Naoki Yamamoto

Originally posted here.

Honestly, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to review this. Since it's my policy to review everything, I considered reading all but the last chapter and then quitting, but that's lame, so here goes. I chose to give this brief series a try because the description up there sounded fascinating. Creepy cult? I am in. The story started out boring and creepy, then it got weird and creepy, which is where it stayed.

What the Mangafox description leaves out (but the Goodreads description I didn't check until later doesn't) is that this cult is built pretty much solely around renunciation of sexual desires. So, here I am, reading along and suddenly BAM fairly graphic sex every couple pages. Seriously. The first few chapters were just these three people on an island, two men and one woman, apparently following the directive of some leader. They are reliant upon deliveries for food and orders, but they don't necessarily come in a timely fashion, so they worry a bit about food.

Mostly what they do is discuss their dreams every day. This manga is trying to say something about dreams and sex, but I really have no clue what. If they have bad, impure dreams, the punishment is to be buried chest deep in the sand and left there for a while. This is all that had really happened. Then some drunkards land their boat on the island, wreak havoc and try to rape the woman. The girl runs off and the men shoot the interlopers. The 'chairman' of the island stays to cleanup the mess and the other guy goes to check on the woman, who confesses to having been turned on by her attempted rape. She is shamed. To make her feel better, he's all 'oh hey, check out my erection,' so that she'll know she's not the only dirty person around. Obviously, she feels guilty for giving him impure thoughts, so she has to give him a blow job.

And that's basically what this manga is, though it expands to include the chairman, who has all sorts of kinky purification rituals in mind. Why did I keep reading? Well, for one thing, it was really short. If there had been any more volumes of this, I wouldn't have bothered. I also really wanted to learn more about the cult. Why do they sit with their feet pressed together? How did this group get started? Why are they all here? How do they have control over this island? What's the world like outside the island? Well, thankfully, that stuff does get explained, but, seriously, I didn't get it. I feel like the manga would have benefited from a bit more balance between to the crazy and the conclusion that explained how all of this came about.

I really don't know what to make of this at all. On Goodreads, it actually has a really high rating, so I suppose there aren't too many people like me stumbling across it with no clue what it's about. This is my third seriously unfortunate manga in a row. I hope I read a good one soon. This might be up your alley if you like reading creepy, mind-bending things with lots of sex.… (altro)

答えは絶対見せずに「自分で考えるんだ！」と追い詰めていく部分は、自己啓発セミナーや新興宗教や、会社の上司の「自分で考えろ！」というのと共通している。何か矛盾しているなーと思うと「心が汚れている」「全てを吐き出していない」「常識がない」と言ってくる。人格を壊したり洗脳するときの常套手段なのかな。

最後の部分は連合赤軍のような形になってしまっているけど、そういうオチのつけ方もアリなのかも。

会社で「１を聞いて１０を知れ！」「自分で考えろ！」って人は、やっていることは上記と同じだと気づいた。誰かに相談しても「我慢しろ」「お前が悪い」となるので、逃げるとしたら会社を辞めるか、一気に飛んでしまうけど死ぬしかなくなる。これをゲーム（最後は嫌な気分で終わるコミュニケーション）と言えるのか分からないけど、どう受け流すか難しい。… (altro)