Jan 11, 2014
The common's person's reaction to the main character of this Manga is why storytelling is so slow to evolve. There is as much of a expectancy for male characters to be manly as there are female characters to be seductive or lady-like. Now I'm not saying that I want feminine male leads, but does every male lead need to be decisive and masculine? Can we have a weak male lead, such as Komori, without backlash and hate?
This character is so deep, and so real. A nobody in Highschool he moved to Tokyo in the hopes of starting anew. When he finds that he's been
...
unable to make any connections he shuffles through life until he's taken hold of by a debilitating psycho-social disorder.
And then there's Mari, who has clearly been sexually abused. How did I come to this conclusion? The proof is subtle in some cases, but not so much in others. Probably the best argument for this is Mari's sexual promiscuity. Even for a teenage boy of her age a stash of pornagraphic material that large is a little worrying, and though the story suggests at first that the male lead is a stalker, it is actually Mari who is the stalker and Komori who is being stalked.
Another compelling argument is her family, mainly her Mother. Her Mother is clearly an un-invested parent. Mari stays out late most night, and it seems as though her mother doesn't really know anything about her own daughter's life. She reaches out, but it's hollow and unfeeling. It's the attitude of a mother that has noticed sexual abuse, but wishes to ignore it. Of course, generally this kind of behavior is only present when the father or husband/ boyfriend is the perpetrator. The evidence for this is a short but meaningful encounter when Komori/ Mari and Yori are alone. He clearly shows a lack of person boundaries, and is quickly pulled away from Mari's room by her mother.
Of course even if you don't believe all of this sublevel prediction, it's still a compelling story that has a lot of promise. It's something that I'll be sure to keep my eye on.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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