Among stories that have left an impression so deep that I can say they've affected my perspective on something and that I constantly carry around with me there's an oddity, Misumisou. The reason for that is honestly really ordinary, it's short. That's it. But, it's surprising what can be achieved with only 22 chapters. But enough of beating around the bush. It would be funny if my review ended up longer than the manga itself is. Maybe it's actually a legitimate possibility considering that the notes I took 2.1k words worth of notes while rereading for this review.

This is a review that I've actually prepared for, unlike my other reviews, so I'll hope to make it more structural. Anyway, what I'm going to be breaking down is the characters, the themes, and why the story was written. Other than that I'm also talking a bit about the art, the motifs, and how this story has a lot of interpretability. Basically I'm attempting to dissect almost everything about this manga.

***BEWARE OF SPOILERS FROM HERE ON!***

I'll begin with the themes of the story, from which I can go onto characters that I can then comfortably tie back into the themes.

There are three main themes that you might've already seen listed in the summary of this review. They are: neglect, bottled emotions, fear of being stuck in a place where you don't feel like you belong.
These three concepts are the driving forces behind the bullies and consequently drive Haruka to her actions, and who, by the way, is of course also acquainted with these. But let's go over each one.

Neglect.

Perhaps the simplest one, and the one that's most recognizably displayed via its subcategory, being ignored. If you noticed the manga occasionally drawing characters as dark silhouettes, that's a part of this. A shadow can't be interacted with and the characters in the moments where they're portrayed as them seem as merciless walls to the onlooker.

The character who most clearly relates to this theme is Yoshie. It's shown that her parents neglected her, using her as a mere tool to ease their own self-destructive life-style of alcohol. That's all her character is about. She's frustrated, she feels powerless at the two silhouettes in the darkness demanding that she'd go and get something other than sparkling wine. But she isn't able to do anything about it, which makes her participate in bullying Haruka. It includes her in a group where she's among others instead of behind them, not alone.

Though this theme isn't that basic. It doesn't pertain to just the bullies and their parents. Actually characters like Haruka's grandpa, Kyouko, and you could even say, "everyone", has a share of guilty in allowing the situation to transpire. I'll get to talking about them when I start to dissect characters one by one. Yoshie is convenient to use here as she's a minor character that'd be weird to have a whole separate section for.

Bottled up emotions.

Exactly like the previous theme, this one is also a very prominent issue in the real world. It's difficult and scary to open up and it might feel easier to hide them, but sometimes the environment forces people to hold everything in with its hostility, that's largely what's happening in this story. Bottled emotions might appear to be quietly in the background though, practically invisible, but that lasts only until they're released in an explosion, and when that happens, that bang is heard louder than any amount of venting.

The example character for this is Ikegawa. Although his character wasn't fully "articulated" as it's an uncomfortable one. Basically, he was obsessed with Haruka, something technically kin to love, but warped by having been held in. Seeing he wasn't in the right headspace anyway, it turned into a jealous feeling of ownership and entitlement. He basically wanted to own Haruka. Maybe it could've been a more genuine feeling if the environment was better, with how it was, if he had tried to be sincere and had talked to Haruka, he would've become the enemy of the rest of the class. Honestly, I might be actually giving him too much credit with this analysis, but I feel that's the concept behind his character. It's a really deranged mindset that we see from him, but as to why it's like it is, this seems to be the explanation. But anyways, this brings me roughly to the next theme.

Feeling stuck.

The crux of this is the setting of the story, the small town of Ootsuma. A barren place with nothing interesting going on and where even the school is about to be closed, also seemingly having a big infestation of Hepatica Nobilis. But it serves as one of the core factors for why characters are so on edge.

Like characters iterate a lot, there's nothing to do for them. The only one with a reasonably hobby is Aiba. But people, especially kids and teenagers, require something to spend time on. It's not only bent up anger or whatever that can have huge repercussions. It can just as well be ambition or boredom.

Most of the characters don't appear to have dreams or hope. They simply spend time finding twisted pleasure in banding together against someone and feeling proud of being their school's last set of alumni. It's bleak. All potential talent and passion they might have has nowhere to go. This idea is actually quite similar to parents not allowing kids to have hobbies and forcing them to only study, which also ends with them breaking under the pressure.

On a side note, many of the bullies cite Haruka as the catalyst of their deeds, practically blaming her for their own actions. They say that her existence is what lead them on the wrong path. I'm a bit uncertain on how to tackle this theme. To say that an outside element is what tipped the scale is blatantly a self-justification, especially when you take into account that they bullied Rumi before. But this is something that I thought I should bring up.

Well, those are the main themes, but themes exist through characters who serve as vessels to explore them and make them compelling.

Haruka Nozaki.

As a main character, she's really interesting. Although we follow her journey, her actual character and personality is rather open. We have a general understanding of what she's like and what her values are, mainly the love and care for her family, but she's quiet and we don't see into her mind all too often. There are a lot of vague panels that are left up to interpretation. For example, a good question is: how exactly does Haruka feel about her revenge?

Getting into her relation with the themes though. She falls under bottling emotions. She tries to endure the bullying and hides it from her family to not worry them, especially her sister that was previously a victim of bullying in Tokyo. Her strength is admirable and she's actually able to largely pull through, partly thanks to Aiba actually offering genuine support too. But the bullying gets a chance to escalate and she ends up becoming a murderer, and the whole situation ruins lives of many people and literally no one wins.

She's also tied to the motif and the title of the series, Hepatica Nobilis. The flower that endures snow and blooms in full beauty in spring.

Sidetracking a bit, the flower has multiple roles. It symbolizes Haruka and exactly like Haruka, the flower isn't able to endure snow forever and a bit over the halfway point of the story, the flowers are all covered by a thick blanket of snow. In a more interesting way, it actually becomes a symbol to Haruka in the story too since it's connected with feelings of love to her. Seeing the flower seems to give her strength multiple times.

Mitsuru Aiba.

Yeah, chapter 15 was a shock to read on a first time. On a reread I spotted all types of sketchy signs surrounding him, like how he keeps a copy of the Haruka/Shouka photo. But on a first read, he truly seemed like a ray of hope, which he kind of is for Haruka, although there are sinister and deranged notions of love under it, he does manage to help Haruka remain sane at first.

I feel his character is hard to pinpoint. He grew into the person he is by being abandoned by his mother after he tried to protect her. From that point on he appears to have a mindset that she needed to be controlled and abused, he thinks she didn't know what was good for her. To be honest, her mom is on levels of fucked up that are hard to comprehend too, and I've got little clue about defining her without any more context. But that mindset extends to Aiba's own target of obsession, Haruka. And to "protect" her and garner her attention he's willing to to awful lengths. At one point it becomes so delusional he goes out of his way to separate Haruka so she wouldn't have anyone but him left. And he makes an absolutely disgusting comment about being the only one to not abandon her even if her sister dies, implying her sister would be "abandoning" her.

He probably falls under all themes. Since his parents can't be called that he was hence neglected. Before he attacked his dad he had bottled all of his fear and anger up. And he also felt stuck because he couldn't understand people and to him it seemed like everyone around was deserting him. He couldn't understand anyone.

Anyway, there are tons of interesting panels and details in this manga, but in regards to Aiba, there are two that I want to bring up.

The first is his excuse for taking the picture of Haruka's dad and Shouko in the fire, which he tries to explain as him admiring the father's heroic act. I think this reason might contain a bit of truth, the contrast of his father and Haruka's father could've evoked something like that.

The second thing is the final page of chapter 14 where Aiba steps on a Hepatica Nobilis but looks completely unfazed despite having compared the flower to Haruka. I believe the implication is that he's oblivious to his own actions and that he really doesn't see how he hurts people.

Taeko Oguro.

The third theme is most prominent in Oguro. She has a dream, unlike people around her (from what we see at least). But it can't be fulfilled in Ootsuma. She literally does feel stuck and she pleads to be allowed to chase her wish, but isn't permitted. This once again results in someone bottling up their emotions; ambition and even hatred for the place that holds her down. She starts too view everyone around her as abnormal for being content on the surface, even prideful of their alumni status. She even openly denies her dream. The outcome is that she uses everyone to feel in control and leads everyone against Haruka.

Her relationship with Haruka is probably the most notable thing about her character. She was immediately interested in Haruka as she came from Tokyo, but she quickly becomes disappointed because Haruka doesn't really want to go back unless her family does. She becomes spiteful as she, someone who'd give everything to go there, can't, but the one who could isn't even interested. In her eyes it must be a great injustice, which, well, could be argued. Besides all of that though, she's jealous of Haruka's attention which only inflates her spite.

As a side note, one interesting detail is how she prefers to hurt Rumi's hands. For her hands are important because she'd need them for her dream job. Also, her way of inflicting self-harm is biting her hands.

Rumi Sayama & Kyouko Minami.

I'm bundling them together because they're similar and I'm trying to condense this review.

Both are depictions of someone who is completely cornered, basically a wild animal that can only turn around and attack the hunter. As for Rumi, she's also got the thing with obsession and disillusionment going on.

The circumstances of these characters are tragic. When it's shown how casually Rumi is bullied despite being one of the Ootsuma people and her perpetual state of hear, it's terrifying to think what she's been through. Her design often looks monstrous and she was indeed molded into one. She's been broken through sheer abuse by her classmates. Totally cornered between Oguro and Haruka. She's at a stage where she thinks it's better if she dies liberated than to continue being abused. And the layer of her admiration for Oguro just muddies this into something so indescribably disgusting.

Kyouko is in a quite a similar position, but perhaps even more tragic. She tried to redo her school life and get a new start, for it to end up exactly the same, being bullied by her own students. Even an adult isn't invincible, the scars she's gotten are nigh irreparable. She falls into the two latter themes.

Grandpa.

Usually a grandfather character in a story is a relatively straightforward character. That rings true for Misumisou too. At least on the surface. He's simply a character who supports Haruka. But, there is something more to him, the fact that he is quite likely aware of Haruka's actions.

Firstly, assuming he actually does believe Haruka and thinks she's attending school, if that's the case, I'm still worried because he shouldn't let her. Haruka absolutely shouldn't be going to school in her situation. But I don't think this is it. There's a scene where he is looking through Haruka's clothes and in a very cryptic panel we see him find what appear to be bloodstains on her jacket. It's hard to believe he's oblivious to what it could indicate.
Also, at one point Haruka questions him about why he hasn't asked anything, and grandpa also very enigmatically states that Haruka can tell him when she's ready to do so.
Although the final chapter would suggest that he actually didn't knew anything, it might be that his mind isn't clear at that point and that his sentiments aren't to be taken as facts. Well, he does see an illusion of Haruka after all.
But if the possibility that he knew what Haruka was doing is true, that's a disconcerting prospect. It's true neglect. Also it would actually parallel one of the parents who was glad about their child being a perpetrator instead of a victim because it'd mean there "wouldn't be anything to worry about".

Okay, these are all of the main characters. I don't think I need to bring the minor ones up. Maybe the breakdown isn't as complete and thorough as I imagined, but this covers it about anyway. The review is getting lengthy and I still have other subjects to go over.

The story's intent.

Short stories are fascinating. When a story is so short, assuming it's not because of being axed or anything, it indicates that it's written for a more defined purpose, maybe even for a goal. The author has something they want to say or share or put out in the open, whatever. And so, with this in mind, what might be the purpose of Misumisou?

Well, the answer is quite obvious, isn't it? In a broad sense, it's a message about what neglect leads to. But I feel it's a very particularly crafted story and it isn't just trying to explore a concept. I feel it's actually trying to gut punch the reader to wake up about the topic and make them feel strong feelings towards it. Trying to hammer in how ugly the consequences can be. The grotesque manner of depicting the bullying is like it is for that purpose, I think that it is, at least.

The atmosphere and the interpretability.

One of the standout aspects of Misumisou for me is the art, particularly the style. It's both unique and fitting. Cutesy round characters that have whiplashing contrast with the carnage and horror. And the backdrops are slim and beautiful, although bleak of course. I really like the atmosphere, it's lonely and isolate, but also fresh because of the touch of winter and cold. But the ever-increasing amount of snow feels like a representation of things escalating. At the start of the manga, it's all quiet, only light snowfalls, but as the revenge story begins, it drastically intensifies.

But as for what I appreciate the most, it's the ambiguity. So many panels leave a lot of room to interpretation. Despite having read the story a couple of times and taken notes of it as well as having discussed it, there are still many moments where I don't understand the full depth behind an expression or a line of dialogue.

The conclusion.

I think Misumisou is a fantastic manga. The issues it showcases are very prevalent in the real world. I've talked about this manga with a couple of people whom I've convinced to read it, and one of them in particular feels that the story focuses too much on the gore and doesn't really explore its themes. Well, I can see where they're coming from, but I do believe that the order of priorities is very much intentional. It's a wake up call, not a study. And I think that's fine, I actually think it offers a lot in that regard, because when I think of this manga, I feel uncanny as I realize that this story doesn't feel that unreal. That's certainly a thought.

Well, this review is long. I think Misumisou deserves a lot of effort because it's so obscure and I'd like for there to be at least something about it on the internet, at least in English anyway, I'm not sure how the situation is in Japanese. Also, it's a short enough story that a full breakdown is plausible. Also, my first serious review was of this, but that was a terrible attempt and it was practically just praise without any analysis or substance to speak of.

I haven't even recommended the manga yet. But then again, it's not really about that. I'm attempting to counter the more negative opinions which I've seen circling around. Although if you haven't read Misumisou, then most importantly, how did you even scroll all the way down here? But do go and read Misumisou, lol