Deep Love: Ayu no Monogatari

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Ayu is a teenage girl whose life seems to be filled with only despair and emptiness, and she deals with it by prostituting herself. The story, from beginning to end, basically follows her life as she struggles through it- the people she meets, the choices she makes, and the impact those encounters had on her character and life.

With a premise like that, it is likely already obvious that this is not exactly a happy and light-hearted story. In fact, reading this manga is almost like watching a disastrous car accident about to happen- you know it's coming, you cringe, you can't do anything about it ... except look on.

Most people who talk about how sad this manga is will likely relay the events that took place, the endless string of terrible things that kept happening... but for me, it was human nature itself and how desperation can spawn some of the worst choices a person can make. It's like watching something that could've been right but knowing (and seeing) that it has the very real possibility of taking a swift turn for the worst.

That said, I felt this aspect is both the strength and the weakness of this story. The author does a good job of touching you with Ayu's story, but at the same time, also did a tad bit of an unnecessary overkill in some parts. This story is something like a lesson in life- the choices you make have consequences and Ayu's life is like a string of cause and effect. To that effect, it works great... but I found that the author would throw a tragedy or two in there (to add onto an already massive pile) that kind of fell in the category of "shit happens"- which is fine, except for this type of story, it felt flat, forced, and unnecessary.

As a whole? It's a story with a great message, delivered without pulling any punches. If anything, that in itself already makes it worthwhile to read. I did, however, debate on whether to give this a rating of an 8 or a 9. A personal rating is an 8 in my book... but I think that has a lot to do with where I was/am in life when I read this, as well as, my age (over 30). To be fair, I think the story itself accomplishes and does well at what it had set out to do. For that, I give it a 9 (or an 8.5 if I could've done so)

Note: We're talking about a girl who sells her body here. Expect to see sex scenes and crude behavior.

Ok, this is my first review and english is not my language, sorry for any mistake!

The story itself might be good if you like drama, but I find it really bad developed. Everything seems extremely rushed, we don't have time to know the characters well, nor their stories and backgrounds, it's like the author have thrown two buddies on the pages and that's all. In my opinion, the author should have done a little bit longer story, but with better development.

*spoilers*

The two main characters known each other since literally 5 minutes and they are the love of each others life. That itself make no sense. ... The relationship between the two is rushed like anything else in this story. I did not really felt anything reading about them, because we have no sufficient time to empathize.
Same for the granny, she might be a really good character, but she was just there, and then poof, she die.

I particularly disliked the "black balloons" with the narration, especially the "it was not a cold, it was aids".
Like, seriously? It really took all the pathos away. It was like reading an elementary text book.

* end of the spoiler*

I like the message that the author want to send, of course, but a story like this should be more long and articulate, in my opinion.
The drawing are really pretty, though not my style.
I surely won't read it again, and I would not recommend it to anyone.

[Spoiler Review!]

After reading all the reviews here, I came to realize something. This manga is a sick attempt at using horrible events and circumstances to create a sense of "meaning" and evoke pity within the minds of readers who take the bait.


Story: 2/10

The "story" here has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. The "story" revolves around our main character, Ayu, and the horrible life she lives. Many questions arise when reading this manga, such as: What happened to her parents, what caused her to start prostituting herself, what did she need the money for, and many more. The only character trait Ayu has ... is that she is a teenage prostitute. That's it.

Ayu eventually meets an old lady who takes pity on her and lets Ayu live with her. The granny tells a sad story about her husband that is meant to evoke further sadness towards the "story." Ayu also finds a dog later, so that's cool.

Ayu also has a friend named Reina, who a group of girls hates for some unknown reason. Reina and Ayu later have sex with some old dude because the old dude just walks up and asks them how much they are paying for sex, which is something that I highly doubt happens while people are just randomly sitting somewhere in broad daylight in a public area.

Oh yeah, Ayu also had a gigolo who basically forces her to do heroin and ra*es her sometimes. He had too much drug money debt and eventually begged Ayu to find a ton of money to help pay this debt. Conveniently, granny has almost all the money Ayu needs to help her gigolo out. Of course, tragedy has to strike again, and her gigolo spent the money on drugs and killed himself. Ayu just walks out and later doesn't show any sign that she cared that this happened.

Reina later gets robbed by the girls who hate her, gangra*ed by the male friends of those girls, and then gets the word "wh*re" carved into her leg. There is no reasoning as to why these girls hate her enough to do this to her. Did she steal someone's boyfriend? Is it because she is overly energetic? Who knows! The manga doesn't like telling important things like this because it is too busy trying to fit as many tragic things into the manga as possible to make the reader feel sad! This whole issue is just forgotten in later chapters!

Reina later tells Ayu what happened, and Ayu wants to avenge her friend! To do this, Ayu threw coffee on the main girl's head (how did she know this was the main girl?) and then stabs her in front of a huge group of people who just don't care that some high school girl was just mutilated in front of their eyes. Ayu later calls granny to pick her up, but granny has foot issues, and she fell while running over to Ayu, so her doggy comes instead.

Granny later tells Ayu that she had an "adopted" child with a heart illness, and Ayu tells the granny that she sells her body for money and that she stole like 1.5 million yen from her. Granny dies the next day for some reason. Maybe she really hated teenage prostitutes that much; who knows.

Fast forward, Ayu meets Yoshiyuki (Granny's "adopted" child). They like each other and start hanging out. His family doesn't let him out of the house often due to him having heart issues, so Ayu decides to take him to Okinawa because he wants to go there. When they come back, the police arrest Ayu and Yoshiyuki has a heart attack or something like that. Ayu is now not able to see Yoshiyuki and begs his dad to make him happy since she can't see him. Of course, to make the story more tragic, the dad says he can ensure that by having Ayu have s*x with him. Ayu then goes back to prostituting, catches HIV, it develops into AIDs, and she dies. The dad also kills himself, so we love a happy ending!


Art: 5/10

Typical shoujo art style. Nothing much to say here. I particularly dislike the cover art for the volumes, as it looks significantly worse than the art in the manga (which is usually the opposite).


Character: 2/10

Honestly, most of these characters are pretty shallow. Ayu's only personality is being a teenage prostitute who has the worst luck in the world, Reina's personality is being Ayu's friend that gets gangra*ed, and Yoshiyuki's personality is being Ayu's love interest with a tragic fate to make the readers feel sadder. Every other character in this manga are just plot devices that could be exchanged with literally anything, maybe excluding the granny.


Enjoyment: 2/10

I chuckled when one of the old dudes called Reina's private part a biscuit.

Overall: 2/10

In conclusion, this is an overrated and sad attempt at a tragic story that uses cheap plot tropes to trick readers into believing this to be a magnum opus of sorts. Thankfully, it was a concise read, but it is time for me to read the sequels and likely see the same exact thing all over again.