pluckaduck's manga / #Psychological(145)

Interest as fuck, I am excited to see how this will unfold.

ch1. damn that really took an interesting turn lol ch10. what the actual fuck is going on. is the dad deliberately causing accidents? ch 14. much more depressing and dark in a real way than i expected. ch18. the plot thickens. so is grandpa in the dream but not aware of it? but that wouldnt make sense since it's not said that he's in a coma as well. following this line of reasoning, that means the grandpa who's in the loop is actually mc's subconscious whos trying to help mc get out of the coma...? hmm, or maybe he somehow, voluntarily or not, went into a coma to help mc get out. who is the controller of the dream land? even tho it's mc's dream, it's other people's dreams too (since there's things in the dreams mc doesnt know of ie. his sis's secret life). is sato and enemy or ally? he doesn't want mc to learn the truth (maybe it had happened in one of his amnesiac loops and it didnt go so well) but is he doing it out of goodwill?

quite introspective of human nature and their "justice". i like how it doesn't delve into the origins of the revelator and the magical girls, but it's still interesting.

the first arc was crazy good, so full of suspense and uncertainty, and the second arc (goldy pond) falls a tiny bit short, then it just downhill from there. poor storytelling, norman and ray (esp ray) turning into side charas in favor of emma, due to which the story started turning a bit too contrived, poorly established new charas, lacking chara developments, skipping over the details of how norman escaped the facility, lacking buildup and suspense, etc. sigh, the most interesting thing about this was the psychological, mystery, and horrifying aspects, but it completely just throws that out of the window. the high-ranking demons were handled way too easily compared to the early battles of wit against isabella, and the demons of goldy pond. and even if norman is a genius, it's hard to imagine that he can outsmart demons that lived for 1000 years, esp when he is still a teenager.

it def had the potential to bloom into a romance between the two, but ig author wanted a different type of love without all the sexual desire, which makes it arguably more special and tender. it's also better plot-wise, since this story is about mc finding a sense of self in figure skating with the help of a mentor. making it about romantic feelings for the other, in my opinion, cheapens it.

one of the better stories out there utilizing the rape trope and its consequences properly. they both complex charas did wrong to the other, but it's not trivialised nor forgotten, but they both helped each other. it's a pity tho, all this entanglement and resentment wouldn't have happened if akamine didn't drunk-rape utsumi.