(basically my video review, but why write something different...)

A quote that is attributed to the philosopher Schopenhauer says this: ‘we should always be mindful of the fact that no man is ever very far from the state in which he would readily want to seize a sword or poison in order to bring his existence to an end.’

Now, the story is a little hard to explain for some reason, but I’ll try without spoiling anything. The MC is, of course, a high schooler named Reiji.He lives in a small town and is a secret otaku – he recently got into an Idol Group アクリル, a group that was introduced to him by his even bigger otaku childhood friend, Chako. One day after school, they just chill as always, when tourists ask them for a specific location. Reiji is confused as he doesn’t know why anyone would visit their little town, but Chako explains to him that there’s a novel in which two lovers commit suicide by ‘going into the water’. The place they do this at is located in this very town. Chako changes the subject though and tells Reiji that she was advised to take the exam for Waseda university, which is a real and prestigious university in Tokyo.

Chako asks if Reiji doesn’t want to leave the town as well, but he feels responsible for his family. His dad is out of the picture, his older brother is a troubled hikikomori and his grandmother needs constant assistance – so his mother is really relying on Reiji’s help. Saying that he feels the weight of the world on his shoulders might be a good way of putting it.

And it doesn’t even end there – another childhood ‘friend’ called Gen makes him run errands for him. So one evening, Gen asks Reiji to go get some cigarettes for him. Reiji goes to the conbini to buy them, when the clerk tells him that they don’t sell to high schoolers. This never happened before, and Reiji realizes that she must be new. Later that night, he sees her again when she’s taking out the trash, but there’s a homeless looking dude so he feels like he should stay close in case anything happens. She just gave this guy a bentou and nothing happens. So, Reiji and the girl start talking and it turns out that she is actually Nagi, the chick from the idol group he loves so much. This is where Reiji says his ‘death’ began.
But immediately this girl is suspicious, right? Like, why would this pop idol and city girl be in such a small town and hang out with a high schooler? And this actually brings me to my next point: the main character. For some reason, so many girls and grown women as well are drawn to him. We don’t really know who Reiji is and I can’t say when he acts ooc. This can make him interesting since it makes you wonder who he really is and what he thinks and wants…it seems as if whenever someone asks him to do something, he just agrees. I don’t know if he has a mind of his own.

He seems like a regular guy, but one bad thing happens and he kinda loses it – all it takes then is for one person – always female – to ask highly suspicious things of him and he wants to do them without hesitating. There’s a fine line between having no personality and creating an air of mystery around someone. I don’t know if he’s been hiding his true emotions and they just get triggered by all these women or if he is just easily manipulated. The manga isn’t over yet, so we’ll see. But somehow, everyone in his life clings to him for support, even Chako. Everyone needs him to be something. Nagi is the only one who doesn’t need him to be anything, she invites him to eternal piece aka. Death, essentially. In my eyes, that’s why she doesn’t really need an amazing personality, as she merely functions as a symbol, if that makes sense.

Chako is more fleshed out, she has a distinct personality and a stronger will than probably anyone else in the story. The other characters, like the teacher and mother, seem like leaves drifting in a river. These ‘no personality types’ can seem like bad writing at first, but I’d like to think that this was a deliberate choice to stress the apathy so many people feel in small towns. It’s also interesting that there are basically no men in Reiji’s life. Aside from Gen, who, despite everything, seems to care deeply about Reiji, there is not a single male figure of importance in his life. I don’t know, I’m just starting to feel a little sus about it. The fact that the story is set in a small town makes a lot what happens relatable. Everyone knows everyone, dreams die when you grow to live the life your parents lived, you know…things like that. I lived in a small town for many years in my youth, so I know what it feels like.

The character design in and of itself isn’t super outstanding – it’s pretty good, but nothing super unique or anything. However, the author is really good at creating the right atmosphere. The town has this dark history and it feels like there is constantly something sinister lurking in the shadows, or a darkness waiting to pull you into the deep – or into an abyss, if you will. Everyone constantly seems to be at the brink of suicide, which reminds me again of the quote I mentioned at the beginning of this review. It kind of feels like everything is normal during the day, but as soon as the night comes, everything suddenly changes.
Some people were complaining that this manga is trying to be ‘deep’, and I’m never really sure what they mean when they say something like that, but OK…if something is meaningful or not is different for everyone, so that’s a point I really do not like seeing in reviews unless you can tell me exactly why you felt that way – otherwise, it’s just an opinion and should be written as such.


Thanks for reading.