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It's a cute little series of two-minute shorts to give you a little extra relationship development between the main cast. The art is cute, with minimal animation. It covers mini interactions that involve events from the first half of season one of the main series. It's not anything groundbreaking or amazing, and doesn't add anything extra to the story. But that isn't really the point. Could easily be skipped, it just adds a little flavor to the character dynamics behind the scenes. However, it's not anything grand enough to make you change your view of the characters. It just lightly reinforces the relationship dynamics already ... present in the show.

6/10, cute little series. Real hit-or-miss on if it was worth it, though.

I want to preface this by saying that this manga has some incredibly heavy topics, and if you're sensitive to artistic portrayals of utter anxiety/dissociation, or to heavy manipulation, you might want to skip this manga. It's definitely worth the read if you're fine with proceeding, though. And above all of that, DO NOT READ THIS until you understand that there are NO GOOD PEOPLE in this story. Nobody is written as an overall morally great person, and is one one of the biggest themes of the story.

This manga is an insane rollercoaster of emotion that tugs you back & forth, back & forth, back ... & forth. I've had to take breaks for a couple days after some heavy chapters because I was so mentally exhausted. As soon as you think the MC is about to get out from under his mother's thumb, she snakes her way back on top. This story showcases the emotional decline of a boy realizing & perpetually falling victim to his mother's intense manipulation.

I will now continue this review without care for spoilers. Stop here if you don't want spoilers!

-- THE STORY --

BOTT displays very heavily the cycle of generational abuse. Seiko was victim to a similar situation via her mother, and Seiichi grows into the same cold, unfeeling manipulative personality that his mother displayed to him. The main difference being that Seiichi was mentally dulled enough to not continue the bloodline, as well as understanding that this was the best route to stop the cycle (i.e., not having kids). The manga could very easily have ended happily with Seiko behind bars, and Seiichi running away & starting a new life with Yuiko. If that's what you would've preferred, then stop reading after the two promise to do just that. You can fool yourself into thinking that was the happy ending. It's just continued (worse) mental and emotional decline from there.

My main issue that I see with other reviews of BOTT is that many people seemed indirectly annoyed that everyone was in some way a bad person. I understand that feeling, but I think it was horribly misplaced. This is not, and was never meant to be, a happy story. It's a REALISTIC story. Fact is, most abusive situations are deep cycles that go on & on. And sometimes, the best you can hope for is for the youngest step in the cycle to cut it off in some way. And unfortunately, not all of those endings are fairytales where the victim breaks out and lives a happy life for the rest of their days. This story explores the colder & more bitter path.

I loved this story, but I will admit to something: I did start falling off a bit after Seiichi got sent to juvie. The tone of the story really starts to switch up here. It becomes numb to everything, and isn't as emotionally exciting as the rest of the story. Even when Seiichi as an adult finds his mother and they have their quarrel before he takes her in. It just doesn't feel the same. And that might be the point. But after getting emotionally beaten for the first 4/5 of the story, it kind of makes the home stretch feel a little empty. I wouldn't say I wasn't satisfied, though.

However, that's not to say that the rest of the story didn't have evocative or intense moments and ideas. It definitely did, what with Seiichi living an empty life & trying to commit suicide. Plus his father dying, and him reconnecting with Seiko in their own ways. Also the dagger of seeing that Yuiko went on to live a somewhat fulfilling life without Seiichi. It's all a different kind of pain than the rest of the story.

-- THE ART --

I love it! The art style is on the more realistic end of the spectrum, so if you're solely attracted to the cutesy bubbly style of other anime/manga, you may not like it as much. That being said, there are certain quirks about the art style that may be a bit off-putting. Mainly the exaggerated facial expressions that tend to come up (especially in intense parts of the story). There were a few times where I would be completely sucked in, then WHAM page flip and there's a hilariously overexaggerated face taking up half the page. Not to mention there's a couple times where the panel placement makes characters look like the 👁👄👁 face.

One part that I felt was amazingly done, was the portrayal of Seiichi's mental breakdowns. I like to think of them as dissociations, or deep anxiety attacks. A good example is when he is battling with his independence while being questioned by the police about his mother pushing Shigeru. The art seems to come undone, like it's all unwinding. Reality starts to blur and become unrecognizable. He's still there, he's still alive, he's just... frozen. Falling apart. And the art does a fantastic job of replicating the intensely disturbing feeling of being torn apart by your own mind.

-- CONCLUSION --

This was an amazing story to experience. Even if you don't finish it, I can guarantee you'll be exhausted and drained from what you do read (and not in a "this story sucks" way). It definitely is not everyone's cup of tea. But if it piques your interest, then it is 100% worth checking out. Right when you think things are about to get better, and you start to get slightly complacent, the story whips you right back into extreme dread. It always keeps you on the edge of your seat, wondering "will Seiichi finally be able to escape this time?!".

I highly recommend giving it a chance, it was definitely a wild ride.