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Books #53-55
Nov. 23rd, 2012 05:54 pm"After School Nightmare, Volume 1" by Setona Mizushiro
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
What a weird manga. And I'm not talking about the shared dreams, that's a part of the setting. I'm talking about the gender and sexuality of the main characters. You see, Mashiro is half boy, half girl. He insists on being a boy, yet he sees himself as a girl in his dreams. Then there's Sou, who's not gay or bi but he's in love with Mashiro because he sees him as a girl, a beautiful girl. And then there's Kureha, who hates men because she was sexually assaulted as a child yet she's in love with Mashiro whom she sees as a boy even though she knows that his genitalia is female. Confusing doesn't even begin to cover it!
"After School Nightmare, Volume 2" by Setona Mizushiro
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
If the author planned for Kureha to be a likable character, someone with whom readers could sympathize, she failed - at least in my case. I get that Kureha is a victim and I hate victim blaming and I hate it when people expect victims to just bounce back and be the way they used to be, on everybody else's terms - but it's one thing to be a victim, it's another thing completely to use your trauma as an excuse to be casually cruel and vicious to people who refuse to do what you want. Mashiro is always trying to please Kureha - but I was glad that Sou finally told her to stuff it. She really needed to hear that.
"After School Nightmare, Volume 3" by Setona Mizushiro
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
I'm glad that Mashiro's finally starting to open up to Sou, admitting to himself that maybe he isn't a HE after all, maybe he really is a SHE. Sou's attention, his admittance that he loved Mashiro the way she was, a tall, bony, beautiful girl, that it didn't matter to Sou that Mashiro dressed like a boy, trying to convince everybody - herself included - that she was male...
It's a bit difficult to choose the correct pronoun for a review because Sou sees Mashiro as a SHE, Kureha sees Mashiro as a HE and Mashiro? Has no clue. So I guess it depends on the situation and POV.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
What a weird manga. And I'm not talking about the shared dreams, that's a part of the setting. I'm talking about the gender and sexuality of the main characters. You see, Mashiro is half boy, half girl. He insists on being a boy, yet he sees himself as a girl in his dreams. Then there's Sou, who's not gay or bi but he's in love with Mashiro because he sees him as a girl, a beautiful girl. And then there's Kureha, who hates men because she was sexually assaulted as a child yet she's in love with Mashiro whom she sees as a boy even though she knows that his genitalia is female. Confusing doesn't even begin to cover it!
"After School Nightmare, Volume 2" by Setona Mizushiro
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
If the author planned for Kureha to be a likable character, someone with whom readers could sympathize, she failed - at least in my case. I get that Kureha is a victim and I hate victim blaming and I hate it when people expect victims to just bounce back and be the way they used to be, on everybody else's terms - but it's one thing to be a victim, it's another thing completely to use your trauma as an excuse to be casually cruel and vicious to people who refuse to do what you want. Mashiro is always trying to please Kureha - but I was glad that Sou finally told her to stuff it. She really needed to hear that.
"After School Nightmare, Volume 3" by Setona Mizushiro
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
I'm glad that Mashiro's finally starting to open up to Sou, admitting to himself that maybe he isn't a HE after all, maybe he really is a SHE. Sou's attention, his admittance that he loved Mashiro the way she was, a tall, bony, beautiful girl, that it didn't matter to Sou that Mashiro dressed like a boy, trying to convince everybody - herself included - that she was male...
It's a bit difficult to choose the correct pronoun for a review because Sou sees Mashiro as a SHE, Kureha sees Mashiro as a HE and Mashiro? Has no clue. So I guess it depends on the situation and POV.
