"Promise" is the name of a
weird little
comic book by
Keiko Nishi published by
Viz. It was bound like a
paperback, but more the size and thickness of a standard comic book. It included two
chapters:
"Promise", the book's namesake, is the tale of a quiet high school girl who, with some help, discovers that loneliness is not the only human condition.
"Since You've Been Gone" is about a man who, in the middle of an affair, realizes who really matters in his life.
Both stories are beautiful, delicately-told tales. They are magical, in the most profound sense - I think Keiko Nishi must understand mono no aware extremely well. This books is very hard to find, so if you spot it, you should probably buy it. If you're into this sort of thing. I believe the two stories in Promise were collected into a longer book, "Four Shoujo Stories", also now out-of-print.
For the record, Matt Thorn did the excellent translations.
Book Writeup Confidence Index: 5