People seem to have an odd blind-spot with regards to Shouko's shitty behavior.

That tends to happen with murder victims.

Also, the Satou is the main character of the story. The entire build-up to her murder of Shouko is a key turning point in the story. Her previous killings were at least somewhat justifiable—the painter was throttling Shio when she clocked him, and those guys in the park (if she actually killed them rather than simply mutilating them) were violent rapists. But then she killed her only friend in cold blood simply to make sure her secret stayed safe.

This is the only thing that Satou ever regrets, and it seems to torment her and catalyze some major changes in behavior. It's the point of the story where we know that Satou is doomed. Arguably, it's her unease with what she's done that ends up killing her (look at the scene where she leaves her ring behind). She has done the unforgivable and, even if she survives, she'll never escape. So Shouko's behavior is really beside the point of the story.

last edited at Jan 8, 2020 10:05AM

People are so angry in this discussion

"i'm a slut but i'm only doing that to find true love"
wtf is this garbage crap

I'm a little late to the party but boy this was one impressively twisted series

Satou did nothing wrong. Satou x Shio for life.

Satou did nothing wrong. Satou x Shio for life.

For certain restricted values of "life."

I've always felt like this series was the Yin to Yuzumori-san's Yang- one of them does the onee-loli relationship as a super sweet highschool comedy while still engaging with the darker implications of its own premise in a relative mature way, and the other takes the everyone is a heartless arsehole route, but makes our leading pair just likeable and vulnerable enough to make you kindasorta root for them.

I've always felt like this series was the Yin to Yuzumori-san's Yang- one of them does the onee-loli relationship as a super sweet highschool comedy while still engaging with the darker implications of its own premise in a relative mature way, and the other takes the everyone is a heartless arsehole route, but makes our leading pair just likeable and vulnerable enough to make you kindasorta root for them.

Yep, pretty much right on the money.

But only one made you feel like your brain and/or conscience needed steam-cleaning after every chapter. Hint: Not Yuzumori-san.

Whhhhyyyyyyy

Well this was a wild ride, that ending was so unsatisfying as I wanted this nice wrapped up good end with the family, but I get why it went the way that it did, because it was too late to save Shio. I’m so friggin glad she didn’t actually die from the suicide attempt though because what the fuck

I know that I'm about a year late to this pain train in the forum, but for fuck sakes people don't understand that good stories don't have to be happy and bad people can be good characters. There's more to think about and appreciate from this hateful ending than if Shio and Sato really did get to live their happy sugar life. There is no happy sugar life to be had for these two.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

:'(

Yeah, I don't think this series could have ended any other way. It was really sad from start to finish, just seeing a world populated with traumatized people who couldn't break the cycle. I hope Shio manages to take the unconditional love part to heart without falling into the same pit as Satou and hurting more people, but it seems pretty unlikely given the themes of the story.

There's apparently a sequel manga (Or maybe its an extra? I don't know tbh) of sorts that takes place after the events of HSL, like teenage Shio.

Ooooh, what's it called .>.

Ah, yuri genre truly has so many masterpieces!

Summary: Sato did nothing wrong. Her "friend" was never her friend at all. She wavered when she seen Sato's aunt. And when she discovered the truth instead of trying to reason with Sato (though I admit, it is a dumb idea, but she most likely wouldn't die in that scenario), the first thing to do for her is to sneakly take a picture and sell her friend to someone, ultimately dooming her entire "castle".

That being said, despite I , to some degree , admire Sato, its better to stay away from her, the farthest the better.

Great story with alot of controversial points and usage of gray to black morale spectrum.

I even started to doubt if it is really that good to be completely sane and rational. The characters are fucked, but when it comes to love , their devition is something... Don't know, inspiring? I don't think this is the right word.

Compared to that love , real life love is somehow down to earth, pragmatic and banal. Sterile. (Unless you are unexperienced teenager). It is almost like the "imaginary" love is real and the "real" one is fake.

Sato did nothing wrong

Except, like, killing a couple of people and kidnapping a child and stuff lol

Jokes aside, I agree that her friend wasn't really that good of a friend. But it's better to, you know, cut ties with them or something rather than kill them XD
(though, that is quite an effective way to cut ties...)

To be honest, this series wasn't really my cup of tea. I don't usually enjoy stories where literally everyone turns out to be mentally unstable for some reason lol. I've read and even enjoyed other series with a bunch of crazy characters (Kitanai Kimi ga Ichiban Kawaii being a good example) but somehow this one just didn't work for me, it felt too exaggerated.

The one thing I reaaaally liked though, was the ending. It was the most perfect ending the author could give for me. I really appreciated the fact that Shio didn't go back with her brother, even after Sato's death. For the greater part of the series she was more confused and helpless than anything (which makes sense given that she was a kid), but I liked that she chose to stay with Sato, even after her memory cleared up. She had moved on and she had already found love in someone else. Also, I should mention here, it was pretty cool how we saw Shio grow up in the duration of the series, both physically and mentally: she started as an innocent and naive little girl and grew to be a person capable of thinking and deciding for herself.

last edited at Aug 12, 2021 9:58AM

I really hope there will be a sequel :((

I watched this anime like three years ago, and I remember basically having a breakdown after the ending. But I feel like it was cathartic for me back then. The manga didn't hurt even half as much, as the anime did, but I still felt kind of a catharsis. I'm glad I finally read this manga to the end. From the very few anime I've watched in my life, this one has a special place in my heart.

One of the saddest endings ngl (༎ຶ⌑༎ຶ)

While this manga has it's flaws (What manga doesn't?) and some problematic stuff (Again. What manga doesn't?) it was a pretty good one. I don't think the author ever intended for the viewers to see Sato or anyone as 'In the right'. It's a story aobut some broken people making bad choices and trying to justify said bad choices.

Ultimately, I think it was a pretty good story. Hopefully Shio can recover and have a chance for a normal life.It might be too late for Asahi, but I can hope he has a happy ending, too.

can someone sum up what happened? I read 3 chapters because I didn't like it that much, but I'm curious to know what happened in the end. I also read the last chapter but i didn´t understand anything.

can someone sum up what happened? I read 3 chapters because I didn't like it that much, but I'm curious to know what happened in the end. I also read the last chapter but i didn´t understand anything.

Pink girl sees lolis brother who is looking for her.
Best friend is suspicious of pink girl for never seeing her lover who she thinks is a boy.

Pink girl takes friend to see crazy aunt.
Friend is put off.
Friend sees and takes photo of pink girl and loli and gets murdered.

They try to run away but brother catches on they run to roof top were they jump only loli survives and is fucked up and sees pink girl everywhere.

last edited at Dec 8, 2021 1:38PM by OrangePekoe

I've seen this so many times and watch this so many times, so don't mind me. I'm just here to breathe since most of the comments here are more acceptable than on the anime sites full of karens and saints.

Most wonderful uplifting ending ever!

Nice epiloge. We got to read her final thoughts

last edited at Apr 13, 2022 11:08PM