Kono Gomi wo Nanto Yobu
What Do You Call This Trash

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I felt like a bad person reading it at some points, mainly because at some times it feels like the setup to a trashy H manga, but man. Around the time Kai starts being a protagonist rather than a plot device, IT WAS REALLY FUCKING GOOD. Chapter 28 kinda fucked me up tbh. Honestly I'm a guy that would stick my dick in crazy even if you told me not to (the crazy is genuinely what i like tbh), so yeah, I was rooting for Akira. It's worth reading if you enjoy those more "quirky"(?) romances, that aren't just romances but have actual layers with ... romance as a front. Damn. It's not horny, it's not just about romance, it's about support. Really. The first couple chapters are a bit rocky and you'll be thinking "how could anyone like this" but when it picks up, just about everything is a perfect storm that plays best into everyone's aspects, good or bad. It's not peak, by any means, but it was a damn good afternoon read. Would I recommend? I would. Probably not for everyone, I came in with a "I'll try it out and probably drop it" mindset, but I was blown away by how good it was.

note: i don't write reviews, so yeah, this is probably a bad review.

note x2: Akira was best girl, change my mind. Haters will say it's someone else, but in my heart, it's Akira. I found her actually relatable in the end. Not the stalker stuff, I'm not a creeper, but she had some real character development and a really good backstory imo.

note x3: i liked kai and Yuuto, they were chill af and they were both bro-cons for each other, but if you read the chapter with Kai's full backstory, everything hits harder. Then if you remember this on like chp. 26 page 3 it's honestly kinda sad.

When I finished Helck, I thought that no other manga could ever compare. It was the "perfect" manga in all sense of the word. It had romance, action, drama, suspense, it was thrilling. It was a perfect rollercoaster of the shonen spirit.

Ironic to it's namesake, "What Do You Call This Trash," is far from trash. But it did have me thinking what to even call it.

Then I remembered the reason I kept going forward and living, even when times got tough. Because of manga like these. Manga that show us, we as humans are imperfect creatures. We make irrational decisions and don't even fully understand ... ourselves. But that's what makes us human after all.

Deep down we all hope, that at the end of the tunnel, there is light. That happy endings do exist. We might come out the other end battered and bruised, with scars that will never heal... But regardless, we made it. It may not be perfect and it may not be the ending we were hoping for, but it's our ending.

And when a work of art so perfectly captures the essence of that human spirit, somehow, of our beautiful imperfection, it can't be considered art at that point.

It can only be considered "human."

What would I call this "trash?" Well, I would describe it as "imperfect." And someway, somehow, that's what makes it perfect.

Despite a rocky first chapter, that felt like it was normalising a rather questionable relationship between the manga's two main leads, Kono Gomi wo Nanto Yobut eventually unpeels layers to its initial premise. It not only entertains readers with its spiral of bad decisions and the questionable parasitic relationship between the two leads, but by depicting this premise through a psychological lens, and refusing to give this premise any suggestion of normality by constantly introducing tension, there is more depth to this story than your typical soap opera. This manga opens up interesting questions about dependency, attraction, and the nature of relationships, and serves as ... a semi-character study of how far a person is willing to through in order to be with the person they love. While I don't doubt the author will eventually unveil why the female lead is so willing to stalk her ex-boyfriend to this extent, the question here needs to be answered and it needs to be believable enough for this story to continue its strong lead.

Edit: I finished it! I am a little on the fence and troubled by this manga series as I don't think the series as a whole really hit the potential heights hinted in this premise. While the characters were developed sufficiently, I think the character writing just wasn't mature or dark enough to really interrogate some of the themes and ideas the premise prodded. The ending was also rather rushed, and did not feel like it hit a high enough narrative stake in the climax to inspire the development of its characters in the ending. Still, I enjoyed the read and the initial premise!