Living with terminal pancreatic illness in "Kimi no suizou wo tabetai"

Abstract

The protagonist Sakura Yamauchi has a terminal pancreatic condition yet retains a positive outlook towards life with a bubbly personality. Sakura keeps a daily diary called ‘Living with Dying’ about her coexistence with the disease. The male, initially unnamed protagonist, Haruki Shiga, on the other hand is her polar opposite, he is reserved and has little interest in others. Sakura has come to terms with her incurable disease and shares this secret only with her family and only this one classmate, Haruki, who accidently picks up her diary ‘Living with Dying’ when they happened to meet in hospital. Later on she joins the library team with Haruki which is from where they start getting along with one another, albeit with very different modes of expression. Sakura is as cheerful as Haruki is oblivious. Their words and gestures vary greatly, but in the end they established an important bond that is the focal point of the story.