Copyright © 2000 Yamamura Hajime

A lot of authors write stories about love, or stories with a good bit of angst in them. Quite a few are short stories giving the reader a vignette, a window onto the life of a bunch of characters, usually at some poignant moment.
Yamamura Hajime would seem to be another author following this trail. Indeed, the first chapter in MIRAI NO YUKUE does sort of follow this pattern. However, as you read more of the stories in this volume you find a rather disturbing trend. The stories seem to be about loss in one way or another. A lost love, a lost summer, a lost chance.
The first short story, for instance, deals with an athlete who can no longer run due to an injury. Tajima-senpai claims to be over dwelling on his disability. Then one day he is called back out to the running track by one of his classmates, Hatano. She wants him to help coach a young hopeful runner, Otagiri Yukio. At first both Tajima and the younger Yukio are both skeptical in their own ways about the situation. For instance, Tajima smokes and Yukio says that is not good, it ruins your ability to run. Tajima replies that it is okay since he is not running anymore.
The next day, while Tajima is hanging out on the roof, he recalls when he had his injury due to a serious fall while running. He is brought out of his reverie by Hatano, who asks what Tajima thinks of Yukio. Tajima thinks that she is interesting but he is a little reserved on the matter.
That day at practice Tajima is talking with Yukio. She asks if he is does not feel regret over his loss, especially since he's actually here at the track training someone. Tajima replies rather practically that yes, he does feel regret, however he is in a position where feeling sorry for himself does not help his situation at all. He is in the present and has to look forward. He advises her to keep herself focused on the here and now.
The next day Yukio formally asks that Tajima-senpai help train her. But, that very day at the time trials, she runs and falls. Although unhurt, it causes Tajima to hide in the locker room—flashing back to his injury. Hatano seeks him out and he grabs hold of her in a hug. Yukio comes by looking for him, sees Hatano and Tajima together so she runs away. Hatano wants to go after Yukio and tell her that it is not what it seems to be. Tajima tells Hatano not to bother, that it is okay. The story ends with Tajima going around the empty track as fast as he can with his crutches.
This single chapter story is actually quite mild. The reader has to get in to the characters to feel the tensions. One of the later stories deals with two high school students reunited in Tokyo—how they find each other and lose each other leaves the reader wondering why the story was written. The answer is because, like with the first story, this is about loss and where we go from there. The stories always show you that the people that remain at the end have to take their next step. Hence the title of the manga: you are always left to find out where the future is.
Yamamura Hajime's art is quite refined. He uses a fine line to detail his characters, clean and uncluttered. The expressions of the characters are subtle, but convey feeling very well. What is even more powerful than how he draws his characters is how he frames the scenes or details them to indicate either very dark moments or very tense moments that are painfully frozen in time. The careful use of such style in drawing the frame lends a lot of power to the stories.
His use of backgrounds is rather sparse. They are only presented to set up a location. Once the background has been detailed and the reader has a good sense of location, it is discarded until needed again to re-orient the reader. This leaves the characters center-stage. There is nothing to distract the reader from their words and their expressions.
This is a series that takes a somewhat unusual approach to the typical run of angst and pain ridden stories. Instead of those elements being the point of the story, here they are the vehicle of the story. They are what Yamamura Hajime uses to make us, the readers, look forward to the next step beyond where the story ends.
If you are in the mood for a story with a definite uplifting ending, then these short stories are probably not for you. If you are after pure angst and anguish, then these stories are also probably not for you. Otherwise, give them a try and see if you know the whereabouts of the future.

Published in Young King Comics by Shonen-Gaho-Sha
1 volume
191 pages, Black and White
Vol. 1: ISBN4-7859-1955-8
¥495
Available now in Japan
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