http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/TownOfEveningCalmCountryOfCherryBlossoms
Town of Evening Calm and Country of Cherry Blossoms (Yūnagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni) are two individual but related short manga written and illustrated by Fumiyo Kouno. They were first published separately in the seinen magazine Weekly Manga Action in 2003 and 2004, and then compiled into a single tankōbonnote volume. Both manga are licensed in English for North America and the United Kingdom by Last Gasp.
The stories both revolve around the negative impact the Hiroshima bombing has on a Japanese family at two different periods. Town of Evening Calm tells the story of the generation that survived: Minami Hirano, her mother Fujimi, and her brother Asahi. Country of Cherry Blossoms is about Minami's niece, Nanami Ishikawa, and the Generational Trauma provoked by the tragedy that pervades her neighbors, her relatives, and herself.
In 2006, it would be adapted into a novel and a radio drama. In 2007, it got a Live-Action Adaptation as the film Yunagi City, Sakura Country. A stage adaptation premiered in 2017. A TV special adaptation was released in 2018.
Kouno would later write and illustrate In This Corner of the World, which also touches on the Hiroshima bombing but instead takes place during the years leading up to the event in World War II.
Tropes:
General
- Generational Trauma: Japan is so traumatized by the atomic bombings that most people marginalize the survivors. Meanwhile, the survivors and their children suffer the long-term effects of radiation exposure or have to see their loved ones die. This affects Nanami's childhood in several ways —she has painful memories of her mother and grandmother's radiation-induced illness, her father has flashbacks of the tragedy causing him to wander off without telling his family, and her friend Toko's parents demanded she stop spending time with her because they think Nanami's brother's asthma is a consequence of the radiation. There's also Kyoka Ota (Asahi's neighbor and eventual wife), who was thought by everyone to be stupid because of the exposure. Heck, even Fujimi, a survivor herself, forbids Asahi from dating Kyoka because of that.
Town of Evening Calm
- Barefoot Poverty: Downplayed because Minami and her mother do own shoes but try to preserve them as much as possible because they are poor and shoes aren't so easily replaced. That's why Minami walks the distance from the beginning of the slums to her house barefoot; once the city proper ends, the roads are made of dirt and that'd wear down her work shoes faster. She's introduced nailing some loose planks on her roof barefoot. Uchikose's gifting her sandals, which his grandmother crafted, is presented as significant and considerate.
- Blood from the Mouth: As Minami's radiation poisoning advances, she starts coughing dark blood. It's the signal that she won't recover and that she has very little time left.
- Plot Pants: The day Minami's radiation poisoning starts catching up to her, she feels her muscles go limp and never recovers. She's never seen wearing her work clothes anymore after that, only her pajamas and the sandals Uchikoshi gifted her. The next day, she's no longer able to stand, so she stops wearing the latter too. It coincides with her progressing illness.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The first part of Town of Evening Calm builds up Minami and her mother Fujimi's desire to pay a visit to Minami's brother, who lives in another town. So they save up their money. It seems that Asahi was doing the same because he and Minami's aunt go to visit her. Unfortunately, radiation poisoning has caught up to Minami and she dies just as her brother and aunt arrive.
- Survivor Guilt: Minami feels guilty that she survived when her sisters, father, and classmates—and so many other people who lived in Hiroshima too—died because of the bombing. Whenever she feels some measure of happiness, a nagging voice in her head tells her that she doesn't belong in this world (post-war Japan) anymore. Anguished, she begs Uchikose to tell her that she deserves to exist still.
- Textplosion: Justified Trope. At the end of Town of Evening Calm, the illustrations disappear when Minami becomes too ill from radiation poisoning to open her eyes. First, there are the increasingly blurry silhouettes of her loved ones and co-workers wishing her well, then it shifts to only dialogue bubbles in blank panels.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: After kissing her Love Interest Uchikoshi triggers a PTSD episode, Minami runs and falls down. When she rises, she realizes she's reliving the start of the worst days of her life—the date of the Hiroshima bombing. She runs again; this time, over the countless corpses she left to die in her haste to find her family and get help. She then finds her mother in a shelter; she's so swollen from the radiation that Minami can barely recognize her. The next day, she finds her sister Kasumi. Together, they search for their father and little sister Midori. It's too late for them. The flashback ends when Minami arrives home, but the depressing thoughts linger on. She keeps having Flashback Cuts to what happened after that.
Country of Cherry Blossoms
- Boyish Short Hair: Nanami's hair barely reaches her shoulders. This, along with the clothes she favors (baggy shirts and shorts instead of the uniform dresses other girls wear), gets her teased by her classmates for being too masculine.
