Name: A spoiler-free review of Hibari no Asa. Several facets of abuse.
Item: Hibari no Asa
Rating: 86
Author: Benkei

Waifra

A spoiler-free review of Hibari no Asa. Several facets of abuse.

════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Considerations ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ ● This is a spoiler-free review. ● 80+ in my rating means very good media. ● I've got to read this work on a friend's recommendation. I didn't look too much into the synopsis and just started reading.

● This manga deals with heavy themes such as abuse, suicide, and depression.If you feel like those themes are sensitive topics for you, please skip this review and the manga. If you are struggling with any issue, call your country's hotline. Take care ♡.

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

The Story ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The story is centered on Teshima Hibari, a 14-year-old girl with a body that is more sensual than most girls at her age. The story covers her daily life while she deals with constant abuse and bullying from family and colleagues.

The story is very cruel, and it feels like a hard pill to swallow. The story is focused on deconstructing several misunderstandings and showing several gruesome aspects of human beings through different characters. The desire for gossip, jealousy, anger, suicidal feelings, and many others.

From a storytelling point of view, we always expect the characters to thrive and things to go well. That's the kind of story that we like to read about: heroes facing difficulties and enduring, never hesitating. This manga feels more realistic. People are more human and full of flaws. They doubt, they hesitate, and it makes the story just that much more impactful in my opinion.

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

The Art Style ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The art style is simple, the backgrounds are not very detailed, but they're not terrible either. The character designs are normal, they're not very unique, and you can see similarities between the designs.

‎ I don't think the focus of this work is the art itself, as it's more of a critical work. The transition between panels is very well done, gradually obscuring a panel to show how you can lose perspective. There are a lot of black and white panels to show the duality of thoughts and many other resources that are used to convey the feelings in the form of art. It's overall good in my opinion. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Characters ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ There are a moderate number of characters in this work; the main character, her friend, family, and other supporting characters. They're well made. Each of the important characters gets one "talk" (that's how the author references chapters) exploring their minds and motivations. I feel like there's a sense of uniqueness, or should I say, each one has a critic for one different aspect that people can be. ‎ ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Conclusion ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ If you're like me, you skip everything and read only the conclusion because you don't want to get spoiled with other themes. So I will try to be brief on this point:

Read it. Hibari no Asa is definitely a drama-intense, "espresso depresso" manga, but it's able to show a lot of different sides of human beings and things that I really think are important for people to read. Even if it's ugly, you can't turn a blind eye to the cruel side of humans.