TL;DR: the story talks of a neet whos trying to better himself. the story is funny, looks amazing, has some solid characters and the concept has legs BUT the plot doesnt really DO much with them. the story loses steam halfway through and has a rushed ending. what would be a great manga to talk about real issues like self isolation & mental health, japanese working culture, and otaku culture where not expanded upon and thats a darn shame
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SYNOPSIS: Tatsuhiro is your run of the mill NEET, down on his luck because his parents threaten to cut off his allowance until he gets a job. in an attempt to distract himself from his miserable existence he takes drugs and has a psychotic break where he comes to the conclusion that the reason why he is a shut in is because the japanese entertainment companies have a complex conspiracy to create otakus & keep them in that social status forever. he reunites with his friend from high school and meets a girl name Misaki in an attempt to "defeat" the entities keeping him a NEET.
ART (9/10): the art was very good! each character looked unique and super expressive. there were quite a few scenes that were beautifully composed and was able to evoke a lot of feeling just with visuals alone. the mangas quite funny and i think the visual gags really sold a lot of the jokes.
CHARACTERS (6.5/10): both main and secondary characters have deep and complex backstories that really impact the main plotline. each character has their own issues and obstacles that they need to overcome and you are able to watch all of them evolve in an attempt to do so.
STORY (5/10): a major positive is that the characters are introduced in a really clever way where initially they appear to be random but all of their stories and subplots intersect at some point. whats cooler is that they will reference characters at the very beginning and then you are formally introduced to them later in the story and it isnt until the end that you realize who's who and i really enjoyed that. another major positive is how funny it is! i had some pretty good laughs (some that made me actually LOL) i think the concept is great and the beginning started off strong BUT it definitely lost some steam midway through. i REALLY liked the initial idea the manga had where they talked about this consumer conspiracy to keep people complacent and dependent on vapid media but i felt like they didnt finish that thought. it seemed like that took a back seat to their second message about self-forgiveness, the idea of being "normal" or "one with society" and what the looks like, and about finding your way but that too didnt feel complete at the end. the ending seems rushed and forced -- cobbled together to give some faux sense of satisfaction that everything ended up "ok" but really nothing was shown. we got a super quick "im doing slightly better and everyones doing ok! THE END". there was potential to make a bigger statement on NEET culture, or japanese working culture & expectations, or mental health and personal resilience and we got................. nothing! nothing but a bunch of toxic characters being kinda awful to each other for 8 volumes.
OVERALL (6/10): the manga looks beautiful and the characters are really rich and diverse, but the story seems underdeveloped. there is a point the manga wants to make but its muddied by all of the other themes and how the characters behave with each other towards the end of the story. it fell kinda flat at the end and theres an extra layer of disappointment knowing how much potential there was here.
