My Dearest Self with Malice Aforethought – Crime fiction that shakes you

Hey guys what is up welcome back to my blog I’m so thankful that you guys took the time out of your day to read my blog post. Hope you all are safe and healthy. Another recommendation from Twitter this time, which by the way has a lot of good recommendations if you know where to look. Anyway, it had a long title but don’t worry, this one isn’t a trashy isekai, it’s really good. This is one I would suggest everyone go in blind hence I will keep the SPOILERS TO A MINIMUM.

Eiji Urashima is a college student who has a pretty average life, he goes to class, and sometimes goes out with his friends to drink and wants a girlfriend. However one day he sleeps only to wake up three days later, with a girl he doesn’t recognize in his bed who claims to be his girlfriend. In those three days, much has happened that affected Eiji’s life and he must work to find out the truth. Why did the girl in his bed suddenly become his girlfriend? What happened in the 3 days that he doesn’t remember? What dark and malicious secrets are hidden in those three days? And what secrets is Eiji himself hiding?

Writing about the plot and characters is the hardest thing ever for this manga because there is so much to talk about and yet I don’t want to reveal it all because I believe that it would ruin the experience for people. However, I will find a workaround by talking about characters briefly. Our MC is the most intriguing of them all, Eiji Urashima, a seemingly harmless guy who is actually quite mysterious. Any more than this is a spoiler I want to avoid. There’s also Kyoka Yukimura, the girl who showed up in Eiji’s bed, a reasonable girl who is given a lot of depth as a character and not used as just a dumb cute girl. Rei Shinmyoji is another mysterious character who is skilled and smart and has a personal connection to what happens to Eiji. Even though some of the characters can be called static, since the primary focus is always Eiji and this is a crime thriller that is more like a movie than a web series, they are never boring.

Since this is a mystery story, of course, the manga manages to set up that atmosphere quite well. The manga features some mature themes and also has pretty gruesome and dark scenes which are also well shown in a manner that I cannot describe so that’s a warning to the people who are faint of heart. I personally loved how simple it seems and yet how it gets increasingly complex with the plot twists that always keep the story fresh and keep it moving until we reach the finale which solves everything. It also talks a lot about several mental illnesses, some of the information is right and some of it is not since this si fiction so do not use this as a psychology guidebook. The manga never lets you believe anything because for all you know, anything can be a lie and anyone can be malicious. The story also manages to interweave the characters quite well because as we see, all of these characters have their own parts to play and they all fit really well, like pieces of a puzzle. The one thing that I personally found bad was that the pacing of the manga is really fast, something is always happening and you rarely ever get time to catch a breather, and sometimes that gets confusing.

The manga showed some really good themes like betrayal from loved ones, and the psychology of why some people become broken and further go on to be criminals but the thing that the show manages to show really well was how society acts in a way that is comfortable for them even when they are hurting people. I will not go into the details of what is shown but we as a society are easily influenced and make decisions that can harm others and are happy with that as long as we are comfortable and not harmed.

The manga has 98 chapters, in 11 volumes which has an absolutely stunning reveal at the finale that solves everything that has happened in the story, ties together all the different plot points, and concludes the character arc for Eiji. I objectively would like to rate this a 9/10 when I take into account the fact that the other characters though seemingly static always contribute to the story and are interesting, and the only bad thing about this story is its pacing.

So that is it for this post guys hope you got some value from this.  Thank you guys for reading to the end hit me up on Instagram and Twitter with your thoughts and if you have any ideas on what I should write about. Stay safe from the COVID-19. Thank you again and I’ll see you all next week.