Sensei no Shiroi Uso <Manga>
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Title: Sensei no Shiroi Uso
Status: Completed (8 Volumes)
Publisher: Kodansha
I'll be dividing my post into different aspects to make it easy to navigate and skip the parts that might be spoil-ish for some.
Circumstances of suggestion:
Two days ago? Or was it three? Not sure when it was exactly but I saw @Terrence tweeted about Shield Hero so I asked him about why people angry, and back then, he shared an article about rape awareness in Japan and it kinda reminded me of this title.
Took me a while till I decided on how to write about it.
About the Mangaka
Torikai, Akane.
Akane might be known to some as Asano Inio's wife. Her diary manga might be really sellable and I do wanna read it since I liked both of their manga BUT to even try and make her first license related to her marriage would be really disrespectable that's why I didn't mention that title name.She debuted as Shoujo mangaka in 2004 but it seems just like Asano couldn't do gag manga, she wasn't that good at Shoujo-style sweet fairytale-like stories. All of her series were short-lived, it wasn't till 2010 that she started to get more attention with her switch from a Kodansha Shoujo magazine to one of their Seinen magazines. Dunno if she went after an editor she is comfortable with or what it happened but since then, she started writing more realistic, and darker series either for Seinen or Josei magazines.
That's why her stories do share elements from both demographics including this one where the theme seems to be something you can find in Seinen work but the story is more of a Josei-type with adultery and friendship among girls/women.
Official Synposis:
Misuzu Hara is a 24-year-old high school teacher who, four years earlier, endured a traumatic experience at the hands of Hayafuji, the then-boyfriend of her best friend Minako. She has never forgotten the experience, but she has kept it secret from Minako to protect their engagement, and has rationalized it to herself as having occurred to her due to her being a woman, even if it has continued to negatively impact her emotional well-being.
My Own Impression and What I Think It Really Is About:
If anyone read Asano Inio work or to some extent, Monogatari, you may encounter that type of characters who keeps raking themselves refusing to be happy inducing some sort of inferiority complex. After all, Misuzu Hara was originally the passive type that let everything happen to them.This manga combines that with a well-known social issue in the modern society—feminism and battle of sexes—but it ain't taking sides. It doesn't excuse a side nor prosecute another. No one is really innocent and everyone got their flaws so it's foolish to bring sides to the matter especially since no one can decide their gender...(wait... now, you can) Sorry, couldn't continue being so serious for more than 7 lines lol.
Why This Title?
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With Metoo and other similar social movements on the rise, I think it would give this title a push as people will keep discussing it in the light of reality.
(This is a tricky aspect tho, since with using controversy, you either go really up or hit the bottom so it's hard to maintain a middle ground...a risk that I think this title deserves. Also, I may sound like an asshole for suggesting using a social movement as marketing ploy but I don't care tbh as long as I am getting what I want to read lol) -
Unlike LN market, Manga market has a not-so-small portion who adore dark and psychological manga including creators like Asano Inio, Suuzo Oshimi, Kago Shintaro and titles like Berserk...hopefully, Kasane would join these ranks and Kodansha/Vertical would print it.
So, it would be good to attract new audience.
I might be misremembering but I think Sam mentioned he might pick a few Seinen manga.
Kinda wanted to add tags but...
Seinen, Drama, Feminism, rape, adultery, psychological
The tags seemed to belong to "How to scare people off on JNC" so lol -
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I'd be interested to read it, I ain't scared of those tags. (add isekai & it'd be a best seller)
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@smashman42
Dark and psychological series are in the bottom of both the suggestions threads and JNC sales ranking. I wanted people to, at least, give reading the post a shot, that's why I didn't add tags lol (+ I wonder if you can do isekai with good dark atmosphere that comments on reality) -
This sounds pretty dark and interesting. It definitely depends on how it’s all handled. From what you wrote it sounds to be well-handled and viewed from a broad psychological perspective but also from deeply personal levels as well.
Rape is pretty common in Japanese fiction and sometimes it’s well handled and sometimes not at all. I actually stopped reading Fumino Nakamura’s latest book Cult X due to a really shitty rape scene where the woman is shown to be enjoying it in a way that I couldn’t quite believe (especially coming from a male writer). I’m normally a big fan of Nakamura but after that scene I just lost my interest in the book. People very close to me have been raped and I saw the terrible impact it had on their lives sometimes years later so I do have a problem with stuff that trivializes the trauma involved.
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Well...
At first, since the story is from Misuzu Hara pov, it starts off as if it's attacking all men of the world and it's always man's fault (It was kinda off-putting since I don't like the views that go against a whole group together that has no real ties), but little by little, we get the hypocrisy in her thoughts.
Won't say I'm 100% with everything but it's quite interesting for people who enjoy fiction with dysfunctional characters with some views I can stand behind.The term ain't mentioned but I thought of Stockholm syndrome at some points
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@bloodygaikotsu ok, that sounds pretty great
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A good reason why I hate typing.
-Checking the post to see if there's any typos
-See nothing wrong
-30min later, notice 3 typos.
-Fix them
-1h later, 2 other typos
-7h later, 2 more typos... -
typos can be fixed?
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This post is deleted! -
Actually, this mnaga was licensed by Kodansha
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Referenced by
myskaros
