Chi no Wadachi is a mixed bag with very high highs that would make it a must read if not for the disappointing lows. This dynamic makes it feel like a rollercoaster that morphs into a golf cart half way through; an exciting, nail-biting thrill ride that then becomes a safe and slow trip to the destination. This sudden change in tone could have worked if executed well, but the scarcity of meaningful progress, poor delivery on its messages, and the way certain key plot points were handled make it feel like a drag, which keep it from being the masterpiece it could have been.
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you're interested in my reasoning for these points, then this is where I'll talk in more detail about them.
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The strong parts of this manga really can't be overstated. The art is hauntingly and beautiful, and a lot of the story is told through the gorgeous landscapes and the detailed facial expressions. For example: When Seiko almost chokes Seiichi to death when he was a child, she makes this face of disgust and anger that no other character makes. Then later when Seiichi meets his mother for the first time in over a decade as an adult, he spills hot tea on her and makes a VERY similar expression to the one she made all those years ago while he's yelling at her, which is a really subtle way of showing just how deeply she's traumatized him. I also want to applaud how Seiko isn't just scary because of what she does, but because she exhibits a lot of realistic traits in people with insanity coupled with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, even when she's not actually *doing* anything particularly creepy. The fluctuations in her hatred and overprotective nature feel sporadic and unpredictable at first, but as you start to read more and more, the mood swings start to show an eerily sad yet coherent pattern. The pacing of the story was also well handled, in that it's slow in a way that isn't boring, but builds tension for a payoff that's nearly always worth it. Most of what I said in this paragraph is applied to the first half of the story by the way, not so much the second. I'll get into why the second half (AKA the timeskip) fails so miserably after I talk about how the timeskip is built upon a MOUNTAIN of contrivances that lie in the murder of Seiichi's cousin, Shigeru, which is more around the middle of the story. This mid-point is also where I'd say is when the story falls from grace
So, Seiichi just so happens to be awake in the middle of the night and goes outside. He then sees Shigeru; his brain-damaged, physically handicapped, cousin who can barely stand, who managed to walk to all the way to Seiichi's house in the snow, delirious, barefoot, wearing a hoodie...Needless to say, it should be impossible for Shigeru to make this trip alive, but he did. And the ONE time Shigeru makes this trip is the ONE time Seiichi's awake at night and goes outside so that Seiichi notices Shigeru without Shigeru having to call out to him... Anyway, Shigeru wants to go to up the mountain, but Seiichi tries carrying him inside the house, but Shigeru breaks free, and leads Seiichi up the mountain. He had enough strength to do that? Huh, I guess the fall that put Shigeru in a coma wasn't really all that bad 🙃
ANYWAY, Seiichi's having a hallucination which was coincidentally triggered by Shigeru talking about Seiichi's mom, and in this hallucination, Seiichi kills his younger self by pushing him off a cliff like his mom did to him all those years ago, but in real life it was Shigeru that was coincidentally lined up with young-Seiichi, and Seiichi ends up pushing Shigeru for real, which then leads to Seiichi getting arrested. Most of these events are straight up impossible, and so many of these factors have astronomically low chances of occurring on their own, let alone all at once. The author clearly had this intense urge to create a scenario where Seiichi would push Shigeru, to the point where he was willing to sacrifice realism and coherency to get it to happen. This is the mountain of contrivances and coincidences that acts as the foundation that the second half of the story is built on...YIKES
As for the second half of the story, Seiichi's development has good ideas, but are ultimately half-assed. He goes from killing his cousin, and attempting to kill his mother in the courtroom, to becoming a depressed, hollow, shell of what he once was. I think this 180 in personality is an interesting idea that has a lot of potential, but one that needs more explanation as to how he got to this point. The only real info available as to how he got there is that he got put into an asylum and then let out, but we never get to learn what actually happened in the asylum, and are instead discouraged from thinking about it too much, because it's never brought up again. This level of blind acceptance was never asked of the reader before Shigeru's death. Anyway, with this version of Seiichi, the plot becomes very slow paced and depressing rather than tense and anxiety inducing, which isn't inherently a bad thing. It's making us really feel what a drag life is for the poor guy, but the conflicting messages scattered throughout the timeskip make it feel more like the author's stalling for time while he comes up with ideas on how to end it. I'll talk about these conflicting messages now
At first, Seiichi's trying to move on; distancing himself from his mom by as much as humanly possible, not knowing where she is or wanting anything to do with her. Then he decides to meet her when given the chance after some hesitation, so it would seem as if it's not so much about moving on, but rather still needing closure before that process can start. After meeting her after all these years, it's clear she's too far gone to have a meaningful conversation with her, but then he hears her talk about her past, and decides to take care of her until she passes, so it would seem he's starting to forgive her, and that the message is about forgiveness...until he has this weird "final confrontation" in his head between his child self and his mom, where they're laughing about not wanting to be related to each other, and he laughs for real when she actually passes away, so it seems she's not forgiven at all. And then there's another timeskip, (albeit an extremely short one given that it's only the very last chapter) to when he's an old man, except he's actually happy this time, as if his mom dying was the only thing holding him back from happiness, and all the trauma and grief he's built up over the years was undone seemingly in an instant. The fatal flaw in all of these developments is that it's harder to feel attachment to these characters and scenarios when they get from point A to point Q without sufficient or reasonable explanation as to how they ended up there.
Ultimately, I would say the manga's lasting messages that seem to be there throughout the entirety, are about time, and loneliness. Nothing lasts forever, and your past can trap you and rob you of your future if you dwell on it. Another aspect is how time doesn't necessarily always "heal all wounds", but rather time always has an affect on wounds. Seiichi was traumatized to the point of insanity by a manipulative, abusive, controlling monstrosity of a mother and a lazy, naive, idiot of a father, then as time went on, the insanity turned into depression and numbness. Had he not taken action witnessed his mom's end, he would have never healed that well, and he wouldn't have reached the point of the final chapter; peace and tranquility. With enough time, change is inevitable, and nothing will ever stay the same forever, for better or worse. As for the loneliness, Seiichi's lived most of his life having someone supervising him or weighing him down due to their own loneliness with the main example being Seiko, until both of his parents died. After their death, he's old and alone, which most would consider sad, but not only is he happy on his lonesome, but it's been foreshadowed that pretty much his entire life, he's just wanted to be alone. This is what he's always wanted, so I find the meaning of the ending to be a profound one, but having only one chapter of this and very little content in it, it is left up to a bit of interpretation, and maybe the ending isn't supposed to be quite as happy I'm making it out to be, and is supposed to be more bittersweet. Either way, I think the author had no idea how to get it to this point reasonably, so there's a whole lot of dragging your feet through the mud of the plot to get to a payoff that doesn't hit as hard as it should considering the weight these themes could have carried if the execution wasn't botched
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This is why I give Chi no Wadachi a 5/10. If not for its weakness tying it down so much, it could have been a 9 or a 10, but its weaknesses without the strengths present turn it into a 3 or a 4. The suspension of disbelief required for certain parts as well as how the story drags its feet make it hard for me to judge whether or not this ride as a whole was worth seeing to the end, and if it'll be worth it to people who're thinking of picking it up. Personally speaking, I'm happy I decided to read and finish it. I can say from a bigger picture, I enjoyed it, but I was also far more let down with Chi no Wadachi than most of the media I've consumed.
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Sep 12, 2023
Chi no Wadachi
(Manga)
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Mixed Feelings Well-written 
Chi no Wadachi is a mixed bag with very high highs that would make it a must read if not for the disappointing lows. This dynamic makes it feel like a rollercoaster that morphs into a golf cart half way through; an exciting, nail-biting thrill ride that then becomes a safe and slow trip to the destination. This sudden change in tone could have worked if executed well, but the scarcity of meaningful progress, poor delivery on its messages, and the way certain key plot points were handled make it feel like a drag, which keep it from being the masterpiece it could have been.
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