Hmmm? I actually always liked this story a lot. I always thought the main point of the story was
Children ultimately are chained to their family and have no actual freedom to resist until they become adults. Nagisa tries to fight with "bullets" against her situation and decides to go into the force because of her brother being a hikikomori in order to earn money instead of continuing her education. Mokuzu escapes from reality by using sugarcoating her situation with lies, her "candy bullets". In the end the meeting of these two resulted in them trying to change the paths that they were about to take, but in the end Mokuzu became into sea foam as predicted. In the end Mokuzu and Nagisa were helpless and could not change their situation as children.
Seemed more like a coming of age story if anything else. Albeit, with a darker , tragic tone.
except that isn't true, children have, if anything more freedom to resist and change than adults do, children are the future for a reason, ugh if that was the message i hate this even more because the message was dumb
You think so? I'd rather say that's depending on your point of view.
I admit I feel a little sad this story gets so much flag, because I rather liked it (of course it gave me a terrible feeling, too, but I still think it's a good story). So please don't feel offended if I try to defend it.
Also, on a side note, the spoiler tags are a little late, as the ending was pretty much summed up (being a downer, I mean). I'll use them anyways for those people not reading the entire thread. :)
Yes, the story is sad and depressing and yes, ultimately Mokuzu's try to change her life for the better failed in the end. That doesn't mean the story has a dumb or wrong message, imo. For once, I believe it has an important critique on society, or rather the adults in the story. The teacher, when breaking down in the end, says he wanted to try to protect the girl, but was unable to do something because the law and Mokuzu's claim her dad was a good guy prohibited it. For me, that's a pretty lame excuse. Nagisa's brother, on the other hand also had something he "couldn't do", i.e. leaving the house. But when his sister really needed him, he overcame that and helped her. He was too late for Mokuzu, granted, but I dare say that for Nagisa it would have been even worse if she hadn't gotten help from somewhere. Another part of this story's "message" is what Nagisa learned. From the start, she more or less despised adults and thought she knew it all even though being a child. She thought to have understood the cruel world and that she had to do everything on her own, despite being a child. In the end, she understood that she may not be totally independent from other people. That doesn't even have to do much with being a child or not, I see it more as a general thing. If, for whatever reason, you can't take things on, ask for help. She did, with her brother, and he listened.
Of course that doesn't change the fact that Mokuzu had a horrible life and died. That's the tragedy here. To me, that only emphasizes the meaning of the whole story. Saying it's point os moot just because it is so sad doesn't do it justice, imo.
Sorry for the long post, btw. :)
