If the previous moment was an emotional high point, this one’s a definite low.
The manga in question here is Onani Master Kurosawa, that indie production that did more for me than many (perhaps most) of the professional works I consumed this year. That it takes a dark turn isn’t so surprising; it’s easy to guess that the guy who ejaculates on people’s belongings for great justice and the girl who blackmails him into doing so don’t have wholly bright futures in store. But it’s hard to imagine just how dark said dark turn will be until it happens. And, sure enough, it’s dark.
I’ve had a hard time even forcing myself to start this post. I think the moment in question is difficult to write about in the same way that Bokurano is difficult to write about — it strikes a personal chord or two. But the middle chapters of OMK are difficult even to read through. If it is ultimately, as Ghostlightning suggests, a story of hope, a redemption story, it certainly doesn’t spare those characters who will be redeemed.
This should be a brief post, then, in terms of word count. I’ll let Yoko’s superbly expressive art speak for itself, mostly. To clarify, though, the moment in question is Kurosawa’s act of revenge against the girl he has fallen for, who chooses someone else over him — if indeed it is revenge, and not something simpler and more primal, a mere act of expressing his frustration (and, in a way, Kitahara’s frustration) the only way he knows how.
Here’s the thing: until this point, Kurosawa has been rather sympathetic. We know beyond doubt that he’s a troubled kid, but thus far his “targets” have been people who could stand to be taught a lesson in one way or another, and we’ve seen him relent from going after people he doesn’t deem especially deserving. More than that, I get his self-loathing, the kind of self-loathing that becomes a more general loathing for human beings. I’ve never been a chronic masturbator, mind you, but I suspect that, emotionally, I’ve been where Kurosawa is.
But here Kurosawa commits an egregious and revolting act, a terrible act of sexual harassment. That in itself isn’t the most horrifying thing. The most horrifying thing is that now we realize in full that he’s been doing as much all along. At no point was he ever even a sad parody of a champion of justice. He’s always been nothing more than a sick kid who jacks off on people’s things. The story’s first half lulls us into laughing it all off; the second half asks us what our having done so says about us. On the bright side, though, it isn’t long before Kurosawa realizes as much about himself, and at that point his redemption — his “discovering the world,” as CCY puts it — can begin.
All in all, this is not the sort of moment whose memory I relish. But it is without a doubt the sort of moment that I’ll never forget.
Pontifus
kaiserpingvin
cuchlann
Shance
TheKittymeister
r042
Baka-Raptor
/ 18 December 2009Thank you for being the only person (other than myself) to discuss OMK without saying something along the lines of “OMK isn’t actually a story about masturbation.”
Pontifus
/ 19 December 2009It’s definitely about masturbation. And anyway, as a fan of James Joyce, I can’t really say masturbation isn’t a legitimate plot element.
ghostlightning
/ 18 December 2009LOL good job. Kurosawa has indeed been sympathetic up to that point — not because he is ‘good,’ but rather in how we give him permission to violate the people he’s violated up to that point. The moment here exposes our own hypocrisy! This is why it’s so hard to read through this part.
We’re further challenged then, when Kurosawa actually fesses up and owns his actions. This manga then throws the gauntlet in front of us! Can we resolve our own hypocrisy? In whatever form we have our own, big or small. But the smaller our hypocrisies are, the more shameful we feel about remaining inauthentic for them. After all, Kurosawa dug a deeper hole, and crawled out of it. Crawling, to be sure, BUT WITH BROKEN NAILS AND BLOODIED FINGERS HE CRAWLED OUT ANYWAY.
The redemption in society is sweet, but what I see as the pinnacle of redemption is how he claimed his life back, his being back, from his own actions — marked by three speeches/confrontations:
1. The one between him and the devil he made a deal with.
2. The one between him and those he wronged.
3. The one between him and the teacher who tried to give him a way out.
Always he took a harder path, a path that made him crawl. But his crawling isn’t the kind that avoids, but rather a defiance — in the face of circumstances that cut his legs from under him and refused him the ability to walk tall. On his belly he will crawl forward, like a man.
Pontifus
/ 19 December 2009When you put it that way, it sounds almost like a reverse Faust or Dorian Gray story. Which, I think, is probably a productive way of looking at it. Kurosawa’s descent into hell, maybe — he’s a hero because he went to the underworld and returned. His is not only a forward crawl but an upward crawl.
Delicious Tears
/ 21 November 2010That bitch got owned hard in that chapter, and I absolutely love the crescendo that the author pulled off in those pages: at first she looks in the bag and seems shocked, but the reaction is still a bit disappointing. Then she discovers the books and all hell breaks loose in the classroom, climaxing brilliantly with tears and vomit in front of everybody.
It was the kind of cold served vengeance that is immensely satisfying, and I knew right away that nothing that came afterwards would be able to top it. The rest of the story wasn’t really bad, but it was too sappy and convenient, especially the painting, and later on the revelation that even the abusive girls were nice people after all. At least the bullied girl’s story remained more realistic.