Othello.
Othello

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TL:DR: Othello is a unique shoujo which falls outside of ordinary tropes and provides a unique and emotional story. I would definitely recommend this quick read.

L;DR:
Now, I really was not expecting for this plain-looking shoujo manga to take me by such surprise. I don't usually get so invested in these kinds of shojo, especially not ones as short as Othello, but... gosh. What I thought was a basic and boring shoujo turned out to be a much deeper story.

I don't think I was reading Othello, so much as I was FEELING it. While Yaya is not at all a relatable character, her emotions expressed in ... the story are ones that are very much relatable. I felt it in my heart as she suffered at the hands of her classmates, not being able to say no, terrified of putting others in danger. The contrast between her and Nana was equal parts amusing and heartbreaking. Nana herself is a great character to follow, and it was so satisfying to watch her deal out the "heavenly punishment" on her enemies. As well, the character development of Yaya was done smoothly and was really quite wonderful to follow, and her relationship with Moriyama was pleasant and refreshing.

The story moves rather fast, not being dragged down with pointless filler or cliched moments. I barely ever cry while reading manga, but the hard-hitting moments in this manga really did bring a tear to eye.

I'm not saying that Othello is life changing or anything, and 9/10 probably is much higher of a score than it perhaps deserves. But the feelings I got while reading were quite unique to this manga, making it an experience I don't think I'll forget so quickly.

We've all been there, we have all had those situations were we just stared into the mirror and wished we were someone else. Othello follows Yaya; a girl who wishes for nothing more to be brave, and in doing so creates another personality to combat the problems she is to afraid confront.

I wasn't so sure about this manga at first. It was really angsty and the melodrama felt over the top. The bullying seemed unbelievable and I didn't like the way that it was always Nana saving the day. However, as the story manages to progress it started to turn for the better. The ... underlying bullying theme kept its ugly head present for the whole thing, which disappointed me, but the story started to shift to Yaya trying to deal with her split personality. At first it was trying to understand what was going on, then it was trying to cope with this disorder. There was just such a subtly undertone in the growth of Yaya as a character, and it really caught my attention. The way she progressed and grew as a character was really something else, and to be honest some of the scenes left me goosebumps.

That being said, the manga was still plagued with some very poor writting. The dialogue felt contrived and the story never felt urgent, it doesn't help that the ending is really lacking. It's a shame too, because this manga could have been so much better. The way the mangka handles Yaya as a character was brilliant, no question in that, but it felt like she didn't know what to do with the rest of the story. It felt like a lot of pointless filler was thrown in there, and like she didn't know how to handle it. I'm not saying Othello is bad, on the contrary, it's really good, but it just could have been so much more, it could have stood at such a higher ground.

The art-work in Othello was truly astounding. Very attentive details in the background, really well drawn characters, and I must say I enjoyed the author's fashion style that she choose for the main characters. What really mad everything stand out were the mannerisms in the characters face, a weight of realism was attached to each movement, each smile, each frown, it felt like that these were real people, not drawn images.

Othello may be easy to pass up. It offers an enjoyable story, but does suffer from some spotty writing. It may not the the masterpiece it could have been, but at the end of the day Othello is still an enjoyable read nonetheless.

TW: SA, bullying, harassment

Othello's one of those shoujos from the early 2000s where SA and harassment are used as punch lines despite how serious it is. It's an interesting plot with our MC girl with a split personality which causes some unhinged situations but many of these are SA and borderline r*pe.

TLDR; It's a short read (only 28 chapters) with pretty art, but again there's sexual harassment happening every 2 chapters. It's a decent story littered with assault and bullying that shouldn't be normalized as a "funny trope". If you don't mind things like that or ignore it, you still enjoy the overarching story.