COULOMB FILLE

If I had to sum up my feelings towards Coulomb Fille, I would struggle a little bit with what to say. Which is a statement that I am about to contradict by saying a great deal. It had a bizarre premise that ended up caving in on itself and falling apart after managing to form a moderately successful story otherwise. In addition, it sports one of my least favorite ends in a manga that I have read recently. But despite this, the good parts showed such a decent amount of skill that I struggle to see why it had to be this way. If I had to guess, I would say this manga was prematurely terminated. I heard that the author had plans to continue the story in doujinshi, but as far as I can tell that plan never came to fruition, despite the 6 years that have passed since it ended.

Talking about the manga itself, I feel that the cracks only really show themselves around chapter 10. Until then the author does a decent job of building up the characters and their specific oddities. There are a few aspects that are hard to fully accept, but the negatives are overall outweighed by the positives. The artwork is pretty, and the author does a decent job at making us sympathize with the main girl's struggle. The presence of the girl kind of makes the problem the boy has seem like nothing in comparison, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The troubles begin when we find out more about the main girl's past and the man who raised her. The story at this point is ripe with awkward characterization, and for some reason excuses downright disturbing behavior. It also is filled with contrivances that break established rules of the story.

After the events of the last 4 chapters occur, the manga chooses to go for the approach of an unsatisfying ending that leaves the audience wanting more. One could argue that this is because of the author's plans for a follow-up, but even accounting for that the ending is unsatisfying. It leaves the characters in an awkward place, and sets up a large time skip with several unanswered questions. The ending really is a massive shame. Beforehand the characters were decently strong with energetic artwork to compliment it. It's a shame that this series didn't get a chance to reach its potential and fell flat.

I would like to recommend it to people, but unless they are willing to overlook the fact that it is basically unfinished, I can't do so in good faith.