Ok so I'm trying to move away for having too much horror in all my Manga Management reviews so I'm slowly trying to make my way to some sappy shit shoujo and romantic crap. Just my luck, I find something a little more romantic than the manga about necrophilia I did a couple weeks ago. This story has Death Gods, unconditional love, For this week's Manga Management, we take a look at a love that seems like it was suppose to transcend time and space...but only lasted 2 volumes and about as short as the "Boy Band" craze in the 90's. The title of this one is called Kamisama no Iutoori or "As the Death God Dictates" by Mimori Ao. Like most shoujo manga, it follows the mindless workings of a pretty useless girl named Maki Ayumi who is about as dim as they come with these sappy romance stories. She's then told by a nameless shinigami (or Death God for people who've never seen Death Note before) that she will die in one month. I suppose the concept kind of beats The Ring, though the shinigami annoys her for days with the talk of how many days she has left to live. The only difference is the fact that the shinigami turns out to be a hottie while the girl from The Ring isn't winning any Beauty Contests any time soon. But there's definitely more to the story than just that. Who the fuck am I kidding? It's a romance shoujo manga. It's about as predictable as the endings of M. Night Shyamalan movies so you can probably guess what might happen in the end. But I digress. Let's get into this kooky love story and hope I don't vomit from too much cuteness.
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| Bitch give me money!! |
As I said, the story follows Maki Ayumi, a 16-year-old girl whose pretty useless and absent minded mostly throughout the whole series. And like any 16-year-old girl, she has a huge crush on someone she didn't even say one fucking word to and falls in love instantly. Very original, guys. Really. The only thing is she won't even tell the guy how she feels. Boo freaking woo!! The guy's name is Musashi and her relationship with him now is more like one of a pimp and his prostitute. For some reason, Maki will give the guy money if he asks, give him her homework to copy, and basically treat her like a lap dog. It would've been cool if he had some sort of personality, but in the first volume, it's all about how he looks and how uninterested he seems. But oh wait! He's only doing it because he IS interested in her. How silly of me not to notice his 1st grade routine where you say a girl has cooties but you actually like her. Anyway, unrequited love story, prostituting for the guy you like, blah blah blah. Maki then sees a guy sitting on the window sill, starts talking to him, and then jumps out the window on the fourth floor. God damn I knew Maki's personality is pretty plain and simple, but I didn't think it was that ghastly. Anyway, since the guy disappeared when she looked out the window, she naturally does the mature thing and let's it go as just a figment of her spacy imagination. No that's not what happened. She does the girly thing, thinks she saw a ghost and passes out in the arms of Musashi. Smooth move.
She can't help but think about what she saw until the boy actually comes to her house and even walks past her mother without being seen. Maki freaks out and is then told that she will die in 30 days and that the guy is actually a shinigami. The only thing is, it's never explained why Maki is the only one who can see him so you might as well chalk it up to "it's supernatural so we don't have to explain a damn thing". As proof, he even let's her know that the lead singer of a band is going to get into an accident. Hmm, I wonder if he might be able to tell me Justin Bieber will die from a mauling of tween-age girls and middle-aged single moms. So like the annoying gay ass fairy from Zelda, the shinigami constantly follows Maki around giving her an update on how many days she has left to live. Even egging her on to finally confess to Musashi and go out with her. She and Musashi actually get closer as he says he tries to protect her and guess what else happens? Musashi actually really likes Maki and wants to make Maki his girlfriend. BIG SHOCK!!! But the thing that pisses me off is the fact that the guy barely shows ANY emotions while doing this. Even while they're just walking and holding hands, Maki is beyond happy that the flowers in the background are making my computer screen smell like a garden, but the guy is still looking crappy. I don't deny his love for her, but he's pulling a very "emo face" that's annoying.
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| Death Never looked so smexy. |
So because Maki is so love struck and happy, she seems to forget about you know, the whole "dying" thing. But that's until the shinigami gets jealous and tries to kill Musashi and have Maki for herself. And please do not compare this to some sort of Twilight plot. This time it's not as cock-fighting and gay as it sound. And how the shinigami falls for Maki is so simple it's practically stupid. The only conversation the two really have is about the fact that the guy likes cats and doesn't have a name. When Maki tells him that she would give him a name the hearts fly and he falls madly and obsessively in love with her. Makes sense? How the hell am I suppose to know. Maki comes up with the name Shiro because he wears white clothes and has light colored hair. So Shiro tries any way of being a Shakespeare character and kill Musashi, he actually admits that he loves Maki and won't let anyone take her away from him. Yeah that's not creepy at all. Someone who technically doesn't exist has a crush on you. So of course Maki does the mature and responsible thing and tells Musashi the truth and ask what she should do. Hahahaha!! Yeah right! No. She actually just avoids Musashi like the plague and doesn't tell him anything. What the fuck is wrong with you? The guy said he would help and protect you and you blow him off because you think you're doing the "right" thing? But I digress. So Maki tries to avoid Musashi and Shiro gets all emo and pissed because she's hanging out with him to protect Musashi. This may not be Twilight, but why the hell are all the guys acting so damn depressing? I'm not even kidding. Shiro cried when he saw the cat die, cried when Maki started dating Musashi, and cried when he had to put Maki in a coma. The guy is beyond baby-back bitch right now.
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| Don't get too many yaoi ideas from this. It's not sexual!! |
In the 2nd volume, were introduced to another nameless shinigami who, unlike Shiro who wears white clothes, actually wears black clothes. SYMBOLISM!! The other shinigami tells Shiro that he's getting too involved and decides to have Maki die earlier than just a month. Shiro puts aside his attempts to kill the human who can't help but like Maki and asks him to help protect her. There was an accident involving a car where Maki was about to get ran over, but Musashi pushes her out of the way amd gets hit instead. See, if it was like Twilight, he would've stopped the car with his bare hand while staring awkwardly at Maki. Musashi is OK but in the hospital, Shiro gives Maki touch and go and puts her in a coma. In the magical world of "insert religion crap here" Shiro puts Maki's soul back into her body, but because he saved and fell in love with a human, Shiro disappears forever. So in the end, Maki stays with Musashi and a shinigami dies. Ain't that such a happy ending? I can't say I'm a big fan of the typical love stories in shoujo manga, but it's not like it was bad. It was just uninspiring. The guy characters were too moody, it's never explained why Maki could see Shiro, and the ending is just a cliché ending. It won't do any harm in reading it since it's short, but I wouldn't put too much into it. For this one I give it 2 out of 5 scythes. Well that's it for my Manga Management this time.
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