It has two themes that I keep seeing in Japanese manga that irritates me to no end.
1. Incest hinting. This is somewhat subverted due to it being legal to marry your first cousin in Japan last I checked (it has something to do with Japan's low birth rates and love of blood purity). The main character refers to Luther as her brother, was raised as his sibling, and clearly sees him as a brother so the random moments where they get all flirty really creeps/grosses me out. This is a common trope in Japan for some reason as not being a direct and full blooded sibling makes it okay for some reason? Idk, I see it a lot in manga and hate it every time.
2. The fat shaming. Yes, an 80kg (approx 176lbs) 10/11 year old is absolutely unhealthy. The way she talks about her problems being attributed solely to being fat or the way she essentially describes not skinny = ugly is just so messed up on so many levels. I do like that it showed a somewhat realistic time frame/rate at which she lost weight but I don't like how they presented the message in a fat shaming way.
I was actually very happy at the scenes where they talked about girls being different body types. After all the fat shaming, I wasn't expecting the acknowledgement that certain dress types that are in fashion don't go with every body type which tends to make girls self conscious. I just wish that it didn't translate to an obsession with being skinny in the end, as if being skinny = being beautiful/loved.
I also liked/didn't like how they addressed the eating habits. So the like part first: Based on the info we are given about Brittany before the MC inhabited her body, we eventually learn that she essentially had an eating disorder due to frustrations in her life. She starts overeating at the age of 3 when her parents died. Her grandfather is shown to be an overindulging caretaker, not just with her but his children as well, to the point where he lets it lead to the decline of his territory. He can't be relied on to raise her properly or discipline her. Her aunt and uncle have paid no attention to her, only the money that her grandfather gave them. Lastly, her cousin, also frustrated with the state of their family, only paid enough attention to her to further his own goals. Her maids who are supposed to be beneath her, don't ignore her but actually bully her to the point where she gets mad and bullies them back. Being the child that she is, she doesn't know restraint and goes overboard. Receiving no love from anyone but her overly doting grandfather, she just asks him for more sweets to drown her frustrations in. It's to the point where she will sleep eat in the middle of the night which shows some real dangerous levels of addiction.
And now the dislike part: These are such good story elements yet they are just tossed in there without much care as they are played for laughs. This had the potential to be such a deep story but it's just used to fat shame instead of build up some kind of character development. We do at least see some of this when the "3 villainesses" gather to talk about their looks and learn a harsh truth, but it's not nearly to the level that the constant fat shaming is. It would be one thing if the main character was saying she wanted to do this primarily for her own health, like she tells her grandfather when he's worried that she's not eating enough, but it's shown time and again that isn't. Because skinny = beauty in this book which is a terrible message.
It has two themes that I keep seeing in Japanese manga that irritates me to no end.
1. Incest hinting. This is somewhat subverted due to it being legal to marry your first cousin in Japan last I checked (it has something to do with Japan's low birth rates and love of blood purity). The main character refers to Luther as her brother, was raised as his sibling, and clearly sees him as a brother so the random moments where they get all flirty really creeps/grosses me out. This is a common trope in Japan for some reason as not being a direct and full blooded sibling makes it okay for some reason? Idk, I see it a lot in manga and hate it every time.
2. The fat shaming. Yes, an 80kg (approx 176lbs) 10/11 year old is absolutely unhealthy. The way she talks about her problems being attributed solely to being fat or the way she essentially describes not skinny = ugly is just so messed up on so many levels. I do like that it showed a somewhat realistic time frame/rate at which she lost weight but I don't like how they presented the message in a fat shaming way.
I was actually very happy at the scenes where they talked about girls being different body types. After all the fat shaming, I wasn't expecting the acknowledgement that certain dress types that are in fashion don't go with every body type which tends to make girls self conscious. I just wish that it didn't translate to an obsession with being skinny in the end, as if being skinny = being beautiful/loved.
I also liked/didn't like how they addressed the eating habits. So the like part first: Based on the info we are given about Brittany before the MC inhabited her body, we eventually learn that she essentially had an eating disorder due to frustrations in her life. She starts overeating at the age of 3 when her parents died. Her grandfather is shown to be an overindulging caretaker, not just with her but his children as well, to the point where he lets it lead to the decline of his territory. He can't be relied on to raise her properly or discipline her. Her aunt and uncle have paid no attention to her, only the money that her grandfather gave them. Lastly, her cousin, also frustrated with the state of their family, only paid enough attention to her to further his own goals. Her maids who are supposed to be beneath her, don't ignore her but actually bully her to the point where she gets mad and bullies them back. Being the child that she is, she doesn't know restraint and goes overboard. Receiving no love from anyone but her overly doting grandfather, she just asks him for more sweets to drown her frustrations in. It's to the point where she will sleep eat in the middle of the night which shows some real dangerous levels of addiction.
And now the dislike part: These are such good story elements yet they are just tossed in there without much care as they are played for laughs. This had the potential to be such a deep story but it's just used to fat shame instead of build up some kind of character development. We do at least see some of this when the "3 villainesses" gather to talk about their looks and learn a harsh truth, but it's not nearly to the level that the constant fat shaming is. It would be one thing if the main character was saying she wanted to do this primarily for her own health, like she tells her grandfather when he's worried that she's not eating enough, but it's shown time and again that isn't. Because skinny = beauty in this book which is a terrible message.