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of all the triggering topics in this manga, it was the needling hints at reconnecting with his abuser that made me have to pause and come back later. it is an INSTANT launch into rage, please i don't care what any of you believe for yourselves about reconciliation and forgiveness, do NOT treat abuse survivors like they are in the wrong for not wanting anything to do with the people that broke them. abusers are owed nothing from their victims, even when they're dying of cancer, even when they're in jail, even when they've "changed". stop expecting survivors to "be the bigger person", all you're asking is for them to, once again, put their abuser's needs over their own. keep that shit to yourself. signed, a survivor that lost a lot of friends and family when my rapist was dying because to them it was more important that he was "still my dad" than any of the awful shit he did to me. (i was no-contact for the last two and half years of his life, two and half years in which he wasted away and was in awful pain, and i don't regret it one tiny bit.)

Wow, this was a great video. It wasn't just a synopsis summary unlike most manga video essays. Your analysis helped provide an added sense of closure after completing the series, which I wasn't able to find in the surprisingly sparse online discussions. I especially enjoyed your critique of Ichiro's ineptitude and his failures as a protective figure, ultimately only mustering an impotent form of love. He wasn't as faultless as he viewed himself to be, and there were so many points along the trail of blood at which he could've shielded or altogether removed Seiichi from Seiko's corrosive presence.

I genuinely believe that psychedelics are extremely freeing and reinvigorating for victims of generational cycles of abuse. If I never tried to deeply discover my every subconscious and psychological pattern through psychedelics, I might likely have embodied many of the damaging and negative patterns of abuse that I was treated with by my parents. I can forget how easily we can fall into habits and re-embody the things we hated being treated as the most when they are from the people who are supposed to be the most important people in our lives like parents, siblings, close friends, romantic relationships, etc. Psychedelics, when used with respect, are absolutely incredible in their ability to allow you to almost look under the hood of your mind, heart and soul, of your psyche and to really understand the patternicity to the nature of our behavior, what is good, what is bad, and how to change those patterns to become exactly who we want to be, or much closer to that ideal at the least. Obviously a lot of people take psychedelics as a party drug, and often those people are not even doing the psychedelics they thought they bought due to the proliferation of research chemicals from China in the 21st century. But just like the environment we grow up in makes a world of difference in who we end up being, the environment in which we take life-changing, life-altering substances like psychedelics also makes all the difference. It truly has the potential for great change, positive if you truly take it seriously and respect them as a medicine as the shamans have done for millenia, or if you treat it like a fun time and act like a blind bear walking into a beautiful flowered field that also happens to be full of bear traps. Its absolutely positively life-changing, if you do your research, prepare yourself for the journey, and respect the power of that journey, you will almost certainly end up in a much better place than before. It is especially effective with depression, ptsd, and anxiety. But a sad twist of fate is that it is impossible to use to a person's benefit if they suffer from schizophrenia or a similar dissociative mental disorder. There was one friend in town who we all agreed to stop giving psychedelics to because his mother had schizophrenia and it was clear that psychedelics were accelerating the onset of his own schizophrenia. It truly is a tragedy, because we only get 1 life each. And for people battling with one of the most devastatingly difficult mental disorders in life, one of the most potentially curative medicines in human history simply will never work for them because it will always just trigger their schizophrenia or similar disorder with an earlier onset and more serious and intense symptoms the longer that person uses psychedelics.. No matter how genuinely they are taking psychedelics to just live a better life and be a better person to others, it will never have that positive impact and I'm not a doctor but I'm pretty sure the main reason is because of the hallucinogenic and dissociative symptoms unique to schizophrenia and similar dissociative mental health illnesses are made worse by the hallucinogenic and dissociative nature of psychedelics. For someone unafflicted, it really gives them an important new vantage point on themselves. For someone afflicted by schizophrenia, it is like they already have to view their lives and themselves from a secondary vantage point normally, and taking psychedelics just pushes them off the deep end because you can't look at yourself, looking at yourself from a new vantage point, if you know what I mean. It just really sucks and is a cruel tragedy of human nature, where those people need help and clarity perhaps the most and simply cannot take a medicine that to most people is a cure for mental illness.

Thanks for doing this video. I really enjoyed it. The saddest thing for me is that Seeichi and Yuiko didn’t end up together. I was hoping for them to end up together because right before Seeichi went to juvenile detention for killing his cousin, he and Yuiko swore to stay at each other’s side. So I was hoping that Yuiko might stay in contact with Seeichi throughout his time in jail. After all the bad things he went through she was the only light in his life. In the end, he ended up all alone. After reading the chapter where he encountered adult Yuiko with her children, I literally cried.

Hurt people, hurt people

The more I think about it, I hate the translation "Solo Levelling", since the more correct one I've seen is one of the variations of "I Alone Level". How great is the story? I actually bought the entire light novel series, bought up to the current latest illustrated and the first season of the anime. Love them all.

the father is very supportive throughout the series 😢

Tyler see fir

incredible essay work here

didn't watch the video.. and went straight to the manga. My lord. It was.. amazing?

I’m getting skinwalker and Carpenter’s “It” vibes. I like how the sexuality is very secondary, as the creature doesn’t possess that concept. It’s BL in a very vague sense. That’s far more interesting, actually.

0:12 for me it was crossed

The reason why I think the ending are great because how real it's. Seichi can't get what he lost after what he lost because of her mother but at least he got closer, the journey to get to destination are roughs but but the destination is worth it

5 minutes in and I had to stop watching, I need to go an read this right now omg it sounds amazing!

this manga is too realistic for me

What is the manwa title?

Like yeah, Junji Ito is definitely master when it comes to very lovecraftian, cosmic horror that is more about the great unknown, brutal gore and body horror. But I've always though that Oshimi Shuzo is the absolute mastermind when it comes to more psychological realistic horror, the type that borders almost supernatural but never crosses the line and ends up being all about you, your emotions and dealing with them. The way he conveys anxiety for example just through his linework is fantastic. I heavily recommend Mari no Naka and Aku no Hana as well.

i'm going to stop watching the video because i'm still reading this and buying the tomes, but, i am regreting my choices and i'm on tome 2

I wish there was something like this for already-established isekai protagonists then we would have had a better understanding of their hero journey and it would have hit a lot harder

What I like about this is that they are all main characters , making it feel unpredictable I dislike the false protagonist/true protagonist trope then it feels like the typical good guy wins- bad guys lose , 'false' protagonist is denounced and humiliated tc.

I genuinely feel angry why that uncle beat main character mom Call the cops why take justice on your own hand

Prove to your family, and friends and such, that you were in isekai by showing some power from it? Naaaaaa Killing everyone because you were to dumb to realize you could do it? Yaaaaaa XDDDDDDD

The literal only way for him to heal was watch her die, imo to realize that she possibly cannot have more control over him and maybe to see her demise for payback, and decades of normalcy, probably isolation. That's sadly probably very realistic.

Despite the SA warning, I’m glad you didn’t talk about any.

This happens so much in real life tho.

I don’t know if you’ve read any Asian-American literature (i.e Lucky Joy Club), but it is common for parents, especially ones that come from a low-context culture to not be outwardly affectionate with their children and to say “I love you”, and sort of expect you to be able to read the room (AKA their emotions). I think this is why it causes a lot of riff in Asian households. The scene where Seiichi had the last conversation with his mother perfectly encapsulates my point.

The ending was stupid. Should of ended with him walking away from his cousin , leave the evil of his family behind.

Just finished the story this morning after starting yesterday. I just believe this manga does a wonderful job from start to finish about the idea of a life that deteriorates over time, how your actions affect others (or the lack thereof), and the end of a cycle that didnt really end. It was so refreshing to see that the story didnt end and we see what seiichi has been up to since the days of youth. The thoughts on people talking about how slow the ending was was pretty funny to me since that was the point. We are now witnessing the aftermath of a very chaotic, yet sad childhood.

Readers complained endlessly about the ending to this manga, but as someone who followed Chi no Wadachi as translated chapters were being released online for two years, I think that it was a worthy conclusion to a story filled with horror and trauma, given what Seiichi went through throughout his life. They show a lot of bias because he doesn't end up with Fukiishi or fully overcome the effect his mother had on him, ignoring the fact that he feels he's too fundamentally broken to live with anyone and that he wants to force himself to lead an isolated existence as "punishment" When his parents reenter his life, he's forced to deal with the past again, but this counts as a blessing in that he finally understands Seiko, how her childhood influenced her behavior as an adult, and can forgive her on some level, though not entirely. A lot of people like Seiichi who live with immense guilt end up alone like that, isolating themselves. He effectively had to face her again in order to come to terms with everything. It's a happy ending, but a bittersweet one.

this was my first manga

I enjoy horror genre. I can binge-watch most movies/series, binge-read most books/comic/manga, play any games for hours. No amount of jumpscares, gore and montrosities stop me from hopping to the next episode/chapter/section. But then...Then I tried THIS... I finished it, but it took way longer than I expected. I was not ready for the feels, not this amount. Start to finish, it was a MASSIVE tension bomb, that was bound to explode at any moment. Constant stress, constant feeling, that something really bad is about to happen,... Even when it did - no relief. It can always get worse, it WILL get worse, you know it... It's pretty only piece of art ever where I HAD TO make breaks after 2-3 chapters, because of the massive anxiety and stress it caused. Only thing, that made me really ask myself - "You're absolutelly sure you want to finish this? Maybe you should quit..."

The mom gave me Momma Soprano, Annie Wilkes, and Asami from The Audition (Japanese novel/movie) vibes... Terrifying!

Started this video earlier, Immediately paused it and binged the whole series. I will say I don't considered one character falling off a cliff and another down a step hill "Horror", but goddamn that was fantastic! The art is out of control. Highly recommend, but don't go into it looking for horror, just enjoy the ride!

this manga and boy's abyss , oyasumi punpun make my mind so trauma but i don't rerget reading these sad, miserable struggle ,psychopath ,socialpath, suffer ,suicide,torture mentally manga those are masterpiece and a lesson of life from they mangaka author

I didn’t mean to write this much but uhm. I wanted to try articulating some of my thoughts about this and got carried away 👍 I understand why some are uncomfortable with Seiichi taking care of his abuser after everything- but *personally* I think this was the perfect ending for this series. And, contrary to what it might initially seem like, I don’t think these last chapters are trying to say that Seiichi should still love his mother because they’re family. … I don't think the ultimate message to this part is that you have to forgive your abusers because they're "the only family you get," as a cop puts it at one point in the manga. (Incidentally, I think this attitude from the cops is another reinforcement of the theme of Sei being continuously failed by people who were supposed to take care of him-- you're definitely not supposed to agree with these people.) Rather than a "she's family so I have to take care of her" sort of thing... I interpreted this part as Sei coming to terms with /himself./ There's really no love in any of his final interactions with his mother; when she soils herself at one point, he hoses her off like a zoo animal. This connects to the "final conversation" between them-- which, importantly, doesn't actually involve the real Seiko. It's a conversation between Sei and dream Seiko- as he remembers her. More exactly, a conversation between Sei and himself, meant to made coming to terms with himself a little easier. At this point, Seiko has apparently been having a downward slide into dementia for several years. In the last few interactions with Sei, she's barely lucid, and likely completely unaware of what's even happening, and what these interactions mean to Sei. (This is debatable, as I'll discuss later.) The ultimate point to this, as I interpret it, can be summarized by one point im the part where Seiko recounts her life story. After talking about her own parents and how she met Sei's father, she recounts Sei's birth. While thinking of a name, Ichiro suggests that they combine their names to name Sei- full name Seiichi. The point here is that Sei belongs to both of his parents. He is, whether he likes it or not, Seiko's child. -Not to mean that this means he has to love his family, but rather that he has to accept that she's always going to be a part of him in some regard- mostly for the worse. Seiko passed her own luggage onto him, which will likely have lifelong effects on him. --The other important piece to understanding this is Sei's appearance over the course of these chapters. Initially, upon first reuniting, Sei superimposes his own idealized version of Seiko over her, despite the fact that she's clearly in her 70's-80's at this point... It's only after he lashes out at her that the illusion breaks, allowing Sei to see his mother as she /actually/ is at this point. This (along with Sei stripping her off to wash her) shows that he finally sees her as a human. At this point he's an adult- he's grown enough to understand where his mother was coming from when he was a child. He finally understands that, far from the god-like mysterious figure he saw her as- she's simply a fucked up person. She's a deeply damaged, mentally ill person who was hurt by her own parents, who passed their own problems on to Seiko, who in turn passes them onto Sei. Up until this point, Sei was still in deep fear of his mother. At the mere prospect of seeing her again, he briefly moves to commit suicide. At this point he hasn't considered that, all these years later, his mother no longer has the power over him that she did in his youth. When he finally sees her as a human, he sort of sobers up. He realizes that the two of them are /equals/ now, as adults. As a child, Sei's entire life was taken up by his mother's personal issues. Her manipulative and abusive nature was almost a cosmic force in his life- making Seiko seem far more 'powerful' than she was. The image of her that Sei has is a genius manipulator, hyper-dangerous inhuman entity who could potentially hurt or kill him and anyone he cares about (namely Yuiko.) However... As an adult, he finally realizes that Sei was just a human. Dangerous, yes, but only because of baggage that's made her insane over the years- which he can finally see. After this encounter, he sees Seiko as the haggard old woman that she /actually/ from this point on. The mystery is gone, and he's no longer afraid of her. This, combined with a flashback/dream sequence scene from ch. 91 where both himself and Seiko are notably 'uglier' than usual, does imply that Seiko's never actually looked the way she appears in the rest of the manga. Meaning that she's never actually been as 'evil' and dangerous as she appeared to be. So, after this point... Sei, now far away enough from his childhood to make sense of it, understands Seiko. He understands that she hurt him because she's a deeply fucked up person. And, more importantly, that he's inherited the same baggage that made her the way she is. The final conversation in the dream diner- specifically the last part where they start insulting each other- show that Sei and Seiko are the only two people who understand each other. They're bonded in a strange way over how fucked up they both are. I think this is Sei accepting that he's his mother's child. Previously he was likely afraid that having her DNA in him meant that he was similarly "evil." In the last few chapters before reuniting with Seiko, he clearly sees himself as an unforgivable murderer. This, I think, is Sei also falling victim to the "blood is thicker than water" philosophy that these chapters initially seem to be saying. However- there's really no such thing as pure evil, or "unforgivable." Sei's the way he is because Seiko dumped her baggage on him. And Sei now understands that both he and Seiko are just humans- which means that they both have the ability to heal and get better. -The only difference between them is that Seiko never made the effort to try and get better. Because of the isolated nature of her childhood, she likely spent her whole life feeling too helpless to feel like she had the agency to help herself. Instead, she leant on others in hopes that they'd recognize and fix her problems, before realizing that having a son wouldn't magically fix her, giving up, and abandoning him. In their last conversation, Sei may or may not forgive Seiko. But he at least understands her and why she did what she did- though it was still horrible. And this is ultimately the key to accepting and forgiving /himself./ Which is, I think, the point of Sei taking care of her in the last chapters. The tl;dr is that Sei's not doing it for her sake, he's doing it for himself. (As an additional sidenote, on a meta level, Seiko's writing is absolutely brilliant. I could probably also write an entire paper on her psychology. But only after reading the last few chapters do I have the pieces to understand why did the things she did. If I did a full re-read now, I'd probably have a whole new perspective... similiarly to how Sei probably views his childhood in retrospect. Though poorly worded, Seiko was kinda right when she called everything "silly" in their last conversation.) --In the last chapter, Sei isn't seen with a spouse or children. Whether this means he's alone in life in general is unclear- but he's alone in this sequence, at least. This seems to mean that he didn't fall victim to this same feeling of helplessness that Seiko did- already showing that he's broken the "trail of blood" that the last several generations of his family have made. Overall he seems happy, which hopefully means that he healed overtime and got to enjoy the rest of his life free of his childhood. Most likely this is what the scene of him disappearing into the rain represented: having all his childhood baggage washed away so that he can have a fresh start. It's not a traditional feelgood ending, but it is very hopeful. Hopefully Sei did get to lead a good life. --As a final final note, something that I think is brilliant is the single panel of Seiko looking at Sei after he asks if she recognizes him. It can be interpretted both as recognition or a lack of recognition (as I interpreted it.) Up until this point Seiko has been completely manipulative- leading us (and Sei) to believe that she's simply faking her dementia. However, it becomes more and more apparent that she's not playing at anything deeper as she deteriorates. Personally, I don't think she was faking anything in these chapters. --However, the brilliant part of this arc is that it's not clear to the audience- or Sei- whether she is or isn't. And she ultimately dies before we can get any clarification, leaving it a permanent mystery. I think this shows that Sei probably won't ever understand absolutely /everything/ that happened in his childhood. Some things about Seiko will always be a mystery. But at the end of the day, it doesn't /really/ matter- he's free to live his own life, so he doesn't have to dwell on these things. On the contrary, not understanding parts of his mother's psychology and actions is probably a good thing. He doesn't have to go down the same path she did- he can take measures to heal himself that Seiko never did. Bwah . So idk. That was all really rambly and disconnected but hopefully it conveyed my thoughts at least a little. In short I *personally* thought this was a perfect ending, and probably one of the best mangas ever written. I finished reading it and watched this video 2 weeks ago and it's still been rattling around in my brain since then... There's a lot to chew on and it feels more and more brilliant the more I try to pick it apart. Good video good manga !!!

Despite all of that I still felt the powerlessness and the regret as a reader/observant of Seiichi's entire life going by like that due to his mother and by extent, her mother's family. Having gone through so much he would have definitely been a very wise parent, am amazing dad even, but it will never happen. These fictional stories man, I swear, they get more realistic as time goes on.

what i like about shuzo work is that both his art and writing create a realistic feeling of entering peoples lives and seeing the madness they walk through

Not sure if depressing is the correct word to describe this manga. I guess bleak?

TBH, I feel like the ending would’ve been far more powerful if he didn’t forgive her. Yeah, she’s been through a lot too, but it doesn’t justify the decades of abuse she put her entire family through. It should be okay to not forgive the people who hurt you even if they’ve been hurt themselves. Also, why did the cousin have to die?

THEY ANNOUNCED THEY'RE MAKING AN ANIME ADAPTATION,, I'M SO HYPED?? Literally love this series sooo much, I'm obsessed

I’m going to be real, the comments about money concerning Seichii’s dad came off as pretty tone deaf to me. Japanese culture plays a big part in this particular issue and I think it should have been addressed as such. On top of that, I honestly believe this was one of (if not the only) good things Seichii’s dad did for him. This gave Seichii the freedom to not have to interact with his aunt (who last time I checked def played a part in traumatizing Seichii,) as well as shielding him from having to constantly realize that at the end of the day his cousin is dead and that there are people out in the world - his own family members- who will never forgive him for playing a part in that even if he was just a child who was purposefully manipulated by an adult into committing said crime. It’s why I felt like the fact that Seichii is forced into caring for his abuser was so realistically portrayed. It says a lot about how the roles (Japanese) society forces people into can hurt more than be a catalyst for reform. I recommend reading Jeanette McCurdy’s autobiography “I’m Glad My Mother Died” alongside this series. When I picked it up I didn’t expect the fact that me reading that book at the same time would affect my view of this manga, but it really did!

So happy you did this part 2 video

Just a note on the reparations his father paid; It's really common in Japan for victims or family of victims to separately sue the perpetrator or family for monetary support. Even if there isn't a lawsuit, you can be pushed to pay reparations anyway to sorta avoid a worse payment in a lawsuit. Even the police pressure you to pay the victims. The manga didn't explain why his father was paying all that money, but I read it as though he was obligated, either by social expectations, threat of lawsuit, or by court order.

You know that feeling you get when you spend time with your mother as an adult and you want to enjoy it because you know time is limited but you get Vietnam flashes of everything she did to you as a child and you despair because you want to love her with all your heart but the truth is you hate her and you know perfectly well that if your life is everything you didn't want it to be it's only because of her? I hope not. If you do, this manga is for you.

This is, strong manga, but also it is interesting that the experience of her traumatising him were so surreal that he him self didn't know if they are real, can you imagine how many people there is running around with not fully resolved trauma, just because even if it happened to them, noone either acknowledging it or they just don't have way to get solid on this? This is scary

Strangely enough this story taught me to appreciate my mother. Now she was never as bad as this. Not even close. But we did get distant due to physical abuse and emotional neglect, something that I eventually found out was normalized through her culture (She's Chinese). Seichi's mother was always the center of his world. Something he did himself but it is entirely universal on why he did it. She was his mother. And when he was a child he almost felt like he had no option but to depend on her. Even after they are estranged, he still allows her that much control over him. But it's not the control she deserves nor wants. It's not his fault but he has to be the bigger person and let go of her.

This shit fall off harder than Seiko in the courthouse

Others have touched on how Seiichi taking care of his mother is a sadly realistic portrayal of how hard it can be to escape the cycle of familial abuse so I won't reiterate their points. One thing I do think is interesting is how reuniting with his mom was arguably the key for him regaining his life, going from a zombie like state of the same routine every day for years on end to finally cleaning up his room and taking care of his appearance. We saw how before all this the thought of his mother was this constant looming threat to unravel his entire life which he just barely managed to keep repressed. But after Seiichi is able to see his mother for the old feeble woman she is he is finally able to realize that she isn't the monster he feared but is pathetically human after all. Not only does he see her at times as a literal child, but we see the parent child relationship reverse as he has to change her diaper and spoon feed her. Which also means on some level he is able to act out the act of being a parent without risk of repeating the cycle to another generation, something he feared. So when she finally dies he feels freed in a way that never would have happened had he not met her again because he is able to put those fears to rest for good. I wouldn't advocate irl victims to reconnect with their abusers in order to heal, but in Seiichi's case it gave him back his peace of mind and enabled him to be able to stop thinking of his mother and live his life for himself in his quiet way.

Cool necklace, ever considered making content about books as well?

I'm a little late to the commenting but.... people seem to forget that is absolutely fine with being just Okay. He seems to be okay and anyone with mental illness knows... being okay is more good than bad. We as people want a happy ending for the characters but sometimes healing and moving is good enough.