Sachiko and Masato Azuma have overcome numerous obstacles in dealing with their firstborn son Hikaru’s autism. Having saved their marriage from ending in ruins, the young couple has welcomed a healthy baby girl, Kanon, into their tight-knit family. But with the obvious differences between Hikaru’s and Kanon’s developmental abilities, it becomes apparent that social prejudices against Hikaru’s disability are never far away. As Hikaru moves into the fourth grade, Sachiko encounters a new student, Miyu, whose mother has completely given up on her daughter’s life and her own. With the help of Hikaru’s beloved teacher, Aoki-sensei, Sachiko aims to bring hope back to Miyu’s family. But when Aoki-sensei transfers to a different school and Hikaru’s special education class is thrown into upheaval by yet another tragedy, can Sachiko continue to hold on to her own hope for her son’s future? (from the back of the book)
A lot of things happened in this volume, and this volume only spans maybe less than two years of Hikaru’s life.
At the beginning of the volume, Hikaru is almost in the fourth grade and his little sister Kanon is two years old and in daycare, which is pretty much where we left off in Volume 1.
Hikaru is the same as ever. He’s about nine years old now and is pretty set in his every day routines and still continues to make strides in his development. Kanon is just adorable and is probably as spontaneous as her brother is not. She’s also pretty easy to deal with, as Sachiko points out at one point.
This series doesn’t really have much of a plot, it’s just a slice-of-life series about Hikaru’s life so there’s no long story per volume, just a lot of short arcs. There are two at the very beginning, and one is where the ‘Hikaru Newsletter’ is introduced. The Hikaru Newsletter is something that Sachiko does up on the computer to hand out at Hikaru’s school to help people better figure him out. This particular newsletter focuses on the fact that Hikaru is able to put together a puzzle flipped over (because he was looking at the shape of the pieces and not the picture) and challenging the readers to try to do the same.
The second arc includes Kanon and some Hina dolls (some kind of Japanese doll set). Some of the mothers of Kanon’s daycare buddies are invited to a Hina doll party and Sachiko is invited and has to take Hikaru along with her. Hikaru is pretty well-behaved for the most part; while he occasionally gets into things Sachiko is able to divert his attention with no problems. Everything is proceeding smoothly until Hikaru wets his pants because he wasn’t able to make it to the bathroom in time. This shocks the other mothers there and they make some pretty mean remarks. One of them even insinuates that the reason Kanon was born was so that she could take care of Hikaru when Sachiko and Masato eventually die.
And that was chapter one.
Chapter two starts with Hikaru entering the fourth grade and some clunky foreshadowing about not wanting Aoki-sensei to transfer schools.
There’s a new student in the Special Education class this year: Miyu Honda, who is in first grade and is has autism. Like Hikaru, Miyu has low functioning autism. But unlike Hikaru, Miyu’s never received any kind of therapy, so her development is way behind (she isn’t even potty trained). Miyu’s mother, Honda-san, is young and headstrong and has never had any good experiences with schools, so she’s practically given up on Miyu’s education at this point. We don’t actually see too much of Miyu and Honda-san unless Sachiko and/or Hikaru are around at the same time. Miyu is probably what Hikaru would’ve been if Sachiko had never been to the welfare facility. Under Aoki-sensei’s guidance, Miyu flourishes, but all that mostly happens in the background of Hikaru’s story arcs.
Speaking of Hikaru, he’s become quite the gardener. It wasn’t mentioned in the first volume, but Aoki-sensei has been taking the Special Ed students out to work in the school garden every spring and fall. Hikaru has been working in the garden for almost four years now and he’s learned to pull weeds, water plants, and harvest them. He can even tell which vegetables are which just by looking at the leaves. All of this gives Aoki-sensei an idea that opens up to another story arc.
Wakabayashi-sensei is teaching the Buddy System class this year. The Buddy System is when another student (usually from a specific class) volunteers to hang out with the Special Ed students. Daisuke Ishida becomes Hikaru’s buddy for The Tomato Project. His job to go out to the garden every day at recess with Hikaru so Hikaru can water the tomato plants and take a picture of them. This is to teach him the passage of time.
The Tomato Projects gets off to a rough start but everyone eventually gets themselves sorted out and Hikaru makes a new friend in Ishida. There’s also another breakthrough in Hikaru’s development: he calls Ishida, someone he’s only known a few months, by name. (Wakabayashi-sensei is so jealous, haha.)
After The Tomato Project is over, there’s some kind of school recital where the Special Ed class, along with Ishida, makes a presentation about it. This is when Ishida’s character gets some development. Before he met Hikaru, Ishida was a soft-spoken boy who got teased a lot but, for whatever reason, couldn’t do anything about it. During the recital, someone makes fun of Hikaru and Ishida gets angry and calls the kid out.
Speaking of the kid making fun of Hikaru, his name is Oki-kun, and he’s in Moe’s class. He’s also a brat. He’s been abandoned by his mother and neglected by his father. But he turns out to have a kind heart, which he proves in a part of the volume I like to call ‘Hikaru’s Adventure’.
Hikaru’s always had a tendency to wander off. He walks home from school on his own now, so it was probably only a matter of time before he managed to get himself lost. Apparently, he’s been going to Oki-kun’s home recently, and this is where his adventure begins. He and Oki-kun are chased out of the house and, one bus ride and one train ride later; end up in Hachioji (which is about two hours away from home). This is all very emotional because when the readers aren’t with Hikaru and Oki-kun, we’re with Sachiko, who is beside herself with worry and fear. She blames herself for Hikaru getting lost because she allowed him to walk around on his own. It Keiko Tobe is good at anything, it’s portraying emotion. I was scared for Hikaru while reading this, and I knew that he was fine the whole time.
The second half of the volume is when a lot of changes happen.
Everything begins when Aoki-sensei and Wakabayashi-sensei get married, which comes straight out of nowhere. Dead serious, not even a hint of romance between those two until now. As nice as all that was and as much as I liked it, I think that the only reason it came up was because there needed to be a reason for Aoki-sensei to be transferred out. Which is the next major thing that happens.
Sachiko and Honda-san find the transfer hard to accept. Sachiko knows that Aoki-sensei is the main reason why Hikaru has been able to come as far as he has, and to Honda-san Aoki-sensei is the first person other than her to see Miyu as an actual human being with potential and feelings. They try to fight the transfer, but they can’t really change anything and Aoki-sensei moves on to another school.
It really isn’t the end of the world just because Aoki-sensei is gone. Principal Yoshizawa had everything sorted out so that Shichigatsu Elementary (Hikaru’s school) would continue to be a safe and welcome learning environment for all its students, including those with special needs. Then a tragedy happens and all that planning goes down the tubes.
Now the school goes through some major changes. First there’s a new principal, Principal Kouda, a man who cares more about image than about creating a loving environment for all of his students. Second there’s a new Special Ed teacher, Gunji-sensei, who is looking for a free ride for her last year before retirement and has no patience for Hikaru and Miyu and their needs. Gunji-sensei is also the teacher who accidentally locked Hikaru into a storage shed in his first year, so Sachiko is pretty worried about this.
This brings up a totally new set of problems that Hikaru and Miyu have a hard time overcoming. Right off the bat, Hikaru has the first big tantrum he’s had since he started school, and Miyu starts wetting her pants again. Both children are practically regressing while under Gunji-sensei’s care, and neither she nor Principal Kouda will do anything about it.
Not without a fight at least.
Hikaru is still continuing to grow and develop in this volume, and he’s making great strides into expanding his world even more. He’s meeting new people and learning more about the world he lives in and how to navigate it.
Like the first volume, Volume 2 doesn’t hold back with the emotional punches. Every up and down in the Azuma family’s journey is felt by the readers as well as the characters because of the way it’s done up in the manga. It also helps that the characters are easy to get attached to, especially the children because we get to see them as they’re growing up, so we genuinely care for them.
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