Personal review for my future self should i ever look back to see what manga ive dropped and pick up again
Nao made me stop reading for a multitude of reasons that seemed to continue and essentially becomes a plot hole herself:
(minimal spoilers and half-assed predictions for not reading all the way through)
her mother died when she was at the age of 1 and her fathers been diagnosed with terminal cancer for who knows how long and only has so many years to live (1). This kept bugging me; how can Nao not think for herself when she has been living alone for almost the
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entirety or more importantly the most critical stages of her life. also, the capabilities to discern whether or not she should place her trust in certain individuals should have been developed as she aged (wow this actually might have been a better story). in fact, this is somewhat portrayed when she asks for possible outlets for help such as friends and past reliable elders.
This was all thrown out by the author as "im just too naive, innocent, unsullied, etc to think for myself so i rely on others, especially a swindler thats been held in prison for the last 3 years ... oh wait the person that recommended me this ex-convict to help me out of this situation is liar and not a lawyer [not like they arent the same]. He baited me into another game because he is actually one of the game's representatives(?) and then proceeds to belittle me stating that im too gullible to the point of stupidity. Make note-to-self: dont think of my past experiences with those who took advantage of my character and continue with my ideals of always seeing the good in people that is never concretely addressed, which readers themselves have to speculate is the reason for her on-going naivety. Fake-lawyer comes by again so lets just let him into my house after my initial refusal because he somewhat takes advantage of my feelings of discomfort/anxiety (shinichi is not answering my calls im wondering if hes okay) which i have not yet publicly talked about but for some reason he just conveniently knows, [dont have a problem with this as it happens so often across all genres of manga, its just that there is no further reasoning the author gives the readers for her to unconditionally let him in.] then lets listen to all he has to say about shinichi and believe every word he says. feel sympathetic because he had a hard past so she resolves herself to do something for him for all the help hes given her. Oh snap, what about all the people in Round 2 of the game where more than half the people who took part are in further debt, should i not empathize with them since i too was almost in a similar predicament? nah, 'its not my fault anyways since the people who take part in the games are also lying and deceiving others for their own personal gain" right shinichi? yeah you're so dependable, one line from you and my moral compass seems to be back on track again. Well even though im back into the game i dreaded and couldnt compete by myself for the previous ones because i always have a mental-breakdown [again dont mind this but it gets really annoying when shes the readers middleman to understand the other characters thought process especially that of shinichi's - we hardly ever get to understand hers other than wow im having a hard time look how innocent i am please help me], i have decided to continuously take part but this time for someone elses sake. Yeah, lets keep in mind what the fake-lawyer said about this game being easier and unlike the others because youll be competing with the losers from the previous rounds. OH WAIt, lets not consider the fact that you might be worse than all of these so called losers cause all you did was depend on a supposedly 'genius' swindler that you cant yet claim is true because you heard it from a liar, thats right the fake-lawyer. however, I put myself into another pit-hole for the sake of shinichi so i can relieve him of his worries that seems to do with his debt from the previous game. OH WAIT, nevermind the fact that he doesnt care about the debt and only pursues to further get involved in this massive scandal so he can get to the heart of why such a game which is 'preying on those who are weak or in a situation they cant get out of' is taking place. I wholeheartedly believed the fake-lawyer who has fooled me a plethora of times and his background story on shinichi's past yet (1) cant believe that is shinichi's motive for entering the game (2) my guilty conscience is taking over and i have to return the favor (3) cant piece the story and the motive together and am unwilling to think for others but myself. Lets take my rather really selfish reasoning and proceed through life again burdening the one who has given it his all to make sure I get out of the hole I keep further digging into." [this is all in the span of 19 chapters]
But without reading the rest of the manga im pretty sure Nao is tied to the game one way or another probably because her father, before or while he was bedridden, accrued a huge debt that the game was taking advantage of. Nao, of course, is oblivious and doesnt realize until she has to see the game through and reach a similar goal to that of shinichi's. (I understand that most plot scenarios for manga are not concrete but developed as it goes and some plot holes should be overlooked possibly for material in the later chapters that would soon cover it - i mean looking at some of the past manga i read im sometimes baffled at how i got through them. I just dont like how the author approached the idea of keeping her tied into the game it just made her character more flimsy as it progressed.) She also seems like the only outlier in the game and is a static character in which she only changes her mindset time to time depending on the game and carries out this ideal of hers: only see the good in people dont consider the bad (not a clean-cut statement but the general idea).
the other characters themselves are not even that note-worthy and probably make this story fall flat at the end seeing as how almost all psychological/mystery/drama genres rely heavily on the characters to make even a decent ending.
The speech bubbles are something i have to ignore if i were to pick this up again as they lack in variety and make some scenes unusual as if the people are always shouting. There are only two types actually: the normal circular shape and the loud spiky shape. Nao's dialogue is made up of the latter almost 80% of the time she talks, whether she is shouting(?), talking quietly(?), crying(?), etc.. its an exaggeration but it is really off putting considering it continues through out its ten years of no changes at all to improve it.
Again this all speculation since i didnt finish reading it. how much of it is right? i probably wont know until my future self has developed enough tolerance to read it again all the way through.
May 13, 2018
Personal review for my future self should i ever look back to see what manga ive dropped and pick up again
Nao made me stop reading for a multitude of reasons that seemed to continue and essentially becomes a plot hole herself: (minimal spoilers and half-assed predictions for not reading all the way through) her mother died when she was at the age of 1 and her fathers been diagnosed with terminal cancer for who knows how long and only has so many years to live (1). This kept bugging me; how can Nao not think for herself when she has been living alone for almost the ... |
