Nov 3, 2023
Absolutely brutal, gritty, dark romance/drama. This is a supposed josei series, but it crosses over into seinen territory sometimes. I wish it could keep up its quality in the later volumes, as the first 5-6 volumes are 8.5/10.
Here's why my overall feel for this series is 7/10:
It becomes overly convoluted without any need to be like this!
That's just about it. The arcs drag on, the 'twists' become too much, and honestly, too much of the plot later on is either sluggish, repetitive or throws any logic out of the window when it comes to character behavior.
'Guilty' should have been a maximum 8-volume series. By keeping
...
it shorter, it would have kept a very unique gloomy take on dysfunctional families, severely flawed characters (or batshit insane ones in some cases), and trauma that can remain in your consciousness for months.
Literally all characters are dysfunctional in their own way and in general, the author showcases this pretty well.
This series hit the spot in so many aspects for me, including in terms of art style. It's edgy without overdoing the edgy, the drama is top-tier, the adults do adult things instead of re-enacting their high school brains etc.
As the volumes pile up, this luster is lost and the mangaka slowly resorts to illogical, cheesy, and sometimes baffling plot devices to keep things going. The series becomes TOO melodramatic and forced at some plot points. There's still a lot of nailbiting/fun to be found in latter volumes, but it's a bit too much.
7/10 and I fully recommend it to those of you who want something disturbing and intense. A shame nobody has picked this up in English for bigger exposure to the overseas fans. It's somewhat popular in Japan, and it also got adapted into a drama in 2020. It surely deserves some scanlator love!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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