Created by: Souhachi Hagimoto
Chapters: 31 (Ongoing)
Hello and Welcome to the Wild-Card Monday of Manga Musings. As mentioned last week, today I will be talking about a manga which wasn’t chosen by the votes of the readers of our Star-Crossed blog but was instead personally recommended to me. I found it to be highly enjoyable and more than deserving of being highlighted in this humble weekly project. The manga being Souhachi Hagimoto’s debut, Asper Girl – a story about a loner carrying the scars and sorrows of their past who finds another loner to be alone with.
THE PREMISE:
A girl living with Asperger’s Syndrome reaches out to a small-time manga author to thank him for creating a story which made her feel like there was someone out there who sees the world through her eyes and who can relate to the lives which people like her lead.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT:
The portrayal of disabilities in storytelling media – both physical and mental – has always been a very sensitive topic. A few stories do it commendably well while others fail to depict such issues with the care that they require. The major criticisms that the latter category faces concern the fact that they tend to over-dramatize such issues in order to derive unearned tears. They make you feel sad for the characters, make you pity them, make you feel sympathetic towards them but instead what these stories should try and achieve is to have us empathize with these characters. Yes, we might never be able to fully relate with what they go through on a day-to-day basis but the least we can do is to not forget that they are people too. Maybe not exactly like us in some ways but people all the same. Fours limbs, Two eyes, One mouth. The whole package.
Asper Girl is a story which tries to normalize one such behavioral inadequacy which gets misrepresented far too often in popular media: Asperger’s Syndrome. Saitou Megumi was born with it and all her life has been bullied for it. Her inability to fit in with the rest of the world led to other mental health issues and to make matters worse, she had no one to talk to. No friend who will listen to her. A family which couldn’t even stand her living under the same roof as them. No one who would even care if someone like her lived or died. Just how is a person supposed to feel ‘glad to be alive’ then? How are they supposed to find acceptance for themselves? And at its core, that is what Asper Girl is all about. Finding acceptance. Sometimes all you need is one person, only one, to be saved. To save you. And For Saitou-san, the person turns out to be Yokoi-san, a struggling mangaka living his own solitary life while trying his best to make ends meet.
Even though the description and analysis up to now would have you believe that this is a dark, heavily psychological manga, in actuality, it’s quite the opposite. It’s a wonderfully heartwarming slice-of-life story about two people who are content in living their entire lives in a small corner of their own, far from the madding crowd, while finding happiness in the tiniest joys that life lets them have. Sometimes, they do talk about the sorrows they carry within their hearts but it’s only because now, they have someone to listen to them. Someone to make them laugh, someone to hold them and someone to love them in all their damaged glory.
While still being a story about sad people with troubled pasts, Asper Girl never wallows in its sadness. Instead, every time you meet Yokoi-san and Saitou-san, they are making an effort to better themselves. To not let their sorrows drag them down and to keep moving forward even though it’s only small steps at a time. And maybe that’s the biggest lesson we can learn from it.
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T READ IT:
While the darker themes of the story never really become excessively heavy, they are talked about and mentioned at multiple times. And yes, the depictions of these issues don’t exactly make for a pleasant reading experience. Apart from that, like I said, this is a slice-of-life story, so there isn’t an overarching plot as such. Each chapter is structured to depict a day in the lives of our two protagonists. So, naturally, the plot isn’t imbued with a sense of urgency or has multiple plot twists along the way. I guess if that’s what you want from this story, you will be left disappointed.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Asper Girl is a story that is as underappreciated as any modern manga and one which I might never have gotten around to if it wasn’t recommended to me (Thanks to Kaiser for that) but I am so very glad I did. It’s a comfort read and every chapter made me feel warm and happy while almost instantly lighting up my mood. I cannot recommend this story enough.
RATING: 8.9 / 10
☆—————-☆—————-☆—————-☆—————-☆
With that, we conclude this week’s coverage. Next week, I will be reviewing the manga chosen through the votes of the previous poll, Satoshi Kon’s Opus. To have your favorite manga get reviewed the week after, be sure to vote in this week’s poll here!
And feel free to leave the titles of any manga you think needs more attention down in the comments below and I will be sure to include it in later polls.
As always, thank you for reading and see ya next Monday! ^^
As someone who is autistic myself, I did find myself liking this manga for quite a lot of reasons, and am continuing to follow it. That said, I do have some criticisms for it, like Yokoi’s…fetish for farts in a bag. I don’t get it, and I don’t see why it’s even there. It doesn’t get mentioned a lot, but ehh…I just don’t see what purpose it adds to the story or him as a character. On a more positive note, I do really love how Yokoi and Saitou actually make an effort to talk to each other about their problems and go about things in ways that make an effort to make each other comfortable without breaking boundaries. For example, in one chapter, Megumi has a meltdown and asks Yokoi to touch her breast to calm her down. He does it, and it’s portrayed as a consensual act between both parties and not played for fanservice. As someone who absolutely hates this kind of trope to high heaven, to see it done consensually and not done to hurt someone, comedic or not, is really refreshing.
Yeah, the fart fetish thing was not quite necessary. It’s supposed to be played off for comedic purposes but if you look at it another way, it does impart some personality to his character. Maybe it’s just representative of the fact that we all have certain things about us which we keep to ourselves and it’s only through rare fortune that we find people who we can share those things with, no matter how weird they may be. That being said, yes, the author could have used literally anything else. 😅
True. There’s also one scene very early in the manga that also gives me mixed feelings, but for a different reason. You probably already read this chapter, but it’s the one where she and Yokoi go to the bathhouse, and Saitou, annoyed with a child’s running around and hitting her, trips him to the point of making him bleed, and smacks the mother for not making any effort to get him under control. I mean, I’m not the biggest fan of kids either, and her annoyance is understandable, but it’s still wrong to go out of your way to injure a child in a way that could have very easily killed him, and you don’t slap a random stranger either. I like that the manga did portray neither side as being completely in the right, as well as highlighting that Saitou didn’t do it just for kicks or because autism(Unfortunately, people IRL tend to dismiss many things autistic people do as just being random or problematic behavior without really trying to find the reason for it, mostly just trying to suppress it, thereby saying their reasons or feelings don’t matter), but…yeah.
I remember that scene, yes. I am someone who is vehemently against violence of any kind towards children so, seeing Saitou-san just snap like that was really shocking to me. But I believe it was more of an impulsive thing for her than something done out of hate and she immediately regretted it. Sometimes when parents are stressed out about something they take it out on their children or when we’re pissed off for some reason, we end up screaming at a friend. We never intend to do it but it just happens and can happen with anyone, autistic or not. Like you said, no side was entirely wrong and no one was truly justified.
Thanks for taking my recommendation.
Reading this manga reminded me, that its always the random obscure stuff I would just grab on a blind read that would usually end up being the most worthwhile.
I’m glad you stressed the importance of how issues such as those depicted in this manga, need to be depicted properly, one of the things I look for in fiction is a degree of sincerity.
I also like how its pretty much heavily implied the male protagonist probably has some form of un-diagnosed autism aswell .
Before I knew anything about this manga, I assumed I’d be relating to the woman, came out relating, thankfully to the male protagonist a fair bit due to him being the kind of guy who keeps to himself, its not often I can identify with fictional characters, but having autism myself to see manga characters going through it is a surprise .
Your take on his offbeat fetish is right, I did laugh as him saying it was fairly left field.
I’ve been reading it too, and I find it pretty good as well! I do still like With The Light by Keiko Tobe better, but Asper Girl has its perks as well. I also like how the manga doesn’t try to paint Saitou as some inspirational being whose only purpose is to educate the neurotypical or as just some parasite who leeches off of others and being nothing but an inconvenience or a burden, which are unfortunate stereotypes that still get perpetuated even to this day (Take note, Autism Speaks). She’s just a person who wants to find happiness.
I also think that by mentioning that the male MC has traits of autism, yet with him being more functional than Saitou, was a good decision, because it shows two different types of autism.
And the type autism this manga shows allows people to see that the image of autism is much more than the typical image of autism, often people think autism is entirely defined by very low functioning autism, and neither of the characters in this manga have extreme autism.
An the lack of fanservice, the author could have easily exploited a sex scene regarding one of the side characters but thankfully didn’t go the cheap route.
Regarding your manga reviews, does it have to necessarily be something thats only available to pirate online?
Grass is a great under the radar one, set in Korea during world war 2: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grass-Keum-Suk-Gendry-Kim/dp/1770463623
The translations for Asper girl are three volumes behind it seems.
Yeah, and the sex addict is actually one of my favorite characters! Wow, I never thought I’d actually say that about someone like that, but the sex addict lady is one of the nicest characters in the manga. She needs more love!
Also, yes I do agree that the character of the neighbour is really interesting and I love how her addiction is portrayed in a relatable light and as a consequence of her loneliness. I hope she shows up more in later chapters.
@Kaiser.Eoghan It doesn’t necessarily need to only be something available online but the thing is a lot of media is region restricted in our country and if I try to order something from abroad, the custom duties and everything make it cost a ton.
It’s a shame because from its premise itself, the ‘Grass’ manga you recommended looks so good and would’ve been the kind of story I would personally have loved to read :/
Looks like there’s a kindle edition on amazon India =)
https://www.amazon.in/Grass-Keum-suk-Gendry-Kim-ebook/dp/B086M7DQP2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1591039141&sr=1-1
Oh, nice! I thought it was a multi-volume series and not all of it was available. But if it’s just the one volume then I can surely check it out 😀
Damn, are Kindle stuff really that expensive in India? I mean, I just tried looking up Letter To The Sky on there and volumes of manga go over $500!
Yeah, it seems that way for most of media that has foreign origins of any sorts. Even mainstream stuff like manga can be pretty expensive. Guess they do this to promote art forms developed within the nation.
Given your interest in mental illness and psychology, a manhwa called Dr. Frost (which you can read for free on webtoons.com) may also be worth a try. It’s about a psychologist who basically goes around analyzing people: figuring out what their problems are, and how they can be helped. I only just discovered it myself, so I haven’t actually tried it yet, but it seems to be quite highly rated. I doubt it’ll ever win a vote here, though (because it isn’t very well known), so you can just take it as a personal recommendation.
And speaking of webtoons: another series on that website that may interest you is Kubera (which I’ve recently decided to give another try). It has a ton of chapters, so it’s probably more something for your backlist, but it’s quite unique among fantasy stories: it has very intricate world building (which takes heavy inspiration from Hindu mythology), and compared to Tower of God, say (in which fights and typical shounen themes are very prominent), its plot is much more character-driven, and rife with tragedy and moral complexity. I’ll again bracket my recommendation by saying that I haven’t made it all that far yet, though, so it’s partly based on what I’ve heard about the series.
Oh, I have actually read Dr. Frost. It’s good but when it comes to webtoons that deal with psychological issues, I prefer Melvina’s Therapy and Yuuko’s Gloomy Days. Both of these are way darker than Dr. Frost though.
As for the Kubera webtoon, I actually haven’t heard of it although it seems pretty popular (in my defense, I haven’t used the platform much for a year or so) but it looks interesting. I will check it out whenever I find the time. Thanks for the recommendation! 🙂
Haha, I guess I should have expected you to be much better informed than I am with regard to this particular subgenre. 😉 I’m generally not a big fan of horror, so I’m not sure the ones you mentioned are for me, but they do sound quite interesting, so maybe I’ll give them a try too.
I would suggest trying out Yuuko’s Gloomy Days first. It’s dark though not really horror and being unfinished only has a few chapters out. It draws on a lot of the author’s personal experiences and uses very vivid and surreal imagery to enhance the reading experience. It’s one of my favorite webtoons ever.
One of your favorite webtoons! That’s high praise. 🙂 And it sounds really interesting too. I’ll make sure to give it a try.
Back in the day I read many Korean webtoons and probably too many of them to start remembering off hand.
I forgot about continuing doctor frost, most because I think for a while the scans had slowed down.
The other two webtoons you mentioned are unknown to me,
I’m not sure how far the scans got when you dropped it, but webtoons now has two full seasons of the series. There is apparently a third season as well, but for some reason webtoons seems to have decided not to translate it.
Do you mean the ones Armitage recommended? From what I read about them, they do very much seem like your cup of tea, given your love of the horror genre, surrealistic imagery, and explorations of the darkest corners of the human mind. Kubera may also be worth a try if what I wrote above sounds appealing, but like I said, it does require a significant investment.
Ah yes, I meant Melvinatherapy and yuuko’s gloomy days.
Maybe Kubera might sound too shounen in some aspects, but in others sounds more appealing.
Although it is classified as such on MAL, I personally wouldn’t call it a shounen. I’m about halfway through season 1, and none of the arcs I have read so far is heavy on combat: only one of them has anything you could reasonably call a “fight”, and it is short and more focused on exploring the dynamic between the relevant characters than on provoking excitement. And though the series starts off relatively lighthearted, with a lot of comedy revolving around the MC acting like a ditz, from what I’ve heard its world and story are more “seinen” than “shounen” (for the reasons outlined above). Oh, and the author is actually female, and the character design and general “gaze” of the series honestly feel more “shoujo” than “shounen”: none of the female characters is sexualized, and the male characters are all pretty boys.
Tl;dr – Kubera is a fantasy story, and there is combat, but based on what I’ve read and heard, it’s not a battle shounen. So if you’d end up hating it, it’s probably for a different reason. 😉
I did check out the Kubera manhwa actually, since I haven’t seen many foreign stories incorporating Indian mythology accurately. And well… this one doesn’t either. 😅
I mean, sure the actual narrative isn’t the issue here but it draws almost 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 from the mythology. They could have very well named the protagonist Emily or something and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. The story by itself is alright. I will keep making my way through it little by little but I am not necessarily hooked on it.
Oh, that’s sad to hear… I know next to nothing about Hindu mythology, so I assumed many of its elements really were drawn from it, but I guess it only draws some inspiration from it and doesn’t incorporate much of it directly.
For what it’s worth, Kubera fans insist that the story has a very slow start and gets much better later on. I’m not really hooked yet either (though it’s not bad), but I’ll just have faith in their words for now: my reading list and watchlist are nearly empty anyway, so I don’t have much to lose. 🙂
If you’re looking for some Korean webtoon/comics to read, might I recommend one? It’s called The Monster Duchess and the Contract Princess. It’s much more of a high fantasy fare than most I’m aware of. It’s about a young girl, Leslie, who starts off being frequently abused and neglected by her noble family, as they blatantly favor her older sister over her. One night, they try to kill her by throwing her in a fiery pit, and Leslie’s powers of darkness saves her. This convinces her that her bio-family won’t ever love her, and being sick of their mistreatment, she reaches out to a more powerful family, the Salvatores, for protection. She does manage to find happiness with them, but her bio-family wants to kill her for a very specific purpose.
It starts out rather dark and morose, but it becomes more hopeful and light-hearted whenever the Salvatore family appears. They’re really large and loud but genuinely nice people who give Leslie everything she ever wanted. The comic is basically a mix of cute family antics, a dark mystery, and political intrigue.
Hmm, the plot and themes seem pretty interesting but really, you had me at the title itself. 😛
I was actually recommending it to Kaiser, but if you want to read it, go ahead! Hehe.
Hello, I know I’m late to be commenting here, but I just recently read all the chapters of this manga translated into English so far – 46 as of a few days ago. While I’ve not been diagnosed, I’ve suspected that I’m on the autism spectrum with what the DSM used to call Asperger’s for several months now, and since I like manga I decided to look for any that had characters with it. Asper Girl is the first manga I’ve read that depicts characters on the autism spectrum, and it seems to depict them very well. I had trouble getting into this manga at first because of the scenes of the abusive way Saitou’s family treated her in the 3rd chapter, but an online friend encouraged me to keep reading, and I’m glad I did.
I definitely agree with Kaiser that the male main character Yokoi is probably on the autism spectrum as well, though undiagnosed, and I also found myself relating to him more than Saitou, though I like both of them. If I remember correctly, one of Yokoi’s coworkers at the newspaper is on the spectrum too. I like that this manga has multiple characters who are on the autism spectrum and it doesn’t have them all act the same, and they’re all depicted as people just trying to find happiness in their lives as best they can. At this point, the only major problem I have with Asper Girl is how long it seems to take for new chapters to be translated into English.