Ranked #121

Deep Love - Ayu no Monogatari (Manga)

Ayu is a teenage girl whose life seems to be filled with only despair and emptiness, and she deals with it by prostituting herself. The story, from beginning to end, basically follows her life as she struggles through it- the people she meets, the choices she makes, and the impact those encounters had on her character and life.

With a premise like that, it is likely already obvious that this is not exactly a happy and light-hearted story. In fact, reading this manga is almost like watching a disastrous car accident about to happen- you know it's coming, you cringe, you can't do anything about it except look on.

Most people who talk about how sad this manga is will likely relay the events that took place, the endless string of terrible things that kept happening... but for me, it was human nature itself and how desperation can spawn some of the worst choices a person can make. It's like watching something that could've been right but knowing (and seeing) that it has the very real possibility of taking a swift turn for the worst.

That said, I felt this aspect is both the strength and the weakness of this story. The author does a good job of touching you with Ayu's story, but at the same time, also did a tad bit of an unnecessary overkill in some parts. This story is something like a lesson in life- the choices you make have consequences and Ayu's life is like a string of cause and effect. To that effect, it works great... but I found that the author would throw a tragedy or two in there (to add onto an already massive pile) that kind of fell in the category of "shit happens"- which is fine, except for this type of story, it felt flat, forced, and unnecessary.

As a whole? It's a story with a great message, delivered without pulling any punches. If anything, that in itself already makes it worthwhile to read. I did, however, debate on whether to give this a rating of an 8 or a 9. A personal rating is an 8 in my book... but I think that has a lot to do with where I was/am in life when I read this, as well as, my age (over 30). To be fair, I think the story itself accomplishes and does well at what it had set out to do. For that, I give it a 9 (or an 8.5 if I could've done so)

Note: We're talking about a girl who sells her body here. Expect to see sex scenes and crude behavior. read more

Deep Love - Ayu no Monogatari is definitely not your typical girl-finds-guy and falls in love type of romance manga. I started reading with that mindset, and after 8 chapters, I was blown away. Deep Love - Ayu no Monogatari was not only atypical, but delivers such deep themes and story to readers that will fill you with either sympathy, happiness, or anguish by the time you finish.

The story is quite simple and straightforward. Ayu is a teenage girl who finds life meaningless, and thus sells her body in a society she sees as decadent and immoral. However, an encounter with a granny changes her views, and, after listening to the granny's story of her long lost lover, Ayu becomes determined to change for the better. This is actually quite a bright summary, but the actual story isn't such a clean pavement. Many things happen along the way that will make you both love and detest Deep Love - Ayu no Monogatari.

The art is quite clean and beautiful. The mangaka pays very little attention to detail, and as such, I was browsing through each page quite quickly. This is not bad however, as it offers very clean pages and very simple, but appealing backgrounds in each panel, which keeps your focus more on the story and its characters, which are the strong points of this manga.

Despite how short this manga was, character development, that is, Ayu's development, is fantastic. I really sympathized with her as she struggled through the chapters. Ayu truly came alive in Deep Love - Ayu no Monogatari.

Overall, Deep Love - Ayu no Monogatari was very enjoyable. Its story, characters, and the themes on morality and suffering, all of it was just remarkable. read more