I read people complaining and I honestly don't know why they're complaining. People up in here with some semi-charmed kind of lives talking about how Kurokawa is unrelatable right now. I'm super jealous, no really.
No. LI-TER-ALL-Y. I'm jealous of you guys, must be nice being the one on the pedestal, looking down on all the commoners from your royal throne. Would you like some tea, mademoiselle? Want to use my hand as your tissue? Go ahead, us commoners can just clean it up later. ;)
Nah but really, some of us have had cursed lives. Kurokawa is completely relatable for me right now. I know it's kind of coming out of nowhere but you knew where this was leading. She's been bullied for having 'intellectual interests' this entire time. Even in childhood she was demeaned as worthless for being a nerdy glasses girl, or ugly--the author threw that in specifically and it's what started out this story. Did y'all forget?
You're surprised because the author saved it as a 'whammy' until this part specifically. This is honestly what the story was written for, you could say this is why this manga was produced, because of this idea; it's the crux of the story. A popular girl falls for a nerd who she berates earlier, and is clapped back with the emotional trauma of what deeds she, and others like her, have committed. These chapters are about mental subjugation and what societally excused social torture does to people. They are very important subjects and were always meant to be here.
I can imagined you're shocked by it, and that's the point. That's why we're here, you're the audience the author was considering. And in Japan it's awful, people have gone to considerable lengths to point out that bullying is a massive problem there.
But it's also a fairytale. Except it's inverted, rather than Cinderella falling for her prince, Cinderella is mortified by the prince's pursuit of her. Honestly this is the more realistic version of events. Cinderella was bullied by her three step-sisters and step-mother all her life. This is kind of like a postmodernist excision of a blunder-y fairy tale where life is lived happily ever after. All the dreams of childhood are replaced by the blunt psychological reality: this character was mentally damaged and you'll have to go to great lengths to repair her. In a way this is the final bridge Nanaki has to traverse. She has to pay the toll of her sins and the sins others have committed against this girl. Love is such a heavy item that it should be paid totally. That's the way it should always go: it's about feeling secure with the person you're with, being willing to loose one's cobwebs and come completely to their side without a thought of guilt in the world.
Nanaki may be shocked right now but either her or somebody will have to right the wrongs. That's the way I see it. And she's done so much to right those wrongs, however we're at the final point where the wrongs were so heavy they've left permanent damage. Somebody will have to do surgery at this point. The sins have been so internalized on Kurokawa's side that it's going to be difficult. Believe!
And I don't care who shows Kurokawa the logic of letting go, but hopefully someone else can at least jumpstart the healing/grieving process to let this girl get back to what she lost when she kept getting put into the 'useless/ugly' column.
Well written. Unfortunately you are the minority so you'll draw some ire from those that don't get it. Passionate as you are, and this speaks to you, the majority will see this as just bad form.
Let us all see how this plays out. Clearly this piece of literature is dramatic enough to invoke these types of discussions.