ALLEGRO AGITATO review

Ro-ro3314
Apr 11, 2021
When we’re kids we think of our parents as perfect. Some of us want to grow up to be just like them because the love they give is almost tangible. As we grow up we start to notice things that prove that theory wrong, and the people we think highly of and aspire to become are no longer them--parents got lost in our own transition. By the time we’re an adult we see them for what they really are, a perfectly flawed human who just does what they can and we go back to admiring them, if we’re lucky enough to still have them that is.

Looking at this manga and thinking about it now, flaws take up a whole new meaning.
The plot is simple, Shouko a high school girl with a famous mother, is tired of not being noticed as anything but her mothers daughter. When her mothers tells her that she has to move into the apartment because their house (the one Shouko lives in) is bombarded with paparazzi, she does. There she meets her mother’s new boyfriend, Ujoi, who happens to be living with her. I want to say she was attracted to him but that’s not exactly it. She is tempted by the idea of taking him away from her mother. Just to finally have one on her and so she does.

Shouko is just a teenager. She acts like a spoiler brat sometimes but at the end that’s what she is, just a teenager. As a young adult she needs a mother, someone to notice her, give her attention. But she doesn’t have that, instead she is out staged by her own mother because of being a celebrity. Constantly living in her shadow and she snaps. Her character is shallow and impulsive and she doesn’t think about anyone but her self. Actually her character if said that way is very realistically displayed.
Not to get started on the mother who I wanted to slap in every other scene. It just goes to show you that just because we age, doesn’t necessarily mean we start acting like grownups. She is a really bad example of a mother and had no redeeming qualities I could see. Not towards her own daughter anyway. Though she did take care of her material needs I guess, if that counts. Her alone takes a point off the rating for her obvious role in screwing up her own daughter, and also, I refuse to believe mothers act that way. Yeah, call me gullible.

Ujou, I’m not exactly sure of his role in all of this apart from being the guy who slept with both the mother and the daughter. I am sure he has other issues, but I stopped caring for them as words started coming out of his mouth. He didn’t seem to care about any of them and at the same time had a lost, empty look in his eyes. Maybe that was his role to begin with. To himself, he had talents (outside the bedroom) and wasn’t putting it to any use. Didn’t even know if he wanted to until they get taken away. When the option gets taken off the table is when you realize you wanted it all along. Life is cruel that way.

I felt for Shouko and her situation but her best friend's, Miu, story broke my heart. You get hints of it in the beginning because of her hostility towards men as a whole, but it’s not until a few chapters later that your suspicions are confirmed true. Being a victim of sexual abuse is one of the most horrible things that can happen to anyone, Miu knows that first hand.
She was probably harder to describe than Shouko. Not because Shouku’s problem were minuscule or not important but in my opinion pale in comparison. For the sole reason that Miu didn’t feel she could tell anyone while Shouko spoke about what was bothering her. At one point she was close to saying something but she didn’t and hoping that person would notice and ask about it, but they didn‘t.
The part that got to me was that her own best friend wasn’t there for her and was so busy with her own things that she didn’t bother to look Miu’s way when there was clearly something wrong and the signs were always there.

To be taken advantage of by the people expected to protect you is brutal for a young girl, any girl, any person actually. I can’t say that Miu’s actions were justified in what she did, having not been in that position. But I felt for her character, more so at times than the protagonist who didn’t care for anyone but herself.

The art on this one, is average. If I think about it, really think about it, the art was mostly insignificant. Yes it matters and we know it’s there, obviously, but the bigger picture was these four people and what they were going through. Although I have to hand it to the mangaka for the making them look their despair in their eyes. I saw it, if anything else.

I want to say that the ending tied everything up in a nice bow and doves flew by as cherry blossom petals fell to the ground. The ending, it wasn’t like that at all. For some characters, what happened was merely a speed bump in their drive to work. For others it was the words, “To be continued,” at the end of a book. For the unlucky ones, is killing the monsters in a nightmare and opening up the door to freedom only to find it’s another quest. Either way the ending sucked. It didn’t tell us anything. We might as well have paid for the movie, liked it enough, and then the power goes out and nothing. At the end people just walked it off, like if it was nothing. Except for the ones who got screwed, metaphorically speaking.

What I got from this manga isn’t something necessarily in the subject, but it did make me appreciate my own family a little more. So, appreciate what you have today, because it may not be here tomorrow. That includes people.

The Extra Story “Angel Night” is a more uplifting story and yet still sad. Which I think is the recurring theme of this author…
It was about a girl who's life isn't going as she hopes and being on the brink of suicide gets scent an angel to collect her soul. The characters are better in this one, by better I mean less hostile and evil.

I won’t go into depths on this one. If you get something free with your purchase, just take it…
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ALLEGRO AGITATO
ALLEGRO AGITATO
Autor Mizushiro Setona
Artista Mizushiro Setona