Guyabano Holiday by Panpanya
@DENPA LTD/Panpanya
@DENPA LTD/Panpanya
A bit of context :
A collection of short stories about a school girl who has an interesting set of adventures. These adventures take place in the real world but it contains many imaginary aspects. While we don’t know her name we certainly do see a wonderful set of stories each of which are steeped with brilliant creativity that will surely leave you wanting more stories in the end.
The main story is a travel log to the Philippines in search of a fruit and it is an adventure filled with a lot of information to help you on your own trip to search for this wonderful fruit.
How is the story ?
I have never read a travel log type of manga before. I think I picked a perfect one to explore a type of manga that speaks about the pleasure of traveling and collecting items that are locally available at your destination.
Guyabano Holidays does have plenty of short stories that don’t necessarily talk about travel. However all of the stories portray the brilliant creativity of the mangaka, Panpanya. The main character in the story is a nameless girl in high school. However, her adventures are pretty exciting and worth every bit of your attention, purely for the level of imagination that is portrayed in each story.
I’ve read this manga a few weeks ago but I can clearly remember some amazing details about some of the stories. One in particular deals with how we handle homework assignments from school. I thought it was a brilliantly innovative solution and I think all of us can very much relate and enjoy the solution our main character develops in this story. Another story dealt with building a house piece by piece. I am smiling as I remember the story and write this statement. I think you’ll love these types of stories.
The main story of course is the hunt for the strangely tasty but unpopular fruit called Guyabano. The Guyabano in this instance refers to a fruit that our main character happens to get a slight taste from a can of Guyabano in Japan. She and her companion , a bit of a strange fellow but I’ll let you be the judge of that, travel to the Philippines in search of this wonderful fruit. This adventure of hunting for this special fruit is pretty epic and filled with exciting moments and tons of additional information which could prove helpful if you do travel to the Philippines.
I am still amazed at the level of imagination displayed in these stories. The theme of creativity and imagination is always shown in each story with constant reminders of reality dropped in at irregular intervals. These moments of reality come in all forms, especially in the travel log sections of the manga for instance buying locally special times or using the local mode of transport (like a rickshaw) at your destination. I think this blend of an imaginative world with hints of realism was tied in very well and I think you might appreciate it a lot as you read each story.
Conclusion:
It is a given, I would definitely recommend this manga to anyone who likes imaginary stories tied into reality. I will admit this is a strange set of stories but that’s the beauty of an active imagination. The stories start with simple ideas and slowly blossom into wonderful and creative adventures.
As I remember some of the stories I feel great and I think that’s a sign of how good the manga truly is. I’m glad I took a chance with this wonderful manga and I hope this article inspires you to pick it up as well. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Thank you for reading this article. Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!