Misu Misou
a review by TheGruesomeGoblin
a review by TheGruesomeGoblin
Usually, when a horror manga handles the topic of bullying, it rarely ever ends well. The bullying typically proves to be too over the top, needlessly edgy, or the victim’s response just isn’t the right amount.
My opinion is you’re going to do a series like this, you gotta go all in on it. But there still has to be a balance. Tip it just a bit wrong, and it’s just an edgy and gory piece of trash. Yet if you’re careful… you can end up with a satisfying tale of tragedy and revenge. Which in my opinion is where this manga lands.
That being said, I’d be remiss to not throw out a
I would definitely describe this manga as “upsetting.” If you don’t like gory series and especially bullying series, I would recommend to look elsewhere. Also, this should go without saying, but me giving this manga a positive score does not mean I don’t think pretty much all of the stuff that happens in this manga is horrible. Hence my describing this as a tragedy.
#Misu Misou#
Misu Misou is a horror manga by Rensuke Oshikiri who I knew in passing as the creator of Hi Score Girl. A lighthearted series about videogames I meant to watch/read and just never got around to. Then, on a whim I found this manga and… boy oh boy.
~~I also knew him as the creator of Pupipo! (that I did watch) which is closer to the tone of this series than Hi Score Girl certainly, but still is nowhere near the darkness of Misu Misou. Actually, you know what? What am I saying? I haven't read or watched it, maybe Hi Score Girl is exactly like this.~~
I feel like I should immediately elaborate a bit further on why I “enjoyed” this manga. It begins simple enough. A young girl whose family has moved out into the country is being bullied by her classmates as a result of not being from around there.
But she tries to put on a strong front and put up with the bullying as she does not wish to worry her family. The teacher of the class is at first your typical awful teacher in a series like this, that simply wishes that the bully victim will not cause problems for her.
With no help coming from the school staff, Haruka is forced to continue enduring this suffering. And when a friendly male student reaches out to her despite the bullying, she thinks there is hope for her situation. All she has to do is put up with the bullying a little bit longer and she’ll graduate and be free. Except… the bullying gets worse.
Beyond getting worse, it of course inevitably and finally goes too far. Much farther than even several of the bullies could have expected it to go. I think that’s the key. As much as the temptation might be there to make all of the bullies just heartless monsters, it’s way more effective when it’s really just one or a couple of them that’s actually really trying to push things to where they go out of control.
And
Before I even knew it, this manga shifted gears from an awful bullying manga to a revenge manga that’s just a whirlwind of horrible and over the top violence. It was wonderful because, in this instance, the victim of bullying not only was completely justified in seeking revenge to this extent but also pretty much every single person she targets deserves it.
Or rather, pretty much everybody in this fucking town is scum. Which in its own right I found amusing in a way. Like it’s implied that the class Haruka transfers into was more or less normal before she transferred in. Or at the very least, all of the terribleness was at least brewing underneath the surface rather than just exuding from every single one of these shitty students.
“Yo, this girl transferred from out of town into our class and it’s graduating this year!”
“What the fuck? Let’s fuck her shit up. Let’s actually just straight up assault her father if he comes to the school to try and get involved.”
“No, I got a better idea.
And there was also some love triangle shit going on. Or… rather than a love triangle, the female student Haruka managed to befriend when first joining the class suggested to not spend too much time with one of the boys who happened to start being friendly towards Haruka. But of course Haruka ended up ignoring her advice.
As it turns out,
Oh, when you went back into my burning house to carry out my charred and barely alive sister, you took the time to take a photograph of my father's corpse because he heroically tried to shield my sister from the flames?"
#Conclusion#
This was a manga of bullying and then revenge. And as everybody knows, when a person successfully obtains their revenge, they become happy and fulfilled in the end and go off and live a worthy life to make up for the horrible horrible cards fate has dealt them.
While… like I’m not sure if it’s the art style or the fact that these characters are supposed to be middle schoolers, but the extent of how gruesome the gore gets is a little head scratching. Like it makes sense for Haruka because she’s become consumed by her revenge, but then there was like a fight scene between two other characters and it’s still really gory and I’m just sitting here thinking weren’t these supposed to be middle schoolers preoccupied with thoughts of “oh, we’re gonna graduate in a couple of months!”
"You know I was really set on graduating from middle school BUT I'M GOING TO SLIT YOUR FUCKING THROAT WITH THIS KNIFE THAT I CARRY AROUND WITH ME AT ALL TIMES BECAUSE APPARENTLY, MIDDLE SCHOOLERS GET INTO IMPROMPTU KNIFE FIGHTS TO THE DEATH ALL THE TIME OUT HERE IN THE COUNTRY."
But you know… while obviously, this isn’t going to be a lot of people’s cup of tea, I loved this manga. ~~Despite how horrible everything that happens in it is.~~ I give it a 9 out of 10. If we can’t agree on anything else, I believe we can agree that there are a lot more offensive or tasteless bullying manga than this out there...
I mean... at least she gets revenge...
...right?
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