Story

What's more normal than goofing around with your friends after school? Tobio, Maruyama, Isami and Paisen are one such tight-knit group. Living day to day, Tobio drearily ponders on his average life, soon to be changed for the worst. After Maruyama is kidnapped and viciously abused by a group of delinquents, our trio seek out revenge with a seemingly harmless prank; setting mini explosives off at those group's school. However, when the prank turned into an explosion killing 10 students and deemed as a terrorist incident, Tobio's desire for escape from the mundane is fulfilled in the most ironically tragic manner.

My favorite execution of dark themes in any manga I've read. This series encapsulates grittiness and ugliness in the most entertaining and heavy manners. It weaves multiple harsh realities of life within a ridiculous fabricated situation through the internal conflicts and characterizations of its characters. Though it frequently portrays heavy topics such as murder, suicide, rape and infidelity; labeling this series as "edgy" would be an insult. There is purpose to these scenes, in the form of characterization and development. It manages to tame these heavy-handed taboos, fleshing out grey morality and cynical humanization fantastically.

The story is a fluctuating cesspool of emotions. Hand-in-hand with its dysfunctional characters, the story's bizarre and outer conflicts are never given a page panel to rest. When one conflict is resolved, another arises to barrage the characters with more potential for characterization and introspection. The lighthearted and dark tones of this series are constantly at wits, wildly portraying the erratic, ever-changing nature of our lives and providing catharsis.

Erratic yet enjoyable pacing, as well. Roughly the first half of the story is dedicated to the characters' mental shock and reactions to the explosion and the second half their emotional shock proceeding it and how they cope with these emotions. The story developments are abrupt, but they absolutely suit the erratic nature of this series and largely help develop the themes and characters.

Characters

As mentioned before, I love the cynical portrayals of humans and reality in this series. And the characters are how it conveys them. The characters are all largely stagnant, ever rarely receiving major development, instead favoring strong characterization. Minor characters are included in this favorability, with their own characterization largely helping to characterize the main cast's. They all have distinct personalities that make their interactions and perspectives enjoyable. Despite this series' ridiculous plot, its characters, their reactions, feelings, internal thoughts, actions and relationships are some of the most genuine I've seen. These characters feed into the wonderful execution of grey morality and humanization.

Tobio

The definitive main character, Tobio self-asserts his boring, unlavish lifestyle at any given moment. Seeking excitement, he enthusiastically agreed to Paisen's mischievous revenge plot. As if he made a wish with a monkey's paw, his wish is granted; when he faces the reality of being a murder accomplice. Swiftly grasping the reality of the situation, he confronts it by talking with the others, running away and living as a fugitive. Perhaps the most "normal" reaction of the main cast.

Though he managed to shakily realize the situation, Tobio attempts to shield himself from the sheer gravity of it, through multiple instances of escapism. Initially literally running away from it, Tobio attempts to regain his normalcy by attempting to live his usual daily life. Or rather, adjust to it. He also uses sex as escapism, with Koyoi, later discarding her immediately after a chance at normalcy arises. He then uses Renko, a female friend, as a desperate grasp at happiness and normalcy; believing a romantic relationship would be ideally normal. Dating, marrying, having children, etc.

However, the guilt on Tobio's shoulder manages to creep into his desperate attempt at normalcy. The detective's words, Ichihashi's suicide and the impending demise of his relationships seep into his heart, already contaminated with subconscious guilt, until Tobio reaches his final coping mechanism; suicide. Even 10 years later, when Tobio is living a seemingly happy life, he still retains this desire for atonement. Even when he achieves his dreams of mundanity; marriage, stable job and kids; Tobio will have to carry this permanent scar of guilt and attempt to further normalize his life to lessen the pain.

Maruyama

Strong candidate for the most fucked up character, and hands down my favorite character. A seemingly timid kid loyal to his friends, Maruyama proves to be a wolf in sheep's clothing quickly. Manipulative, arrogant, thieving and hypocritical; Maruyama most strongly illustrates the story's cynical themes. He makes the stagnant nature of the characters most transparent, with his ridiculous schemes. Including, but not limited to, using his friends' money to buy prostitutes and foreign watches, assaulting someone with a taser, feeding his friend laxatives and being involved in a pyramid scheme. Simply put, Maruyama manages to exemplify all 7 Deadly Sins.

Maruyama follows an entertaining cycle of treasuring his friends, abandoning them, facing the consequences and seeking their help. Unlike most people who self-reflect upon their mistakes, Maruyama has only once spared a moment for introspection, which he immediately waves off. In this story of unpredictability, Maruyama's thought pattern is most easily predictable considering just how one-dimensionally evil he is. But that same one-dimensional trait still vividly portrays a part of our nature. While likely not to the outlandish extents of Maruyama, many of us take advantage of others, place our faults on others and are self-obsessed. Maruyama's hypocrisy provide both laughable enjoyment at his truly fucked up personality and an exaggerated, yet very real portrayal of our own selves at times.

Isami

The first to distance himself from everyone after the incident, Isami is heavily defined by his obsessive escapism with sex for the majority of the series. Initially the most cold-sweated and bleak of the group after the incident, Isami unsuccessfully attempts to hang himself, but the rope snaps. Interpreting this failure as a sign to live on, Isami enters a euphoric state defined by his constant sex drive. Using his girlfriend Koyoi as his escapism, Isami doesn't feel a need to maintain his friendships with the others to cope with the situation. He's the only one who doesn't join the group's plan to escape the country, and befriends others. He certainly seemed to be most cool-headed. Similarly to Maruyama, Isami disregarded their friendships in favor of maintaining his lifestyle.

Eventually, however, he meets a dead-end. The guilt eventually outweighs his sex drive, rendering him erectile dysfunctional. Isami proceeds to visit each of the victim's homes to reminisce and pay his respects, in what he claims to be a resolution to his boy's flaccidity. However, it's apparent how genuine his actions and feelings are, as he pukes from guilt from each visit. Isami eventually faces another conflict, when Koyoi announces her pregnancy. Similar to Tobio's desire for normalcy through romantic relationships, Isami's sex driven lifestyle is shattered when he realizes what he really desires. In the end, Isami's reason for living with guilt is fatherhood.

Paisen

That one dude that hangs around his old high school even though he graduated a few years ago. Paisen is very rarely referred to his real name, extremely fitting for his caricature-like personality. Paisen is extremely happy-go-lucky, joking in the most inappropriate situations. Unlike the others, Paisen genuinely treasures their friendship. However, his methods of communication and bonding only strengthen the superficiality of it. Unintentionally using money to buy his way through their friendship and general life, Paisen is severely emotionally crippled. He doesn't realize what love is, from his lack of parents, only clinging onto his young friends. He's the only one who doesn't desire sex, instead desiring love. With the reveal that his father provides Paisen money and support out of maintaining his own image, not paternal love; Paisen experiences a heavy epiphany.

Initially denying the reality of the situation the most, Paisen is the first to break the heaviness of their actions to everyone. Paisen's journey and emotional baggage are the most interesting to see unfold. True to his nature, Paisen waved off the entire situation with his usual jokes and grand lifestyle. He attempted to buy his friends' favorability and support with money time and time again. In the end, however, he realizes all that he's done were simple shams and facades. While the others ran away from the reality of the situation through their various methods of escapism, Paisen faced it head on by confronting his father, who covered up Paisen's involvement in the incident. Hoping to learn something about love, Paisen is only met with mockery and insults from him. Without his friends to cling to anymore, Paisen's last hope at genuine love crumbled, now replaced with a desire for revenge by overturning his innocence and being legally convicted for his crimes.

However, his grand scheme failed and his father once again managed to protect his own reputation, rendering Paisen unable to be publicly responsible for his crimes. In the end, Paisen fully acknowledges his heinous actions and permanent guilt, solemnly choosing to live on. Perhaps his desire to become a comedian is his escapism and atonement, with the good atmosphere he creates countering all the pain and suffering he's caused.

Minor Characters

Ichihashi

The leader of the delinquents, Ichihashi's odds at characterization seemed small at first from my biased experience with other delinquent bully characters in other series. However, I was rather impressed later on. Ichihashi single-handedly managed to encapsulate the theme of grey morality with little shakiness. With many other stories incorporating the bully-turned-friend trope, I find that they usually fall flat. They're either given a reveal of a tragic life, their true and pure motives, etc as flat attempts for sympathy and likeability. Ichihashi is instead humanized, beyond just a one-dimensional, evil character. We never forget about his horrific actions, he doesn't suddenly commit heroic actions or turn a 180 in personality. It's simply revealed that he is indeed just like any other person. He has people he loves (his grandmother) and dreams (becoming a pilot).

His relationship with Renko is one enjoyable. It's interesting seeing that despite their largely conflicting motives for finding Tobio, Renko wanting to see her loved one and Ishihashi wanting to exact revenge, they maintained a mutual, platonic relationship. For Ichihashi, who was now abandoned by everyone, Renko was his only shining light, the only one who still treated him the same after the incident. However, it soon crumbles when Renko rejects his confession.

Ichihashi's friendship, albeit short-lived, with Tobio provided fresh humanization. Along with the past mentioned normal nature of Ichihashi, we see their intimate bond and time spent together. They played games, competed in rehabilitation and talked about girls. Though Tobio likely befriended Ichihashi out of guilt and atonement, Ichihashi saw their friendship genuinely. He talked about his confession to Renko, congratulating Tobio for now dating Renko and thought Tobio as a true friend. With his grandmother passed away, Renko avoiding him and his school abusing him; Ichihashi still felt he was at a dead-end,wishing Tobio happiness in his last moments. In the end, Ichihashi served as the final catalyst pushing Tobio in his eternal downward spiral to despair and guilt.

Koyoi

Isami's girlfriend, initially exuding a stereotypical well-endowed, dumb broad aura. Thanks to Isami and Tobio's arc of sexual escapism, we manage to get a glance of her actual character. Her screen time is often limited to sex scenes with Isami, a combination of pure sex drive and her desire to have someone in her life. Her father has been working away from home for over a year, has no mother and presumably little-to-no-friends. Picking up and taking care of Tobio demonstrated her desire, as the two were no more than mere acquaintances. Providing him sex, emotional comfort, a home and food; it seemed like perhaps her wish would be fulfilled. In the end, however, once Tobio discovered he could return back home and immediately left, Koyoi was once again alone. Eventually, she announces her pregnancy and exclaims for Isami to leave her once and for all. Though, she eventually takes him back in a fit of wild sex once again. She certainly doesn't have a strong characterization nor presence, but I nevertheless thought she had an interesting one.

Art

The pseudo-realistic art style nicely fits the gritty tone of this series. Character expressions are vivid with emotion. The art revels itself in dark, murky backgrounds during particularly detrimental scenes. The quality fluctuates at times, heavily depending on the severity of a scene's importance and tone. Most of the time, it's certainly not beautiful or aesthetically-pleasing to look at, but again, it fits this story incredibly well.

Enjoyment

This is the Kingda Ka of emotional rollercoasters. The feels were real and raw as fuck, the erratic nature of this series had me binging this without a single moment's rest. The dark comedy is wildly entertaining, revealing itself in the most serious scenes. The combination of its great execution of heavy hitting themes and its dumb fun comedy made for an incredibly enjoyable cathartic experience. Definitely not something I'll forget for a long time.

Final Words

Bokutachi ga Yarimashita is one of the wildest manga out there. A phenomenally cathartic and entertaining rollercoaster of emotions, it presents its cynical themes and gritty tone on a hardboiled platter. With its erratic pacing and story development, you'll be sure to binge this in one sitting. The dark, unforgiving nature, the hard hitting themes, ridiculous comedy and feels. An unforgettable 10/10 in my book.