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It's been a while since I read this work but I'll try to remember what I thought of it. In my quest to find a worthwhile ecchi manga, I came across Yellow Heart. Just two words are sufficient to summarize it: Interesting and Outrageous.

It has its merits that you wouldn't sense outright in your normal trash ecchi. The artwork is not bad, the way the storyline was delivered is quite unheard of in the ecchi genre, meaning it is unique and I daresay have depth. The characters will frustrate and disgust you, though they are not quintessential. The story itself is adequately compelling, yet it ... is frustratingly ridiculous- the fact that it tries makes it much more of a failure because it had the slightest hope of potential.

The experience of reading Yellow Heart is fast, passing in a blink of an eye- you don't realize you're reading trash as you are doing so. This is the rabbit hole. In the end as you come out of it, you will be disappointed as you come to a realization that this work falls into the same absurd hole, same weakness as many if not the majority of manga. The Foolish Unrealism.

This manga was a nightmare.

I could've gone to hell and back and would've seen still more horrendous substance in this manga. In fact this manga feels like a falling-down to hell, but one-way, without a return ticket.

Jeremy, a Bostonian, immigrates to England with his mother after she remarries Greg, who renders Jeremy into his "weekend lover". When his mother and Greg eventually die, how is Jeremy left to deal with the dregs of trauma from Greg's abuse and guilt over their suspicious deaths?

Zankoku na Kami ga Shihai Suru is legitimately 86 chapters and 17 volumes long- and when I say it's long, ... it's really, really, long. Finishing a chapter was like running a marathon- you couldn't help but heave a deep sigh, content but apprehensive of the following chapter to come. The chapters are tantalizingly long and redundant, filler-material; I wager two-thirds of what was related in the manga hardly contributed to the story. The dialogue is rough and lengthy, and to top it off the art is downright appalling. The latter two-thirds of the manga is apparently about how Jeremy deals with his parents' deaths, mysteries and all, but it keeps dragging and nothing happens and the MCs go around in circles doing practically nothing.

In terms of character development, it's undeniably satisfactory. The cast of characters is an entirely different story though. You would think that at least the story already took up enough time to "flesh out" it's characters properly, but in reality what it's really doing is just piling up more and more characters and tragedies to follow suit. What you will see are insufferable, ridiculous characters with pretentious peculiar and pathetic personalities that NEVER give it a rest, they will always either explode in emotion or try to kill themselves (or is this what Hagio-san thought foreigners to be?)

The sheer absurdity of it all- plain ridiculous storylines (the exact same sequence of two girls trying to kill themselves after being put in the same situation only in the span of probably 8 chapters, suddenly everyone goes antagonistic and evil and every guy is gay and into Jeremy after he suffers from sexual abuse, etc.), dragged-out, snail-paced storytelling, horrid artwork ("unique" can eat shit, made me want to claw my eyes out), bad character writing (you'll see for yourselves), lengthy dialogue- it was truly horrid and unenjoyable.

I think what won the hearts of many people is it's poeticism and premise, as both are impressionable. The dialogue is dramatic at times (and occasionally pretentiously so) and we see MCs do bat-shit self-sabotage that's supposed to be darkly romantic and enticing. Especially if you're new to this sort of psychological tragedy stuff, the surprise factor plays a large role (heard of misattribution?). You see, this manga is actually appealing to our r/imnotlikeothergirls side, do you realize?

Dark romanticism or tradegy is surprisingly not uncommon in Japanese media; unconventional "love" to the point of being "beautiful". There will never quite be an absolute paragon for this severe theme; because how much is too much? What is unrealistic and what is insane? And who am I, really, to be chastising the absurdity of the mentally ill characters in this manga when I've only ever lived vicariously and have yet to see first-handedly the extent of human insanity?

"This manga is not for everyone"- how many times have you chanced upon this warning as long as you've been on this site? It's almost always an ulterior tempt. Though I think in this case, you should really heed it.

Forget whatever you read here. Try it for yourselves and don't give up until you've found "the one".

Was I supposed to cry...???

Very, very mediocre. If you're up for a clichéd, boring plot, with typical gay characters, a hackneyed (and annoyingly so) backstory, a too-good-to-be-true ending (which, of course, won't be a legitimate, consummate yaoi ending without the oh so loving awkward sex at the last chapter bombarded with too much i love yous to the point it's cringy), you still shouldn't give this manga a read. Even if it's only 6 chapters. Even if the art is pretty okay. Unless you don't want to waste your time, that is.

I truly believe that people who actually read this seriously is just looking for ... material to cry on. If that's not your purpose then just don't even bother with this one.

This is my first manga review. I just finished this yesterday and spent literally all day damaging my eyes finishing this piece. Was it worth it? I'm not even sure.

Ever since I finished Aku no Hana a few weeks ago I've set my mind on reading all of Shuzo's works. I've noticed that it has a few similarities to the former- this one character in this manga looked like a perfect copy of Kasuga, Aku no Hana's main character. And yes, I'm still hung up on Aku no Hana.

If you read the story with the mindset beforehand of the possibility of DID in Mari, and ... that there were no supernatural aspects, it would change your POV drastically.

I had a lot of fun and excitement reading this- at times it made my heart race! But it was glaringly slow-paced. This manga has been dragging for so long, we finally got to the actual conflict like 60 something chapters in. Some scenes were pretty much redundant anyway, like the interminable disputes with side characters.

I respect the storyline for it's psychological facet, what with the whole double personality stuff and how masterfully it depicted DID. Although, that excluded, upon further thought, it wasn't all that special (not that I'm implying that it's mediocre). It was just missing something, not to mention how dragged out it was.

Same with the characters, I appreciate their psychological implications on their disposition and mentality, how got my brain turning its gears in an attempt to understand Mari. The characters were unlikeable but I don't hold it against them- some stories just don't prioritize that and couldn't care less about their characters being likable. And isn't that a good thing? You get to be uncomfortable and unbiased.

The art was also very similar to Aku no Hana. It's gorgeous. I love how when things picked up in the end, the panels started to darken, and the usual shading was replaced with harsh lines, like in Chi no Wadachi. It added to the overall creepiness.

I see a pattern in Shuzo's works now- they may start fucked up at first and make you think, "What fuck am I reading?", but when you persist to finish it nevertheless, you realize they end non-tragically in a melancholic and abrupt conclusion. A review of this manga confirmed this belief along with mine. This manga isn't an exception either. The ending was perfect and sad, and it made the whole story worth it.

You should read it. It's interesting.