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Excellent. Heartbroken, melancholy warmth. Deftly navigates the situation it depicts. Fiction is metaphor made real, in here, the metaphor is more than real. I can feel mass. Ironic how it relates to disappearing from the senses. The emotions it tries to weave through don't always feel real, human communication breaks down so much easier than that, but it does not need to feel real. I cannot help but feel that my desire for it to go otherwise is a want to be cynical in the face of something that posits a reality where understanding could exist —concurrently with cruelty— fluid and yet blunt. My cynicism ... is no match for the heart this text has. The text tells a moving story beautifully.

On the art. It has been my unfortunate experience that manga with a strong bent towards exploring emotions and complex topics deliver despite the art. Here, the manga is made perfect by its phenomenal art. Whitespace. It isn't surprising that a text that deals so intimately with "wanting to disappear" relies on emptiness as its primary visual metaphor. But the way it deploys it is incredibly beautiful. Especially incredible given how much of it there is, framing the characters, highlighting panels, and maintaining the pace and mood. High-contrast illustrations. The art has incredibly high contrast; greys are relegated to the construction of backgrounds, with the characters being monochrome. It pulls you towards the characters, whose faces and bodies are beautifully —and confidently— drawn. The manga wants to make a statement by showcasing the characters' emotions, and it refuses to stand in its own way while it makes it.

The usual romance manga premise involving a loser guy and a popular girl. I was (/am/have been) searching for a manga with some variation of this setup. When I first came across Real Girl, a couple years ago, I had put it off because I disliked the art-style. This time, the art style didn't bother me that much so I delved in.

Initially, it seemed like it had something interesting to say. There were moments of unexpected maturity in there, esp WRT how social dynamics and self-worth work. How weakness, low self-esteem etc is internalised. Even how difficult it can be to change social perception, ... which might make a person give up on improving themselves. But these moments and threads became thinner and rarer as the manga went on. As if the manga was not curious about the dynamics of the relationships themselves, only the things happening around it.

It started irking me when it came to matters of sex and intimacy in general: the protagonist treats wanting to be intimate with his partner like a defect within himself, And not in the sense of being scared of it or being nervous about it, but rather in the "I don't understand sex if I want to touch my girlfriend it'll give me cooties" way. I could take that, enjoy it, and even love it IFF it was developed better. If, say, there was some reasoning behind it, some development shown, or even some honest reflection (even comedic reflection!). Sadly, it is not there. Even more unfortunately, this attitude is not limited to the protagonist. And worst of all, this attitude is not limited to just topics of intimacy, that's just one facet.

I dropped the manga at the 2/3rd mark. I really hoped to like it. And of course, one can ask, like, "lol what were you expecting reading a romance manga ha ha". The thing is, I wouldn't have read it, wouldn't have written this review, and wouldn't have been annoyed about it, if it wasn't for the manga not living up the promise it had shown in its initial chapters.