Basically MC has lived in his shadow her whole life bc he was better at everything and had to act like she lived to support him which ended up suffocating her since she was never able to be her true self, that's why she run away from him in shock and had the accident when they met after MC finally moved far away from her family, she was terrified to have to live like she was before, without the freedom of being herself and dedicated to her brother.
I get that part... But there's seriously something missing... The black out and stuffs and vague notions... It was pretty clear she was suffering but the I believe the trauma is more deep rooted something more than living under his shadow... The dude did some shit.. And I wanna know his evil deeds
I'd say it's rape. I think the brother did that to her and because he was so well loved by everyone, she could not tell anyone. She shows a lot of symptoms related to PTSD.
Plus I know that too well.
:-(
That is fucked up, man....
Unfortunately... more usual than people believe.
Life can be a bitch...
But people are the real demons...
I think it might be a case of her "misunderstanding" and her brother not being bad/evil but overshadowing her without aiming to do so. I would prefer it to be something else, although defenitively nothing as extreme as rape.
Tbh, the blacked out world make me think that the auhtor is trying to trick us into having the wrong preception, like if we see them out whole viewpoint will change or something. So we are being made to not like him like the mc doesn't like him.
I am like looking for spoilers so if I find any clues I can let ya know, just let me know if you want them. I can't guarantee anything but I am looking.
You can let me know if you like. But I would consider very disappointing to kill a character out of a misunderstanding. It's not respectful with the characters. Plus they are describing a whole PTSD, with it's symptoms and triggers. I hope they are not about to play down something as serious as that.
I'd put my bets in something stronger, but they might never say it since this is a shojo, not a josei. And that would become come off as a bit more mature topic for the genre. But who knows.
Ok so I went through everything I could find, inculding reddit, novel updates forums and the whole comment section here. I read the raws and looked at other sources that I could find and quiet frankly in temrs of spoilers there is next to nothing which is hella odd since I saw people talking about this all the way in 2017. I could look into it more but I don't think that there will be more on it but I do have a better understanding of the story now. I did also find an intresting spoiler but because there is very little information I think that it's hard to know what to believe.
Spoiler about Liliana: http://www.mangago.zone/home/mangatopic/4904364/
Anyways other than the limited spoilers I did manage to get a better idea of her and her brothers relationship. So my conclusion is that the author intentionally left what happened up to intepretation. I haven't found any spoilers relating to their relationship so it's hard to say much but I do think that in a way this is an intresting subtle comentary on rape, specifically how in any settings it's supposed to stay as a "secret" no one talks about it. I don't know about you but I personally knew from a young age that many things that we are not supposed to let others know, things we shouldn't dare talk about (e.g. the blacked out letters.) In chapter 9 all the bad things are thoughts (square boxes), not dialogue which shows that she is not meant to think about them. The things she liked, her friends and her lover (the guy putting a neckless on her) were all crossed out which makes it seem as though he had an unhealthy obsession over her and like he was isolating her.
There are things she said like "don't make him mad" that imply that there was at least some level of abuse within their relationship.
I don't think that she tried to tell anyone about the rape. I think that she knew that no one would believe her and that she had to continue playing the role her brother and family assigned to her. There are many scenes where she is depicted as a puppet with strings attaced while he holds the controller. It's clear that her family is centered around her brother in the few scenes where they are depicted (e.g. her saying she will go away for uni/college so she doesn't bother her brother). She has little power because his clutches on her mentality are strong but nevertheless she still has some mental power which is why she tried to get away and I'm pround of her.
The main scene, which I think is the strongest evidence for the rape theory is the one where he had the key to her house and he "came to my house where I lived alone" during what seemed to be the middle of the night. I don't think that she was raped but I do think that he was physically abusive or at least violent in some way because in that scene there was broken glass.
Overall it seems to be left to individual intepration. Things are shown, not told so it's really up to use to derive the meaning.
The main inspitations behind my point of view: (Yes this comment section has the most value to provide out of all the other sauces, I did not read the novel and I can't be bother to go that far so this is the best I could get)
http://www.mangago.zone/home/mangatopic/5933336/
http://www.mangago.zone/home/mangatopic/4568487/
http://www.mangago.zone/home/mangatopic/4482063/
http://www.mangago.zone/home/mangatopic/4468026/
http://www.mangago.zone/home/mangatopic/4906252/
http://www.mangago.zone/home/mangatopic/6228982/
PTSD and what she is experiencing could fully be explained by emotional abuse alone but it also makes sense with physical abuse and rape.
Another spoiler: She doesn't end up with anyone at the end.
Note: I mainly focused on the brother and sister relationships, there weren't any intresting spoilers. I went through the raws and it was so hard to make sense of any of it but I do personally believe that her current brother is in a way in the same position as she was with her older brother in the past.
That's alright, fully supports what I believed. That they suggest rape/abuse but they won't say it clearly as it would be way too off from the genre they are working with.
It gets too close to what I did live myself, and makes me think that the authors made a full research of did live this kind of situation as well (Japanese societies are all about the man of the house, so I can believe they met at least one victim in their lives).
Yes, family do silence those things, and the victims can't talk about it. And yeah, physical abuse can leave you PTSD, but to be honest with the truth, a brother close in age to you, at least, as a younger one, can't harm you that good enough and not leave marks on your body. Unless.... unless he had an aggressive awakening to puberty and tried with the closest and weakest thing around. Unfortunately this happens WAY MORE OFTEN than people believe, victims are always silent. It is shameful, no one is going to believe you, the brother is the king of the house and you don't want to break your family with the risk of no one believing in you.
Physical abuse it's easier to see, it leaves more notorious marks. Bruises, bleeding... Although it can be hidden outside of home most of the time, the mother would have known, specially in a Japanese society in which bathing together in families is not such an odd thing, or during high school, with the girls changing in the same room. Or going to the bath house...
That she went as far as to run away because she was sick of it, and died because she could not think on what she was doing... it's so sad.
I hope that at least, even on her own, she can find happiness.
Yeah it does basically support anything as long as we can logically argue it. I don't think there are any wrong or right answers when it comes this. Only the author knows the true answer.
I do also think that the author did a lot of research into this and I think that's great. When most people consider things such as rape they think it's done by strangers but in most cases I think it's done by people you're close to e.g. family or family friends. Tbh, I'm loving this authors way of presenting this theme and how they use so much imagery to empathise her emotional state. I do think that most countries do follow the idea that the man has most of the power, certain places such as England or the USA are much more liberal but there is a lot of sexism even in europeans countries (+hate against the LGBT community and poc.) Honestly living in the UK is pretty much a blessing. do think that a sibling, even if of a similar age can cause you physical harm especially if they are good at sports. I pitty the girl and I agree with your views on this.
Indeed but physical abuse can be done without leaving marks e.g. twisting risks and other body parts. Certain sports aimed around self defense can teach you how to do those things (though they aren't taught with the aim of letting you abuse others) and they can be really painful and can leave you defensless and at the same time they won't leave any marks.
I also don't think that either physical or sexual abuse is required for an individual to have PTSD, mental/emotional abuse can affect a person a lot espesially if it's a long term thing. What we were shown in the manga was emotional abuse, we weren't shown any sexual/physical abuse but its still a possibility.
I'm proud of her for getting away and It's great that she has a second chance at life, getting hit by that truck was just unfortunate. Tbh, I think that before she saw him in that scene she had happiness, she was just scared that he would take it away again.
Wahh... I mean... I did ask for an explanation, but damn~~~ It's like Quora
We get the answers we want and need.
Those blacked out words and vague wordings is making me lose my mind!!!