砂時計

SUNADOKEI

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
10
RELEASE
August 25, 2006
CHAPTERS
22

DESCRIPTION

After her parents get divorced, Ann Uekusa and her mother move from Tokyo to rural Shimane. Accustomed to the anonymity of city living, Ann can't get used to the almost overbearing kindness of the people in her mother's hometown. But when personal tragedy strikes, Ann discovers how much she needs that kindness.

(Source: Viz Media)

Note: Won the 50th Shogakukan Manga Award for shoujo manga in 2005 and was adapted into a movie in 2008.

Included bonus episodes: Canary, ~Thirty Years Ago~ Summer Vacation, The Present, Time Capsule Part One, Time Capsule Part Two, Sand Chronicles: Bonus Story: Summer, Age 19.

CAST

Ann Uekusa
Daigo Kitamura
Fuji Tsukishima
Shiika Tsukishima

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

efnazih
80/100
A Realistic Story That Is Frustrating Yet Captivating That Make You Can't Stop After Start Reading
Sand Chronicle is one of the manga that made me can't stop reading when I started. This manga tells about a girl named Ann who returns to her hometown with her mother. After a few days in her hometown, her depressed mother finally disappeared and was found to have committed suicide. Her mother's death had a major impact on Ann's character in the future. When she was sad because of her mother's death, there was a boy, Daigo, who helped Ann to rise from adversity. long story short, they both end up falling in love and dating each other. However, their happiness did not last long when Ann's father came and asked Ann to live with him in Tokyo so that a long-distance relationship between Ann and Daigo began which would later be faced with many obstacles.

Sand Chronicles, in my opinion, is one of the most realistic manga I've ever read. how they deal with long-distance relationships and the arrival of a third person, and how they deal with their respective traumas are well written and feel real.

In Sand Chronicles, we have 3 characters that are often highlighted. First, there is the protagonist of this story, Ann. Ann is quite an interesting character, we are shown her struggles in making decisions and obstacles in her relationship with Daigo. Her character development is also quite good, she was initially traumatized and afraid of losing her favorite person due to her mother's death in the past, finally managed to move on and keep looking forward, who at first always depended on others, finally able to be independent. The next character is Daigo. Daigo is Ann's childhood friend and first love. Daigo is a kind and loyal man, even when Ann's actions hurt him, he remains firm on his feelings for ann. You could say Daigo is my favorite character in this manga. why? because his characters are very realistic and different from the male leads in other shoujo manga. he's not the typical bad boy or playboy, nor is he a popular guy. just an ordinary boy who is kind and loyal to ann. The next character is Fuji who is the third person in Ann and Daigo's relationship. I hate this person. He is your typical male lead shoujo who is rich, handsome, but has a dark past. You could say that the root of all the problems that occur in this manga comes from Fuji's cowardly and arbitrary actions. Fuji is a coward, he takes the opportunity when Ann and Daigo's relationship is strained.

Overall, I enjoyed this manga. it's frustrating yet I can't stop reading until finished the rest of the manga. I'm so satisfied with the ending, maybe it feels a bit rushed. but it's not a problem anymore because all of the conflicts have been cleared. for anyone who looking for a story with a realistic relationship, then this manga is for you.
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RoseFaerie
95/100
The impact of small moments in people's lives and the memories that remain can shape you for a lifetime...
Sand Chronicles is THE coming of age story. It isn’t often where we get to watch characters grow up to this extent. We don’t see their whole lives unfold, but we do see the moments that altered their lives forever as they grew from middle schoolers to working adults. We get to see them gain maturity over different points of their lives, as growing up is a long process and not something that happens overnight.

Sand Chronicles is the story of Ann, a girl whose parents divorced. She moved to the countryside with her mom, back to the rural small town where her mother grew up. Initially, Ann can’t stand the suffocation of the small town and yearns to go back to the city where she grew up. However, a tragic event drastically changes her life, and she finds refuge in the kindness the village offers her. This story spans many years, following Ann from the time she was 12 to the time she turns 30. And not just Ann, but her closest friends, as they grow, mature, and make mistakes.

Sand Chronicles is all about the passing of time and the memories that come with it. Even the pacing reflects this, as each chapter or two will show Ann at a different age and stage of life. Every chapter is incredibly long (80-100 pages) and slow paced, reflecting on some of the most important and life changing moments from that year and how they affect Ann throughout her life. Even the side stories reflect on different points in time or characters reminiscing about the past. Past, present, and future, even time as a whole, are incredibly important in this story.

This manga emphasizes both the growth and mistakes that come with the passage of time. All of the characters change over the course of the manga and try to figure out what they want from life. They make horrible mistakes. They hurt people close to them. But that’s part of growing up, and this manga is sure to show both the good and the bad aspects of youth.

And this manga isn’t just about the past, present, and future, but it’s about the memories that come with it. So many characters are weighed down by their pasts, by horrible memories, trauma, and regret. It’s up to them to choose to move on or not. Whether or not they let their pain consume them.

Ann deals with a traumatic incident as soon as she moves to Shimane. Her relationship with Daigo, the boy she fell in love with, was her sole reason to live during that dark time. She struggles with her own fragility and fears that she’s weighing Daigo down with her dependance on him. She is a very human character, unsure of herself and constantly pretending to be stronger than she is. She is an incredibly strong person in some ways and fragile in others, constantly forcing herself to deal with her depression and trauma on her own.

Daigo is a very lovely and kind person, and he’s very loyal and caring towards Ann. However, he isn’t the perfect boyfriend. He is straightforward to a fault. He argues with Ann and says things that hurt her sometimes. And Daigo also feels like he needs to save her from her pain and that he’s the only one who can do it. Just like Ann, he also has a satisfying conclusion and character development, though his ending revolves more around his chosen career, while Ann’s is more about her emotional issues.

Fuji is their close friend from a wealthy family, who is in love with Ann. His love is unrequited due to her constant feelings for Daigo, but that doesn’t stop him from trying. He lives his life full of uncertainty, as many rumors state that he is not his father’s legitimate son, and his mother’s cold behavior towards him does nothing to reassure him. He finds himself running away or taking the easy way out of situations. Fuji feels trapped by his family, and only through rebellion is he able to find what he truly treasures in life. I do wish that he didn’t marry his cousin in the end. Why couldn’t the author have made him rebel by marrying a poor girl with a lot of rumors that surround her or something to make the parents not object? Why did it have to be his cousin? At least their relationship isn’t really explored.

Shika is Fuji’s younger sister, and she is a year younger than the rest of the cast. While Fuji is treated coldly by their mother, Shika is sheltered by their parents and receives more intense training as the daughter of a wealthy family. She is still a normal girl, determined to be seen as helpful to the people around her, as the way she was raised made it nearly impossible for her to make friends after middle school. Shika is burdened by her family, especially a dark secret she was not supposed to know. It is only when she receives freedom that she is able to get her life together, and I appreciated how she had a different type of ending than the other characters, due to her never receiving a true romantic arc.

These characters all change so much over the course of the manga, coming to terms with themselves and their pasts. Their development is very visible, as with age comes maturity. Even minor characters like Ann’s ex-fiancé who begins the story as a misogynistic and horrible person shows glimmers of change when we see him again a few years in the future.

No two characters have the same sort of conclusion. They are different people, and they all walked different paths in life. For Shika, the emphasis was on her career, for Fuji it was romance, for Ann it was both romance and her emotional well-being, while with Daigo it was both romance and his career. I love it when stories acknowledge that different types of people take different paths in life and not everyone gets married to their high school crush right off the bat. (I was so relieved when they didn’t set up Shika with Ann’s ex. I would have been so mad if they took that route because Shika deserves better than him.)

The art is quite unique. I think I like the art in Sand Chronicles a lot more than her later series, Piece, since it’s not quite as exaggerated, and the lips and noses are not as prominent. Other visual elements include the hourglass symbolism, which has a dual meaning, representing both the theme of time passing and Ann’s feelings for Daigo. No matter how hard she tries to get rid of the hourglass, she can’t seem to lose it for good.

I feel like I didn’t do this story justice at all, and I don’t even feel like this review is good, but I felt like I just had to write about this series and implore people to read it. It’s dramatic because it’s a drama, but I never felt like it was overly melodramatic. I’d say it’s perhaps one of the most grounded shoujo dramas I’ve read so far. It has so much to offer, and I’d love it if more people read it.
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