Zankoku na Kami ga Shihai suru

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I’ve never read a story narrated like this one. It appears there is no structure, not even a well organized and hidden structure, no scenes to show you this, no dialogues to show you that, it is simply life. You see a part of a boy’s life and then you leave. There is no dramatic ending, only characters moving from one stage to the next. This is not to say it’s random and badly written, but it’s played so natural to the point where it feels as if you are living through him. It is flawless. You can hear its music. You can see the ... flowers growing and limbs falling. You know these characters, their faces and body language, the soul in their eyes. But the layers of art is what makes this narration special, language may limit our explanation of the human experience, but for our every sense to be used in an art explaining said situation, how much closer can you get?

Words cannot describe how much I love this manga. First of, I don't read shojo manga and I'm surprised by how hooked I was with a series that doesn't particularly cater to my tastes . Without getting into massive spoilers, A Cruel God Reigns is about Jeremy, a young man who is blackmailed by his stepfather Greg, after he marries his suicidal mother Sandra. If Jeremy doesn't comply, Greg will divorce Sandra which may be the last straw to push her off the edge and end her life. This manga is heavy, and I am only briefly going over what it's about.

I believe this manga ... has some of the best depictions of mental illness and of those who fall victim to sexual assault. The leads in this story are complex broken people. While it is easy to blame Jeremy for not telling the truth to authorities, the work shows the viewer that the state of mind of these victims are very much clouded by terror and anxiety. For one, Jeremy's biggest fear is seeing his mother fall apart. He doesn't want to disrupt the stability Greg has built for her even if that stable happy lifestyle is toxic in itself and built on a pile of lies.

Jeremy is horrendously tortured by his stepfather when they sleep together. It's to the point where the poor boy barely clings to his sanity. With his hands tied, he has nobody to run to and sadly accepts his fate. He represses his feelings for the well-being of his other family members. Ashamed of what they would think of him if they knew the true colors of him and his stepfather. The audience see the symptoms of this suffering as Jeremy goes down the rabbit hole of repressed feelings. He tries to escape his life at home by taking drugs at school, sleeping with other students and has intense dark twisted fantasies of murdering Greg. We also see him try to hide his scars, physically and mentally. Even when he is alone in a safe area, the brutal domination of his stepfather still lingers in his mind and his conscious is never calm as he feels himself still being punished when no one is around.

I also congratulate the author Hagio Moto, the godmother of shojo manga, for somehow making my sympathize with the cruel monster that is Greg Lowland. Greg is tormented monster who can't escape his past trauma. After his previous wife killed herself, his ideal of love changed and turned into something sickly. He himself is struggling to understand his mind. Instead of moving on and accepting what happened in the past, he has regressed all feelings and memories of his deceased wife and harms others to repress his guilt. Yes, it is not a valid reason for it, but it does help shed light on the predators of assault as they are also mentally unstable. Things could of been different, if Greg seaked help instead of it turning into a fuel for his urges.

Sadly, my biggest issue with the manga, is the second half of the series. It's, to put it simply, terrible. At the halfway point, when the main plot of the series ends, instead of a conclusion, we get a rambly epilogue of 20 chapters that goes one for way too long. It completely shatters the latter half of the experience. It feels as if the mangaka was forced by her editors to continue the work even if it was at its end. The last few chapters completely rewrite characters such as Jeremy and his stepbrother Ian. It brings in new characters and creates needless sub-plots that don't go anywhere and are filler. It ruins the story for me. However, I cannot deny that the first half of this manga is nothing short of fantastic. Its why it made it on this list.

It's way too long and dragged out. I cried numerous times in the beginning of the story and was just captivated by the tragic events that unfolded, however, that captivation dwindled into boredom. The characters kept backtracking their progress and the same sad elements were overplayed so much I stopped crying and started rolling my eyes. It basically felt like this:

Introduction
Rising action
climax
climax
Falling action? No climax
climax X10000

I dropped this because reading it just became exhausting. I liked the beginning and would love to know where the characters end up, but I've attempted to finish this twice and failed both times, it's not worth it.