(simplified and compressed TL;DR at the end since this review might a little long)

You really need to be into a certain type of manga to enjoy this.

This a manga highly based on the person's tastes and I'll be honest, it's definitely not my preferred manga but I can still understand how it can appeal to other people.

If for some reason you enjoyed Metamorphosis/Emergence or other dark reality psychological works, you might like this. If you enjoy light-hearted, innocent manga, I'd recommend staying away from this.

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This manga is about the dark, horrifying, disgusting side of school-related reality that nobody wishes to be true but one that we know might be true, even if it's not talked about and the psychology of the characters inside of this harsh reality.

It follows a school girl who, in middle school, was being taunted and bullied for being 'uncool' or some other nonsensical reason and due to this, she grows into someone who becomes part of a type of group that she once hated, an elitist, stuck-up bully group. She's forcing herself to insult the type of person that she once was. She thinks to herself that what she's doing is wrong and that she shouldn't bully someone that she once was. But she can't stop because of her thirst for attention and acceptance. Thus she continues on, in this wretched, messed-up world, slowly deteriorating her mind.

Later, she comes to hate what she deems to be fake or ingenuine attention. She becomes jealous of normal, healthy families. It's often sickening but you still feel pity or maybe even sympathy for this girl. She could've had a good future, but because of what she was put through, she's forcing herself to make decisions that she doesn't have to make, forcing herself to think what she shouldn't think. Her situation in life is horrible and the more negative and harmful thoughts she has, the more her mind breaks. She transforms into a girl with bad circumstances to a girl who puts up a front towards some people while lashing out towards others and slowly becoming insane, flipping moods constantly which indirectly and directly causes everyone around her to lose their minds, transforming rising stars of the world to broken lunatics. This repeats itself over and over again until she eventually, breaks.

I really didn't enjoy this manga. I'm fine with works about dark reality but the reason I disliked this work in specific was because of the reasons and methods that it shows that dark reality. I know it's real, I know that some people have gone through this, albeit maybe not to this extent, but I know it's real and out there. It's simply the act of trying to read through all of this harsh reality that makes me queasy.

However, that's mostly my opinion. There are some aspects that I can really appreciate. And for that reason, I'll talk about the positives.

The side characters. More specifically the girls of the elitist bully group. They're horrible. In this situation, I'm talking about their personality rather than the way they're written as characters. These people are horrifying, but after some time, my opinion of them changed. When they're first introduced, they're introduced as the stereotypical gal girls that the author sets up for you to hate. But because of this set-up world and what the main school girl went through, they suddenly go from the 'You should hate this character' into more of a realistic group. When you take a look at them, they aren't drawn how other generic pompous gal girls are drawn. They look like normal girls of a normal friend group. They seem to care a lot for each other and the only reason why they seem like jerks to us readers is only because they just quickly assume scenarios at first glance. They don't have the backstory of these events, they're just making claims based on what they see, not what they hear. When one person does something that can be viewed as caring and nice, the others would often join in and some may even try to find a scapegoat for all the problems where they don't know the full story. They're quick to talk on someone's back, quick to change sides, quick to shift the blame, which is why they're so horrifying. Horrifyingly real. The author could've easily just made stereotypical bully group #2 but they didn't.

Now the hook. The hook of this manga was one of the biggest reasons why I stuck through it for more than 10 chapters was because of the hook. The hook of this manga is one of the few parts that I really liked. The first few panels of chapter 1 hooks you in. It gives you questions that you want answers to because of how unique the hook is. Who are these people, why did that happen to that person, what lead this seemingly promising individual to do something like that. What's their relationship. These questions start forming in your head and the more you read for the first few chapters, the more you need answers to these questions. The characters that are introduced seem completely opposite of what you saw in the first few panels. It was able to get me, who likes manga that are pretty much the complete opposite of this, hooked into the story and characters through questions rather than something like forced exposition or an out-of-the-blue sympathy backstory.

Overall, this is a manga about the psychology of the characters in a dark and demented world. If you can't handle or don't want to read a manga about dark reality, look elsewhere. Otherwise, try at least the first chapter and go from there.

extra: This is realistic enough to say that there are probably some people who might relate or have related to some of the parts of this. If you're bullying someone, try to see the bigger picture of what you're doing. If you're on the receiving end, don't look for drastic forms of revenge. Look on the positive side, don't be jealous of another person's situation, see what you can do for yourself.

-----TL:DR-----

This is a manga about the darkest side of reality. It talks about a girl whose mind deteriorates because of her circumstances both in her family and in school. Her mind becomes messed up and this affects every other character around her, eventually leading to a group of messed up characters making messed up decisions. It's a manga completely based on dark realism and pushes that genre while still making it feel realistic. It's messed up but sadly realistic in both the characters and the world they live in. Steel yourself if you decide to read this

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