With the Light Volume 8

With the Light 8

While trying to create a place in society for her autistic son, Hikaru, has been an uphill battle, Sachiko Azuma has long known that perhaps the toughest place to find acceptance for him is within her own family. Despite some progress made, Sachiko’s mother-in-law still treats her grandson as a nuisance and sees him in many ways as inferior to his little sister, Kanon. Now that the Azuma family has moved into Masato’s childhood home, Sachiko must not only adapt to life with her mother-in-law – she must also help Hikaru, whose developmental disabilities make it notoriously difficult for him to accept changes to his routine, like adapting to this new living situation and a new school. As Sachiko tries to balance caring for Kanon and Hikaru in the face of her mother-in-law’s constant disapproval, will the Azuma family emerge from what seems like the darkest of tunnels into the light?

Told in completed chapters as well as unfinished pages that the creator drew while battling a long illness, this final volume of With the Light serves as a legacy to the late Keiko Tobe’s inspiring dedication to bring to light the hardships and joys of raising an autistic child for readers around the world. (from the back of the book)


Here we are, ladies and gentlemen. We’ve made it to the last volume, the final instalment of Hikaru’s story. It’s been a long time since we were first introduced to Hikaru and his family and it’s been a long road to get from there to where they are now. And where are they now? How does Hikaru’s story end?

Well, let’s find out in With the Light’s final volume, Volume 8.

The volume starts off with a normal day at the new Azuma household. It’s still summer vacation so the kids aren’t in school, and Azuma-san is still off on her trip visiting with Okumura-san and Professor Ryoumou. Masato has a cold and plans to sleep it off so Sachiko takes the kids to a nearby park for an outing.

Before she left (during Volume 7) Azuma-san had told Sachiko that she shouldn’t let Hikaru be out in public with Kanon, but she’s not here now so Sachiko decides to take them out behind her back. I’d like to think of this as Sachiko finally starting to grow a back-bone and taking a stand against Azuma-san’s ridiculous ‘rules’ and criticism. Small steps, you know?

Hikaru leaves the house before Sachiko and Kanon so he’s ahead of them for most of the walk. Sachiko makes sure to point out that Hikaru isn’t just running ahead of her, but that he keeps looking behind him to make sure that Sachiko and Kanon are still there, and when he gets to the point where he doesn’t know the rest of the way he waits for Sachiko and Kanon to catch up to him so that they can go the rest of the way together. These are things he wouldn’t (or couldn’t) have done when he was younger, so we’re getting affirmation that Hikaru really has grown over the course of the past seven volumes.

There are quite a few signs that show how much Hikaru has grown up and matured: he’s become very independent and is able to do a lot of things with little to no help, he interacts with more people, he communicates primarily with words, and it’s getting easier for him to adapt and adjust when things change around him. There’s a scene in the park in this volume where he runs into a dog and instead of freezing, like he did in Volume 4, he tried to get away from the dog (and I think he might also have swore, but no one mentioned it so I’m probably wrong).

We cut away from the park to Masato, who has just been awoken from his nap by the phone ringing. The caller is his older sister Fumiko, who really hasn’t been a part of the story since Volume 1. That changes now. Fumiko tells Masato that her and her family are in Japan for a bit and they will be visiting the house soon. This promises to be very interesting because we don’t know what Fumiko’s feelings towards Hikaru will be.

We don’t have too much time to dwell on that because we cut over to Ryoumou-san’s house where Azuma-san is currently vacationing. Azuma-san is surprisingly comfortable around Ryoumou-san, despite the fact that he is autistic (Asperger’s, actually). I wonder why. Is it because he is an adult? Is it because they aren’t related? Or is it because he’s extremely high functioning to the point where he can pass himself off as normal? Either way, she doesn’t seem to have any problems being around, and interacting with, Ryoumou-san.

I’m not quite sure how long she’s been on her vacation, but at this point it seems like Azuma-san’s about to go back home. Before she leaves, though, she has a conversation with Okumura-san about how autistic people can sometimes find one thing they’re really good at and use that to get a job to help support themselves. He mentions something about an autistic artist he knows of and Azuma-san gets really excited about this because she remembers that Hikaru used to draw a lot when he was young.

Uh oh.

Sure enough, as soon as Azuma-san arrives at the house she starts in on Sachiko, telling her that she should sign Hikaru up for art or piano lessons. Uh… she means well. There’s a break from this while Hikaru sets out the placemats for dinner. He’s very excited about being able to finally set out the whole set now that Azuma-san’s back. He pulls her over to the table and sits her down so that he can put down her place mat. Azuma-san looks quite happy about this.

When Masato comes home, Azuma-san starts talking to him and Sachiko about Ryoumou-san and all his achievements. She tells them all about the books he wrote, and then she tells them about his odd quirks and how he has Asperger’s and ADHD. Then she starts talking about putting Hikaru into some kind of lessons and that maybe he can be a famous artist one day. Masato tells her about Hikaru’s history with art, and that they’d love to support any talent he has but he has to get used to his new school and get settled in his new routine first.

It’s good that Azuma-san is taking an interest in Hikaru at all, really. Actually, Azuma-san’s attitude towards Hikaru has changed a little bit. It’s almost like she’s finally come to terms with the fact that Hikaru is never going to be ‘normal’, but she doesn’t really think about it until he does something strange. She’s pretty surprised when she finds out that Hikaru can now water the garden by himself when he wasn’t able to before her vacation; and she seems interested as Sachiko explains how he learned to do it.

There’s one point where Azuma-san and Hikaru are alone in the kitchen when a mosquito flies in. Hikaru sees it and says ‘Bug’ and Azuma-san tells him to go slap it. It doesn’t look like Hikaru understood what she meant because all he does is say the word slap and the mosquito flies off. Azuma-san then demonstrates what a slap is, but Hikaru just repeats himself. Surprisingly (to me, anyway), Azuma-san doesn’t berate him or say or even think anything about it. It just happened and that was that and they moved on to other things. (Later on, though, Hikaru sees another bug and slaps at it like Azuma-san showed him. Bonding!)

Azuma-san still gets on Sachiko’s case a lot. That most likely won’t ever stop (Unless Sachiko just snaps and starts cursing her out, or something like. But that won’t ever happen… no matter how awesome it would be). She’s always criticizing Sachiko about how she cooks, cleans, and raises her kids, especially when it looks like Hikaru’s needs are put before Kanon’s.

There are four ‘completed’ chapters in this volume, and the last completed chapter involves the five members of the Azuma family going on an outing. Back in Volume 1, when Hikaru was about two years old, Sachiko and Masato took him to a temple for some kind of religious ceremony. Hikaru had a very public meltdown during the ceremony because he couldn’t handle all the different noises there (including Buddhist chanting, which he doesn’t like). This same temple is where the Azuma family go to clean the family grave. This visit is completely and totally different from that first visit. Hikaru is older now, and more mature, and Sachiko is considerable less stressed and isolated.

Everything goes pretty well at the grave. Both Hikaru and Kanon help clean the grave and they both pay their respects. There’s only one hiccup when Hikaru wanders off for a bit and goes around to other graves and switches the flowers from one grave to the next. All that is solved almost immediately and the day goes on.

After that, there are two more chapters left in the whole series, and only their storyboards are published because Tobe-sensei didn’t have time to finish them (sad yet?). The storyboards are actually pretty easy to follow, easier than I thought they would be. They’re basically rough layouts of chapters, complete with the original Japanese text in Tobe-sensei’s handwriting and all done in pencil. This format isn’t the ideal one in which I wanted to finish the series in, but it still manages to get its story across and I can’t really complain about them.

The second last chapter (Junior High Episode 29) starts off right in the middle of Fumiko and her family visiting the house. It’s hard to tell, but I’m pretty sure it’s early evening at this point because Masato is sitting at the table drinking with Fumiko’s husband. Fumiko and her daughter Noa, who is the same age as Hikaru, are talking in the room with the shrine when Hikaru opens the door and peeks in. He does this a few more times before telling Fumiko and Noa to leave and sitting down at the shrine for his daily routine of ringing the bell (or whatever he does that makes the dinging sound). Fumiko and Noa watch him for a minute before going to Sachiko for an explanation.

This is where Fumiko and Noa surprised me. For whatever reason, I was expecting Fumiko to be like Azuma-san and start going off on Sachiko; but I forgot that Fumiko has been living in America for the past few years. Autism is viewed very differently in America than it is in Japan, and I think it mostly has to do with the different cultures. Fumiko has no problem with Hikaru’s behaviours, and is completely non-judgemental of Sachiko (total opposite of Azuma-san).

There follows a conversation about autism in Japan and in America. Sachiko is pretty surprised to find out how different (better) things are in America for people with disabilities. Fumiko is also pretty surprised about the difference, especially when they get on the topic of teachers and schools.

Fumiko and her family stay the night at the house and return to America shortly after. Everyone goes to the airport with them to see them off and Sachiko muses about how she’d like to take Hikaru and Kanon to America some day.

The rest of the chapter is dedicated to wrapping up Eri’s storyline. We see Eri working at some kind of maid café (Okumura-san and Professor Ryoumou appear for a brief, funny cameo). She seems happy and well, and we’re led to believe that things are going pretty well for her… until we cut to a shot of Shouhei standing outside the café looking quite pissed off.

He waits for Eri to finish her shift and as soon as she’s outside he starts arguing with her. He then hits her and kidnaps her, eventually tying her up in his apartment. From what little we know of Shouhei, this behaviour is pretty out of character for him. If the series didn’t have to end so quickly it’s possible that this behaviour could’ve been built up to, but that’s not what’s happened here and this sudden violence on Shouhei’s part has come completely out of nowhere. So, Eri’s tied up in Shouhei’s apartment, and it’s Tsuchiya-sensei and Gori-sensei to the rescue. This story ultimately ends on a happy note and it looks like Eri’s in a good place now.

Junior High 30 is the last chapter in the whole series (SAD!), and its job is to wrap up everyone else’s storylines. I think it does a good job. The main part of this chapter takes place during a karaoke gathering with the usual group of old friends. The conversation among the mothers tells us all we need to know about what’s going on with Hikaru’s friends. Oota and Kanata don’t end up together, but they’ll probably still remain good friends. Also, Kanata is in a band that I’m pretty sure was named after Hikaru. Gozaru-kun was being bullied in school until Nobuaki and another boy put a stop to it. Moe wasn’t at the gathering because she was on a date.

There were unfortunately no updates on Oki-kun, Aoki-sensei and Wakabayashi-sensei, Hiroaki, and Miyu, but I’m sure they’re all doing fine.

Finally, we have Hikaru and his family. Where does Tobe-sensei leave them? She’s convinced me that they’ll be perfectly fine. Sachiko and Masato help start a parent support group near their home. Kanon is making new friends from school and the neighbourhood. Hikaru is steadily moving forward at his own pace. Soon he will be in high school and, although we won’t see it, he’ll do just fine.


That is the end of Tobe-sensei’s amazing series, With the Light: Raising an autistic child. It’s shown us 15 years in the lives of one amazing family as they live through the ups and downs of raising a child with autism. Tobe-sensei made it possible for others to see what it may be like to live with autism, and hopefully she was able to teach people and start to improve the way other people view those with special needs.

I’d like to thank Tobe-sensei for bringing us such a wonderful series.

…

The book’s not over yet, folks. After With the Light’s conclusion, there are two oneshots written by Tobe-sensei before With the Light was serialized. They can’t be too much older because the art isn’t too much different from early WTL. Both oneshots have kind of the same feel as WTL, they are both feel good stories with casts of caring characters and strong messages.

The first oneshot, Thank You, Sensei!, is about a substitute teacher who isn’t permitted by the board to stay with her class after her contract runs out and the original teacher doesn’t return to work. She forms a close bond with two of her students who have lost faith in the adults around them.

The second oneshot is called Spring Sunshine and features one of the cutest little boys I’ve ever seen in manga. More manga should feature children with missing front teeth! Anyway, Fujita is a crotchety old man who hates everyone and Suguru is the friendly young boy who befriends him. This story is so sweet and adorable and manages to be both sad and uplifting at the same time.

And that is all, folks.

With the Light Volume 7

With the Light 7

For most parents, their child’s teenage years are just as bad, if not worse, than the terrible twos. But for Sachiko and Masato Azuma, the situation is further complicated by their son Hikaru’s autism. As puberty strikes, Hikaru’s growing sexual awareness creates uncomfortable and embarrassing situations, and begins to affect his little sister, Kanon. The already-taxed Sachiko has to find ways to alleviate the problem, while being mindful of the affects her approach may have on her children and on the people around them. But when Masato must again relocate for work, the pressure further falls on Sachiko as the decision is made to move in with her mother-in-law, who has always been less-than-accommodating to Hikaru’s needs. With new challenges arising daily – Hikaru tackling adolescence through the lens of autism, Kanon struggling with peer pressure, Masato throwing himself into the new job – will Sachiko, the Azuma family’s rock, succumb to the cracks that have begun to form in her generally cheerful outlook on life?(from the back of the book)



Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Today we’re going to talk about puberty. Well, Sachiko is going to talk about it, anyway; but only for a little bit.

You’d think that they’d spend more time on Hikaru’s puberty since it takes up about half of the summary. Unless by ‘puberty’ they mean the fact that Hikaru is starting to become a bit rebellious and independent. They mentioned ‘sexual awareness’ so I don’t think that’s the case.

It’s hard to believe, but Hikaru’s already 14 years old. The little baby we met in Volume 1 is now a teenager, for better or for worse. The way the series lets us know that Hikaru has reached puberty is to let us know that he has started to touch himself. It embarrasses Kanon for all of a few pages because he does it (over his clothes) while she and her friend are in the room. This problem is immediately solved by Sachiko telling Hikaru that he can touch himself as long as he does it in his room. So he does, and then it never comes up again.

Aside from that, there is another sign that Hikaru is now a teenager: rebellion. An example of this is him refusing to properly ask for a reward sticker after completing his chores (saying ‘here’ instead of ‘sticker please’). Another thing he did was that he wouldn’t let Sachiko sit next to him on the bus to school. There’s a panel on one page with Hikaru sitting on the bus and Sachiko standing a few of seats away because Hikaru didn’t want her to sit near him. I must’ve giggled for five straight minutes when I saw that. He’s wanted to ride the bus on his own for a while now; this is as close as he’s going to get to that goal at the moment.

Another thing he’s started to do is take more notice of what the people around him are doing. There are two main instances of that in this volume. One is at school where he was pestering a boy about washing his hands after using the bathroom (he ended up getting in a fight), and the other one is at the supermarket where he confronted one of Kanon’s friends and a complete stranger about robbing from the store because they were carrying things in their arms (to Hikaru, shopping means putting things in a basket otherwise you’re taking without paying). Both of those things are things he was taught as a child and they are rules he has followed all of his life (wash hands after using the bathroom and use a basket at the store before paying). He hasn’t tried to get other people to follow these rules, or any other, before now.

It’s good that he’s started to interact more with the people around him, but he still has a lot to learn.

There’s also a Kanon centric arc in this volume involving bullying. Now, Hikaru and Kanon are seven years apart in age and have never attended the same school at the same time; so Kanon being bullied because of Hikaru has never really been a major concern (it has been a concern, just not a major one). I don’t think Kanon’s classmates have ever really seen Hikaru, or if they have it’s only in passing, so they either don’t know him or aren’t aware of his odd behaviours. This was bound to change since Sachiko and Masato aren’t trying to keep Hikaru’s autism hidden.

This first comes up one day when Kanon and Hikaru go to the park. Hikaru gets out of the car first and takes off running with Kanon close behind. Hikaru is excited so he’s being very animated and making a lot of noise, shouting ‘water wheel Archimedes’ over and over. The two run past three of Kanon’s classmates, who are in the park on their way to some kind of English prep school class, or something. Anyway, Hikaru and Kanon run by them to the water wheel and the three classmates remark about how Hikaru is weird. Kanon calmly tells him that her brother is not weird, he’s just happy at the moment. She says this very matter-of-factly because, to her, Hikaru’s behaviour isn’t weird at all, it’s actually fairly normal for him. The classmates call Hikaru weird a few more times and then Sachiko shows up and the three children run off.

Now, I wouldn’t call this bullying just because of this one incident. Kanon and her classmates are only six or seven years old. To a child that young, I imagine that seeing someone twice their age acting like a young child is pretty strange, especially if it’s a stranger. Hikaru does have pretty weird behaviours, but they’re not weird for him. Kanon doesn’t see his behaviours as weird because she’s used to it (although I imagine that if she’d seen someone else doing those same behaviours she’d probably think it was strange, she probably wouldn’t really say anything about it though).

What I’m saying is that these kids have every right to think that Hikaru is strange, because they’re not used to him. What they don’t have the right to do is bully Kanon because of it. I really don’t understand the logic of bullying Kanon because of her brother. I can only assume it’s because Hikaru’s not around for them to make fun of behind his back, which is what they’re doing to Kanon.

One of the girls from the park has a birthday party and invites every girl in the class except for Kanon. The boy from the park and one of his friends see Hikaru and Kanon at the supermarket with their mother and they see Hikaru telling people (one of Kanon’s friends and a complete stranger) that ‘taking without paying makes you a robber’ like I mentioned above and they start laughing about it to themselves. I’d like to take a moment to mention the friend that Kanon runs into at the supermarket, Kuroiwa-kun. He’s the first one that Hikaru confronts about being a ‘robber’. At first he’s confused and surprised about it, but then Sachiko and Kanon explain and he doesn’t give it a second thought even though he’s never met Hikaru before now.

There’s probably more going on off-panel, but that’s really all we see happening. Point is, people are making fun of Kanon and her brother and Kanon is very bothered by it all. Then one day, I think it’s the day after the supermarket incident, Kanon and a friend of hers are on their way to school when they run into the boys from the supermarket. One of the boys starts in right away, making fun of the incident in the supermarket and calling Hikaru stupid and retarded, among other things. He won’t stop, even with Kanon’s older friend yelling at him, and that’s when Kanon’s finally decided that she’s had enough.

She rushes the boy, Iida-kun, and knocks them to the ground. They get into a fight which is only stopped by Kuroiwa-kun getting a teacher. I am very proud of Kanon for this. Getting into fights is not something that should be encouraged, but Kanon is defending herself and her brother in the only way that she knows how. So I say good on her.

They both end up in the nurse’s office where Iida-kun gets a talking-to and we get a very moving scene where Kanon breaks down and starts yelling at Iida for calling her brother stupid. Hikaru is her big brother and to her he’s the best big brother in the world and she loves him very much. Kanon looks up to Hikaru and she doesn’t understand why others would make fun of him. She calls him ‘stupid’ all the time, but it’s one thing for her (his sister) to call him stupid when she’s angry with him and knows that he’s really not stupid, and it’s quite another thing for someone else to call him stupid and really mean it.

That’s pretty much the end of the bullying arc. There might’ve been more things that happened, or would’ve happened, but there’s no time for that because the Azumas are moving!

Masato’s been transferred (again) and his new office is in Kanagawa, which is fairly far away from their current home. Masato decides that, instead of buying a new house somewhere closer to his work, it would be cheaper to move back to his childhood home… with his mother.

So that’s what takes up the second half of this volume: moving the whole family to Azuma-san’s house, getting settled in, and working on finding Hikaru a new school. They all decide to move in over summer break to give the kids a chance to adjust before school starts, and they’ll need that time to adjust because I’m sure living with Azuma-san will not be easy. In fact, Sachiko thinks of it as living with Gunji-sensei (although, personally I prefer Gunji-sensei).

It really sucks that Hikaru and Kanon have to move away from the only home they’ve ever known. As they’re leaving, Sachiko thinks about all that they’re leaving behind. Places like the clinic where Hikaru was first diagnosed, the streets they all walked down together and where tantrums sometimes took place, Shichigatsu Cho Elementary, the water wheel at the park, and Sunshine House. Sachiko thanks the town and they all head off on their latest adventure.

Hikaru and Kanon adjust to life in Azuma-san’s house fairly quickly. Hikaru’s sleeping schedule is greatly disrupted, but other than that there really aren’t any major problems for him. In fact, the ones that seem to have the most trouble adjusting to this new arrangement are Sachiko and Azuma-san. Azuma-san has to get used to having her house full of people again, including living with someone who has a disability, which is a completely new experience for her. Sachiko’s problems mostly stem from having to deal with Azuma-san’s attitude about Hikaru. Azuma-san does not make things easy for Sachiko. She is constantly looking down on her, or complaining about something. She’s basically being the stereotypical mean mother-in-law here.

There’s only really one major setback that happens in this volume. Sachiko has to leave the kids in the care of Azuma-san for about an hour or so while she runs some errands. It’s a stormy day complete with thunder, lightning, and flickering lights. Stressful things keep happening for Hikaru and he is completely on edge when Azuma-san grabs his arm from behind. Up comes the other arm and it catches Azuma-san right in the face. Luckily, Kanon is there to help calm Hikaru down, but it still really spooked Azuma-san.

That event is, I think, the main factor that makes Azuma-san really want to take a small vacation. She packs her bags and heads off to somewhere a good distance away with her old ballroom dancing partner, Okumura-san. They are both staying with Okumura-san’s friend Professor Ryoumou. Ryoumou-san is quite odd: he wears sunglasses indoors, very blunt, scatterbrained, and accident prone, but he’s also very smart. Azuma-san doesn’t really know what to think of him, and then she doesn’t know what to think about anything when Okumura-san tells her that Ryoumou is autistic.

That’s what all went on with the Azuma family. There was a continuation on Eri’s storyline from last volume. Eri, who is the same age as Hikaru (14), is now dating 20-year-old Shouhei (unfortunately, I’ve seen worse in other manga so I’m just gonna let this one go), whom she met near the end of Volume 6. In this volume, Eri is going through a pregnancy scare. Luckily, she runs into Tsuchiya-sensei, the nurse from her elementary school. Tsuchiya-sensei is actually no longer employed as a nurse and is now married to Gori-sensei and pregnant with him. Tsuchiya-sensei becomes a source of support for Eri in this volume, and it is implied that she will continue to be in future. It’s a good thing too because Eri definitely needs some sort of competent role model in her life, since her parents aren’t exactly doing a very good job.

So that’s Volume 7. For the few months when I thought it was the last volume I didn’t think it ended the series in a good enough place, although I still loved this volume. Thankfully, there is one more volume that will hopefully provide a hopeful conclusion to Hikaru’s story.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

I am afraid of almost everything, but not all the time... and I've been like this for years.

I have no idea what it is, but sometimes I'll just be hanging around and then I'll read or see something scary (usually on the Internet or something I'm reading/watching) and then I'll suddenly be overcome by an intense fear... or paranoia.

Just happened a few minutes ago.

I was alone in the house all day with no problems, wandering around all over the place including the basement. And then I read a story on the Internet about the Black-Eyed Children and suddenly I'm afraid to move away from the couch. I'm afraid to even look around the corner in case I see something there (not even the Black-Eyed Children I was reading about, could be anything).

This happens every time. It even happens out of the blue. I'll be watching like... a sitcom on TV or something and I'll just see something completely innocent and then be terrified of it. Then I'll start turning on all the lights and purposely making noise just to hear it.

My house, which was a completely safe and comforting place for me a few minutes before, becomes a terrifying setting where I expect to see strange things and danger pop out of nowhere.

And having an overactive imagination certainly doesn't help matters.

Even noticing that the teddy bear sitting on my shelf looks like it's looking at me in the mirror fills me with fear!

Goddammit!