Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐

OK, I’ve finished reading #恋と嘘 #KoiToUso #LoveAndLies #manga, and I have feelings about it.

First of all, without being spoilery, let me just say that, I would not have imagined myself saying this at the beginning of the manga, but I am, I think, #TeamLilina. (And yes, I finally realized it is “Lilina” not “Ririna”, given that she is half-German, or possibly full German but born and raised in Japan.)

That being said, I think both endings were weak, weaker than they could have been.

Dec 11, 2023 at 5:17pmWeb
Show threadGemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐Dec 11, 2023

And I’m really unsatisfied with how Nisaka’s thread was tied off.

Having said that I am #TeamLilina, I do not mean to say that the emphasis on monogamy and reproduction in the story is particularly satisfying, although it should be noted that even in 2023, LGBT acceptance and rights have a long, long way to go in Japanese culture and law.

“Misaki’s Choice” really constrains the possible endings, and I think that was handled a bit poorly.

And then there’s the Igarashi/Yajima/Ichijou triangle…

Show threadGemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐Dec 11, 2023

which I think could also have been better handled.

Again, without giving too much away, Ichijou is *clearly* dissatisfied with her marriage and knows that Yajima’s marriage is a complete sham, and they both clearly still have feelings for each other. Having Ichijou be that abrupt, harsh, and even cruel with Yajima was jarring, and then interjecting Igarashi into that was weird, because there’s no establishing scenes to lead up to that plot twist.

Anyway, I’m glad I finally finished it,

Show threadGemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐Dec 11, 2023
but there were so many golden opportunities for social commentary missed, particularly with Ichijou, who is clearly an ambitious woman, a rising star in the Ministry, who doesn’t necessarily want to have children that could risk her career, but she is saddled with marriage to a man who doesn’t care about her self-actualization. The whole premise of the manga centers on this idea of engineering the birthrate making her the perfect candidate for a subplot that subverts the main plot.
Show threadGemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐Dec 11, 2023

It’s almost completely unexamined, the idea that any sort of grand scheme of the government like this is going to at least have a significant number of outliers for whom the government matching system results in disaster.

We’re just supposed to accept that virtually everyone complies and ends up happy, which is totally implausible, and it takes so long for the issue of LGBT marriages to even enter the storyline that it’s long since a glaring omission before it ever does.

Show threadGemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐Dec 11, 2023
But I think the thing that bugged me the most was again the fact that Nejima was made to be so ineffectual and mediocre, as if attractive and high achieving people don’t have exactly the same worries about being valued and loved. There was absolutely no need for Nejima to be so offensively below average in every respect, but unfortunately the entire manga/light novel/anime industry sees its core audience as guys just like Nejima, and publishes wish fulfillment fantasies for them.
Show threadGemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐Dec 11, 2023

Ultimately, the story had good bones, but failed to fully deliver on the promise established early on. It could and should be rewritten with major changes.

If I were an editor, and someone handed me this plot, there’s no way it would go to press without major changes. At least the art quality was excellent.

Show threadGemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐Dec 11, 2023

I really didn't think it was satisfactory at all to make Nisaka a cis gay boy instead of a het trans girl.

I have never in my life met a gay man who would hesitate at the idea of wearing drag, so Nisaka's protests when his classmates try to get him to play Juliet just ring false.

But trans girls? You better believe that the idea of dressing as a girl in public in high school is terrifying when you don't want anyone to know you are trans.