Kaori Ozaki

It not that this was a *bad* book, exactly, it's just that this was an....incredibly mediocre and disjointed book? I'm honestly confused a bit; I feel like I read a book with chunks missing from it.
"The Gods Lie" doesn't know what kind of book it is. It starts out as a two-school-kids-who-are-both-kinda-loners-become-pals story, then it seems to become a summer adventure, then a family drama, then a romance, then something darker, and then at the end we get this semi-spiritual info dump moment about how "oooHHHH the gods lie to us!! They say things will be alright but peOPLE DIE!" If the plot had been tightened up a bit lot I think things would have been better.
The plot issues aside, there were just so many wtf moments in here that were just plain bad. First of all, we get to see a 6th grade boy come up behind his mom in the kitchen and proceed to grope her breasts. No explanation given, he just apparently likes doing this. 😬 Then there is also a moment when a character gets punched for trying to help another girl. The girl who gets punched is a tropey "popular princessy school girl" who is only treated badly because she is pretty. She offers chocolate to a school mate, tries to offer help to a girl in need, but because she is "pOpUlAr" she gets treated like garbage. Sure, the girl is a little prissy and talks about her hair a lot, but everything about her treatment felt off to me. Lastly, the end is so lackluster. No spoilers, but the resolutions are over in about 7 pages and just felt again like the author didn't know what they wanted to do with the characters, plot, or meaning.
My feelings on this are very much reflected in the Goodreads 1-star rating motto: "I didn't like it." I didn't hate it, there were a couple okay things, but I just plain old didn't like it. 🤷… (mais)

I say to myself: hey this looks cool! It can't be tragic! EXCEPT IT IS AND I CRIED AND GAH.

More sensibly, if you're a fan of Hosoda (THE BOY AND THE BEAST) or Shinkai (CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES) or even Takahata from Ghibli (ONLY YESTERDAY) you'll find a lot to enjoy in this one volume manga.

11 year old Natsuru is ostracized by the girls after rejecting the advances of the class princess. He's cool with it though as long as he has soccer. Unfortunately a new soccer coach and the rising pressures of graduating elementary school for middle school make it difficult for him to understand why everything suddenly has to change.

Rio meanwhile is trying to protect her younger brother Yuuta while waiting for their father to return from crab fishing. She's desperate to keep their situation secret so the authorities don't come, but the stress of her secrets are making it difficult for her to survive.

Summer break becomes an important milestone for the two as they struggle to cope with what it means to grow up.

There's a certain amount of realism to this manga that struck me. Both kids are in situations where adults have let them down for different reasons. For Natsuru, the new head coach--some big shot who is affiliated with the JFA and is a professional--is constantly on his back about his skills before ultimately telling him "well your birthday puts you at a serious disadvantage you know". For Rio, her father basically abandoned them and left her to handle everything with no way to communicate at all (and when you find out WHY god I never wanted to punch a fictional character so much). The fact that they come together and create their own family for summer break is heartwarming and sad at the same time.

This is a sweet innocent tale that ends on a hopeful, but sadly realistic note (think 5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND). Having never read this manga-ka before I think I'll seek out more. With plenty of tissues ready.… (mais)