Ribāzu Ejji

by Kyōko Okazaki

A story about high school students who go to a school at the bank of a river.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels, Josei, Fiction, LGBT, Japan

232 pages, Comic

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Kyōko Okazaki (岡崎京子) is a Japanese cartoonist. In a relatively short career, spanning from 1983 to 1996, Okazaki established herself as a leading figure in josei manga, i.e. comics primarily targeting women. In particular, she was a major contributor to gyaru manga, a trend reclaiming 'girliness' into adult graphic novels.
Okazaki is known for her unorthodox visual style and her bluntness in tackling topics such as sex, prostitution, bourgeois decadence and body dismorphia, against the backdrop of the opulent life in 80s and 90s Tokyo. Her most famous works are Pink (1989), River's Edge (1993-1994) and Helter Skelter (1995-1996), the latter also adapted into a live-action film.
In 1996 Okazaki was hit by a car. The accident, from which she is still re-habilitating, put an end to her comic book career.

Reviews

[Kaiya · Rating 1 out of 5]

yeah this was incredibly fucked up in the name of “showing real issues” or some bullshit like that & im really wondering why manga is so obsessed with teenage girls suffering, specifically sexually

lots of rape and sexual assault, near murder, a very badly handled teenage pregnancy storyline, and some sort of cobbled together point about self-esteem? so much of the violence was gratuitous; the author could’ve made these points without actually illustrating a rape scene, strangulation, etc…

weird as hell

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kyōko Okazaki is a master in balancing nihilism with a sort of youthful exuberance. Her stories seem to always involve some level of naiveté and optimism typical in younger people, but their expectations of the world are always tempered by harsher realities. It's a dark way of writing stories about kids, but I think it's important to have these kinds of stories being told too. The story in River's Edge follows a few teenagers who attend a school near a riverbank that is a place for couples to go have sex but later regret it. Okazaki recognizes the challenges teenagers experience, ranging from body image issues, confused sexuality and the urge to rebel. One character is routinely bullied for being gay while another character purges regularly to adhere to perceived beauty standards. And throughout the narrative, we follow the decay of a corpse by the riverside that a few of the characters regularly visit and consider their "treasure". It's got a bizarre, twisted narrative, but the story feels all too real and relatable.

I'm not completely enthralled by Okazaki's cartooning, but I do like the juxtaposition of her cartoonish designs with the gritty realism and cynicism of the stories. I liked the artwork here a fair more than I did in Helter Skelter , though I would recommend both books. There's even some crossover in themes (and even one minor character) between Helter Skelter and River's Edge, though this one is a standalone read on its own.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with all of this year's Eisner nominees, this is a bleak story with an ending that is less conclusive than you might like. It's very well done, and I always enjoy Kyoko Okazaki's brand of darkness, but it is a lot, and emphatically not for all readers, as the content warning list below demonstrates:

Animal cruelty
Drug use
Disordered Eating
Self-harm
Realistic bullying
Homophobia
Mental health crisis
Not-entirely-consensual sex

Worth reading, but read with caution.

[✮ osanna aoki ✮ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before this particular manga, I had yet to read any work by Kyōko Okazaki, but heard nothing but wonderful things about her work. I knew this particular manga was highly celebrated for its depiction of what it was like to grow up in an early 1990s Tokyo, so when I came across it at one of my favorite bookstores— I finally had to give it a go.

River’s Edge is a raw, immodest manga that follows the interwoven lives of six teenagers. Primarily focused on the bleak, tragic, and messed-up side of growing up— this slice-of-life tale is fairly dark.

Both the plot line and characters in River’s Edge are dramatic and intense. Kyōko Okazaki does a phenomenal job at rubbing mature themes in our faces that are hard to accept, and sometimes harder to read.

While Okazaki pushes uncomfortable circumstances to the forefront— she does so with a sort of youthful exuberance and her tone is well, exceptionally compelling. I couldn’t put the book down as lives began to spiral and situations dipped into dangerous and unstable territory.

And Okazaki writes her characters with tough love. By letting them make their mistakes, cross one another with wrongdoings, dabble in unhealthy and treacherous habits, exploring the darker sides of life, we are able to watch the teenagers experience their highs and lows— readers given the gift of observance—while the story wraps up with a violent, horrific, and bloody climax that not everyone recovers from.

Now, listen here. Things in River’s Edge don’t get better. The teenagers don’t change, good things don’t happen, and there is no redemption. You’re just along for the ride— quietly witnessing the randomness and pain that six kids are subjected to. If you’re looking for some big takeaway, you won’t find it. The lack of resolve is disquieting, to say the least. There is no resolution to the unease, everything just is, and you have to be okay with that.

Again, darkly compelling with no real resolution— River’s Edge will either become a favorite of yours or will ultimately leave you both unsatisfied and annoyed. I have to say while it was bleak, it has moved its way up to becoming a favorite manga of mine. From its disorienting and wild art, to its even wilder and unpredictable story, this is a piece of work that leaves me feeling kind of empty by its end. But the fact that there is feeling is what made me love this manga. An easy ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ stars to give, and while it may not be for everyone, it was absolutely for me.

Dive into the somber waters of River’s Edge— the kids are not alright.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was hands-down the best of these three manga, and also gets massive props for having queer main characters in a non-romance story. (Helter Skelter does as well, though I kind of had issues with how that was portrayed.) Although this had a lot of dramatic things happen, it was the most realistic feeling of the three (though still pretty over the top in a lot of places). Just a really, really good teen drama that is about relationships of all sorts (both platonic and romantic) and how complicated and fucked up everything can get. While there was a lot of issue stuff (pregnancy, disordered eating, queerness, rape, bullying & abusive relationships), it wasn't at all an issue manga.

Oh! I just realised that the younger model whom Ririko is competing with is one of the main characters in River's Edge! Now I kind of want to go back and read Helter Skelter, because wow, she had this total innocent image there and it seemed like it was genuine, but after seeing her in River's Edge, that's not true at all. (And River's Edge was written first, so it's not like the innocent thing being an act was a retcon.)

[新新 Xin-Xin · Rating 4 out of 5]

某些氣氛讓我想起 all about lily-chou-chou，不是我會說喜歡的畫風但氣氛很適合，要說是漫畫也有點敘事詩的味道。

[MiniMicroPup (X Liscombe) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so technically I didn’t like this because so many awful things happened. But I think it was well done.

Energy: Visceral. Compulsive. Devastating.
Scene: 🇯🇵 Set in Tokyo, Japan.
Perspective: Observing the day-to-day struggles of a cast of high school students.

🐩 Tail Wags: The startling, sad, but believable storylines. Illustration style.

🤔 Random Thoughts:
Throws every bad thing that could happen to someone as a teen at the reader, but it didn’t feel gratuitous. It seemed plausible.

Check content heads-up as a lot of it is graphic especially when you can watch it play out on the page.

This was originally from the ‘90s and it feels that way. Some of it didn’t age well, but the topics and outcomes aren’t irrelevant for today. Footnotes provide context when popular media is referenced from that time.

----
🤓 Reader Role: Watching the scene unfold getting to understand the group dynamics and backstories.
🗺️ World-Building: Immersive, sensory, gritty.
🔥 Fuel: Character de-evolution, parallel plots, and atmospheric tension. Who will survive, who will succumb, and will there be justice?
📖 Cred: Hyper-realistic to plausible.

Mood Reading Match-Up:
Stagnant water. Canadian goldenrod. Factory smoke. Steam whistle. School bell. Tears. Faint ocean breeze. Sewage. Ozone.
-1980s/’90s high school drama
-Cruel coming-of-age tragedies
-Harsh life struggles
-Dark foreboding atmosphere
-Teen psychological horrors

Content Heads-Up: Homophobia, homophobic slurs. Outing (by friends). Bullying (physical assault, humiliation, name-calling, threats). Toxic relationship. Adult/minor relationship. Fatphobia. Sexual content (consenting; graphic, on page; rough off page). Corpse (discovery, disposal). Eating disorder (bingeing, purging; on page). Violence (attack, strangling). Murder. Cheating on romantic partner. Pregnancy. Abortion (discussion of). Obsession, unrequited love. Animal cruelty (cat torture, death; on page). Fire (fatality). Suicide. Blood. Miscarriage. Rape (on page). Vomit. Body fluids (semen). Drug use.

Rep: Japanese. Gay. Lesbian. Heterosexual. Cisgender.

📚 Format: Advance Reader’s Copy from Kodansha Comics, Vertical Comics, and NetGalley.

My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

[mau · Rating 4 out of 5]

i don’t think there’s a way to rly explain this very short fleeting moment shared with the characters of river’s edge, a mix of sadness, anger, disbelief ? there was something so human about all that rotteness (?) i couldn’t help but want to stay with them forever and witness every moment of their lives if it meant i could somehow make sure their friendship would remain intact and that they’d be ok in the long run. i’m left sad and nostalgic which is like a nearly 10/10 reading for me but ill say like 9.5 ? okazaki kyoko u will always get me (hurt me) ! ik ppl dislike the art but i think it rly fits the type of stories okazaki makes

ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT YOSHIKAWA APPEARING HERE AND IN HELTER SKELTER ??? and how different she is ? its so sad but i feel like it also shows that the way others are perceived or perceive u will never truly be fully accurate. the difference between how she rly was (just like me fr) and how the helter skelter mc sees her is craaaaazy

i do wanna mention that lots of the topics in this story and the way they’re portrayed can be triggering so if u happen to be a liking apple means you’re pro deforestation type of individual (representation of bad irl situations is a sin 😡😡😡😡) u might not cheese at this one … but also just generally checking out the tws would be a good idea ! idk if physical english copies of this are sold bur i rly rly wanna keep one

[Sassy Sarah Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

I am new to Kyōko Okazaki and this was such an impactful manga for me. I am not even sure how to explain the plot because I feel like I will give important aspects of character dynamics away, and I could list the plot out in spoilers, but I don't want to do that for this review. I think River's Edge just has to be experienced without knowing what to expect. Just know that this is a Josei manga that looks at feminist, queer, and coming-of-age themes set in a high school that is located nearby a river and there's a dead body that is being observed similarly to the boys in Stand by Me (The Body by Stephen King). I gave this 4 stars when I finished it in my reading notes, and then I couldn't stop thinking about it. The next I purchased all of Kyōko Okazaki's mangas that have been translated and I can't wait to read them. I am a fan!

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loooove her

[Ludwig Aczel · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10
Another good book by Kyōko Okazaki, the artist at the forefront of the gyaru manga wave of the late 80's and early 90's, the movement that put 'girly-ness' back into Japanese comics targeting adult women. I find myself sucked in her books because of the smooth storytelling and the sketchy art style, supported by a clever and unconventional use of screen-tone, as I explained when reviewing her previous book Pink.
However, I would make the author a disservice if I did not mention some of the depths of the story itself. Thematically, this River's Edge (1993) is a more layered work than Pink (1989). It is about a group of high-schoolers in the outskirts of Tokyo, navigating feelings of existential angst and the complexity of human relations. As I have learned to expect from Okazaki's comics, no character in here is completely likeable. The author makes sure to show the humanity of each of them, even the ones behaving in the most heinous way. Yet, she does not shy away from showing them under a bad light. There is sexual misconduct, eating disorders, homophobia, bullying, trauma and plain physical violence in this story, yet the most scaring thing to me remains the emptiness in the eyes of some of these characters, even in the face of death. Maybe a couple of cheap tricks to twist the plot towards the end could have been avoided. But overall solid story.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars rounded up)

River's Edge is an interesting story that explores the interconnected lives of six high schoolers and the day to day things they are going through. The art is nice and fitting for the story. The characters are varied, and I appreciated the queer representation. It is worth noting that there is a number of scenes of bullying, some scenes of sexual assault, and one of the characters struggles with an eating disorder. I think these elements are realistic to life and high school, I do wish it felt like it had more of a perspective on them. The lack of a point of view threw me and kept me from really loving this book. Otherwise, there is a lot to like here. It is dark and weird. It captures the confusing and complicated nature of those years of life. It just needed a little more to be great and not just good.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

可能這種青少年故事並不只在經濟泡沫化時代也能引起共鳴，雖然有性愛血腥暴力場景但要說殘酷也還好，可能是漫畫的風格沖淡了那種沉重。整個故事瀰漫著一種無所謂的氛圍，一群高中生像是在等時間經過，但前方並沒有什麼特別的東西遠大的目標在等著他們，只有日復一日平凡愚蠢無趣的生活，運氣好一點可以像春名什麼都沒差似地活著，運氣差一點各種小小悲劇在日常中積累充滿了就爆炸從這世界掉出去。

喜歡岡崎京子有點草稿似地畫風，書裡引用的詩很美，也很喜歡其他文字，要當小說看也無不可。

[Mrin]

This is gonna be a "guy who's only watched the boss baby" type review so be warned.

I kinda preferred this to helter skelter by a lot, which isn't super surprising, since helter skelter was something I enjoyed and appreciated on a million levels but ultimately I felt like there was something missing. I'm not really the type of person who enjoys coming-of-age stories that lean into edge/gritty sorta vibes so I fully went into this prepared to be disappointed but I'm glad I trusted Kyoko Okazaki and opened the first page with an open mind.

So the author's bio on the last page of this refers to her as kinda this... iconic mangaka of the time the Bubble Burst (tm) (classic seinen/josei love being about how bubbles burst and people are disaffected and stuff) - but that kinda made me think about the other 2 most recent pieces of media I consumed that sorta went for a similar like... depressed edgy toxic stupid teenagers who have relatively normal households but nothing better to do with their time except wander around and seek out trouble in a self-important haze.

Especially when I compare this to something like lily chou chou which was kinda... just... apart from how it looked and sounded Not It for me; river's edge has such a goofier unserious tone, not necessarily just because its funny (the dead body as this Important Object but with a ridiculous skull-face) but also because it feels like everyone involved just seems to feel and express and CARE a lot.. less? In a good way. lily chou chou had this constantly worsening anxiety attack type escalation until the final bit at the concert which just kinda pushes you right over the edge with the ticket thing and then gives you some kind of weird incomplete catharsis (on ~purpose~ i guess) and it's just like phewww relief.
THIS manga tho.. ends with a fake out death, then a real one (rip?) then another fake out death. A strangely muted and mundane sorta sex scene with ehhh i'd say no consent but idk for sure. And the weirdest part was the surprisingly sincere scene on the bridge where wakakusa and yamada very openly express how they'll miss each other (gift giving, simply saying it, crying not cause something tragic and terrible happened like w the catbag but because ur feeling the normal teenage/human feeling of "im gonna miss my friend"). Feels so strange for this to end with characters just acting normal and moving on? The edginess throughout the manga kinda fizzles out and feels like it didn't really matter (the afterword talks about how they'll forget each other but also have scars leftover). I tend not to enjoy movies that feel like lily chou chou - i don't need catharsis always but i also have this aversion to things that add add add. River's edge balances everything so weirdly well that the only discomfort I felt was... anticipation of things I tend to dislike in stories like this. which... shouldn't be an issue on reread anyway.

briefly wanted to say sth about tajima: i really liked the way her story wrapped up, it felt kinda perfect lol maybe im being callous.. but when yamada said he liked her better dead etc etc all that mean stuff i just. LET OUT THIS SIGH OF RELIEF LIKE THANK GOD WE WERE BOTH THINKING IT. i don't dislike tajima at all, tbh i like her a lot (she has sooo many hobbies its crazy, how is she into plants and knitting and fish and music and the alternative art scene). but she isn't really afforded the same sorta teenmedia flawedhumancomplexity sorta cliche package that everyone else is given (omg that sounds negative but it's not): she's really barely even a person outside being the tragic girl yamada kinda hates? Even the loneliness/sadness she feels is so simple and has to be resolved in the most base straightforward way possible: destruction. And so for her to end the way she did felt kinda perfect, barely felt like a tragedy but also barely felt cruel (again I sound insane) as much as it sorta went all the way with treating her as a burden in Yamada's life which I kinda fully respect... If that makes sense :/

And ya the toxic gay/lesbian besties, the very strange flashes of plotlines that go on behind the scenes and never get mentioned or resolved or anything, the kinda unique mixed-up confusing depiction of bullimia I haven't really seen in anything before, and the stark line drawn between Yamada being gay and Kozue and Wakakusa have a couple moments as Girls, Wakakusa's narration sometimes simply being her responding to people's questions in her head. tho I will say some of the narration left me a bit detached-feeling - u get what ur trying to seek i suppose

[Suchona Hasnat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the early 1990s Tokyo, this tells the story of a group of teenagers who all go to the school near the river's mouth. In black and white ink this paints a bleak and often real picture of the struggle and confusion of being on the verge of adulthood while still inhabiting the curiosity and fearlessness of a child. It challenges the nostalgic notion of calling our school days to be the best period of one's life, a life free of worry, uncertainty, and responsibilities. It shatters romanticism and forces us to face the truth head-on.

After all, wasn't school the first place one gets to learn how thin or fat or ugly they are? Wasn't it the first place to wound you so deep that years of unlearning didn't do much to the trauma you experienced? So it takes us inside the narrow and harrowing halls of your adolescence and you witness a kid being beaten, bullied, scarred by another kid! It makes you wonder where this cruelty comes from and where it all went wrong!!

But it doesn't stop there. It goes to the deep end of what it means to be truly young and their first encounter with the myriad stages of adulthood. It's the time of our first introduction to sex, drugs, love, and the overwhelming rush of everything all at once. In the span of only 245 pages, it narrates a story that perfectly encapsulates all of that while being true to the timeline it was set in. So we witness their interaction with celebrity gossip, sex- both protected and unprotected, we witness abuse- physical, emotional, parental neglect, love, obsession, manipulation, eating disorder, apathy, friendship, disgust, and wonder in equal measure. The loneliness it shows is personal.

I would recommend it to everyone.

And for criticism, I think what I struggled with initially is there is a long list of characters that appear here and as it is a black-and-white comic, I found it difficult to distinguish who is who. A character list at the beginning or end would have made the experience significantly better.

Please check out the content warning before reading this.

Thanks to NetGalley and Vertical Comics for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange of my honest opinion.

[Jimmy Ramirez Jaco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good I guess

This post was sponsored by the all new Sony xm4’s

[sophiaaaaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

i don’t know whether i hated it or loved it, the story was so unbelievably fucked up

[Meepelous · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a random pickup. I was browsing my library's new acquisitions page a while back and saw a new book from one of my favourite mangaka so I had to pick it up asap.

A josei manga, so for adult readers, content warnings include homophobia, substance use, nudity, rape, abuse, a corpse, eating disorder, unwanted pregnancy, and death.Looking at the creative team of one, as I already hinted at I have read and reviewed Okazaki's two other titles that were previously translated; namely Helter Skelter and Pink - the latter originally published in 1989 and the former in 2003). Both of which are very interesting and very much worth checking out. Check out my review of Helter Skelter for an author profile.

Keywords that came to mind reading this stand alone volume? nihilistic, no privacy, pollution and coming of age.

Very different from most other manga I read in both artistic and literary style, it's a very adult look at what it means to be a latchkey teenager in the most unsexy way possible. A story removed from myself in both decades of time and a great expanse of space, it was both a very different view of Japan but also one that resonates with the world that surrounds me right now. Avoiding stereotypes, for the most part, for all the angst, edge and bad behavior, it didn't strike me as being exploitative of the poors but I would be interested in other people's perspectives. I think Okazaki also gets a point becausethat most of the edge comes from taking seriously an experience (that of a young woman) which is often passed off as silly and frivolous. It certainly helps that Okazaki's previous work in Pink was a social satire of the ways capitalism was F'ing over the Japanese people at the time, so the topic is clearly important to Okazaki.

I probably highlighted this in another review, but this manga's artistic style is known as Gyaru (or gal) Manga. Wikipedia tells me that the word Gyaru was first introduced by Wrangler Jeans in the 1970's and turned into a whole sub culture. And I might be misremembering this but I believe another example of this style is Erica Sakurazawa, who I read a very long time ago.... Perhaps someone I should revisit though.

Looking at the different sorts of representation in the book as we always do...

Class and sexuality (with a dash of marginalized gender) all felt fairly front and centre. As I've already mentioned this is the opposite of a feel good read. And while the characters are complicated and face a lot of violence, I did find it cathartic. The balance across publishing of positivity and hard reality is important and neither extreme is a must read. Things I appreciated in these categories was a questioning of straight sex and first times in particular alongside the imbalanced impacts of unplanned pregnancies. We also have a sympathetic gay character, although he faces a lot of violent homophobia which certainly is not something everyone needs to consume right now.

In contrast race and disability were pretty one note/not existent.... The closest we got was a fat character who only seems to sit in front of their computer all day eating and being jelious of our main character and ultimately violently attacking her. A very deep and serious flaw in the book.

Wrapping things up, A very interesting read that I waited waaaaay too long to review. I hope I did it justice.

[Estibaliz · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

This was indeed a tough one. The story telling is kind of surrealist and detached, but also incredibly raw and shocking, in a way.

The stories of these six characters are certainly a good depiction of the so-called lost teen generation, a sort of early Japanese 'Euforia' where girls and boys just want to have fun, with some expected terrible consequences... and some even more horrible unexpected ones.

Some of these characters were certainly disturbing in their reactions to some surely disturbing situations (corpses, dead cats, murder?...), and I'd sure have enjoyed some more definition in their personalities here and there. But over all, if one thing is to be said about this manga, is that it does make an impression.

[Niina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tämä ei todellakaan ollut sarjakuva minun makuuni. Tässä on mm. anorektikko malli, kissaparkoja, joille ei riittänyt yhdeksän henkeä, outo poika, joka tykkää tuijotella joenrannan heinikosta löytämäänsä ruumista... Todella isoja sisältövaroituksia, esim. homopoikaa pahoinpidellään jatkuvasti (joskaan ei homofoobisesti, jos sitä voi jonkinlaisena plussana pitää). Jos haluat voida pahoin enemmän kuin yhdellä tapaa, tämä on sinun kirjasi.

Menee samaan kategoriaan kuin Nijigahara Holograph.

[Chawanat · Rating 3 out of 5]

ดิบ ห่าม และรุนแรงกว่า 'Helter Skelter' (ผลงานเรื่องดังของ อ.โอคาซากิ) อยู่มาก เพราะมีทั้งเซ็กส์ ยา การบูลลี่ และการทำร้ายตัวเอง ส่วนตัวไม่ชอบพฤติกรรมของตัวละครบางตัวเอามากๆ แต่ก็เข้าใจได้ว่ามันถูกดีไซน์มาให้คนอ่านรู้สึกไม่ชอบแบบนั้นแหละ (แต่ถึงยังงั้นก็ไม่เข้าใจอยู่ดีว่าพี่จะทำพฤติกรรมแบบนั้นไปทำไม) งานภาพมีเอกลักษณ์มาก เป็นลายเส้นโปร่งๆ ที่ contrast กับความหนักอึ้งของเรื่องราว มังงะเรื่องนี้ได้รับการทำเป็นเวอร์ชั่นภาพยนตร์ live action ลงใน Netflix ด้วย ซึ่งเราดูแล้วรู้สึกหนักอึ้งยิ่งกว่าอ่านมังงะอีก

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark and distressing manga about students whose lives are connected in a somewhat twisted way. The art style wasn't my favorite, but it didn't hinder the reading experience.

Check out content warnings before reading!

[Alyssa Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be prepared to finish this in one sitting because you will not be able to put this down. A quick hot burn. Perfect teen melodrama and covers almost every crisis a teenager could have. Highly recommend it for those who like Euphoria or Degrassi. Not for those who are sensitive to visceral depictions/descriptions of drugs, sex, or trauma. Well-developed characters in the short time frame you spend with them. A well paced plot that wraps up well and leaves you with enough to fell satisfied but room to imagine more for the story that continues on beyond the piece.

[Jennie Fan · Rating 3 out of 5]

First manga I have read in a while

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is like that Toby Fox tweet about the expired coke but like, way more depressing

[Mary Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of Ai Yazawa and messy teen dramas, I couldn’t put this book down. Kyoko Okazaki has beautiful prose and I loved the messy fashionable style of her artwork.

[clemencia · Rating 2 out of 5]

con los animales nooooo forro hijo de puta
innecesariamente gráfico, personajes disociando permanentemente. cumple su objetivo, incomoda, enfurece, pero meh … dejen de hacer sufrir a las mujeres se podian omitir ciertos paneles. condenados a un mal final todos. buen concepto, pobre ejecución

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really unique read. It has a pretty dark tone to it and the art style is really nice. Tons of beautiful panels. Lots of great and disturbing moments.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dark tale about teenage angst, pain, and sexuality. There seemed to be a general theme of wanting what you can’t have. And it went some places that I was surprised to see it go. I do feel some parts took away from the seriousness of the story. And if that weren’t the case I would have given it five stars. This wasn’t meant to be a happy story at all. And I can appreciate that because sometimes there isn’t a happy ending. Sometimes things just suck and feeling the pain is what gets us through. But I couldn’t put this one down.

[Sasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE EVIL EYE IS ALSO A FORM OF ＜DESIRE＞