BITTER VIRGIN

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

• 

  Laniaka

  50/100
  Whenever a character does or says something mean it is ignored or forgiven instantly.

  When I first read this manga many years ago I enjoyed it so much that I reread it again immediately afterwards. But there was something about it that made it hard for me to consider it a favourite even though I liked it so much. Now that I read it again after many years I still see the appeal. The manga has some amazing pacing for a romance manga: All the chapters feel relevant to the story yet it is not rushed. Sadly the manga does have many flaws.

  The story starts with Daisuke saying that he is not interested in our heroine Aikawa because of how she shirks away from men. Maybe this is where the title comes into play? She acts bitter towards men even though she is a virgin. Or that is what Daisuke assumes. Soon he finds out that she was a victim of sexual abuse for years and has given birth to a child, which has been given up for adoption. He cannot believe it at first but gradually accepts the facts and falls in love with her. She on her part lets him get close because she believes what he said when he proclaimed he was not interested in her. And of course she gradually develops feelings as well.

  This heavy setting helps the manga avoid some of the typical romance manga cliches. For example there is no need for the usual forced indecision and misunderstandings since there is a perfectly good and natural reason why the main characters don't instantly get together.
  There are two very typical cliche characters in the form of the bitchy jealous girl and the childhood friend. However the way these two characters act properly embraces these traits. The childhood friend really acts like she knows that Daisuke is not interested in her and the bitchy girl is really forcing herself onto Daisuke. Which is partially his fault since he is an idiot and he leads her on at first.

  All of the characters besides Aikawa are a bit mean in some way while still being nice overall. This is great because it makes them feel more real. However they still lack any kind of depth. And the manga does not handle this meanness in a meaningful way. Whenever a character does or says something mean it is ignored or forgiven instantly.
  A jarring example of this is the moment where Aikawa tells one of the other characters that she has given birth to the child of her stepfather. This character then says that this makes them jealous of Aikawa... I mean... Really??? There is a reason for the character feeling this way but this reason is not enough by any means. I could accept this if it was just this character not thinking things through and saying it out of frustration. But Aikawa does not protest at all. And even worse, the manga itself doesn't do anything to show that it is not ok to say this. At least when there was a false rape accusation one of the characters thought this was not ok, even though all the others were apparently fine with it...

  The ending of the manga is also really bad because it completely focuses on their feelings of not feeling good enough for each other. This overemphasis kills most of the feeling of reward the reader would normally feel for them finally getting together.

  The lack of exploration of the topic and the shallow characters prevent the story from becoming anything special. However it could still have been an entertaining read due to the great pacing and because of how the characters are realistic in some aspects. But sadly the aforementioned lack of consequences really ruins it.

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• 

  mintaffinity

  60/100
  A clumsy yet honest story about trauma

  
  
  All of this is to say that Bitter Virgin, while fitting into this niche, also offers something different. At first glance, I was ready to drop this one on principle alone. When our main character learns about his love interest's trauma, very real (as in relevant to the real world) and pertinent trauma, through a goddamn confessional booth I was ready to close this story and never open it back up again. I'm not a prude, and I don't believe there's a certain way sexual traumas need to be presented in media. A staggeringly large amount of people experience sexual trauma at least once in their life, and there is no one correct way to process that trauma so by virtue there is no one right way to portray it, but this was just a little much for me. Something about this title kept me around, though, and I ended up blazing through the whole series in a day or two.
  
  I'm not here to say that Bitter Virgin is necessarily "good." The art style is the worst kind of ugly, mid-aught shit that is just the worst to look at; nothing interesting going on to justify the ugliness. The plotting made me laugh out loud at some parts with how transparently convenient events fell into place. That first big scene where the main character conveniently overhears every horrible thing that has ever happened to this poor girl during her life just because she decides to confess it to a booth in a Catholic church when he just so happens to be hiding in there is the level of contrivance we're going for with this whole series. The dialogue is charming in its own way but it is certainly not realistic and is not stupid enough to be campy. I will say that I do like the characters (aside from one whose presence I felt was unnecessary but I guess needed to be around for the final contrivance of the manga), even the annoying, gyaru bully character (although whew, she is rough to look at). At times they can feel more like mouthpieces than characters, but there's enough depth to them to carry the series through its short 4-volume run. I'm particularly fond of the main character. It's nice to see a nice guy who isn't a "nice guy," and I like that he genuinely reflects on new information he learns and uses it to better himself as a person.
  
  And on that note, it's time to talk about the crux of this series. There is no beating around the bush that this manga is about a girl who undergoes horrific, real sexual violence and is now dealing with the residual trauma surrounding this time in her life. Everything about this series orbits Hinako's trauma, so if the way this trauma is explored does not jive with you, this story will not be for you. The reason I stuck with this story despite the frankly juvenile way it portrays sexual trauma is because I felt something genuine in it from the author. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt and see her art all the way through, and I found some valuable gems hidden in there.
  
  This work reads like escapist fantasy for rape victims. A girl is not seen as broken because of her trauma; well, maybe she is, but first and foremost she is seen as beautiful and worthy of love because of her trauma. Daisuke loves Hinako because she was abused. Is this toxic romanticization of sexual abuse? Maybe. I think that is ultimately going to come down to an individual reader's judgement. When I take on the lens of reading this manga through an escapist fantasy, I feel that romanticization is inherent to that fantasy. I do not believe that it is toxic in this work, however. Though Daisuke, a man, is our main character, the manga always firmly holds a female gaze. The things that Daisuke says and the things that Daisuke thinks are things that I can see a female victim wishing a man would say and think about them. Daisuke never expresses sexual desire towards Hinako (which is a good thing because I really don't think Kei Kusunoki would've been able to pull that off successfully). Most of Daisuke's eternal monologues focus on him empathizing (not sympathizing) with Hinako and understanding why she is the way that she is, and through that conversation he has with himself, he comes to care for her because he understands her better as a person. Hinako's trauma is beautiful to Daisuke, but not in a way a broken bird in a cage would be beautiful to some sick freak. Daisuke doesn't get off on Hinako's trauma; in fact, he's horrified by it. He can't believe that someone his own age could go through something like that and remain a relatively normal person. He then takes this knowledge and uses it to metamorphose himself into a better person, someone who is mature enough to be worthy of Hinako, and there's something beautiful about that. He also (spoilers) <span class='markdown_spoiler'><span>does not get the girl in the end. They confess their love for one another, but Hinako decides she is deeply uncomfortable with anyone other than her mother knowing something so private about her, and the fact that Daisuke has pursued a relationship with her despite knowing about her past understandably makes her extremely uncomfortable as well. The manga ends with Hinako taking control of her life and deciding to move back with her mother; essentially making the high school with Daisuke a distinct place where she learned how to better process her trauma. Then she moves forward with her life, more confident.</span></span>
  
  Though I know disclosure on the internet is never required, I do feel at this point that it's important to disclose that I have experienced sexual trauma in the past. It's important to me that I do this because I don't want to seem like I'm talking over survivors. Though I've never been through what Hinako has been through, I find myself empathizing with her through Daisuke and find myself coming to love her as well...because it helps me come to love myself. Hinako is far from a perfect portrayal of a survivor. In fact, I'd argue that she is too perfect of a victim. In reality, victims are never perfect. Victims always have something that someone can say about them that would, to some, indict them of their "punishment." Hinako is absent from any of those. She is truly a pure, innocent victim with no impure thoughts or feelings about what has happened to her. In this way she is "virginal" as the title suggests. This presents some issues that I feel is beyond the scope of a simple review, but I did want to point that out.
  
  Bitter Virgin is far from a perfect piece of media, and I honestly have no idea who I would recommend this to, but if you made it this far into the review, and it sounds like any of this could be interesting to you, then I would suggest checking it out. Just be sure to do your research beforehand as to not potentially trigger yourself. While most of the melodrama in this series is simply that: intense levels of melodrama, there are also moments where the melodrama crosses over into the "real" territory, and I can see some imagery being extremely triggering to some. There are no rape scenes that are especially violent, and I can't remember any nudity, but there is the mundanity to it, and as a survivor myself, that mundanity is oftentimes the most triggering aspect. Borrowing from an [article](https://jennshellzone.com/2021/08/26/trauma-movies-rape-revenge-ptsd/) by the wonderful [<a target='_blank' href='https://anilist.co/user/spooky'>@spooky</a>_coochie](https://twitter.com/spooky_coochie) on Twitter, for some survivors, assault in media that is over-the-top is not necessarily always triggering. Sometimes insane acts of violence in media can be cathartic and help survivors work through their trauma in a safe, removed environment. I see this kind of melodrama in the same light as Jenn sees horror media. But as I was saying earlier, Bitter Virgin does stray out of that territory, so please do what's necessary to protect yourself. My DMs are open if you need specific events or circumstances listed for you to know if this would be okay for you to read.
  
  And to wrap things up, I would not call Bitter Virgin a good manga, but I would call it a heartfelt manga. After reading, I learned that the mangaka wrote this story largely to work through the trauma she had experienced by giving birth to a stillbirth baby. I believe you can feel that desire to work through trauma throughout this whole work, and that's what gives the series strength to me. Because of that, I can look past the many, many flaws of this work and find something beautiful in it to love.~~~

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• 

  Rework7288

  75/100
  Unpolished and clumsy. Honest and moving. Overall, probably worth your time.

  Bitter Virgin wears its heart on its sleeve, for better or for worse.

  In brief: High-school playboy Daisuke thoughtlessly tells a friend that there's only one girl in their class he's uninterested in—Hinako Aikawa, the female lead. She overhears him, and surprisingly isn't even a little offended. Through a contrived plot device, we (and Daisuke) soon learn why: Hinako is a victim of sexual abuse and is terrified of men, but she can relax around Daisuke because she knows he's uninterested in her. Daisuke, meanwhile, is moved by her story and takes an (at first platonic) interest in her. The remaining 3.5 volumes are a bittersweet love story about trauma, loss, and family.

  Let's be honest: Even bad manga are pretty good these days. Or if not good, then at least polished. You don't see as much of the clumsiness, for lack of a better word, that was so characteristic of mid-tier manga twenty years ago. Poses and proportion tend to make sense; official English translations feel natural (as do even unofficial ones—scanlations have gotten really good); there is usually at least some effort at making the characters feel like real people.

  So Bitter Virgin is a bit of a blast from the past. I don't mean that 100% pejoratively—in some ways I'm nostalgic for the era of janky translations and mannequin poses—but I can't deny that Virgin feels dated. It is clumsy through and through.

  • The art is a little bit off: It feels like the work of a talented amateur who can draw individual characters well but is still learning how to compose a frame with two or more people.

  • Things sometimes happen solely because the plot needs them to. The most obvious example is how Daisuke learns of Aikawa's secret (she goes to an abandoned church to confess her "sin" of having been raped and having given up her child for adoption, and he's hiding in the confessional and pretends to be the priest, not realizing how serious her secret will be—there are like eight problems with this from a narrative-plausibility perspective). But there are also things that happen out of the blue just to give Daisuke an opportunity to protect Aikawa.

  • The characterization is probably the weakest part of the series. Supporting characters—particularly Daisuke's sister and his sort-of girlfriend—change moods at the drop of a hat, and the girlfriend in particular seems to run on a blend of Moon Logic and violent obsession. And on several occasions, a character will do something genuinely inexcusable, only for everyone else to not only forgive but immediately forget.

  Despite all this, I don't hate Bitter Virgin. It is, I think, a very daring and deeply honest story. The strongest point of the whole thing is Daisuke's internal drama—he realizes that he's in love with Aikawa but also believes it would be deeply wrong of him to act on that, because the only reason she feels safe around him is that she believes he is uninterested in her. The exploration of Aikawa's trauma and her efforts to build a new identity for herself is very strong as well. All of this is touched, but not spoiled, by the same awkwardness that inflects the series as a whole. But as I said, this is a series that wears its heart on its sleeve—a series that has such an important story to tell that it sort of trips over itself in doing so.

  All in all, I think Bitter Virgin is a good way to spend an afternoon. It's only four volumes long, and if you read the first couple of chapters, you'll know pretty quickly whether it's for you or not.

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