Genkai Dokushin Joshi (26) Gohan

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Part of a trend, but how did it fair before its cancellation?

Jobless, lifeless, friendless, no future, no pets, no prospects. My generation is currently going through an analysis by a few numbers of manga. A look into why it happens, how they're pushed so far into this void of nothingness, left to carry themselves against an uncaring world. The story usually goes about them clinging to something which could or could not pull them out. As they rot in their inconsequential life, they find a small glimmer. Maybe they can change, and it maybe doesn't lead to their horrid past circumstances which led them there. ...

This is the story of Hiiragi-San. What I just described happens to her, and she clings to purpose. Not friendships, not something that simple. To the idea that she must do something with her life, but she hates the idea so much she keeps hating it. Her small little wins, her small advancements towards small goals, and small changes which eventually lead her to a stable existence. She isn't entirely proud to where she eventually gets, but it feels all the more real because of it.

As a cancelled story, the manga stayed as a realistic portrayal of someone who doesn't reach a grand goal, and doesn't do something incredible with her life at all. All she achieves is meeting someone like her, someone who could use a friend, and that's it. She encounters a reflection of her past, and all the experience she gained simply gives us a perfect mirror of what she isn't anymore.

The ultimate win in a neo-realistic story. I liked it, even if the woman's body is the biggest point of contention because, no way, she looks that attractive in her situation. It's made to sell volumes and attract viewers. Clickbait-y in retrospect, but it's okay.

The manga stays within the confines of an extremely realistic story of achieving small stuff, and looking back, realizing it isn't as bad as it always was. You didn't achieve a dream or anything, but hell, you're not in a rotting life anymore. Doesn't get better than that sometimes. It's alight, and it will be alright.

7/10. I do hate that the main character's sex appeal is at the forefront of every poster.

Was browsing the homepage of various Manga sites as I saw this title and gave it a shot.

I breezed through the bunch of chapters as I found myself immersed in this series.

Pushing aside the fact she somehow has a "figure" without doing anything to maintain it, the story of our MC being a doomer is a brand new perspective. No generic tricks or tropes, no Isekai cards, nothing common or boring either.

This is a very realistic take on a Japanese DOOMER whom some may be familiar with in the Wojack Meme featuring DOOMER.
Each chapter is an in-depth closeup on the MC's struggles to get through ... her life, trauma, pain, etc.
She is troubled, she is at her lowest point, and we all get to have a first-hand look at her life.
To watch her make choices for herself and grow to become better.

This series can relate to anyone who recently entered the workforce or who may have experienced similar emotions. It's realistic, it's authentic, and it is happening to people in Japan.

MEH.

On the one hand, very nice art and art-style, attention to detail, familiar branding (Literally "Familiar Mart" haha), The protagonist has a nice look to them and a good portrayal of many emotions. I would love to see more works of this author or works that the author is doing art for or assisting in! I really think the art is what carries this FOR ME personally to have read as much as I did. I really must commend the author on that.

On the other hand, I don't know who this manga is for. I don't really know what you're intended to 'take home' from ... this manga (of course it's in progress), or what the point is or will be and as I will not be finishing or keeping up to date with it, I can't say I'll ever find out. If you want to flip through pages of a cute girl being depressed, with little mental commitment from your end, something to pass the time that seems somewhat relatable or just interesting/funny, I'd say go for it, it's probably for you. That's the TL;DR.

It seems to be a slice-of-life 'depression' type manga featuring a perfect bodied bishoujou girl. I can't really think of any overarching plot or goal of the manga besides overcoming depression. I suppose it's relatable in that sense, and what initially got me to read it-- it seems to be about the monotony of your day-to-day everlasting depressive episode and the struggles of trying to pull yourself out of it through various means. Cooking for yourself, getting a job, making friends and going out more, exercising etc. I think a lot of people who are currently going through or have had a history of depression and/or being a shut-in can relate to me on having this desire to find likeminded stories and representation, particularly in the media you consume and especially if that medium is manga or anime.

As of the latest chapter I read, 15, though the manga does seem to be developing those goals that I listed earlier, not a lot happens or has happened so far. It's fairly repetitive, most chapters begin like so: she wakes up, she's depressed and groggy, she neglects certain duties (laundry etc), self mopes and beats herself up while looking at stuff on her phone or computer, goes to try and deal with something like an interview, or getting food..., getting her hair done, rinse and repeat, with a small development on occasion. Sound familiar to anyone you know? Anyways beyond the overcoming depression aspect of the manga, the title and abstract/synopsis seem to also imply the manga is about food? It... isn't... really, like at all lol. Perhaps a future development.

It doesn't really do much to retain the readers attention nor appeal, at least not mine. Not too much dialogue at times and if there is, there's a lack of meaningful dialogue to complement panels that are also not really advancing the 'plot' any direction (can chalk this up to slice-of-life). Although there has been more dialogue in later chapters coupled with a bit more exposition, nothing really deep or thought-provoking is contained in the dialogue when it happens. And dialogue alone is not the only way to inspire emotion in the reader or establish a solid scene for their environment and 'timeline-phrasing'. Well drawn out environmental panels and multiple perspectives with absolutely zero dialogue can be even more impactful than well written and thoroughly thought-out dialogue. This manga at times, however, opts to show more frames of the characters bust or rear, or them in revealing positions with punctuation and attenuating marks around their breasts and whatnot, showing them nude, or in a maid outfit. Makes use of multiple angles to show the characters... legs and behind lol. I get it, it's Japan, we love these tropes, but I've just been so sick of it in the last many years. It's not an ecchi manga, though my previous description may have made it sound like one, and it's not always like this in every chapter, just know that it is obviously prevalent from the cover alone.

I feel that with other manga or anime that have a focus on depression or depressive characters, there seems to be a bit more substance to grasp at. I figure if you're a woman as well, there is a bit more for you in this story than compared to reading from a male perspective. Oregairu is one such series that comes to mind, though I never really continued watching that series for other reasons I can't really remember. What I do remember is: more characters to bounce between and contrast with Hiki in that series, Hiki speaks a lot more and has a lot more internal monologue that provides meaningful insight into these pessimistic or almost nihilistic-at-times thought processes. This isn't the best example, but just one such example that came of mind, of a series that deals with isolation and loneliness and depressive themes and in my opinion does it a bit better.

Of course there exists other media too that deals with these topics better (Welcome to the NHK is a typical example) but continuing comparing this work to THOSE would be genuinely unfair to the author. My point in bringing them up though, is not to compare the works of already established/seasoned authors with this one. Rather it is to establish a sort of commonality between these various types of work that have "Depression" at the forefront of their stories themes, and to establish my opinion that this story is revolving around this theme all the same as the others, only in a fairly lower capacity and not bringing too much that is meaningful to the topic/discussion of depression. In fact, I will sort of argue in a moment that this manga serves to detract these themes a little bit. I don't think my disliking comes from a place of comparison among other media that "do it better", but rather from my own experience with the subject matter.

This manga might seem like "haha depressed hot doomer girl!" meme trend manga to put it coyly and a bit on the nose, at least from the cover, but the actual contents of the pages seem to clash weirdly with that notion because it's clearly somewhat of an authorial self-insert (at least to some extent) and a commentary on depression and not just... well a hot doomer depressed girl ecchi. Looking at it from my own, more personal and kind of antithetical point-of-view and imposing my own life experience, the manga kind of irritates me. I fully understand that the rest of what I will type out her can be scrutinized to the ends of the Earth and back, and that no two people alive (let alone a fictional character) are the same, and furthermore that demeaning the struggles of somebody is an incredibly ugly thing to do. But... it's a bishoujo girl who "reached her tipping point half a year ago". She's been at a low point for 6 months. She hasn't done anything with her life in these 6 months apparently but pretty weak introduction reveals like 2 articles of clothes on the floor and 6 dishes in the sink (though the author did a little better portrayal later on). She eats garbage and barely moves yet she has a flawless physique and the art is constantly drawn to sexualize her body and change angle to highlight her figure. She goes out everyday, with flawless hair, hygiene, eyeliner etc. which feels like a strange oversight to the otherwise realistic portrayal at times (especially given she's not really shown taking care of herself in the ways that would enable her to look like this).

Sure, the author *could*(?) just be an excited male who doesn't realize he's drawing her with makeup and then labelling her "no makeup, dirty clothes" with her solid white mostly unwrinkled shirt to highlight her bust). However I'm not really sure that's the case either lol. It's a weird thing where the the content of the story, while comedic at times has a depressive tone and chapters aren't really ending on a high-note for the character most of the time nor inspiring positive emotions in the reader, which is good! But then, underlying all of this, is the "haha cute busty doomer girl!" which kind of just sours it. I really feel like if the author didn't lean into this title-grab (cover-grab?) kinda slop attempt at getting interest with the whole 'flawless bishoujo girl is depressed'-thing, it would have made this story a little more palatable, and I'm fully aware of how shallow that may sound. It goes without saying that depression can affect everyone, and affects everyone differently but if you're a person who likes to self-insert into these types of stories where the protagonists life is a little more relatable to your own (beyond just having similar personalities to characters in crazy Isekai's fighting demons lol) I think this one can be a little bit cheesy and undermined by the physical nature of the protagonist, which very unfortunately detracts from what is otherwise WORKING it's way to EVENTUAALLY BECOME a fairly good work. There are things I've not seen written or talked about that I related to regarding depression that I was glad to see get recognition or be mentioned... and then it's like this zero maintenance girl that would have a linktree and an agent and be in the Bahamas going through all of it. Hence... MEH. I think I should reiterate that I am not trying to detract from anyones experiences at all, and if you have a very similar life like this, and similar looks, this is certainly not an attack on anybody. Pretty people have problems all the same so do not bastardize my criticisms of this fictional work by interpreting THIS as a rejection of THAT. It's just the entire premise of the manga (hot single busty doomer girl... and eating???) feels out of place and almost contradictive to the narrative the actual story presents if that makes sense.

In summary: on a first glance, seems like a sort of memeish trend riding manga, but there is more to it upon reading. Yet ultimately, there is not MUCH to it after reading more of it. 6/10 dropped after finishing the first chapter of Vol 3. My main gripe is just that it's not a very entertaining manga, and is additionally undermined by the tropes it employs. Thank you for reading my shitpost about a cute hungry doomer girl manga....