Honestly, I don’t know what to think about this manga. I came to read it after I watched the live action adaptation of it, and while I think I overall liked the movie, it differed more or less in some aspects from its original source. In the manga, it’s Kai who’s taken the role of the main character and is much more fleshed out compared to the movie, which is a good thing, but it also comes at a cost of cutting time for Hitoshi’s story a lot, and I think the movie handled his character much, much better. Getting into Kai’s head did, however, explain his point of view and reasoning for doing, well, all of that to Hitoshi, but mainly pretending to be the one who raped him and being so obsessed with him, and seeing things from his perspective added meaning and logic to his relationship with Mamiya. The latter is also what I think the manga’s strength over the movie: showing how complex and seemingly illogical the relationship between an abuser and their victim can be. The relationship between Kai and Hitoshi is also portrayed… better? here, at least compared to the movie. We know from the very start that it’s not Kai who raped Hitoshi, but the mystery of why he lied to him about it remains. And the big reveal for Hitoshi comes somewhere halfway into the story, so their relationship has any (logical) chance to develop. But even with that, the pacing is just too fast for these mere seven chapters we’ve ultimately gotten. The manga’s too convoluted (and therefore sometimes overly simplistic in some aspects) plot didn’t really allow the reader to focus on the emotional factor enough, which I don’t think was the intention. There were too many plot points and themes and ideas introduced yet none were explored to even remotely satisfying levels. Overall, it’s a story whose main premise is actually interesting and has some potential to show the journey of an exploration of sexual trauma through art, but at the end falls short on delivering anything meaningful.
i knew about the shooting, but i didn’t know that someone will get shot in their FUCKING HEAD
wtf is going on here
