandoned building as it exploded behind him. Now, the movie was perfect.

This was an absolutely fascinating read and some of the dialogue was fantastic. The panels without dialogue were even better. There would be eight panels with zero dialogue and barely any movement, but they captured the moment perfectly. Sometimes you need that time for the moment to stick. The more I think about this story the more I appreciate it. Do yourself a favour and read it if you haven’t already done so.