Tag Archives: tragedy

Adabana by NON

Content warning: sexual exploitation, rape, and murder.

Adabana is sort of a murder mystery, only it isn’t.  

The manga starts with a confession. Mizuki, a gloomy girl, takes herself down to the police station to turn herself in for murder. She tells the cops that she’s responsible for the death of her bestie, Masashi Mako. Since the manga opens with a full color spread of Mizuki standing over the body of a young girl who has clearly been stabbed multiple times in the chest, a bloody saw in her hands, the mystery seems pretty “case closed” by page one.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

This is one of those stories where the crime itself gets revisited through various retellings. Each time, more and more is revealed, until the final chapters where we find out everything that happened and the clever twists that allow Mizuki to actually get revenge on equally responsible villains.

Obviously, I’m writing this review having read to the end. If you’re following along as the official English translation tankōbans drop, you should probably stop here as your final volume won’t be out for the next few months.  Just know that I found this whole story absolutely fascinating and highly recommend it. 

Some of you may have come to this review looking for a sense of whether Adabana is safe for you to read. If you are sensitive to or need to avoid stories with rape, sexual exploitation of minors, dubious consent/coresive sex, mental abuse/manipulation, sexual blackmail, or graphic depictions of the above and/or murder and dismemberment Adabana is not for you. It’s a compelling story? You might think you want to read it? But even though I am not normally triggered by any of these things particularly, I found myself with lingering uneasiness after several of the scenes. This story pulls no punches and paints a pretty grim picture.

The rest of you really need to NOT care if you get spoiled before continuing. I’m not planning on spoiling the entire plot, but there are some clever visual things that I’d like to point out that the mangaka did which amused me, I guess? (Which maybe makes me sound like a sociopath.)

SPOILERS

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Speaking of sociopaths, however, I found it very fascinating that we are initially allowed to presume that Mizuki is guilty and possibly a stone-cold killer. NON-sensei does some interesting visual things–largely just being clear that Mizuki is a weirdo, a gloomy girl, who absolutely hates her life. Interestingly, that part of her is consistent throughout the various retellings. But, she has the gloomy dead-eye look a lot, which does not make the case that she’s NOT a killer, you know?

Mizuki hates her life enough, actually, to never fully pin the muder–though she could easily do that–on Mako’s shitty ex-boyfriend/stalker. We find out that Mizuki actually wants a prison sentence as part of her own way out of her miserable life and family expectations. 

Interestingly, both of the girl’s situations are motivated by deaths in the family. In Mizuki’s case, she’s being pressured to be a certain kind of perfect girl in order to replace a brother driven to suicide by the exact same pressure. For Mako, it’s the death of her mother and disablement of her father in a car accident that leads her into the lifetime of sexual exploitation which results in her coerced suicide. 

I’ve probably hinted at too much already here, which is why I’ve given such a strong spoiler warning. 

The thing I want to talk about briefly is also a bit of a spoiler, but, interestingly, I think NON-sensei wants us to immediately pick up on the character of this guy, Mako’s shitty ex-boyfriend, because of how he’s drawn.

Which is to be a dead ringer for Light Yagami, the villain-protagonist of Death Note. 

I also thought the lawyer looked like a more realistic version of Shiro, the lawyer-cook from “What Did You Eat Yesterday?” but that one might be more of a stretch. But, who knows? I immediately trusted the lawyer because of that resemblance too. 

Generally, as I note above, I would recommend Adabana, though with some caveats. As I suggested, this one haunted me a bit. I spent a lot of time feeling deeply depressed over the fact that it’s strongly implied that had Mizuki not gone to the lengths that she did, Mako’s death would have been filed under “just another poor girl’s suicide.” This filled me with a deep, dare I say murderous feminist rage, you know? The men in this story are the 100% villains even though it’s not clear that any of the sexplotation that they did constituted a crime under Japanese law. 

I found this one in my library. However, if you, like me, can’t wait to find out how it ends, there are scanlations available through pirate sites which I have linked to in the opening paragraphs. Support the artist and their publisher!! But, also, I don’t judge. 

That being said, this one is a good one and might be worth the cover price. The art is stellar and the mystery is gripping.

Look Back by Fujimoto Tatsuki

Look Back is described as “a heart-wrenching tale” by the author of Chainsaw Man. However, for my heart to be affected, that would actually require me too LIKE any of the characters involved in this story.

SPOILERS

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To be fair to Fujimoto-sensei, I did sort of like the shut-in character, Kyomoto, but I’m getting ahead of the story.

Basically, this is a story of two middle schoolers, one arrogant (Fujino) and the other shy (Kyomoto). Please note that if you put the names together and drop the middle bits, you get Fujimoto. It’s unclear how much of the story, in terms of art education, is reflective of Fujimoto-sensei’s real life experience, but Kyomoto does have to go away from their small town in order to attend art school, something Fujimoto himself had to do.

But, I still haven’t explained the story.

Fujino is a talented artist who draws a weekly cartoon for her school newspaper. One day, her homeroom teacher pulls her aside and asks if she’s willing to give up some of her panel space to another middle schooler who is a shut-in/truant. Fujino grudgingly allows the other student some space, since, after all, how good can they be?

It turns out, the other student, Kyomoto, is really talented. They don’t seem to have much going for them in terms of story, but BY GODS they can draw backgrounds. Fujino who is used to being the most talented person around, is affronted. How dare this fourth-grader be better at art than she is! But, then Fujino realizes that this other student can draw all day, since they can’t be arsed to come to school. In classic manga fashion, Fujino then decides to try to beat Kyomoto at their own game. Cue skill building montage!

In a fascinating turn of events (since it goes against trope), Fujino gets better, but is never able to surpass Kyomoto… and then… quits. Yes, QUITS! No more gambetta, just, eh, that didn’t work! Bye! After all, Fujimoto has a lot more going on in her life beyond drawing. She joins a karate group and generally lives life.

Finally, she’s ready to graduate and fate interferes once again. Since Fujino is the only person with even a tangential connection to Kyomoto, the teacher once again calls on her to deliver the shut-in her diploma. Once again, Fujino only grudgingly accepts this duty and when Kyomoto won’t answer her door, Fujino irritatedly sketches her a manga about how dumb she is an slides it under the door along with the certificate.

Seeing the manga compels Kyomoto to burst from her room and gush at Fujino about how inspired she was by her work. They strike up a friendship and decide to draw manga together.

The story continues in this slice-of-life vein until it suddenly doesn’t.

Since this story is complete in one volume, you may really want to heed the spoiler warning If you want to be surprised by any part of this manga STOP READING RIGHT NOW.

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Because what happens next is that, after a very successful career as a team of mangaka, Kyomoto decides that she needs to go to art school so that she can be more than just a background artist. The friends part ways. That’s sad enough, but a random encounter with an active shooter on campus ends Kyomoto’s life before she can even graduate.

Kyomoto decides that it’s all her fault and… changes the past by ripping up the original manga she wrote to draw Kyomoto out until it only says “Don’t come out.” This slips under the door–

–and into the past.

In this past, a new decision tree begins. This is a world where Fujino and Kyomoto aren’t friends, but fate is a fickle thing and Kyomoto still has a strong will to draw.

Certain fates are simply too difficult to push aside.

We’re left with a couple of morals, perhaps, at the end. Is it better to have been friends, even if tragedy strikes? Or, maybe, the moral is: one moment in time is not as powerful a force as you think it is.

For all that I’m not a fan of either of these two characters–I found Fujino too arrogant and Kyomoto too much of a shrinking violet–I actually enjoyed this story. I like friendship stories and stories about mangaka, so milage may vary. But, this is all it is. Like Chainsaw Man, I feel like Fujimoto’s work has a kind of hollowness in them. There is one lovely montage of Fujino and Kyomoto’s friendship after they get their first paycheck, but we don’t really EXPERIENCE the friendship through dialogue? I don’t always need things spelled out for me, to be fair, but I left this manga volume mostly thinking, “Huh, well, okay then.” I think that’s related to the fact that I didn’t really fully connect to the characters.

However, the art is lovely. The backgrounds are amazing. The character design… slightly less so, but I think the reader is supposed to imagine that this is the kind of manga that Fujino and Kyomoto would draw together, so that makes sense.

Would I recommend it? Well, the reason I decided to read it at all is because this is the book that my local manga club chose for this month. I was willing to take their recommendation and so I think you could as well. Keep in mind that if you got this far in the manga, you’re not going to get a whole lot more story since I ended up spoiling the big twist (at least obliquely. Perhaps the events will still be a bit of a surprise.) The art is mostly worth it, IMHO, and also there’s a lot of story about the struggles of learning to draw and professional jealousy versus friendships. So, you might still find a lot to enjoy.

Shinigami One-Shot Round-up

I haven’t done one of my round-ups in awhile and after reading the most recent shinigami story, I thought I might see what might be out there. I found a lot of very different stories.

WARNING: A lot of the stories focus on suicide.

SPOILERS

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A one-shot called I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know by Ono Toshihiro features a sad otaku and the half-naked shinigami who tricks him into completing his suicide. This single chapter story is all the things I almost always avoid in my manga: humor and ecchi.

The humor revolves around the shinigami’s impatience and the otaku’s incompetence. The otaku is very upset with his life because it seems he’s grown-up and becoming middle aged. He can’t even be successfully creepy on the internet any more. People just ignore him.

The shinigami eventually tricks him into being more enthusiastic about the after life by telling him it is a paradise full of… well, I’ll let you read the panel.

haha, I guess.

The other one-shot I found is called Koukai no Nai Jinsei wo / A Life Without Regrets by avogado6. This one picks up immediately following our main character’s suicide when the shinigami has arrived to collect his soul. Turns out, our hero is the millionth soul to die in this area and so he wins the prize of having any wish granted by the shinigami. What he wants is to see how everyone is doing.

It’s sort of an anti-“It’s a Beautiful Life” since no one misses him at all… not even the stray cat he’d been feeding.

The shinigami really tries to talk our hero into using his wish for resurrection, but our sad sack hero says no. He’s happy how he is.

The end is a very simple, yet poignant line from our kindly shinigami who drops our hero off on the banks of his path to reincarnation and says, “Let’s meet again, but not so soon next time, eh?”

It’s… I mean. It is listed as a tragedy and I can see why.

Then we have a shoujo romance, Mugen Himitsu / Secret Fantasy, by Tokunago Satsuki, which is a one chapter romance between a shinigami and a young girl who can see him.

Youha is a shinigami who appears to Rin. He has been sent to kill her, but fails due to love and kindness.

In Rin’s case, she touches is skin which is, of course, cold as death, and she mistakes that for being chilly on a cold night. So, she offers him a scarf to stay warm. I mean, it’s very sweet? But, apparently the shinigami are on some kind of mass murder spree in this town and so Youha tries to warn Rin to stay inside and avoid the bloodshed. She is unable to heed his warning for reasons, but Rin saves her from a more evil shinigami and… kills him???

That part’s not clear, but they get a happily-ever-after of a sort by the end.

The story is a bit confusing, but ultimately pretty sweet. I am not super fond of this kind of shoujo art, but the shinigami is attractive enough. Interestingly also fur collared, I wonder if that’s all down to Ryuk’s influence or what?

I suspect there are more out there, but the last shinigami short I’m going to review is Nageku Shinigami / Lamenting God of Death by Miyuki Mitsubachi, another shoujo.

In this one, our brand-new shinigami, Rondo, thinks that reaping souls will be easy, but his first client is a perky girl named Honoka. Honoka has determined to be cheerful, even though she is dying very young of some dread disease. Even though Rondo promises that his kiss is painless, Honoka insists that since this is her first kiss, she needs to at least be friends with him. Rondo has a week to complete his job, so he starts showing up to play with her.

Of course, the friendship becomes real.

But no one can outrun the time they have been given and so finally they are out of time. Rondo does his duty and she dies. His heart breaks and even though shinigami can not cry, he weeps for her.

His tears turn into years… years of her life, which she is given back.

It turns out shinigami tears are angel’s miracles and, even though Honoka is revived the price is that she’s forgotten Rondo.

Ultimately, he decides this is a pretty good deal.

I liked the story of this one, but the art is very wispy.

That’s it for the round-up! Four is an incredibly unlucky number in Japanese as the sound it makes (in certain situations) “shi” is the same sound that begins “shi” ni kami, aka shinigami, God of Death. Normally, I would do one more, since go/five is lucky, but it seems appropriate to END here.