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Zankoku na Kami ga Shihai suru ―or A Cruel God Reigns in english― isn’t the shoujo I expected nor the level of drama I ever read in manga. The author, Moto Hagio, is considered to be part in the Year 24 Group (24年組), group that revolutionized the shoujo manga, and I can say, that she did it with this.

Story 10/10
The story isn’t fanciful at all and that’s why this become one of my favorites manga. The drama is so real, is easy for the reader to empathize with the protagonist Jeremy who is suffering abuse from his stepfather to protect her suicidal mom and ... her marriage with this man. This kind of situation it’s so real and happen in various real places with almost real characters too, making it a horrid and distressing case of child abuse, where the depression from the protagonist is perfectly expressed as he tries to find safe places to hide from the violence.
Another thing that I’d noticed is that Jeremy develops various psychological consequences of sexual abuse like bipolarity, depression and anxiety, suicide attempts and risk behaviors, victimization, hostility, drug and prostitution/promiscuity. All those are real psychological consequences and are expressed in the story in a real and casual scenario, one can feel the despair of Jeremy's life and how he reaches the bottom.
This isn’t the BL story with sexual abuse with happy story, so be prepared to suffer a lot reading this, it’s really depressing and painful but deserving of a reading.

Art 8/10
This started in the ’93 and has a style properly of those years. I really appreciate reading this, everything is well drawn and sometimes the details just shock me, the feelings and metaphors were fantasist and abstract depending on how the artist wanted the reader to feel and that combined with the story, was stunning. The scenario was truly delightful and evocative and catches the beauty and elegance of England.
The art sometimes decays in little things but it’s nothing that will turn into an inconvenience and it happens in every manga, it is very clean and intense.

Characters 9/10
Another thing I enjoyed. Everyone was so real; each personality was unique, powerful, and characteristic. Nobody was completely an angel, the characters suffer and they had bad habits or mental disorders too. It was very balanced so there isn’t good or bad― ignoring the antagonist of course.
Apart from the main characters, the secondary characters were well presented and had a personal development and we get to know them better with stories of their past that didn’t get so deep but contributes to the plot.

Enjoyment 8/10
It made me feel a lot of things, there were bad things that made me feel miserable, there where good things that made me feel pleased, both were intense feelings that are presented within all the story.
Sometimes I feel as if the plot goes dense and get burdened by it, but it wasn’t a big deal as you surely will get to the end without postpone reading -as if those cliffhangers gonna let you quit...


Overall 9/10
I ended adding this manga to my favorite list. I started reading this for a challenge and first I choose this for its plot. Took me like 3 or 5 chapters to get really involved with it. I absolutely recommend it and I totally would read it again.