Umareru Kachi no Nakatta Jibun ga Anna no Tame ni Dekiru Ikutsa no Koto (holy shit that's a mouthful, let's just call it Umareru) is a pretty odd manga series. I wasn't compelled to continue reading it for beautiful art, witty humor or a compelling and original plot. I kept reading it to see how much more shocking the series would become. It has a sort of "let's go on live leak and watch fucked up videos" appeal to it. You just watch to see how much worse it can get and depending on what mood you're in, that's enough to keep it entertaining.


The story follows a fat hikikimori named Izuya who after learning his school age crush is pregnant with one of his best friends child, gets drunk, falls off a school building and dies. After being killed though, he finds that he traveled back in time to when he was 11. He then vows to get his crush and fix his life for the better. So it basically follows the same premise as Erased but the difference being that in Erased, it was about a man trying to stop a serial killer and in Umareru, the main character eventually gives up on trying to make his life better, says "fuck it" and just does whatever he wants. This gets into some real messed up territory involving murder and rape. I found myself reading just to see how much worse the main character can get. and maybe I'm an awful person but that was actually entertaining enough to me to keep reading. That isn't all there is to it though with a supernatural mystery and an antagonist get involved. The story never gets too deep or anything though. It's more or less the same kind of entertainment like reading fucked up copypastas on /b/ or something. Luckily, the manga is only about 20 or so chapters long so it's short and to the point. Something relevant is always happening, there's a consistent pace and the story doesn't overstay its welcome.

Umareru's art is extremely average. There's never really anything exciting here. There were a couple of panels that looked above average but nothing amazing. One gripe I have with the art though are the character designs. They're just too bland and generic. The only character who stood out was the main character and he just looked like a young version of L from Death Note complete with the same outfit and haircut. Everybody else's designs are just painfully average and I sometimes even got characters mixed up because they look similar. In short, the art is just mediocre.

The character designs are representative of the actual characters. There's not a whole lot there. The main protagonist and antagonist are the only real interesting ones here. The exception would be one of the MC's friends and she's only interesting because the writer uses her to demonstrate that kids aren't only aware of sex but some are even curious, something you don't see a lot in media. Back to the main character Izuya though, he's an awful person but you can't help but kind of sympathize with him at the beginning and it keeps him endearing through the story. He's not a bad person at first. He's just someone who got the shit kicked out of him from life and you actually do get the feeling he actually really does care about the people around him at first. He eventually just realizes that what he does doesn't matter and just becomes a psychopath. The antagonist is also interesting for her motivations and back story which I won't spoil here but are genuinely surprising.

I oddly enough, enjoyed this series very much and it makes me feel kind of sick saying that. As I said before, this is the shocking kind of entertainment. It's the same draw that you see for something like Elfin Lied, a series I despise. The difference here between that show is that it doesn't just start in fucked up territory, it eases you in. A hot shower is enjoyable sometimes but you can't just start off blisteringly hot, you have to start warm and turn up the heat and that's something Umareru understands. If the idea of watching someone slowly become a psychopath sounds interesting to you, give it a try. It definitely isn't for everyone though.