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In the romance genre of manga, Houkago Kitaku Biyori confidently falls into the categories of drama-free and wholesome. Accompanied by cute, high-quality art and consistently compelling chapters, all of that would be enough to hook a five or six out of ten from me. The extra digits, however, come from the incredibly well crafted yet subtle character development that tacitly propels the story forward. Despite being a quiet and standoffish MC, Shun Satou is no stereotypical blank face. He has a distinct character and personality, as well as an engaging backstory that is gradually brought to the forefront and helps to better define his growing ... friendship with fellow club member Naoki. Likewise, Naoki (affectionally referred to by her classmates as Chokki-chan) embodies typical moe qualities mixed with a charismatic, whimsical disposition that stills leaves room for enough emotional intelligence to recognize the implicit stakes of a given situation. Simply put, the characters have genuine depth that is slowly teased out with every chapter.

And on that note, the pacing of the manga is spot-on. As you would expect, most of the chapters are a mix of casual interactions, funny situations, and light-hearted "will-they won't-they" teasing. But just as I would begin to grow tired or anxious of all the various charades and games, something would happen that permanently changes the dynamic between Naoki and Shun, even if just a bit, and the plot would move forward in a meaningful way. Unlike the majority of mangaka who write romantic interests into their characters (I'm looking at you MHA), this author actually allows and encourages the characters to *change* little by little without sacrificing cathartic moments of connection and closeness. It is so refreshing to read a story that isn't just some money-milking machine that recycles the same material over and over again hoping that readers will stick along for the ride with the vain hope that in another 100+ chapters the two might brush their hands while walking (gasp), but a worthwhile attempt at crafting a light, original, and sincerely expressive story about two teenagers falling in love. Let's just hope the author can stick the landing! 8/10

*Spoilers included in this review, as well as discussion of rape, violence, death, murder, and overall disturbing circumstances and imagery*

I picked up this manga on a whim and read it in one sitting. Thankfully that means this garbage only wasted a single evening of my life, and similarly I'd like to spend the minimum time required writing this review so that I can then never think about this manga ever again. The isekai premise isn't entirely unoriginal (see the synopsis), but the initial concept of "teleported to another world where all men are beasts that rape and kill women mercilessly" rapidly overstays its welcome. After ... a painfully long bout of meandering and woe-is-me edgelord sadness, the MC finally stumbles upon a female cast set. Surely the following chapters will feature a diverse array of emotional and philosophical interpretations among the many female members given their dramatic and traumatic life circumstances? ... Nope. The leader quickly reveals herself to be a one-dimensional psychopath who wishes to inflict upon our male MC the exact same kind of physical and metaphysical punishment that the women have suffered, because I guess the author thought that would be such *deep* commentary (don't worry, it gets so much worse). A few girls weakly protest against the leader for a handful of panels, but their concerns are quickly cast aside. In the end, women are demonstrated as being just as "beastly" as the men, perhaps even worse given the fact that they have retained their mental faculties. Do you see where this is going yet? If not, the ending will make it all too clear.

Many chapters go by where almost nothing happens other than the MC stewing about how tragic their life is, and any surviving women fawning over how stoic and committed the MC is (one previous girl had even suggested he become their leader, which he likely would have if a sudden breach in security hadn't led to the death of nearly the entire female cast up to that point). Eventually another organized group is discovered, and they are led by none other than - you guessed it - a man! Even in a world of 99% women, somehow men inevitably occupy the leadership roles. And in some kind of weird shout-out to Lisa the Painful, this mystery man has figured out how to control certain beasts and have them fight on his behalf. But don't worry, if you thought this massive revelation was going to lead to any kind of interesting plot arc or an eventual solution to save the world at large, it doesn't. Instead this beleaguered manga trudges on chapter by chapter as more people die (at this point remembering character's names has become a chore), all without any sense of a larger plot or resolution.

Which finally brings us to the ending. This trainwreck of an ending. As it turns out women can also become mindless beasts (see! It's not just the men!), and this discovery, along with a few other factors, causes the MC to snap and embrace the horrors of the world around him. In doing so he also becomes a beast, and encourages his girlfriend to similarly embrace the unavoidable. She does so, and as they stare into one another's eyes they muse on how the very concept of gender has become meaningless and instead their bond is formed by the pure recognition of another living thing. Then the world explodes.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE. A girl who had previously been killed wakes up in the original world of the MC - she has been reincarnated just as he had, only now she has escaped the horrors of her past existence... or so it seems (dun dun duuuuun). She goes outside and coincidentally meets another girl from the previous world (now blown up) who had also died and been reincarnated. This second girl, however, laments that men control all major institutions no matter where you go and that the only way to fight back is through unmitigated violence - and to prove the point, she pulls out a bloody knife and admits to having murdered her own mother earlier in the day. Moments later, an announcement is made that the leader of another country - the first female to be elected to the position - has initiated a nuclear strike against Tokyo. The first girl only has enough time to look up in horror (the second simply laughs bitterly) as the sky ignites into a ball of fiery light. The world explodes.

I can't be entirely sure of what the author was thinking as they put the final touches on the last panel of the manga, but I would guess it had something to do with imagining their face on the cover of Time magazine and them holding up a smoking pen, proof of how much they "cooked". Isn't it brilliant?? The parallelism to the previous world, the equality of the sexes being achieved not in peace but in destruction, and how the ever-present stench of DEATH will dispassionately consume us all! But stop for a moment and really think about it. If the author really wanted to make the argument that the genders equally embrace violence and terror, why not end the manga with the "genderless" isekai beast plotline? Why include an epilogue where it is an explicitly female leader who for no stated reason initiates the destruction of an entire innocent populace? And if knife-girl really does see any world she occupies as being invariably dominated by conniving and evil men, why did she murder her MOTHER?

The answer, of course, is simple. According to the author, women are irrational and fickle creatures who, deep down, are just as awful or even worse than men. This, of course, is an unbelievably uninformed take. Despite the fact that women today overwhelming suffer the brunt of rape, sexual assault, and domestic/public violence, this manga suggests - through the medium of a alternate world that is entirely bent on the rape and death of women at the hands of men - that when given even an iota of power, women will do the exact same thing. It is almost impossible to describe with words just how revolting this assumption is. In a way it’s even worse than victim-blaming. It is telling a women that, while she is being raped, if she were in *your* position she would obviously be doing the exact same thing and therefore really has nothing to complain about. Horrendous. At its moral core this manga fails in spectacular fashion.

If there is one (miniscule) element of praise that could be recognized, it is that every now and again the author manages to present some genuinely disturbing artwork that effectively captures the horror and depravity permeating the story's world. Examples that come to mind are a circle of girls who hold hands in the center of a massive fire and, while burning to death, pray to God that they will be reincarnated into a better world; a disgusted grandmother castrating the engorged genitals of a newborn baby boy upon discovering it already came into the world as a beast and lacking all sense of humanity; and the aftermath of a giant mutant (referred to as "idiosyncrats") raping the lower half of a woman, and whose upper half has been violently cast aside several feet away. The effectiveness of these panels were not just in their violence and shock value, but in the way they spoke to more primal human emotions of fear, sadness, and hopelessness. With that said, the surrounding commentary of the manga is so entirely lacking in substance that these startling visual moments of senseless tragedy quickly fade into the background, and in some sense are even robbed of their overarching emotional power.

If I had to summarize the entirety of this manga, it would be the meme "we live in a society". That's it. The author came up with a vaguely compelling premise but couldn't go five minutes before his incel impulses demanded the insertion of a bland, teenage male savior surrounded by a traumatized harem of girls whose "character traits" are nothing more than cosmetics for a larger commentary of how women inevitably ruin everything.

TLDR
Incel rage-bait initially hidden behind a barely interesting premise that ultimately reveals itself in all its brutish glory during the finale, but only after you are forced to wade through 36 chapters of braindead "development" that is punctuated by occasionally arresting artwork. Some might wish to read this manga hoping at least for some good shock value horror, but the real shock is how utterly deprived this manga is of good writing, character development, and meaningful and intelligent commentary. 1/10