The Snowy Manga Discussion Thread

[Cloudman]

pokoko said:

I've started a manga titled Koi wa Hikari.  The premise so far is interesting.

The characters are in college.  The main character is a guy who is the socially awkward type.  He has this odd ability--girls who are in love appear to sparkle when he looks at them.  Of course, none of them sparkle at him, which depresses him.  

He does have a female friend he talks with at school, and she's pretty darn cute, but she doesn't sparkle.  He becomes interested in another girl, who is kind of an idealistic bookworm, and they become friends--but she doesn't sparkle, either.  Then another girl appears, one who has a fetish for stealing guys from other girls, drawn by what she thinks is a love triangle.

Cloudman said:

Well, I've been wanting to talk about this manga for a little while now, but it deals with some rather inappropriate topics, like... well, I'll just go into the summary of it. It's called Onani Master Kurosawa.

I've read that.  It was really good.  Sometimes literature that isn't afraid to be raw or "dirty" can tap into feelings and thoughts that otherwise get ignored in the majority of written works.  Some of the best novels I've ever read were unafraid to explore the darker side of their characters.  I've read a few manga in that same vein that were also intriguing.  

That manga definitely left me feeling conflicted, though.  There was real sadness underneath.

Well, this manga not only depresses the protagonist. It also depresses me slightly. Just from the description I feel bad for the guy, but it also sounds interesting. I'll check it out when I get a chance.

Also, glad to hear I wasn't one of the few to have read it. I thought the opening chapters and subject matter would turn most people away. I recall trying to recommend another manga from the same author, Molester Man, and he already rejected it from just the title, although I thought the title was quite good, like a Train Man type of story.

But yeah, I know what you mean. I felt bad for both characters by the end, but I applaud Kurosawa for what he decided to do by the end, despite how rough he had it. That part of the story is what I find interesting between Kurosawa and the glasses girl, they took radically different approaches to their problem, which hers was a sad one. It was overall quite hard for both characters.