症年症女

SHOUNEN SHOUJO

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
3
RELEASE
April 4, 2017
CHAPTERS
16

DESCRIPTION

The story centers on an 11-year-old boy who hates the lack of unique individuality in the world, and hates that he himself lacks individuality. One day, he finds that everything that might give a person individuality — such as their faces, names, and personal information — have been erased from his sight, as if by a marker pen. He later learns that this is a fatal disease, and that he will not live past 12.

He rejoices, having acquired the unique trait of "tragic main character," and moreover takes great pleasure in being the first to die from this disease so the disease will be named after him. At least, until a girl appears with the same disease. He quickly becomes disappointed that the girl seems to have a more unique spark to her, and her life expectancy is even shorter than his. To top it off, he learns that the disease might end up being named after her. He resolves to kill her before that happens.

CAST

Shounen
Shoujo
Doc

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

Noosekun
76/100
When the world's lack of individuality takes away ur ability to see just that. A disease or a blessing?
An appreciation review with some explanations

Shounen Shoujo is centred on Boy and his inability to recognise people's faces, their names and personalities, even the names of locations, that serve to differentiate them from others which are fundamentally the same. The rest you already know from the synopsis.
Although, as he plans the different methods to kill Girl, he also grows closer to her each day, subconsciously affecting his determination.

It's a short story that encourages you, even for just a few moments, to examine yourself and question whether your 'individuality' is genuine or a facade.*

I'm sure this would be more appreciated by a Japanese person/someone well-versed in Japanese, since they're able to understand kanji wordplays and definitions more accurately. There were a few times when I thought "It must've been difficult to translate this". I had to reread some sentences a couple of times to understand their intended meaning and questioned whether certain scenes actually happened or not. A bit unrelated but the thought bubbles at the start were too repetitive and annoying like ok I get it you want to kill her before the disease does.

SPOILERS AHEAD

"If you die, you have no individuality or fame. Then what meaning is there in assuming fame after death?" This epiphany was a great reality check that propelled the story and a nice food-for-thought; his legacy would've been left behind... but that's exactly it, left behind.

*Genuine/facade
this is something commonly explored in other mediums you've most likely consumed already so im not gonna go into it. Just thought it was a nice addition, although only mentioned briefly here, it provided greater worldbuilding (lack of better word) of sorts to the disease.
Immortality
They'll definitely die at the age of 12 but can't be killed beforehand. This was one of the many iffy and unexplained concepts until the epilogue.

By removing all individualities from everything foreign, it accepts everything as equal, undifferentiated.

The basis of the disease. Self-explanatory with the people around our protagonist but the biological explanation was a little heavier:
This process is likened to welcoming antibodies as opposed to creating them from within. Through this, medical transplants and transfusions theoretically have a much greater chance of success and expand their possibilities, as the body of the infected wouldn't reject any of them.
Human cells replace themselves every 12yrs but the Yamai Disease also nullifies this, meaning dead/damaged cells and whatnot can't be replaced, ultimately leading to premature death by old age. However, you might argue that it's quite contradicting to them mentioning the disease "improves recovery and regeneration abilities". Note that this recovery and regeneration only seems to apply to someone who is suffering from illnesses/ailments. Little Girl was supposed to get a heart transplant due to a heart issue (I don't think this was hinted previously, only mentioned in Ch15.5). With her own body being unable to 'replace cells' themselves, the transplant would be the only [medically known] way to keep her alive, but she refused it leading to her [earlier] death. Conversely, Boy merely died of old age, not a sickness. Those infected were immortal in the sense that their cells will never 'change' (be replaced/replenished). Their definition of CHANGE here is quite loose but I feel it still works for the purpose of figurative storytelling.

tldr: Yamai Disease welcomes antibodies including healthy ones (through transplants/transfusions etc.) to recover from ailments like Girl's heart BUT Boy never got any other illness (had no need for transplants etc.), he merely died of old age as a result of the disease's nullification of the body's regular replacement of cells.

Their Ability to See Each Other

Simply because they have the same symptom. Referring to the aforementioned basis of the disease again, their illness essentially convinces them the other is 'the same' and therefore doesn't need to be covered. However, the moment Boy acknowledged his 'love/affection' for the Girl, her sexual characteristics became more prominent to him and he subconsciously started differentiating her. His body no longer recognised Girl as merely 'someone with the same disease', thus omitting her individuality. Quite an ironic contrast as Boy believed he could see her due to her notably obscure yet charming individuality.
The only other time he saw people was the graphic scene of the dead fakes, as they had lost their individuality.

Ending

Maybe they're for symbolism or smth but really didn't understand the significance of panels like the doctors in the classroom deceased, and why they're there in the first place, those 2 pages felt so random.

Girl's artistic intentions were... disturbingly wholesome? She didn't want to die in the hands of someone who loved her, or to die alone, so she chose to die at the convenience of both her and Boy, to have the ending they both wanted. Her refusing euthanasia and choosing to 'smile in anguish' instead as she promised was bittersweet. Also this was perfect:

Shounen Shoujo has a great concept. I just personally wish that NISIOISIN provided small, more in-depth explanations throughout the work, instead of slapping all the explanations in an epilogue with "btw this is this cuz this". It became more of a guessing game/mystery with insufficient or lacking [in quality] hints. The sudden mention of the heart transplant just wasn't it. And unless you count, her vomiting and having more regular checkups as hella subtle hints, no, they were not indicative of it as those were expected nearing her death day.

A very enjoyable read overall, I always appreciate short psychological/philosophical stories that have solid and resolved conclusions. It has its downsides but I guess, those too, give it its individuality.
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