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This is how you write a proper toxic manga. You don’t romanticize rape, prostitution, or pedophilia. None of the characters are saints. All of them are both victims of a toxic environment and of their parental figures (or the lack thereof) from childhood to adulthood, as well as victims of their own choices. But they weren’t beyond redemption.
I’m glad they got a happy ending. They were able to change. Chihiro was finally able to stand on his own two feet (no longer dependent on sex partners), get a stable job, and return to his passion, photography. Hao Ran paid for what he did, not just for stabbing Maya, but I consider it also as a punishment for his work scouting people to become escorts. They both earned their happy ending.
Even Maya got a kind of happy ending. Death was better for him. I feel bad for him too, especially when Kaji said he had a suicide note to his mom that's barely readable, because he told Hao Ran he got his high school diploma in prison when they reunited. He was doomed from the start and some people irl are like this.
The world didn’t suddenly become sunshines and rainbows in the end. Prostitution and that underage bdsm brothel club still exist. Matsuki-san is still probably still preying on kids, although I hope he stopped (he did help Hao Ran and Chihiro a lot). Despite that, our two MCs, along with Kaji (who regretted having a hand at pushing Hao Ran in the wrong direction), are doing okay.
All of them had bad childhoods. Sure, we make our own choices as adults, but much of who we are and how we make decisions depends on whether our childhood was nurturing or traumatic. And life is not easy.
I hope we get more well-written, complex stories like this. I also wish we could get some extras showing the two of them living their happy new beginning.