Hinshi no Essayist is a series of short, essay-like (but fictional) chapters revolving around the themes of death and dying, narrated by a dying man in a hospital. Some of the chapters deal with the narrator's own life; most of these have an element of the uncanny or fantastic. Some deal with other patients: a man who meticulously plans his own deathbed scene, and a woman who obsessively scrutinizes her dreams to find out whether she will live or die, for example. Some are openly fantastic parables or fables. The basic theme is that of the transience and value of life. It's a familiar theme, of course, but Shiriagari gives it a vividness and immediacy rarely encountered. - Paraphrased from Completely Futile

A○S has essentially no action, nor is it about relationships; nor is it a comedy, though there are moments of dark humor. Instead, it is a psychological portrait of a mentally ill young woman, seen through her own eyes. The book's protagonist and narrator (who is always drawn naked, but never titillatingly so) is searching for friends, and the book consists of brief episodes from her quest. But she is schizophrenic, and the stories follow the twisted logic of her own mind, without distinguishing between reality, her delusions, and allegory. Though she is desperately lonely, the bizarre behavior that her illness gives rise to dooms her quest to failure: in one episode, for example, she tries to make friends by telling a stranger in a convenience store that the shampoo may be poisoned. -from Completely Futile