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.
No comments:
Post a Comment