YAKEDO SHOUJO
STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
4
RELEASE
July 23, 2018
CHAPTERS
23
DESCRIPTION
Shiina Hinami, a high school student with a bright personality that wears an eye patch covering her left eye is loved by everyone in her class. Kaname Aizawa, a classmate, one day sees her secret notebook entitled "Mind Note". Upon reading the notebook, Kaname makes a grim discovery about Shiina.
CAST
Shiina Hinami
Kaname Aizawa
CHAPTERS
REVIEWS
mintaffinity
65/100The natural conclusion to the manic pixie dream girlContinue on AniListOuch the Edge TM! I picked up Yakedo Shoujo after watching a multi-hour long iceberg video in whence the Youtuber cold-opened the video with the dictionary definition of the word "Horror." So basically I knew I was going to be getting exactly the kind of content I was looking for there. Yakedo appealed to me in particular because I'm finishing up another semester in my endless groundhog day length career of school, and I'm slipping further into the pit of despair, and I just need some good, fun, wholesome edge, okay? And Yakedo delivers perfectly on that promise. The concept of edge as a narrative tool in general has been fascinating for me to think about lately. I *was* the edgelord back in my middlehighschool emo conservative-christian-family-girl, sneaking-over-to-my-friend's-house-to-smoke-cigarettes, being-told-I'm-mature-for-my-age-by-boys-5-years-my-senior, Gir-backpack-wearing days. I was writing the edgy Dark!Hetalia fanfiction on DeviantArt. I had an entire birthday party where my friends gathered around my shitty laptop to play The Path. I was definitely terrified of Salad Fingers but watched it all anyways. My most beloved manga growing up were Elfen Lied and Mirai Nikki. Edge will always hold a special place in my heart. And Yakedo has some interesting things to say about the nature of edge. On its surface, Yakedo Shoujo is a manga about a girl who's bubbly and wants to die and a boy who's gloomy and doesn't want to live (a very important distinction here). It's about these two falling in love and being in a dysfunctional relationship and having a plethora of other dysfunctional relationships surrounding them. So basically it's about any group of alternative high schoolers. You'll have people online talk about this manga and list it on their Top 50 Most Disturbing Manga of All Time, but in comparison to a lot of other fucked up manga, Yakedo is pretty tame. It has some relatively disturbing scenes of animal abuse and there is sexual abuse and suicide, but if you watch/read a fair amount of edgy shit, you've likely seen most of it before. I don't think the content in this manga is there for shock value but is rather there to be a narrative device for getting its characters to a certain emotional state. There are some things that are just best expressed through messy edge. On the internet, and especially on review websites such as this one, the term "edge" is almost exclusively used as a derisive term. If a piece of art utilizes edge is is bad because it has not expressed itself through a more sophisticated means or it is making light of serious topics that deserve to be explored with more tactfulness. I agree with this to some extent. There are definitely moments when edge is used for shock value and since edge is an aesthetic, that necessitates aestheticizing certain taboo topics like abuse and suicide and underage drug usage and suffering in general. I think these are valuable conversations to have, and I would never say that people are wrong to be put off by these aspects of a piece of media. However, as a former edgelord, I must go to bat for edge and attempt to make a case that it can be a valuable tool and that, most importantly, preteen and teenage suffering deserves to be taken seriously rather than chided for being "just a phase" that the teens in question will grow out of. But now we must return to this manga that I am purportedly writing a review of. I don't find it useful to examine the story of this manga because there really isn't much of one to speak of. Girlfriend wants to die but Boyfriend only kind of wants to die. They are both into some pretty fucked up shit, but it's clear that they both care for each other even though they're perpetuating a toxic mindset cycle for themselves. They have both also suffered some pretty massive trauma that ends up playing a big role in why they're both fucked up and want to die. At the end of their journey, Boyfriend decides that he does not want to commit double suicide with his girlfriend and then Girlfriend promptly disappears out of his life forever. I find this to be particularly interesting because the girlfriend, Shiina, blends the chuunibyou archetype with the depressed gf archetype (I mean c'mon she's eve got the eyepatch). In this way, she becomes the perfect manic pixie dream girl for our male MC. She allows him to have sex with her, to strangle her, to use her. She commits acts of violence in front of him so he can be a voyeur and learn about himself through this violence. Then at the end of his journey (because let's not kid ourselves, it is his journey), he learns that he actually doesn't want to die and ends up leaving this messy situation a changed and better man while we never get to know the conclusion of Miss Thanatos. Well that sounds entirely unappealing. So then why does this story, and any story with edge in it for that matter, attract any kind of female audience. I can't speak for everyone, but in my case it's because these Death Drive girlfriends are iconic and relatable. I can see so much of myself and my former friends in these characters. I thought they were cool when I was their age, and now that I'm an adult, I find them nostalgic. There is also a part of me that wants to be able to shield these characters, and by extension my former self, from the trauma that is being a 14-year-old. Being 14 is fucking hellish, and I do not wish it on anybody. It is shocking to me that so many people make it past their teenage years with the no support that is there for them. Especially 14 year olds that are neurodivergent or queer or marginalized or part of an alternative subculture or are going through abuse or any of those things combined. I remember what it was like back then, and it fucking sucked, and sometimes the only way you have to express any of that teen angst is through edge. Once you get older and are able to reflect and crystalize your experiences, you and express those feelings in a more codified, avant-garde way (a la Houseki no Kuni), but until you get to that point, you just have to paint your nails black, cut thumb holes in your hoodies, wear knee high socks, put on some MCR and muck it out in the trenches. And that's why I will always have a special place in my heart for edge. Even the bad edge. And don't get me wrong, Yakedo isn't bad by any means. It fumbles the landing on some of its characters but ultimately I find it treats its death-obsessed teens with respect. It never once points a finger at them and laughs at their suffering. These teens also find a support network within themselves. God knows it's not a perfect support network, but I think a lot of people will be able to relate to having most of your friends in high school be suicidal and having to stay up with them some nights just to be there for them. Yakedo also makes some attempt to explain why teens would be suicidal and why saying things like "it gets better!!!" rarely works. I saw one review on MAL mention that this manga was made for people who think "im14andthisisdeep" posts are actually deep, and they were saying that as a point of derision but also they were right. Yakedo is for 14 year old edgelords ,and I think that's great. Teenagers deserve to have their suffering taken seriously and edge deserves to be examined as any other narrative technique would be. Hablmet
65/100At a first glance edgy and black read turns out to be black and not edgy...and something worth readingContinue on AniList__NOTE:__ This review contains spoilers for a large portion of the manga and mentions of violence, unpleasant imagery and gore. Reader discretion is advised, and I would recommend reading the manga beforehand. More or less because these reviews of mine serve not as a way to excite you into reading this, but mostly to compare your opinions. That's...kind of what a review is, anyway.
_Yakedo Shoujo_ was a complicated read for me. As almost always, I started reading this on a whim as the manga itself was quite short. And oh boy did I trip upon a goldmine. I've been an edgy kid. I think many of us can say they've had some edgy phase in their childhood. For some it was acting wack in high school, for some of us it was weird online roleplay and for some of us it was constantly wearing black everywhere. Edgy and black seem to just come together. The entirety of _Yakedo Shoujo_, is in fact, black. Would I say it's edgy? Probably not, however. It can absolutely give someone this impression. Doesn't start the best way. Speaking of not starting out the best way, I'll be foregoing my usual structure for the review of this manga. I don't think shorter mangas really need that much stratification and structuralization; not everyone is Saussure and not always do you need a complete system for something that can only take up a single afternoon.
First off, for a shorter series, this looks rather nicely drawn. Environments are cool. Characters are even cooler. Shiina's eyepatch is rad. __The reason behind it isn't__. Many of the reasons in _Yakedo Shoujo_ are not cool. Most of them are depressing. I had to take a day-long break from reading cause it simply just messed with my head too much and I needed a time-out before I broke down in front of the laptop. It may sound exaggerated to some, but I'm simply __built wrong__. What I mean to say is that while it appears sorta light-hearted at first, despite the beginning chapters being quite heavy, it keeps up the weight, the pressure, the impact it leaves on one's overall experience of reading it. I would say that this is not an easy read for most people, especially those who have had some mental grief in the past like I've had. _Yakedo Shoujo_ under the mask of edge and murky explores the depths of existentialism and life crises. It's not all sunshine and pools of blood, however. The main cast of characters have a quite rich development in character, but actually __recognizing__ the movement in their identity, their sort of personality and behavior can prove to be difficult. Most of the manga is drowned out in constant polemics about death, dying and the feeling of it. Entire pages, even. You would think the author had a fixation at times (turns out the author does have a tendency for this). If you can actually read past that, however, you get what's a pretty curious read into each of the characters' psyches, though. What seems to be, at least for me, the prime point of the manga is Shiina's presence just seems to _corrupt_ others, or somewhat twist them. It could be her innocent appearance and then the total 180 in dialogue. Kaname's secret depravity that he kept a hold on throughout all of the story before this was easily brought to the surface by Shiina just..__being Shiina__. That's what makes it great. An innocent-looking angel is actually a shadow being cast on one's sanity, a doubt being set in their minds. If there were more elements similar to Shiina, I'd say this is absolutely a must-read. Alas, it is not so. The middle sections seem to repeat themselves and the manga again takes off near the end, where Shiina's presence proves to have pretty powerful consequences. Give me more! Oh, wait, it's over. Damn it.
It may seem like my notes and overall review here sounds totally deranged. You may have a point about that, though I would say that many of the aforementioned elements do indeed appear during one's reading of _Yakedo Shoujo_. I'd say it's worth a read, but while the standout elements are truly standout, the rest is sort of wishy-washy that slightly drags the whole experience down. __6.5/10 // 65/100__
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SCORE
- (2.9/5)
MORE INFO
Ended inJuly 23, 2018
Favorited by 105 Users