The only common feature running through these stories is a grown-up protagonist somehow coming face-to-face with his childhood past, in a testament to the loss of youth, the disillusionment of growing old, and nostalgia for better times. In the Adachi pantheon, this is a rare diametric view of his eternal theme of "youth," in this case youth as seen through the lens of the past. It's a powerful statement from Adachi that might even be an acknowledgment of his steadily-creeping age. What is impressive about these stories is not the plots or characters themselves, but the absolutely perfect way he tells them, an...Show more