Cue to the Time Skip to many decades later, the dynamite that once was left by the miners slowly undergo a phase of Objectshifting, as it later takes form of a young, pink-haired girl. Now a human, the former-dynamite-now-human girl sets on a journey beyond her own world.
Shouan Days. (しょうあんと日々。 Shouan to Hibi.) is an Iyashikei, Slice of Life manga written and illustrated by Asa Kuwayoshi. It began serialization in Comic Cune on August 25, 2018, running for 28 chapters before its conclusion on December 26, 2020. The chapters are compiled into three volumes.
Shouan Tropes
- Abandoned Mine: The coal mine within Hashima Island. Once populated by coal miners before the events of the story, the mines are totally deserted with no one but the dynamite girl residing.
- Ambiguous Situation: The past fate of the miners. It is unknown regarding the circumstances of their departure from the island, other than them leaving the coal mine themselves and placing a lone, unexploded dynamite that eventually transformed into a human.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp":
- Coals are known as "black diamond".
- The dynamite girl names her "family" as the following: the teddy bear as her "father", the rocket ship model as her "child", the baby doll as her "mother" and the fox doll as her "pet".
- Closed Circle: All of the manga's chapters are taking place on Hashima Island. Final chapter temporarily breaks this trend when the dynamite girl was sent to Nakano Island after a violent storm.
- Fish out of Water: The dynamite girl herself. Being born from a literal dynamite with zero human contact, she is inherently clueless of human behaviours.
- Ghost Town: The island itself was once populated by people, mostly coal miners, but the reasons for abandoning it is a mystery. In the present the island is virtually empty where most of the buildings are either untouched or simply crumbling through time. Only the dynamite girl and some animals like the cat she encounters live there. While people sometimes appear in the island, they leave after touring through the place themselves, making the islands empty again.
- Hostile Weather: During the final chapter of the manga, a massive tropical storm struck Hashima Island that caused property damage, causing the Dynamite Girl to be thrown to Nakano Island, forcing her to swim hundreds of kilometres to reach back to her now-damaged home again.
- Imaginary Friend: The dynamite girl's "friends"/"family" are the teddy bear, a fox doll, a rocket ship model and a baby doll that she found at an abandoned building. Played With when she encounters both Sakura and Ume, whom they were not her imaginary friends, but both parted ways after the respective chapters they were introduced with.
- Iyashikei: There is no plot-driven conflict in the story, as the manga focuses on the main protagonist's soothing venture across the island. The closest there is to a conflict was when the dynamite girl was understandably terrified of the cat she firstly encountered, but the said animal later became friends with her.
- Little Person: The dynamite girl is much smaller than an average person. Justified as she originally was a dynamite, which was designed to fit to a person's palm.
- Minimalism: The manga's elements are minimalistic in nature, as it heavily focuses on the dynamite girl's ventures in a more simplistic but unique fashion around the island.
- Minimalist Cast: The story primarily focuses on the dynamite girl and her wacky adventures. Humans were seen, but they were only seen on mere flashbacks and brief appearances with little to no dialogue at all. Sakura and Ume, while they appeared in their respective chapters as the dynamite girl's temporary friend, only had one-shot appearances and are never heard again. Even the cat that she encountered also left when a group of miners adopted him.
- The Nameless: The main character has no name to begin with, as she is often called "dynamite girl" due to being one prior to her transformation.
- Objectshifting: The fate of the dynamite itself. It was left by coal miners but failing to complete its own purpose. But many years later, it slowly grew limbs and a head, before fully transforming into a human girl with a pink hair.
- Oh, Crap!: Her reaction when she encountered a cat that was about to attack her. Though it was when the cat himself saved the dynamite girl from falling, thereby making both of them friends to each other.
- Older Than She Looks: The dynamite girl is chronologically decades oldnote , but having had the appearance of a young girl after its transformation. Due to transforming as a human girl, she is completely unknowledgeable of how humans act.
- Real-Place Background: The main setting takes place within Hashima Island, a real-life island in Nagasaki that was famous for its coal mines and infamous for its indelible history of Japan's war crimes of forced labour against World War II's POWs. Though the latter detail was completely glossed out in order to stay true to the manga's Iyashikei nature.
- Slice of Life: The central theme, where it focuses on the dynamite girl's ventures in the abandoned island.
