Musume no Tomodachi

To summarize this series in one word: PAIN

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD

Story

This is genuinely painful to read. In a great way. Musume no Tomodachi portrays the unblemished consequences of the societal taboos, namely age-gap relationships, and failure to follow societal norms. The darkness is much more relevant and empathetic than something intense like murder or rape, because many of us may struggle and question some of society's unspoken rules, making this series painfully relevant to our lives.

Whereas other slice-of-life, drama series generally follow plot structure, this series seems like it's in an infinite climb of rising action. The slow, steady, looming drama and excellent cliffhangers make for an unreachable climax. Just when I think shit can't get any worse, each chapter proves me wrong. The suspense and indefinite delay of resolutions really claws at my heart. Every time I see a new update, my heart always sinks and my breath tightens in anticipation for what else will go wrong.

I'm a sucker for age-gap series, it's always interesting to see how authors tread upon delicate, taboo matters. Musume no Tomodachi portrays the subject of age-gap relationships in a refreshing manner. The consequences follow through in the most dire manner and we see how their relationship affects everyone around them. There is not a speck of hope or acceptance, only hardship and disapproval.



Characters

The characters are, to put it simply, fucked up. It's clearly conveyed just how shitty their lives have been, so their questionable, sometimes downright "wrong", actions have never annoyed me. Instead, it just strengthens their character.

Kousuke, the main character. Lost his wife, has a shut-in daughter who won't talk to him, works like a dog and silently pressured by societal norms. So when his only salvation is Koto, a teen girl, he jumps at the chance at escaping his life temporarily. However, this seemingly rehabilitative relationship only worsens his mental/emotional state, tipping his moral scale and turning his life for the absolute worse. He's nearly never in a healthy mindset. Eventually, the only thing he yearns for is escapism from societal demands, in the form of Koto. Thus, he traps himself in an eternal downward spiral of despair and angst.

Koto, the main heroine and femme fetale. Initially presented as an angelic deus ex machina for the exhausted Kousuke, she's steadily characterized as someone the same as Kousuke. Someone that lives to maintain a constraining image. As opposed to Kousuke maintaining his image in respect to societal norms, Koto maintains her image in respect to her mother's wishes. Her family life is just as broken as Kousuke's. As opposed to Kousuke's family situation, where he's rejected by his only family, Koto is latched onto by and is necessary for her mother. Rather, she's an object for her mother, a mere possession to fill in the missing holes in their family. Koto is just as broken as Kousuke, and equally seeks out escapism in him just as he does.

Kousuke's daughter shut herself out from the world and her father after her mother's death. However, she eventually opens up again to Kousuke and their situation seems to have taken for a better turn. However, upon witnessing Kousuke and Koto's intimate relationship, her parent-child relationship was once severed. She isn't characterized by societal/familial pressure as intensely as Kousuke and Koto, but instead by her utter confusion.

Koto's mother, arguably the antagonist of this series. Left by her husband, her personality takes for the worst. Manipulative, controlling and selfish, she will do whatever it takes to keep Koto wrapped around her finger. Her character is defined by her chaotic love for Koto. Seemingly a more moral cause than what Kousuke and Koto possess, as a parent's love and nurture is expected, but her motives are arguably much more dark and worse than anyone else's.



Art

Stylistically, aesthetically pleasing and works incredibly well. The art is finely detailed and wonderful to look at, but it's strength lies in the "show, not tell". The facial expressions never warrant explanatory dialogue for a character's feelings and motives. It's quite literally all there, plastered on the face, slight gestures and body movements. It creates the usual stuffy, tense atmosphere and smoothly conveys the internal. Sometimes, it's almost like I'm watching, not reading. The character designs are quite nice, as well. I especially love Koto's design. Her blush, big teddy bear eyes and soft looks exudes a feeling of relief and angelic ... but there's also something there that contrasts that perceived image.





Enjoyment

I love reading despite the pain. It's rare for me to not get annoyed by the characters' dumb actions in drama, but here? It's painfully enjoyable to see it all. Honestly, I'd put this on the same level as Oshimi Shuzo's works, like The Flowers of Evil and Blood on the Tracks. I love the dark empathy and immortality, the sense of catharsis is one hell of a drug, man. 10/10.



Final Words

If you've enjoyed The Flowers of Evil, Oyasumi Punpun, Blood on the Tracks and other heavy drama series, I believe you'll find great enjoyment in Musume no Tomodachi. Successfully creating a constant air of quiet tread and discomfort and portraying the dire consequences of societal self-images and taboos, I think this is one of the best on-going slice-of-life drama manga.

Suspenseful Romance / Dark temptation

orig chapter 22 -> *edit chapter 62

!!Minor or Major spoiler!!
A man and his daughter’s friend… (shhhhh)… you imagine…

Have you wished or ever wish that you can commit an action without thinking about the consequence?
For this, the answer should be yes.
But… why didn’t you or most of you follow through? And why not?
Perhaps, due to social norms and expectations, you decide that committing something risky isn’t worth breaking your tranquility or reputation.

Yet, for this manga, something is different, unusual, and even unsettling. The age gap and violation of social consensus are the elements that create the ambiance of dark temptation.

Story: 7.5
I love the plot of the story. Even though the story itself is relatively simple (-1)(since there is no need for innovative background setup), it is so dark, yet mesmerizing. No law prohibits a man from loving his own daughter’s friend or his own daughter’s friend from loving him; however, as a result of the norms and expectations, this love isn’t right and shouldn’t occur in the first place.

The story flows well, and almost every chapter ends with suspense. Nevertheless, because it is relatively new, -1.5 on potential error (huge deviation on this one as the man’s daughter can cause a huge fluctuation on the story rating). But as for now, the story is actually decent.


Art: 8
Not the best as the background can be bland, and the art style can be a little more detailed and clean. But, it is better than normal for sure and won’t hinder my enjoyment of reading this manga piece.


Characters: 8 or 10
There are three main characters in this story + a huge side character
1. [Dad]
Not-so-perfect dad who didn’t know how to deal with his familial situations, and a workaholic who turned out to be extremely stressed about his job
2. [Daughter]
Had to endure with her mother’s death and deal with dad’s “seemingly apathetic” attitude.
3. [Daughter’s friend]
Forced to be her mother’s version of a “perfect” daughter. A caged bird that want to be free.
4. THE side character -> [Daughter’s friend’s mom]
Basically a near-exact replica of the mom from “Chi no Wadachi”…

The characters do have backgrounds and motives that cause them to act a certain way. As the story goes on, the mangaka is able to add on more layers on top of the characters. Yet, there can still be fluctuations as there will be more side characters come into play so I will give it a conservative 8 for this category.


Enjoyment: 10 -> 6
I finished 22 chapters immediately without hesitation. Literally felt goosebumps and wanted to shout “Holy S**T” at the end of every chapter.

*Unsatisfied ending drops the score by a lot


Overall: 8.5 -> 7
Personally, this is a must-follow on my manga list. Period. However, I understand that this manga is not suitable for all the manga readers since it is completely going to fend off the readers who are conservative.

This will not be a mainstream manga, and it is impossible to get an animation adaptation out of this due to its theme.

HOWEVER, this manga is special for readers who love this particular niche or category (the scandalous or the dark side of society).

________________________________________________________
*
Having followed this manga since the very beginning, it is sad that middle-to-end story line and the ending didn't match up with the hype of the beginning. Perhaps, due to controversies coming from the Japanese society's perception toward this manga (as expected), I personally feel that the mangaka just couldn't dish out the story that he originally wanted. Everything in the end feel a bit too predictable, which is drastically different from the original reading experience. Also, the open-ended finish of this manga definitely shows that it is up to us to decide what will happen to them, which means that it will generate less controversies since one sided conclusion will garner polarized opinions (extremely uncharacteristic of how I feel when I started reading this manga due to the fact that this manga is trying to show the society of what if things don't go as planned)

Fantastic start. Great Beginning to mid. Predictable and dull mid to end. Unsatisfied and disappointing ending. I will give it a 7

Now that this manga has finally come to an end, I can now write a review on it.

Being reading, I want to address that I absolutely condone such a relationship that occurs in this manga. I didn't read it because I like this type of romance, but because of a controversy regarding it.

MINOR SPOILERS ALONG THE WAY

Despite the story being very controversial, its very tense and gripping. From a very suspicious romance with a big age gap, to an abusive mother and depressed daughter, this manga is for any of those who want to grip onto a pillow so hard, you tear right through it!

I don't really have much to say about the story and the characters and the art and etc. itself, but what i really want to talk about is how I got myself interested in this manga in the first place.

Back in late 2019, when the manga started publishing, it got a little bit of controversy and calls for it being canceled due to a "Very problematic" relationship that happens within the story. Two characters, a high school girl, and a middle aged salary man, slowly begin to fall in love, and from there it leads to the mans risk of losing his job, so getting some involvement with the police.

Now I can understand this is a very weird and, as much as I do not like using this word, "problematic" story, It's just fiction. Yes relationships like this can obviously happen in real life, but this one is just in a story, and with that I got interested in it and decided to check it out for myself just to see how creepy it actually would be.


Even though the characters make some really stupid decisions, the manga was actually good and had a good story line. Yes, it's weird, but I enjoyed it. It had some great drama and some really tense bits, such as the high school girls mother finding out about their relationship, and getting the police involved.

Now I know what your thinking: your thinking I liked it and i'm rooting for their love and relationship to continue. No, actually not at all. the main lead had so many chances to walk away and continue life as is, but foolishly kept wanting to pursue his love for an underage high school girl. I honestly wanted this relationship to stop, and because of the stupid decisions being made, I kept reading it to see what happened in the end.

All this being said, its just a work of fiction. I highly doubt its based on a true story, and not only that, before reading the premise and saying "eww, omg that's problematic. Yikes!", take a look at it, read it, and see for yourself.