Kokou no Hito

Ten minutes into this manga and gives you this look

Fantastic series really. In the end I'm not entirely sure what to take from the series. Here we view a man's struggle as he wholeheartedly pursues his passion by throwing away everything else in his life. In the end however it was the normal life that he obtained through his struggles of pursuing his passion that allowed him to survive, and it was from here that he was finally able to see the summit he so desired at the end of the series. Seriously incredible last chapter that will no doubt stick with me.

"Fun" fact. The early part (up to early of vol. 4), which feels shounen-ish (bright, complete with some standard shounen elements, including the school setting, a standard jerk rival, a cute sports club manager, a mysterious, out-of-reach rival), was written by Nabeda Yoshiro. But he left and the writing was continued by the artist, Sakamoto Shinichi. Notice that vol. 1-4 have "Story" in the credits, but starting from vol. 5, it's gone.

 

If you notice, the series has an aborted (sub)plot, that is before the first major timeskip (ch. 33). It seems that the original writer wanted to put more roles into Mizuki to develop the MC (now, we will never know why Mizuki committed suicide, what was MC to him, what happened to him throughout the series) and Keito (as an arch-rival; well, we see him latter, for nothing). It has positive tone until the death of certain someone, which was very sudden and pretty powerful out-of-nowhere punch to the series. You should notice other changes, including how the time is played.

 

About the illusions. For me, a lot of them are more like visualizations / methaphors / symbolizations of the MC's state of mind. Fears, pleasures, regrets, angers, having someone important. Other characters (which we can say more normal than MC) had "illusions" too, which each is personal to the character.

 

And just a note, in this real world, mental illness doesn't prevent anyone from achieving something great. A quick search to wiki will give us some lists of famous people with psychological disorder.

 

Personally, I'm glad that the original writer left the series and the artist turned the series into psychological seinen proper. It's bitter and dark like real coffee; and I like real coffee.

Personally I'm fine with the change of mood. I feel that they just grew up and shit got real.

It seemed like a lot of people liked this series, but I just can't say the same.  It really did start off great, with some great characters and a good plot, only to head downhill and lose steam slowly. I really liked the school setting in the beginning and the interactions between schoolmates. I think they MC slowly became more and more mentally ill seeing illusions and having a real hard time with people (women especially) in general.  The way the author seemed to pass off mental illness for something great in the world of rock and mountain climbing kinda pissed me off.  It was clear the character needed help badly, but not one person suggested he get help for his problems in the past.  He was obviously traumatized.  But back to the overall story.  Again, it was really good in the beginning during the school times.  Once he started doing mountain climbing it really just got weird and and drawn out.  It lost a lot of the bright atmosphere it had and it also lost some of the great interactions between characters.  I cannot say this was a bad series at all so please do not think I hated this.  More than anything I jut felt disappointed with where the story and MC went and how the MC was portrayed later in the story.  If you would like to read about someone who overcomes inner demons to triumph in rock climbing while wanting to leave the human race behind, who he sees as a bother....then you will like this story.  But just know it gets more and more focused on climbing and hiking as the story goes and becomes MUCH more focused on the MC unlike in the first 50 chapters.  WEll that's just my opinion.  Enjoy your web comics everyone!  Peace.

"Fun" fact. The early part (up to early of vol. 4), which feels shounen-ish (bright, complete with some standard shounen elements, including the school setting, a standard jerk rival, a cute sports club manager, a mysterious, out-of-reach rival), was written by Nabeda Yoshiro. But he left and the writing was continued by the artist, Sakamoto Shinichi. Notice that vol. 1-4 have "Story" in the credits, but starting from vol. 5, it's gone.

If you notice, the series has an aborted (sub)plot, that is before the first major timeskip (ch. 33). It seems that the original writer wanted to put more roles into Mizuki to develop the MC (now, we will never know why Mizuki committed suicide, what was MC to him, what happened to him throughout the series) and Keito (as an arch-rival; well, we see him latter, for nothing). It has positive tone until the death of certain someone, which was very sudden and pretty powerful out-of-nowhere punch to the series. You should notice other changes, including how the time is played.

About the illusions. For me, a lot of them are more like visualizations / methaphors / symbolizations of the MC's state of mind. Fears, pleasures, regrets, angers, having someone important. Other characters (which we can say more normal than MC) had "illusions" too, which each is personal to the character.

And just a note, in this real world, mental illness doesn't prevent anyone from achieving something great. A quick search to wiki will give us some lists of famous people with psychological disorder.

Personally, I'm glad that the original writer left the series and the artist turned the series into psychological seinen proper. It's bitter and dark like real coffee; and I like real coffee.

I thought it was snowing, but it seems to be raining?  Even though I'm indoors, sitting at my computer...

It.... It's definitely raining in here...

Masterpiece 

I feel compelled to write something here, but I have nothing. I am at an absolute loss for words.

This manga is perfect in every aspect. Of the many I have read over the years, it is certainly my favorite.

 There's very little I can say that would do this manga justice. It is the sublime among the sublime. I read it in one sitting from three in the morning until eight in the morning. I hardly noticed the passage of time. This is the story to read. Any person looking to craft a story, to create characters, should read this manga in it's entirety. 

To add to what the person below said: the main problem with the main character actually isn't his past trauma. Rather, he's a truly extreme case of introversion. This guy is afraid of interacting with people: he doesn't get their behavior, he's afraid of what they're thinking about him, he just doesn't understand them. And his extreme introversion causes him to overthink everything. The images that appear reflect his inner thoughts, but to a person like him that precisely focuses on inner thoughts, they feel more vivid than the real world. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I had a phase in my teenage years where my way of thinking (loud incessant streams of thoughts) were similar to his (though nowhere near as bad, and it subsided with age. I did think I was going crazy back then though).

He climbs those isolated mountains precisely to escape people and the noises they evoke. It's peaceful and quiet up there, and the only noise there is the one in his own mind. The mountains thus become an ideal battleground of both the body and the inner thoughts. Ironically, it is on the frontier between life and death, and when he's away from all and free to think things out, that he slowly matures, learns to accept himself and thus learns to accept people.

It seemed like a lot of people liked this series, but I just can't say the same.  It really did start off great, with some great characters and a good plot, only to head downhill and lose steam slowly. I really liked the school setting in the beginning and the interactions between schoolmates. I think they MC slowly became more and more mentally ill seeing illusions and having a real hard time with people (women especially) in general.  The way the author seemed to pass off mental illness for something great in the world of rock and mountain climbing kinda pissed me off.  It was clear the character needed help badly, but not one person suggested he get help for his problems in the past.  He was obviously traumatized.  But back to the overall story.  Again, it was really good in the beginning during the school times.  Once he started doing mountain climbing it really just got weird and and drawn out.  It lost a lot of the bright atmosphere it had and it also lost some of the great interactions between characters.  I cannot say this was a bad series at all so please do not think I hated this.  More than anything I jut felt disappointed with where the story and MC went and how the MC was portrayed later in the story.  If you would like to read about someone who overcomes inner demons to triumph in rock climbing while wanting to leave the human race behind, who he sees as a bother....then you will like this story.  But just know it gets more and more focused on climbing and hiking as the story goes and becomes MUCH more focused on the MC unlike in the first 50 chapters.  WEll that's just my opinion.  Enjoy your web comics everyone!  Peace.

I'm afraid you took some of the drawings as what it is rather than what it represents or symbolise.

He's climbing to escape from reality, such as everybody in first world countries: Gaming, drugs, art, and even working. Because lets face it: Life sucks.

It seemed like a lot of people liked this series, but I just can't say the same.  It really did start off great, with some great characters and a good plot, only to head downhill and lose steam slowly. I really liked the school setting in the beginning and the interactions between schoolmates. I think they MC slowly became more and more mentally ill seeing illusions and having a real hard time with people (women especially) in general.  The way the author seemed to pass off mental illness for something great in the world of rock and mountain climbing kinda pissed me off.  It was clear the character needed help badly, but not one person suggested he get help for his problems in the past.  He was obviously traumatized.  But back to the overall story.  Again, it was really good in the beginning during the school times.  Once he started doing mountain climbing it really just got weird and and drawn out.  It lost a lot of the bright atmosphere it had and it also lost some of the great interactions between characters.  I cannot say this was a bad series at all so please do not think I hated this.  More than anything I jut felt disappointed with where the story and MC went and how the MC was portrayed later in the story.  If you would like to read about someone who overcomes inner demons to triumph in rock climbing while wanting to leave the human race behind, who he sees as a bother....then you will like this story.  But just know it gets more and more focused on climbing and hiking as the story goes and becomes MUCH more focused on the MC unlike in the first 50 chapters.  WEll that's just my opinion.  Enjoy your web comics everyone!  Peace.

I'm not sure if he was mentally ill. Can't tell for sure about the original climber Buntarou nor the novel but as for the manga character, I took those images as visualizations of fears and emotions which were inside Buntarou.
And I want to point that living by other priorities than the society stress all the time is not a illness as it might look for some as well.
The portrayed climber was actually torn: while in city always training and thinking about mountains, when climbing he was somewhat chased by the reality that this or that will change because he will need to comeback to the city. And later he was aware of the fact that he got a wife and a daughter whom he loves but while hanging on a wall of ice thinking about loved ones is really, just a waste of oxygen and energy.
For me, this was very good read. Deep story, well presented states of mind of the tittle climber and very good, realistic art.

It seemed like a lot of people liked this series, but I just can't say the same.  It really did start off great, with some great characters and a good plot, only to head downhill and lose steam slowly. I really liked the school setting in the beginning and the interactions between schoolmates. I think they MC slowly became more and more mentally ill seeing illusions and having a real hard time with people (women especially) in general.  The way the author seemed to pass off mental illness for something great in the world of rock and mountain climbing kinda pissed me off.  It was clear the character needed help badly, but not one person suggested he get help for his problems in the past.  He was obviously traumatized.  But back to the overall story.  Again, it was really good in the beginning during the school times.  Once he started doing mountain climbing it really just got weird and and drawn out.  It lost a lot of the bright atmosphere it had and it also lost some of the great interactions between characters.  I cannot say this was a bad series at all so please do not think I hated this.  More than anything I jut felt disappointed with where the story and MC went and how the MC was portrayed later in the story.  If you would like to read about someone who overcomes inner demons to triumph in rock climbing while wanting to leave the human race behind, who he sees as a bother....then you will like this story.  But just know it gets more and more focused on climbing and hiking as the story goes and becomes MUCH more focused on the MC unlike in the first 50 chapters.  WEll that's just my opinion.  Enjoy your web comics everyone!  Peace.

I agree with you. I feel bad for the MC's wife. I have a feeling that his kid will just end up like him, if not probably distant due to his awkwardness and wrong priorities...

Love it, the parts where Kato daydreams or

vividly imagines something

It seemed like a lot of people liked this series, but I just can't say the same.  It really did start off great, with some great characters and a good plot, only to head downhill and lose steam slowly. I really liked the school setting in the beginning and the interactions between schoolmates. I think they MC slowly became more and more mentally ill seeing illusions and having a real hard time with people (women especially) in general.  The way the author seemed to pass off mental illness for something great in the world of rock and mountain climbing kinda pissed me off.  It was clear the character needed help badly, but not one person suggested he get help for his problems in the past.  He was obviously traumatized.  But back to the overall story.  Again, it was really good in the beginning during the school times.  Once he started doing mountain climbing it really just got weird and and drawn out.  It lost a lot of the bright atmosphere it had and it also lost some of the great interactions between characters.  I cannot say this was a bad series at all so please do not think I hated this.  More than anything I jut felt disappointed with where the story and MC went and how the MC was portrayed later in the story.  If you would like to read about someone who overcomes inner demons to triumph in rock climbing while wanting to leave the human race behind, who he sees as a bother....then you will like this story.  But just know it gets more and more focused on climbing and hiking as the story goes and becomes MUCH more focused on the MC unlike in the first 50 chapters.  WEll that's just my opinion.  Enjoy your web comics everyone!  Peace.

Wow.

This is perhaps the best manga I've had read in a damn long time. Amazing stuff. Must admit I was getting rather nervous towards the end there 

Wow this is really good so far.

A great manga. 

Hmmm. Gotta give it a try since there are so many great comments about this. Let's see..