This won't really match my usual format for reviews, since I think prettying things up or glorifying the anime aesthetic would only serve to detract from the material that this manga covers. As the manga seems to do the real events enough injustice as-is, I'd like to avoid contributing to that any further.
For those unaware, 17-sai is based on one of the most disgusting civilian cases and atrocities committed in post-war Japan. This is as stated in an official news post covering the events found here. It's likely that you'll see a few sources and outbound links within my review here, since I think sharing the actual events and tragedy that occured is important.
It was during these 40 days that Furata was repeatedly sexually exploited, beaten, tortured, starved, and abused in countless ways too graphic for me to discuss on this platform. This ultimately lead to her death in a despicable tirade of abuse and cosntant torture until she died. The case itself is often-times referred to as the "concrete-encased high school girl murder case" due to the attempts of the criminals to hide her by encasing her corpse in concrete.
One of the most alarming instances about this case is the degree of sentencing the criminals received. With average being 8 years in prison. Amongst the four primary yakuza members behind these acts (who were not the only ones involved, but simply the only ones charged); one received 20 years in prison, one received up to 9 years in prison, another received up to 7 years in prison, and the last spent only 8 years in juvenile detention. As these criminals have all been released for years, I won't get into their history or what they've done since their release; though the appended wikipedia article at the bottom of this reivew should include further information surrounding names if you want to explore further.
This is a series which is far more relevant to this case, although by coincidence, as Furuta suffered from the very same group and themes and Dragonfly as a series, which she loved so much, attempted to make commentary about and educate for. Although she found the gem of a series and enjoed its fascinating story, the inhuman actions of those that committed the atrocities against her are sign enough that those same perpetrators are the ones who needed to see the series most.
The series follows a very similar base series of events and crimes committed against a particular girl (intended to be a parallel to the late Junko Furuta). Though in this case, we follow the perspective of one of the yakuza members participating in the events. Although villainous protagonists are not an inherently negative thing, to implement one as your focal point in a series which is inspired by and intended to commentate on events such as Junko Furuta's murder, it's in extremely poor taste in my opinion.
That being said, the more egregious issue with this is the attempt to develop a sort of sympathy and empathy for the protagonist. The series largely shifts focus away from the core issues, and finds itself covering more of a delinquent drama plot than a story about the captured girl. There is no social commentary to be had, and no criticism of the events depicted. It is to be assumed and understood that what is happening is bad, though the manga never seems to state as much. This may be a silly point to bring up, but as the manga-original sister of the captured girl begins to search for her and becomes yet another target of sexual harassment (and actual assault, dismissed as "attempted assault"), leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Especially given the manga's failure to cohesively tie things together in the end. We see people commit unfathomably terrible and inhuman actions against young girls, and we see them become recurring characters in the story. Yet they are not addressed, and one is even spun to be innocent by the end of the manga.
The ever-present themes here of sexual assault, torture, kidnapping, and rape are handled extremely poorly. They're just there. They may be the core purpose for the plot driving forward, but they aren't treated with the sensitivity that they need to be. The captured girl is there just for the purpose of the drama of the plot, and does not define the actual point of the series. We get to see nothing from or of the girl throughout the course of these 35 chapters.
To me, 17-sai seems like an attempt to capitalize on one of the infamous and disgusting civilian cases in Japan, and exploit the real world events to tell a story which detracts from the actual victim's story. I find that it's alarmingly void of empathy or tact, although I do doubt the author's intentions were to craft something which belittled Furuta's real story so much. Though given the end results, Seiji Fujii was not well-equipped enough as a writer to even begin to approach a case as complicated as this. Even just the writing of women in general within the manga goes to show a demonstrable failure to grasp the complexity of the themes being incorporated into the story.
It's an okay manga, still full of its own issues from a storytelling perspective. But as a piece of fiction inspired by and retelling a parallel to events from a real-world case of genuine evil from human beings? It's insulting, belittling, and outrageous. Instead, please review this wikipedia article which covers the entirety of what happened to Furuta. This article alone is full of so much more emotion and tact than the manga, and is only a page in length.
Exploring the comments themselves is worthwhile as well, just to see those around the world that find themselves disappointed by the lack of humanity (or to some, the raw evil of humanity brought to a head) shown in her final two months. I love the theme of this series, just as Furuta did, and hope that some others can come to share just this little bit of joy that Furuta had looked forward to in her life.
She may not have been able to hear the theme for one last time, but her prayers can be answered through those of us that are still here and have the ability to honor her.
53 out of 55 users liked this review
