PIECE

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

• 

  lennix

  100/100
  Your ripped up pride can be reconstructed slowly day by day, you just need to gather up the pieces.

  I want to start off by saying that Piece absolutely blew my socks off. While some of the events may fall into the realm of melodrama, it is the reactions these characters have in response to these events that makes this manga so special. It doesn't feel forced at all, each action taken is one I fully believe a real person would make, both the good and the bad. I appreciate how Piece doesn't cut any corners, instead it lays all bare and leaves it's characters to pick up the pieces. Alright lets get into to why I love it so much.

  Everything you need to understand about this manga can be found in the title. It's quite an elegant straightforward yet effective visual metaphor; pieces of the overarching mystery, but also of the broken people within it, pieces of the human heart and soul. It finds a balance right on the sweet spot between thematic depth and accessibility, and I just love that. Piece, quite literally, is a story about uncovering the past, about understanding where, why, and how things came to be as they are. While the majority of the narrative is about delving into the past, Piece is sharply focused on the here and now, on who these characters are at this moment in time. It's not about who you were in the past or who you may be in the future, it's about coming to terms with yourself in the present in spite of all the baggage and anxiety that you may carry. The problem is, this is much easier said than done. If self-introspection was easy this world would be a much different place.

  So what's the answer? Of course the answer lies in others, the people around us who influence us, those we rely on. As they say 'no man is an island.' Even still, putting things into practice is a bit difficult. This is where Piece really left an impact on me. I relate hard to those "I want to know", "I'm scared to know", "I want to look away", "I'm afraid to take step and step on a landmine" feelings that Mizuho has throughout the manga. It masterfully captures how another person can worm their way into your mind, causing you to "look away" by putting a label on them to avoid facing the invasive presence they've become in your mind, and yet no matter how much you try to deny it you still "want to know." Looking, truly looking at others and yourself might be the most painful thing you do. To get on your hands and knees dig for something, anything to help you genuinely reach those you care about, it's going to hurt. Sure you may "step on a landmine" or make yourself and others uncomfortable for a time, you may even feel as if you've been left by the wayside. But that's okay, you can't be perfect all of a sudden. Your ripped up pride can be reconstructed slowly day by day, you just need to gather up the pieces.

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• 

  bazazilio

  100/100
  we are scared of resonance, yet we crave it anyway

  I doubt you'd be surprised if someone told you something like "all people have their own stories" or "everyone is a unique individual". Duh. We've all heard it so many times before. However, Piece executes this idea so perfectly that it feels weirdly novel. Not only does the manga show us how complex humans actually are, but it also explores why we sometimes refuse to see that complexity and instead choose to reduce people around us to cliches we can understand. Because the resonance that comes from understanding the complexity of another human being can make us feel all sorts of unpleasant things. 

  Piece follows Suga Mizuho, a "cold, heartless person", who doesn't get too close to people and doesn't let anyone in. She doesn't let herself be affected by people or life events; she keeps her distance and does her own thing. Yet when the mother of her dead former classmate, Origuchi Haruka, asks her to find her daughter's high school boyfriend who got her pregnant, Mizuho somehow decides to get involved. Because everyone vaguely remembers Origuchi as a quiet girl with no friends, Mizuho finds it hard to believe that she had a boyfriend at all. So maybe that's why she feels almost compelled to follow the trail of small pieces of memory that Origuchi left behind. 

  The story would have been good enough if it was just about Origuchi, a dead girl people barely remember. But it's a lot more than that. It begins with morbid curiosity about the private life of a dead girl, but that only serves as bait to lure us along with Mizuho into a complex web of characters that were connected to Origuchi. Led by her desire to know what her classmate was "really like", Mizuho is forced to collide with other people and get close to them to the point of being uncomfortable. 

  I think that Piece is ultimately a story about resonance. The shock of resonance that is created when we choose to really get to know another human being instead of looking away and keeping our distance. People are empathic beings, which is why when we satisfy our craving to get closer to another person, it always hits us back. When we learn something deep and personal about someone, we don't gain impartial "objective" knowledge; instead, we find a point of connection, of resonance that can't leave us unaffected. And yet before, Mizuho was trying to go through life strong, calm, and unaffected, without "feeling anything unpleasant or making others feel that way." But she eventually gives in to the temptation to peek at things that are too close and personal because she also craves that connection, that resonance. Even though it will definitely make everyone involved feel something unpleasant because it just feels too close for comfort. 

  Because Mizuho knows that true familiarity is bound to shake her up, she keeps her distance by reducing people to cliches she can understand. She thinks things like "that girl is always smiling" or "he doesn't feel any sort of emotion" or "she is ordinary, there is nothing special about her". Of course, it is much easier for Mizuho to maintain composure when people around her are neatly sorted into categories. At least that way, they definitely won't get into her head. And because we see the other characters through the eyes of Mizuho, who is looking away from them, we are masterfully manipulated into giving all of them a couple of labels of our own, all based on our reading expectations.

  It's not like Mizuho's fears are unwarranted, though. True resonance is actually unpleasant. No, I mean it. I feel like we have this idealistic idea about opening up and getting close to people, like "it's difficult, but you'll feel better about it" sort of thing. Like we're supposed to just open up to each other, then hold hands and become friends or lovers for life. But Piece reflects how, in reality, that doesn't always happen. Opening up brings some people closer and drives others apart. It makes sense because seeing other people's ugliness and vulnerability and showing them your own fair share of ugliness and vulnerability is very embarrassing in the first place, and afterwards being in the company of those who know your darkest secrets can be very awkward and uncomfortable. And of course, there are some dark secrets and ugliness that you can't accept, no matter how hard you try. 

  But it is still worth the risk. 

  It's better than knowing that something is wrong but deciding not to ask unnecessary questions, better than seeing that someone is in trouble but looking away because it's none of your business. All because you don't want to feel uncomfortable or make anyone feel that way. Too afraid to take the wrong step and step on a landmine, to make other people hate you for asking questions, for trying to help, for doing unnecessary things. Thinking that at least if no one is uncomfortable, you can keep your fake relationship and fake calm, at least you won't drive anyone away. It's always better to be a cringy idiot ready to die of embarrassment than to let other people suffer only to protect your perfect facade of calm.

  But the sad thing is, you can ask all the uncomfortable questions, be brave and embarrassed, get close, uncomfortably close, get wrecked by the resonance, and still not know what that person is "really" like. Because in the end, all you have is your own perception of them, and "no one will get hurt", even if you mould your image of them into one that feels comfortable enough. So the story is cruel in a way, encouraging us all to go looking for something we can never really attain — the soul of another human being. 

  Anyways, I feel like this review is becoming more and more abstract the longer I write it because I'm trying to keep it spoiler-free. I didn't even mention the characters that made the most impact on me, all because I want you to just go into Piece blind, without any pre-conceived notions about which characters are important and which are not. Just go read it and be surprised.

  But imagine one manga making you think all these unnecessary thoughts, haha.

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