ただ、それだけでよかったんです

by Ryoya Matsumura, 松村 涼哉, 竹岡美穗 (Illustrator)

ある中学校で一人の男子生徒Ｋが自殺した。『菅原拓は悪魔です。誰も彼の言葉を信じてはいけない』という遺書を残して――。
　自殺の背景には“悪魔のような中学生”菅原拓による、Ｋを含めた４人の生徒への壮絶なイジメがあったという。だが、Ｋは人気者の天才少年で、菅原拓はスクールカースト最下層の地味な生徒。そして、イジメの目撃者が誰一人としていなかったこと。彼らの接触の証拠も一切なかったことなど、多くの謎が残された。なぜ、天才少年Ｋは自殺しなければならなかったのか。
「革命は進む。どうか嘲笑して見てほしい。情けなくてちっぽけな僕の革命の物語を――」
　悪魔と呼ばれた少年・菅原拓がその物語を語り始めるとき、そこには誰も予想できなかった、驚愕の真実が浮かび上がる――。
　圧倒的な衝撃、逃れられない感動。読む人全てを震わせ4,580作品の頂点に輝いた衝撃作。

Genres: Light Novel

263 pages, Paperback

Published February 10, 2016

Reviews

[Katsumi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The biggest theme in this story, is human relations and how they can force you to do something that you didn't even want to do.

It starts with a regular middle school that had a bullying incident, where 4 people were bullied by one person, and one ending up committing suicide. But the mystery is that the actual bullying stopped months ago, and the suicide had come out of nowhere. The suicide victim left a will saying that Taku Sugawara is the devil and nobody should believe his words, but he has been monitored for months and there is no proof that he has interacted with the suicide victim at all. Trying to find out the truth, the sister of the suicide victim goes out to try and find out why. At the end it turns out the one who commited suicide (Masaya) and 3 others were the ones bullying Taku Sugawara.
I didn't like the end but well.... even Taku said the ending was "warm".


"Trash won’t be able to get a happy ending"
"Because this ending is so warm"
"Ahh, maybe I’m no longer trash"

[Cecille · Rating 3 out of 5]

This light novel (the title of which translates to something like "That Alone would have Been Good Enough") tells a compelling story about the weight of bullying and societal pressures, all against the backdrop of a middle school seemingly designed to magnify those elements.

However, I'm not quite sure I agree with the conclusions the tormented main characters reach at the end, and the shoddy quality of the fan translation made a lot of it hard to parse; if there were a more clear English localization of the work, I'd be willing to give this another read, but as is I just thought the story came off muddled and thematically unclear.

[Iqbal · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few books I would recommend to literally anyone

[eliram barak · Rating 4 out of 5]

最後までさせた。しかし満足になれなかった。