Josee, the Tiger and the Fish is a wonderful manga. It has been adapted into a movie which is probably the reason why you know about this manga / are reading this review. In this review, I will be discussing the story, characters and the manga.
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Yes. The movie, Josee, the Tiger and the Fish has an amazing OST, amazing animations and a beautiful song made by Eve. The movie is longer than the manga and It leaves a better emotional impact compared to the manga.
So why bother with the manga?
Well, the manga has only 10.5 chapters. You could finish it in time, it would take you to have lunch tbh. Another great reason is the gorgeous artwork which is why I read the manga. The art of this manga is so good that it gave me orgasms while reading it fr.
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I will be analysing and spoiling the story in this review. It's like 10.5 chapters long bro, If I don't include spoilers what do you expect me to talk about???
the manga cover?
Anyways, I will be discussing these three characters and the scenes that involve them. For a quick recap the characters are :-
Josee, Our female lead who has been using a wheelchair since birth.
*Mai Ninomiya, A female colleague of our male lead at his part time job. *
*Tsuneo Suzukawa, Our Male lead. * ( I will be calling him as 'male lead' or 'MC' or 'boi' from here now)
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Mai is in love with our male lead so she does not want the male lead to leave her side or leave her alone. We can sympathise with her, after all finding someone you love is very hard to do and I personally know people who have done crazy things in their life in order to fulfil their love.
She plays the part of the antagonist in our story, if the relationship of the male lead with wheelchair girl helps him become a better person and supports him. This girl tries to make the life of the male lead worse and De-supports him smh.
OMG GALLAD, how can you say such a thing about her? That's so fucking mean :(
Let us break down some scenes in the manga ( or movie smh ) so that I can explain and support my statement.
#Protagonist is le sad
This is the part after our beautiful boy got hit by a car and has received the news that his dreams may never come true. Basically, he is very sad and pensive after such terrible news. In the hospital, his part time job friends visit him (this girl included) and he shares his worries with her, expressing that his dream has been crushed. His words and expressions clearly convey that he is experiencing the dread and despair of his failed dream and ambition.
To all the words spoken by the mc, Mia replies "I love you". I believe there are two ways to see and interpret this message. Let's discuss.
This behaviour is really scummy because this statement is subtly telling our boy to give up on his dream and focus on her instead. She gets to have him all for herself because he would not go to Mexico. She knows the fact that he has worked really hard for his dream and she completely ignores his work, ambition and dream.
After hearing this our boi has this reaction on his face, which I can only interpret in two ways.
or
Bruh
Another interpretation Of The Above Situation
In situations where a loved one is in a dire state, for example badly injured in a hospital. It is very hard to determine what should be said and what shouldn't be said. People who are suffering through a lot of pain really need that emotional support.
Considering his family can't stay with him in the hospital, he lacks support in this current situation. By her saying that she loves him, it might improve the MC's emotional state and well being.
Showing him that there are people out there who care about him and want him to recover as soon as possible. Therefore, improving his recovery. If we look at this situation in such a perspective, Mia hasn't really done anything wrong or scummy instead she has actually helped our beloved mc a lot.
So in the end, this situation is up for debate. Different people can view in different ways. I wonder what you thought about it when you watched it/read it.
Anyways, this next section that I will be talking about is definitely not up for debate.
#Unnecessary Comments
I think my hate towards Mai mainly stems from what she says to Josee throughout the story. You know how they say Actions speak louder than words, well Words can speak pretty loud too.
Let us consider the following scene.
Josee's grandmother ( or her caretaker ) has just passed away. The grandmother who had been taking care of her throughout her whole life is now dead. There is no one left to take care of her now, she has to learn to live on her own and figure out how to take care of herself. Basically, she is going through a lot.
Mia knocks on Josee's door with an agenda that she is going to comfort her.
I repeat, COMFORT HER
and you ask, how is she gonna do this comforting ?
She tells Josee that she should leave the mc alone and not get involved with him. Saying that her presence holds him back from achieving his dream which is very fucking stupid thing for her to say because in the previous section, she was literally doing the thing that she is accusing Josee of.
She also proceeds to say that the only reason that the mc hangs out with Josee is because he pities her which is very a harsh thing to say to anyone ( especially to a disabled person).
This portrays how mean, insensitive and fucking rude Mia can be. The audacity of this bitch to say those things to someone who has just lost someone so close to her.
It's just so fucking rude bro.
The Second and last dialogue between Josee and Mia happens right after the "Protagonist is le sad" scene. Mia once again comes to Josee's house to "secure" her love, telling Josee that she will be keeping the mc to herself by stopping his "silly dream" and she will "win" because she knows more about him than her.
Then she gets absolutely destroyed by Josee who says the MC will never give up and that her feelings are stronger than Mia's feeling could ever be.
After this Mia leaves and starts crying as she goes, because she lost.
RIP BOZO Mia hahahaa, get fucked bitch.
10/10 great scene, loved it. Peak storytelling.
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Unlike the other two, I do not have much to talk about with our beloved male lead. He is a nice guy who works hard, is ambitious and likes girls in wheelchairs.
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My friend ( @JGamer ) has done a nice review about the movie. In this review, he criticizes Josee for being insensitive and a bad person throughout the story because she does not treat the male lead in the best of ways and ends up being the reason for his accident. These points hold true. I know it may be a bit controversial but I want to look at her a bit deeper and explain why I think she is actually a good character.
#Being Insensitive
In 1991, the Japan Council of Independent Living Centres (JIL) was opened and, by 2006, over 130 ILCs (Independent Living Centre) existed in Japan that were associated with JIL. The ILCs offered an independent living program which aimed to build on the social skills, confidence, and attitudes of participants. This provided those with disabilities with essential skills for living in the community that were not offered in segregated schools.
> In 2008, the Law for Employment Promotion, etc. of the Disabled Persons (1960) was revised to ensure that employers would provide equal opportunities to those with disabilities both during the hiring process (article 34) and while they are in employment, including wages, training and welfare (article 35).
The Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities Act was enacted prior to ratifying the CRPD in June 2013 and came into effect in April 2016.
What the fuck is all this? Why has this reviewer guy put all this info that he copied from Wikipedia here? How does this have anything to do with the review?
Let me explain, we are gonna look at this in a more realistic way.
According to the first point ( and other various other events not stated here), Japan started taking disabled people seriously around 1991-1995. Josee would have probably been born in 1996-1998 because she is 24 years old. That means she didn't have the benefits and support that disabled children of today get to experience. Considering she was in a wheelchair from birth, her parents and her must have struggled a lot to cope with the difficulties of life. Here are some screenshots I took from a video explaining the situation of disabled kids in 2021, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JcJaw60-gk ). If the situation is like this in 2021, you can imagine how it would have been like in the 90s or 00s.
Let's us consider point 2 and 3 i.e. Discrimination and employment. In the country India, the caste system was made illegal in 1950 yet the discrimination based on caste was still very prevalent and continues to this day.
Why?
Because this caste system was deeply rooted in Society. Being followed for centuries, ingrained in the minds of children from the time that they were born. It can be quite difficult for society to forget something hardwired into them.
The History of discrimination against disabled people in japan is really fucked up. The society in Japan believed that "disabled people should be hidden by their families like a shameful secret".
The 1960s saw an increase in disabled children being separated from their families and placed in residential institutions. At the age of 18, many of these children would be transferred to adult facilities where they would remain until death. Within the residential institutions, many human rights violations took place, including child residents being used as guinea-pigs for their doctors in surgical procedures and numerous incidents of sexual abuse towards female residents
The government of Japan made discrimination against disabled people illegal in 2016.
FUCKING 2016
Considering the history of the country, the discrimination faced by disabled people must be something that I can't even begin to describe in words. Though I can't really blame Japan as many other countries have also have made discrimination against disabled people illegal in around 2010s ( https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/disability-laws-and-acts-by-country-area.html ). In such a situation, I think we all can see that getting a proper job or education would be quite difficult even if there are laws promoting it.
Discrimination is not the highlight or given much importance in the story due to it's short run time. We only get a few panels to highlight it. Let us consider this panel right at the start of the story after Josee falls on the male lead. The grandmother says that she only takes Josee out for walks during the nights because "the outside world is overrun by wild animals'' and in the previous scene, we know that Josee flew from her wheelchair.
Maybe she was running away from someone?
This illustrates the daily struggles and pain both the grandmother and Josee have to withstand on a day to day basis. Now all the laws and history aside, let's get back to the review.
What do I want to convey with this?
Basically that it would be very stupid, unrealistic and unfair to make Josee to be a super-sweet, cute and kind girl from the very beginning. Disabled people have such a hard life living in japan and you can't just ignore the effects of society and people that they have to face. It would be quite distasteful and offensive to the disabled people living there. Yes she can be rude in the beginning but It's not like Josee remains rude throughout the story either, she becomes a kinder and more affectionate person as the story goes on. It's not so black and white.
Though Josee is not the perfect character. I believe she is very unique, interesting and a good person. Disabled people around the world have had a special connection to her and this story which is a very beautiful thing because they deserve all the recognition, respect and validation they can get.
P.S. I know I made the Japanese government and society seem like the bad guys here but it's not like that. I admit that there are many problems that still need to be fixed regarding this situation but the government makes sure to provide disabled people with proper funding and living maintenance. They make sure each company hires a certain number of disabled people, fining them if they don't hire enough and rewarding them if they hire more than the required number of disabled people.
#The Accident
It's kinda hard to blame Josee alone for this. If nothing, it's the driver's fault for driving at such speeds in heavy rain and not focusing on the road. The mc should have paid attention to the traffic signal and the road ( also Josee's fault too ) . It was just an unfortunate event, stay safe on the roads kids.
Wings Of Life
The overall message of the story is that no matter what happens in one's life, as long as one has a fire in their heart ( or wings ) they can absolutely succeed in their goals. (It's similar to Naruto's message) . Josee overcame her fear of the outside world and our male lead giving it his all during his recovery. Beautiful stuff, illustrating that life can throw various shit at you and you can't help it.
But fuck life.
Keep your head up and the wings in your heart flapping as long you believe and have faith in yourself, you can fucking crush it KING.
Conclusion
Yukichi is a really cute cat.
Thanks for reading my review, I hope you liked it :D