Iyagatteru Kimi ga Suki

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Dysfunctional relationships that are unabashedly terrible for one (or both) sides are nothing new to manga. Hurt and damaged people may pivot to other hurt people. A lot of manga - especially psychological seinens - unpack this dynamic. But that's not what Iyagetteru Kimi ga Suki is. It's primarily a manga about ryona and grotesque fetishes first, and a story about Mikoto and Makoto's relationship second. This goes without saying, but I don't condone any of this, nor do I condone Makoto's actions and his lack of regard for Mikoto's comfort and consent.

Mikoto puts up with Makoto's eccentricities and extremely crude treatment towards ... her to refine her public image and something to show to her friends. But Mikoto's desire to fit in and conform to such an extreme degree isn't ever elaborated on. Mikoto goes from enjoying harsh treatment, to abruptly fetishizing about the extremely gruesome, gorey, and violent out of nowhere. And so does Makoto and another character. Random events feel abrupt and just thrown in for value. Character values take abruptly VERY steep turns that exceed what's believable for me personally. I started reading this out of morbid curiosity about how Mikoto and Makoto's psyches are written, and then it clicked for me. IKgS is very unabashed on what fetishes it explores and tries to cater to, especially with the main couple. Makoto likes seeing Mikoto uncomfortable, puts her in a grotesque situation, and enjoys it until she does too, which he then no longer enjoys. The context for why these characters are like this or how it escalates feels deeply unsatisfying.

Makoto and Mikoto just feel like vessels for the mangaka to write about these scenarios, rather than actual people with motivations and history behind them. I didn't feel any stakes for them. I've read NSFW heavy manhwa and manga, but there was still some emotional investment for the characters and the plot. You'd be remiss to find that here and care about the characters on a deeper level beyond their cookie cutter dynamic.

I will say, visually Iyagatteru Kimi ga Suki is STUNNING. Some of the imagery of Mikoto's imagination is extremely clinical, cut and dry. I love the "dated" style and how Oniyama draws expressions. Everytime a two-page spread comes up, I know I'm going to recieve a visual treatment. But style does not compensate for the utter lack of substance.

Iyagatteru Kimi ga Suki may be considered by some as a unique and rare gem. However, its potential for portraying its novel themes effectively is quickly disparaged by its story structure and unresolved character development.

Iyagetteru Kimi ga Suki starts off as a love confession by the male protagonist, Makoto Ootsuki to the female protagonist, Mikoto Shirakawa. However, this confession is quickly juxtaposed later in the chapter when it is revealed that Makoto shows his morbid interests and his abusive behavior in the next chapter. Although labeled a romance, Iyagetteru Kimi ga Suki more accurately aligns as a psychological thriller with a toxic relationship being ... the main conflict. The first few chapters and middle conflicting chapters lock in the reader until the end of the story, even if the overall story proves to be lackluster in comparison to its introduction.

The artwork and art style of the manga is quite unique and progressively improves in its anatomy and composition over time while retaining the distinctive aspects of the characters, which include Makoto's thick eyebrows and Mikoto's lashes and small irises. The designs of the characters are simple, yet distinct enough to be recognizable and somewhat serve to juxtapose their characters (e.g. Makoto's cute, round eyes versus his disturbing behavior).

In general, Iyagatteru Kimi ga Suki illustrates the relationship between Makoto and Mikoto and their unusual behavior towards each other. Makoto is quickly established as a demented boy who finds sexual arousal at Mikoto's look of disgust when committing indecent or harmful acts to his girlfriend. On the other hand, Mikoto finds elation at keeping up with social trends with her friends—such as Saki—which determines much of her decision-making throughout the manga. This motivation of keeping up with social trends such as having a boyfriend and doing "romantic" things with a significant other is what prevents her from breaking up with Makoto and serves as the basis of her "stupidity" as a character. Although a weak basis, this manga constantly uses her desire to follow trends to assure the reader that she sincerely does not intend to break up with her boyfriend anytime soon.

Throughout the manga, the reader is given snippets of Makoto's past to rationalize his twisted perception of "love" and abusive actions towards Mikoto. His past includes the physical abuse by his "brother" who also seems to share Makoto's twisted nature or at least has influenced Makoto's vulgar tendencies. Even then, these snippets are quite vague and leave some loose ends on why Makoto acts the way he does to Mikoto and instead create more questions that are left unanswered. These snippets do not seem to intend to be ambiguous, which creates a major flaw in Makoto's character and stunts the significance of developing into a more independent individual from his "brother." The journey leading to his independence is not completely defined and seems to be something Makoto achieved at a whim instead of a well-paced progression. Makoto's development could have at least portrayed the cycle of abuse and could have had him undergo a positive or negative change arc, but the aspect of his abusive past is not utilized effectively to complement the themes of the story and vaguely creates a significant source of conflict with his relationship with Mikoto.

Makoto's unusual and morbid behavior towards Mikoto ultimately molds her into a twisted individual herself who accepts Makoto's despicable actions, while Mikoto's acceptance of his behavior and development of her twisted fetish causes Makoto to lose interest and become ironically disgusted as she loses her pure repulsed reactions to his obscenity. Their influence on each other ultimately leads to cracks in their "partnership" near the middle of the manga and would have served as an interesting source of conflict—if it was executed well. This conflict is then ignored for multiple episodic chapters that vaguely contribute to the overall conflict of the story before the reader is reminded of it again near the end about this conflict and is given a resolution with little to no build-up leading towards it.

Although the main couple receives their "resolution," other characters that the story previously explored via small snippets of their thought processes are completely ignored. The main couple influences the perceptions and psyche of other characters such as Shuichi, and Mutsumi and Sayuri's relationship. Shuichi is instead used as a plot device for the climax of the series without the author deciding to resolve his inner conflicts. This lack of resolution extends to Mutsumi and Sayuri's relationship as the reader never sees how the tension between them is resolved due to Makoto no longer being dependent on Mutsumi.

The pessimistic ending in Iyagetteru Kimi ga Suki fits the overall dark psychological theme while suiting the nature of the main couple's twisted relationship. However, the development and story utilized (or lack of) to reach it proves to be unsatisfying and unfulfilling as it leaves many unresolved loose ends of the characters and their current status. Iyagetteru Kimi ga Suki is an interesting and thrilling read at first, but these interesting aspects are slowly foiled through the lack of efficient execution of its themes, and faulty story structure, characters, and development followed by an unwarranted conclusion. Although it introduces an interesting relationship dynamic and a unique concept amongst pools of various generic manga, Iyagetteru Kimi ga Suki fails to take advantage of its shocking novelty and poorly executes its psychological storytelling and unorthodox, dark themes pertaining to unhealthy relationships through its characters.

This manga is a classic example of “what the fuck did I just read.”

I went into the first chapter expecting an awkward teenage romance with some thriller tendencies from the main characters, but nothing too extreme.

I was completely and utterly shocked at how extreme this manga was. But I was also fascinated after chapter 1, having finished the series without stopping (up until release of chapter 47) I just couldn’t stop reading, just out of pure morbid fascination. Still hours after reading this manga I’m in utter shock at how insane the male main character is.

The series itself has a humble and extremely misleading summary, ... even being described as “a heart pointing love story” I do not think this story should be classified as a romance at all. The male main character repeatedly abuses the female protagonist, trying to break her, and psychologically torments her gaining pleasure from seeing her suffering. The female protagonist (who is described as being quite dumb and stubborn, in which her stupidity is what the male protagonist is drawn to) takes the abuse but is often left confused and shocked. And when she acts violent back to the male protagonist, or shows that she enjoys his violence through pleasure, he immediately becomes grossed out by her behaviour and calls her disgusting. I really don’t like reading manga in which woman are being abused in such a psychopathic way, which is why I do not think this manga was a good read at all.

The only reason I kept reading was out of morbid curiosity, what drives the male protagonist to be the way he is?

The male protagonist is a sick and twisted individual who gets off on seeing the female protagonist become grossed out by him, it’s a trope I’ve never ever seen before in manga, and I hope I never see it again.

I don’t know why I honestly continued to finish the whole manga, I think I was just so appalled by his barbaric behaviour that I had to keep reading on to know what would happen, how he came to be this way, and why on earth is he the way that he is. And also why the female protagonist stayed with him??

I really have no words I’m still in shock.