This review may contain spoilers
Mom Sucking Justified
Sometimes surreal, this story seems to try using an analogy to tell a story about an abusive mother who can't find it in her to love her daughter and so takes out her anger and resentment on the daughter for giving her that flaw. It's really just episode after episode of her mom being abusive, her dad ignoring or justifying it, her sister (initially) feeding into it, and people at school ostracizing her. And she's totally friendless and has 0 self esteem. She also has a crush on a guy that this other girl has a crush on. This girl tries to assert her dominance with the guy like a number of times throughout the show. The guy can't seem to make up his mind between MC and this girl for a while.
While she maintains a good relationship with her dad, he frustratingly has sentience for about 5 seconds per episode. Eventually she has a good relationship with her sister, when her sister notices MC's a good person and a caring sister despite everything. And finally she makes a new friend with a new girl who used to struggle like her and wants to help her through it. Her mom always seems to be on the verge of having sympathy for her, but instead she's just upset that she's the only one who thinks her daughter sucks and that she still can't find it in her to love her. And she gets totally angry and distraught when she sees her daughter slowly learning to love herself and accept love from people around her.
Early on in her life, she tried to kill MC, but then stopped and hugged her for the only time in her whole life. Later this is said to have been because she loved her so much that she didn't want her disgusting existence to be a source of pain for her or the people around her. Insane. When she tells MC in high school, understandably MC runs away from home to stay with her only friend and her mom for a bit. The next day she does things she always wanted to with a mother figure with her friend's mom. And then her friend's mom shared that she once wanted to kill her daughter and herself to save them both the pain, and she finds that this helps her to understand her mother's "love" and she goes home.
A lot of her desire to become better is so the guy she has a crush on can love her back. Sort of annoying but she's just 18 so maybe it's realistic.
Ideally it's a story of liberation and acceptance, and it feels like that's what it could've been at its highest potential. But in the final episode, she finds out that her mom hated her because she reminded her of herself all along. And then she feels horrible for not being more understanding of her mom's abuse and cries over her dead body. And then she marries her crush, has a kid, and thinks about how sad her mom was because she couldn't love her and that she shares the same feeling about her own kid, that she could never love her own kid, but she's not sad because her mom took her sadness away. Insane honestly. Just no words.
And this is a story she's telling said kid for bed (that's the story frame). The kid is at one point crying lol, just enduring hearing "And then the girl's mom called her ugly, and told her she'd never find love, and she wanted to die, and everyone thought she was a curse and she had no friends and the gifts she gave her mom meant nothing to her." I mean it's just like such an insane vibe that she's telling her kid a story of her mom who didn't love her, and then even more insane to be telling it to a kid she herself doesn't love and is just fake loving?
I always hate in Japanese media the flippant attitude towards trauma and depression. So much "just smile." "It's your fault that people don't like you." And towards abuse. So many abusive parents in anime and jdramas, and the attitude is that it's normal. This jdrama is really annoying if you think child abuse should be treated seriously, if you think friends should be more supportive, if you think suicide isn't black and white and deserves sympathy, and if you know that trauma doesn't just go away from smiling. Whatever.
Aesthetically pleasing. Also if my child looked like that iguana, I'd especially want to hug her.
While she maintains a good relationship with her dad, he frustratingly has sentience for about 5 seconds per episode. Eventually she has a good relationship with her sister, when her sister notices MC's a good person and a caring sister despite everything. And finally she makes a new friend with a new girl who used to struggle like her and wants to help her through it. Her mom always seems to be on the verge of having sympathy for her, but instead she's just upset that she's the only one who thinks her daughter sucks and that she still can't find it in her to love her. And she gets totally angry and distraught when she sees her daughter slowly learning to love herself and accept love from people around her.
Early on in her life, she tried to kill MC, but then stopped and hugged her for the only time in her whole life. Later this is said to have been because she loved her so much that she didn't want her disgusting existence to be a source of pain for her or the people around her. Insane. When she tells MC in high school, understandably MC runs away from home to stay with her only friend and her mom for a bit. The next day she does things she always wanted to with a mother figure with her friend's mom. And then her friend's mom shared that she once wanted to kill her daughter and herself to save them both the pain, and she finds that this helps her to understand her mother's "love" and she goes home.
A lot of her desire to become better is so the guy she has a crush on can love her back. Sort of annoying but she's just 18 so maybe it's realistic.
Ideally it's a story of liberation and acceptance, and it feels like that's what it could've been at its highest potential. But in the final episode, she finds out that her mom hated her because she reminded her of herself all along. And then she feels horrible for not being more understanding of her mom's abuse and cries over her dead body. And then she marries her crush, has a kid, and thinks about how sad her mom was because she couldn't love her and that she shares the same feeling about her own kid, that she could never love her own kid, but she's not sad because her mom took her sadness away. Insane honestly. Just no words.
And this is a story she's telling said kid for bed (that's the story frame). The kid is at one point crying lol, just enduring hearing "And then the girl's mom called her ugly, and told her she'd never find love, and she wanted to die, and everyone thought she was a curse and she had no friends and the gifts she gave her mom meant nothing to her." I mean it's just like such an insane vibe that she's telling her kid a story of her mom who didn't love her, and then even more insane to be telling it to a kid she herself doesn't love and is just fake loving?
I always hate in Japanese media the flippant attitude towards trauma and depression. So much "just smile." "It's your fault that people don't like you." And towards abuse. So many abusive parents in anime and jdramas, and the attitude is that it's normal. This jdrama is really annoying if you think child abuse should be treated seriously, if you think friends should be more supportive, if you think suicide isn't black and white and deserves sympathy, and if you know that trauma doesn't just go away from smiling. Whatever.
Aesthetically pleasing. Also if my child looked like that iguana, I'd especially want to hug her.
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