Futsutsukamono no Ani desu ga
My Brother the Shut-in

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This is my very first review, I hope you´ll enjoy reading it. Although this manga is not really eye-catching, and wih a premise a little cliiche it´s really whorth reading it, with tons of reletable characters and an excelent and realistic story.

You grow up (mentally) alongside the characters and it´s very easy to feel identified with many of the situations as they are something that really could happen in real life and the characters acts just as real people would act, to the point where I didn´t just considered them as fictional but real people.

Other note worthy point is that feelings are really ... greatly coveyed through an art that although may not seem extremely detailed does its job perfectly. It´s a story that start slow but get better with time as it gets more depth and you get to know the characters and although it has its ups and downs it maneges to mantein a good pacing

Finally, the end of the story was just perfect. I don´t ussualy cry with mangas but I was a crybaby at the end of this one. It gives a feeling of fullfilment that leaves you with a good after taste and it is like a blow of fresh air compared to the crappy endings I´ve been reading lately (even in mangas with actually good stories).

I am not a native english speaker, so sorry if the review was poorly written. I hope you will enjoy the manga

tl;dr: A manga about solid character growth that’s realistic to the point of being kind of dull. 

This story is one focused on normal people living their lives the best they can, dealing with various relationships and growing in the process. There aren't any extreme situations or larger than life events. There aren’t any extreme coincidences or exaggerated melodrama. Characters don’t have ridiculous back stories or crazy character quirks. And things come to a reasonably happy but not extremely so end. It’s all very believable and realistic. I don’t inherently think that that’s a good thing though, as just reading about normal people being normal isn’t ... all that interesting. This story isn’t that bad, in that it does start with a pretty interesting concept of a shut in trying to turn his life around. Still, as it goes on and he seems to get over his initial hump, he begins acting like a pretty normal person that’s socially anxious so it didn’t really feel all that unique at that point. Just the story of a brother and sister trying to live normal lives. Both of them very much do grow over the course of the story and that is satisfying to a degree, but it's pretty normal growth, the type that everyone goes through one way or another and so it doesn’t feel all that inspirational. I suppose part of this is the framing for the manga, wherein it doesn’t seem to be trying to make the story stand out all that much in that even moments that were really important and seemed to be trying to be impactful felt subdued. If told well enough, even stories about minor problems can still seem major if told in such a fashion, but the way this story was told felt like it didn’t really try to do that in that it never really felt all that mysterious, suspenseful, or engaging. There was never really all that much tension. It’s a solid enough story in terms of the general plot and characters involved, but it’s just lacking oomph in a lot of ways. The art was solid enough. 

I don't know how to describe this manga simply. I mean I can't find a simple word to describe how I feel about this manga. "Realistic" is the fittest word for it but I don't like to use that term due to it being misused by many and it could mean many things. So I'll just straight up to the strongest point of this manga.

From many manga I've read till now, I can't remember any manga where the characters act and feel like real people except in this manga and another one called Mustard Chocolate by Fuyukawa Tomoko. But I'll focus on this manga and ... safe the other one for its own part. This is the strongest point of this manga. There's no white and black, but grey about the characters. They aren't one dimensional characters that depend on the tropes, they are complex and it's not for the sake of being complex. They are complex because they feel like a human who isn't perfect. They think negatively when they face a certain situation and they think positively when they face another situation. They have the thing they proud about and at the same time they have a thing they dislike about themselves. They are aware of others and surrounding, and no one pushes his ideal to the other. But still, they also get angry sometimes, jealous sometimes, irritated sometimes and also depressed sometimes. They have their own insecurity too when it comes to their future and relationship with others. And those make the character likeable, relatable and understandable.

The way the drama brought up also feels real thanks to its character. The drama doesn't feel forced since the character made mistake or react for a reason. No one acts out of blue for the sake of drama, they do just like what a person with such a personality would do. The drama doesn't rely on pure misunderstanding or random things. Some dramas still are caused by lack of communication, but it wasn't overused or repeated or being used by the author simply to prolong the manga. Also despite it touched a heavy subject such as depression, social anxiety, betrayal, love and family issues, it's a pretty simple and easy to follow. The story doesn't put more focus on any of them than the others. They were there, balanced and interconnected.

What also I think feels real about this manga is how the relationship of the character changes. Usually, you'll find most of manga portrayed things such as romantic interest is more important than family/friends, forgiving is a normal thing to do, you can have a good relationship after breaking up or being betrayed, characters change too past and so on. I think those are where most of manga are lacking when they try to approach the story from a realism perspective. But this manga was successful dealing with them realistically. Sometimes the character choose a family/friend member over his/her loved one and sometimes the other way around. The character forgive, but it wasn't so suddenly and their relationship after the drama don't get back as the way they used to, as it supposed to be. They move on and forgive once their heart already set on.

Futsutsuka Mono no Ani Desu ga is such a motivational manga. This manga motivates you to get out from the comfort zone, not let yourself stuck at the same place and look forward. Unfortunate things happen, that's just how life is. But it's not an excuse to lose your way or lock your heart. Look negative things from another perspective. Sometimes our situation feels so hard only because we refuse to accept that it's actually not that hard.

Futsutsuka Mono no Ani Desu ga is about being open up to a new experience.
"Experience is everything, Everything is a learning experience"
That's such a nice quote from this manga.

The ending was kinda rushed, many things happened in such few chapters but it didn't have a great impact to the pace of the story that much except the last chapter. But the last chapter is more like an epilogue after a bit time skip so it's kinda understandable.