Introduction
Sukibito Diary is written by Chu Nap. It can be bought for $15 at the Fangrrlz store. I bought this book at the 2015 Anime Expo.
On a personal note, this is one of my favorite books I own.
Thoughts
I bought this comic in 2015, the year I was to turn 23. Back then I picked it up because the cover looked interesting and I liked nearly everything the booth (Fangrrlz) had to offer. I read it and I enjoyed it, enough to write a short message to the author about how I liked it. Back then it went over my head the fact the main character was 23 in the story. On a recent reread, two years later at the age of 25, somehow that fact weighs heavily more upon me than it did the first read. Growing is an interesting, sometimes nebulous thing. I find that if I don’t stop and think so much about what I do each day, time seems to slip slowly from my fingers and before I know it, a day, a week, a month has passed.
Sukibito Diary is a story about two things, time and relationships. There is a danger of letting time slip by when you’re not looking, when you forget to look up at each day you live through. People are always telling us there isn’t enough time, but also that you have all the time in the world. As you look up from the daily life you go through, you are left wondering where all the time went. How could it disappear without you looking?
When you’re developing a friendship with a new friend, there’s something akin to a honeymoon phase, in which everything you do with them is exciting and you look for any excuse to see or talk to them. Time seems to stop and all you want to do is spend time with them. You are both on your best behavior, maybe out of fear of letting them know who you really are, or perhaps cautious about trusting someone too quickly. When the honeymoon phase wears out you are left with two people, who will either remain casual friends or perhaps something deeper. Growing any kind of relationship after that requires trust and being vulnerable, the potential for heartbreak from either them, or perhaps yourself. Sometimes the biggest problems that exist with our friendships are just in our own minds, full of assumptions and misinformation. It isn’t until you can open up to someone and trust them, can a friendship become deeper and honest.
Or perhaps, something else.
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