My Wonderful World

There are spoilers in this review

This is the second time I see a representation of dyslexia in any media. Learning disabilities are rarely depicted in media (all disabilities are underrepresented in media) and every time they are, I hope it is done well. For this one I would say it is.
Every life of a dyslexic person is very different but there are some common events that happen with a high probability, apparently all over the globe (I live in Europe).
Especially the fact that you are working your ass of at home studying and you go crash out at home because it is not working and then your teachers just say you should study at home ... wow thank you for nothing. Seeing that other people also lived through these situations helped me a lot.
I was fortunate that I got diagnosed with dyslexia early in my life (and not as severe as Shinobu and Haruka I suppose) but still I had a lot of similar experiences as Shinobu and Haruka. Most teacher or people in your workplace do not understand what it really means to have a learning disability. It is still really difficult to get diagnosed with dyslexia if you are an adult (I had to go through that whole prosses again later in life) and were I went they made me take a test for a completely different demographic because there was no test for people in my situation. I really hope that will change someday. I learned some things about myself reading thins manga, there were things that happened in my life I haven´t really thought about properly until now, because it felt like things that can not be changed in my life so why give them more thought than I have to. This manga opened my eyes in some ways, it showed me again that it really helps to know what the underlying problem is even if you can not change anything about it. Knowing that there is something that caused the problems and it´s not my lack of will or general capability in life helps to cope with problems generally and it´s easier to try find strategies to go through these situations better. I learned that before in other aspects like being neurodivergent in other ways or being trans but this helped me realize that it is also applicable to being dyslexic.

Shinobu and Haruka are both fully fledged characters and are not solely reduced to their disability. They both have very different personalities which depicts how different disabled people are. We are not a monolith. Sure, this is a story about dyslexic people and that is a important part of the story and their lives but it is not all there is. If this story was longer it would probably had more of it and I would have loved that but for a 25 chapter story I think it´s well balanced.

Shinobus character development into a person that can advocait for themselves and can ask for help when needed, was great to see. Especially the situation when he told his girlfriend that he can do stuff alone and doesn´t need unasked for help in every aspect in his life. His development in contrast with Haruka was also nice to see a comparison what can be possible at the end, I didn´t like the constant comments from Shinobu that if Haruka could do something he ultimately can as well. I had the feeling that he didn´t really understand how much work it was for Haruka to be where he is. I think he somewhat realized it after hearing about Harukas childhood but still, it felt belittling towards Haruka. I guess that is what it was suppose to be? It just felt a bit much.

It was emotionally really difficult for me to read the backstory of Shinobus father and how bad his mother treated him sometimes (even tho she tried hard and is treating Shinobu way better). How he had the feeling that he had to leave his family after losing his job. The fact that he drunk himself to death is so horrible, that is just a slow suicide. It broke my heart that that was the reason why she had no photo of her son at the family alter. Suicide is something that also heavily effects the people around you and anger is a normal response for people that are left behind still for someone who struggles with these thoughts as well it´s always a heavy hit to see these stories.
It is important to show this tho because it is what can happen to people that are too "different" for the society we live in and not all people realize that.

I´m not sure what I should think about the storyline about Haruka and his dad. In my opinion there was too much understanding for his dad. He was horrible to his son and abused him, I fully understand why Haruka didn´t want to see him again even if he was sick. No one should be obligated to interact with their abuser in any form if they don´t want to do it themselves. To get closure it´s a different story which was the case with Haruka but I have the feeling that his dad got off the hook too easy here. Sure, people can change and it can be worth it to reconnect with people who treated you badly in the past but there are limits. I´m just afraid that this gives people false hopes that their abuser changed and they should reconnect no matter what because all people can learn and change because most of the time that is not the case and I think it should be more common to depict the fact that you don´t have to have any relationship with your parents if they were horrible to you when you were young or later in life. Just because they gave birth to you or payed for your living expenses when you were a child you are not obligated to give them anything in return.
What I want to say is that I would have appreciated it if the author depicted the reality that you don´t owe your parents anything just because they are your parents but the situation depicted is also the reality for a lot of people.
Another thing that bothered me was that Shinobu meddled with Harukas relationship to his dad a lot. Maybe there are some people who do not mind it that much but this can easily overstep boundaries of people and I hoped for there to be stronger consequences and with that reflection if that was an acceptable way to act.
In the end I do not think there is any blame on Harukas side in this situation his dad should be the one to put work in to the relationship and not Haruka or Shinobu or his other son. (and yes, I realize that his dad had an life-altering event which needs a lot of time and strength to adjust to but he should have tried earlier and do not react hostile towards Haruka).

Boku no Subarashii Jinsei made me feel a lot, in a good way even if it is not perfect but I may be a little biased.
I would recommend it to people who want to know what it means to by dyslexic even tho I think it shouldn´t be the only reference. I hope other dyslexic people are also able to read this manga even if it takes a while, I felt very seen and hope other can feel the same.