Barbara Ikai
Otherworld Barbara

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I feel so many emotions. Moto Hagio has quickly become one of my favorite authors overall, not just manga, and I feel like she is one of the best narrative authors out there in the world.
The way she introduce plot elements - so slowly, so subtly, one by one, it leaves you wondering what story you are really reading.

Barbara is a story about families, at its core, about individuality, identity and who people really are. I am shocked by the ending, I feel like Moto Hagio appeared to me to ask for a wish and I said "Please, let the characters be happy, please save ... everyone", and she did it, and then when I started crying because I read the ending she said "You should have been careful what you wished for."

Barbara is about a mysterious island. It appeared in the sea of Japan, out of nowhere, but it also exists in the dreams of a Aoba, a girl who has been in a coma since the brutal murder of her parents. The story is set in a strange futuristic world where supernatural events are considered commonly scientific events and the protagonist, Watarai, is a scholar of dreams and someone who can enter people's dreams.

The plot has multiple lines: the mysteries of the planet Mars, the relationship between Aoba and her family, between Watarai and his son, the horror elements of individualism, discrimination, human experiments - it is impossible to describe without spoilers. It just left me sobbing like a child.