Jul 13, 2024
This work is depressing. Despite it's attempt to refute this through making the leads happy with their situation by having each other, it feels unrealistic that someone would take this all in stride. So if you're in a bad place at the moment, I'd say it's a coin flip whether this will make you feel better or worse.
Through it's painfully obvious suicide allegory, it asks what the value of the rest of your life may be. It directly refutes the idea that your life is priceless and not to be given up. An unhappy life, to the original author and the mangaka who adapted it,
...
is not worth living. The lead, giving up all but the last 3 months of his life for a pittance, increases the value of his life through his resignation. He begins living the last days of his life wrapping up loose ends from his past, and enjoying his time with the female lead. Because he knows he will die soon, he ultimately becomes more happy with his life. This is something that is actually seen from people who plan to end their own life.
The main "message", if you will, is fairly unique in this way. Most works dealing with the subject would say the opposite. You can make things better, you are not doomed to a life lived unhappily. This makes the manga, and the original novel, a worthwhile read if only to see a rarely explored perspective.
Though, despite the refutation, it does ultimately play with some of the same arguments used against itself, while not agreeing with it's conclusion. It makes known the arbitrariness of assigning a value to a life. The mystical evaluation system is ultimately a superior deciding subjectively the price of a subjects lifespan. Also, while not explicitly making this point like it does all others, it shows all the people who sell their life as impoverished individuals. People who are statistically less likely to have valuable lives by the systems criteria. Ironic that the very people most willing to sell off their lives (time and health too) are the people who will benefit the least from it. The capitalism metaphor is obvious.
Despite the taking things a normal person wouldn't thing. I do find the lead as a mostly realistic depiction. Through the small oddities and hobbies of his, it serves to humanize him in a way I like. Kusunoki is a failed artist who like taking pictures of random things and has a small fascination with vending machines. He likes reading and music because, as he describes it, they're simply ways to pass the time. But because of this, he's capable of sudden moments of pontification and poetry.
The work does fall into one of the more problematic tropes of the romance manga genre. The main character early on considers assaulting the female lead, and she takes it as a compliment (seriously why is this a common thing). Consent is oddly brought up multiple times, once as mentioned, once to be laughed at, and a third to be given up freely, but oddly in a way that intentionally calls back to the first instance.
Ultimately, it's an interesting read, with realistic enough, if not likeable leads. Sadly, because of the depressing atmosphere it can't shake and problematic issues, I can't recommend it to every reader.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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