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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.

Recently I started reading a manga titled La Plaine du Kanto (which translates to The Plain of Kanto). The manga is a slice of life/drama that is set during the post-war Showa period of Japan. After the catastrophic events of Hiroshima, many civilians were left to pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives. This is where the plot kicks off with our main protagonists Kinta. A  7-year-old boy who lives in Chiba, a region of Japan well known for its fields and countryside, who lives with his grandfather after his mother passed away from the bombings.

What I find so captivating about this title is the amount ... of detail and social commentary it has to offer about the time period. Whether it be social or political. The Plaine of Kanto and its author, Kazuo Kamimura, have a lot to say about these topics and presents them in an impressive and comfortable manner.

From the beginning of the story, we are introduced to the world through the eyes of a child. This really helps the viewer get a simple understanding of the world revolving around Kinta as he is still innocent in mind, although scared from the war. He has yet to understand a solid grasp of the overlying issues in society. The first few chapters open up with the occupation of the American army during the Showa period and how Japanese society viewed outsiders. While most citizens still feel a rather high amount of tension about the nation being occupied by foreigners, Kinta doesn't really care nor understand the situation he's in. When his grandfather ends up letting an American solider reside in their home, others mock them and are in shock of their act as if they are helping the enemy. Our protagonist is told he should beware the Americans, but he ends up befriending one and gains a liking to the soldier after he is offered bubble gum. While the rest of the town might treat the outsider as an alien - a foreigner who you should not come into contact with- the simple gesture of kindness by offering the bubblegum demonstrates to Kinto that the alien isn't that different after all. They are one and the same and it helps Kinto shape his perception of people for the first time in the story. Contrasting that to the soldiers of Japan, who have lost a great deal and have suffered the most after returning broken and in shambles from the war. It paints a different picture for the state of affairs of Japanese soldiers. Kinta's uncle is a perfect example of one. He is a disturbed, agitated man that on the surface seems kind and nice, always offering treats to Kinta and his friends but in truth, he is severely troubled and a dangerous monster from the effects of war. After his wife had an affair with one of his war buddies, he loses it. He goes out into a murderous frenzy killing not only his comrade in arms but most importantly his significant other. In truth, his wife was all he had left in the world and now that the world had robbed her from him, it killed the last remaining bits of hope he had left leading to his inevitable death. After learning the acts his uncle committed from the authorities, Kinta fails to understand the events that had truly happened. The perception of his uncle is skewed and he is now left with a dilemma at an age where he has yet to comprehend the misery of the world around him. A kid shouldn't have to deal with these things, but as are many things of the Showa period, Kinto is a product of his environment. A bleak one.

The most interesting bits of the manga would be how it deals with the concept of gender and sexuality. One of the first friends Kinto makes when he lives with his Grandfather is with a young girl named Ginko. However, Ginko isn't like the others girls, in fact, she wasn't born one. Ginko is actually a boy, or she has all the physical traits of one. Yet, she tells Kinto she is a girl despite everything that contradicts that statement. In this time period, it may have been absurd for one to identify as a different gender than to the one you're born as, hell, even today people have trouble accepting transsexuals, but to Kinta, it doesn't really matter. Partly because sex, sexuality and gender are vague concepts to the child mind, in truth, the reason he easily accepts Ginko for who she is is that he wants a friend. Because of his nature, Kinto is easily left out as an outsider by the other kids and doesn't have anyone to talk to his age. Ginko is a major highlight for me, not only because it's rare for a character to be trans but she also brings a lot to the table. She is a good contrast in character between Kinto as they both really bounce off each other as the plot plays along. While Ginko is the more mischievous and cunning of the two, often blackmailing others and manipulating people to her advantage as a means of survival,  Kinto is kind and naive, going out of his way to gain the approval of others, making it easy for Ginko to often make him do her grunt work. While that may sound like a toxic friendship, both of them slowly grow fond of each other and develop a very close bond, relying on each other when worst comes to worst. They both bring a lot of chemistry as their relationship builds and blossoms. After all, they're just kids born in a harsh and struggling reality.

Sexuality is even further explored with more characters and arcs throughout the story. As Kinta gets older, so does his identity and concepts of sexuality. With the introduction of the man in a black coat, an artist with a passion to express openly the desire and lusts of sex, Kinto is also open to these new revelations about what it means to love. Either through puberty himself or becoming an apprentice to the artist. I would indulge more into this topic, however, I have yet to finish the manga itself and the concept is only really covered partway through the end of volume two, where our characters are adults and sex becomes more relevant in their lives.

Overall, I am thoroughly enjoying my time with this work. The only problem I have with it is in its distribution or lack thereof. Published back in 1976, Kanto has only been published in French outside of Japan with no English prints to speak off and a lack of online scans. I myself only learned of this manga through a friend recommendation and picked it up at a local library. But not everyone understands French fluently and it's a damn shame because this series deserves a lot more recognition than it currently has. Even online, discussion for this manga is very minimal which baffles me seeing how ahead of its times this piece of art truly is. Much of the themes discussed in this manga are more relevant now than ever seeing how tense our political climate is with the notion of sexuality and identity.