Review: Shima Shima [Manga] - The Nosedive

SPOILERS AHEAD, duh!

The story was good but it takes a nosedive in the final chapters. The foreshadowing was blatant and

disgusting. However,  I can't rate it as good or even decent if it leaves such a bad aftertaste. You may be satisfied with the ending and dismiss this review that not everything in reality has to go the right way, but let me clarify that I'm not talking about morals or virtues here. When you defile the very reason of the story and end in a similar note as if nothing had happened, it is nothing but looking down on reality. Yes, it may be justified as Shio's story and that she finally gets rid of her insomnia. Insomnia is not a joke and neither is recovering from it. I'm not trying to make light of the disease, but it was not just her fight with insomnia. It was her romance, and Gai's romance. His confidence but fickleness was what gave the story the girth. And yet his fickleness was what ultimately caused its demise.

Gai in the final chapters is like someone with no direction, a ship without a rudder. He is one of the most significant characters to have undergone a backwards development along with Ran. The story is so convoluting that you can't blame any character for the bad development but you can only lament the fact that everyone is at fault, except for the literature guy. Pining for your brother's ex-wife is a very complicated and taboo thing to base the story on, and it would've been okay if he just gave up in the middle to direct his feelings and emotions towards something more... relevant. It pains the readers to see him pining till the very end, like a five-year-old who fails to realise that there are some things he can't have. The five-year-old will eventually grow up, but Gai doesn't. And that's what leads to the end, which is nothing but a disaster.

If you're going to read it, please don't and save yourself the feeling of emptiness. Yeah, good stories do leave you in emptiness because of its ending. But in this case, there's no afterthought. This seems to be one of the most depressing stories but not because of the plot, but because of how the author seems to make a joke out of the very premise she worked so hard to solidify.