Her faith in humanity
Compared to the experimental chaos of Mission-chan, Imitation Crystal's second work lays the groundwork for their writing style of cynicism and fragile identity in well-cured cement. Although Imitation Crystal dips into fantasy settings in future works, Goldfish Kingdom is one of their more humdrum works, exploring loss of innocence through the empathetic moral epiphanies of a young girl.
Though "moral epiphany" may be too verbose to describe some of our misanthropic phases as preteens, it's an apt description for Mizake's case. Where Mizake's parents thought owning a pet goldfish would teach her compassion and other virtuous goodies, they progressively scale out-of-proportion. The root shifts deeper from Mizake's displeasure at animal cruelty to the grander scheme of humanity's history of plundering, warfare and other sins of both past and present. Going as far as several days of malnutrition nodding at her anger at animal consumption and dislocating someone's shoulder for tearing off a grasshopper's limbs, Mizake can't be endearingly labeled as precocious and left alone to mature. Whereas most children's misanthropic phases end in one brief cycle, Mizake suffers through many stints of self-doubt, compromised beliefs and new epiphanies unbecoming of an elementary-schooler.
The most social species
I think of the asocial aspect in Imitation Crystal's writing as their most compelling card. What exists as an easily-tripped landmine of pretentious lone-wolf mentality, is defused by Imitation Crystal into chartering their characters' insecurities from some sort of ostracization they experience. In Goldfish Kingdom's case, it plays out the best. Socialization an essential skill to grasp at a young age, it seems to only hurt Mizake more than help. As a result of her hardheaded refusal to compromise her beliefs, she both ostracizes herself from others and is ostracized by others. This extends beyond classroom gossip and mean pranks at school, where everyone progressively becomes alien to Mizake because of their dismissive views on the human-animal dynamic.
Eventually, though, Mizake realizes a compromise is necessary in order to genuinely live, after being hospitalized for malnutrition. This only further complicates matters, now that she's open to others' opinions. Although starting off strikingly monochrome, Mizake realizes and questions the grey morality within the subjects of her values. At an age extremely susceptible to whatever the media and adults say (This applies to any age, I suppose), a swarm of different opinions from her optimistic teachers and parents and her growingly pessimistic friend only corner Mizake into fetus position. Opting to stop thinking about these moral issues, nonetheless continuing to suffer from these thoughts, her friend and books preaching the injustices of humanity, her teacher explaining how humans are inherently kind and her friend seemingly have gossiped about her; Mizake's value system is at constant tipping one way or the other, heavily penalizing both her physical and mental health.
Almost sardonically, exists Kaho's narrative. Thinking little of the human-animal dynamic and wanting a pet shrimp on a mere whim, Kaho works hard saving up money to buy one. Tragic fate meets her when she goes to the fisher's market instead of the pet shop, crying home with a iced crawfish in hand. Although, all is well as she smiles eating said crawfish for dinner. With only 8 chapters thus far, perhaps Kaho can strengthen and entwine with Mizake's at some point.
Conclusion
Imitation Crystal stands as one of my favorite underground mangaka/doujinka with their casual, perplexing philosophical writing and contrasting moe designs. A bit rough around the edges as the analog-styled art may seem, the writing gleams with their present style. Although loss of innocence as a theme is often susceptible to grandiose fantasy settings, Goldfish Kingdom writes with an unassuming, empathetic casualness in school and a young child's budding moral questioning. Imitation Crystal captures the ostracization and muddled thoughts at a young age, though the empathy soon turns into sympathetic observation of the protagonist. Here's hoping to scan teams picking up the rest of the chapters and Imitation Crystal themselves cranking out more on a frequent basis.