AxelNeuman88's manga / #One Shot(56)

Goddammit, mangas in the early 2000s were disgusting. In no universe, a relationship between a student and a teacher is OK, or romantic, or acceptable, etc. Use this and the many similar stories not as a romantic getaway, but as a way to discuss predatory behaviour that is installed in young generations thanks to manga like that. Repeat after me, please, I will not romanticize relationships between older people in power and minors. And the looks of the teachers (they can be as hot as Colin Firth or Monica Bellucci for what I care) should not matter at all. They can be hot, funny, average looking, with black hair or bald, with two left feet and tentacles, it does not matter. Relationships between teachers and students are a NO ENTRY zone and the story of the teacher in this story should end with the police coming into the classroom and arresting his creepy ass. Amen.

I was sure that this would be your typical "big tits, wow, ecchi, sexy" story, but actually, it was sweet. Nothing to mull over, no deep thoughts needed, just a story on how physical attributes change depending on your insecurities.

I think that the king actually killed her village and is a tyrannical monarch that raids other villages in search of gold and riches. Nice catch, young MC.

Bland and boring, the characters have no personality, the story has no real plot and I am a bitter woman who looks for something substantial in an old shoujo manga. Bless everyone.

A pretty simple and kind story about jealousy, gifts, and forgiveness. The art is beautiful, the plot is heartwarming and the characters even in this short story have a background, personality, and possible future development. Highly pleasant story.

A bit predictable, to be honest. The biggest twist would be if the blonde girl was the killer and she framed the dark-haired girl, but the latter, feeling still guilty over the accident, would take the blame for the killings, something like that.

A beautifully written story that everyone can interpret in their own way. For me, it was about the egoism that is often connected to love, reminding me a bit of the song "The Willow Maid" by the astonishing Erutan, "if not mine, then no one will get you", "best I destroy you myself than let you be destroyed by someone else". For someone else, it might be about the sacrifice of destroying something you love to set it free. For others, the meaning will be different, but the openness for interpretation of this story is what makes it beautiful. The drawings are also breathtakingly splendid.

The story had a lot of potential, it would have been interesting to hear and read more about this mysterious woman that the MC fancies. Possibly she is a criminal who targets rich foreign women in order to steal from them or maybe she is a government agent trying to discover the secrets of other countries. Maybe, in the end, the MC understands that even if she did not get the woman of her dreams, she got a new family. I do not know, but something more substantial rather than "she does not fancy me, oh, cruel god!". But I digress.

was searching for this story for many years and finally, here it is, as bizarre and lonely as I remember it. The story is strange, cryptic, poetic and so so full of undertones. It's like when you wake up from a long and realistic dream, confused and disoriented, trying to grasp the reality of what happened. The story is a puzzle the solution to which was long lost, every word is deliberate, but what was the overall meaning? As the author - Mizumaru Anzai - had died in 2014 and did not give any glimpses on what was his thought process for this one, we can only guess. Instruments were often made from the bones of animals, a whale's teeth often were used for piano keys. Is that related to the story? Who knows. Is the story connected to the feeling of dread and anxiety that often comes at the end of the summer as the sunny days leave for the rainy seasons to take their places? Possibly. We will never know the exact answers, but the beauty of the vibrant red (is it blood or higan flowers?) and the "kokin, kokin" will be imprinted in the minds of many.