マイ・ブロークン・マリコ

MY BROKEN MARIKO

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
1
RELEASE
December 17, 2019
CHAPTERS
6

DESCRIPTION

Tomoyo Shiino has stood by her friend Mariko through years of abuse, abandonment, and depression. However horrific her circumstances, their friendship has been the one reassuring constant in Mariko's life-and Tomoyo's too. That is, until Tomoyo is utterly blindsided by news of Mariko's death. In life, Tomoyo felt powerless to help her best friend out of the darkness that ultimately drove her over the edge. Now, Tomoyo is determined to liberate Mariko's ashes for one final journey together... to set free her dear, broken Mariko.

(Source: Yen Press)

Notes:

Includes the one-shot "YISKA".
includes the extra "Home Sweet Home!".

CAST

Tomoyo Shiino
Mariko Ikagawa
Makio

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO MY BROKEN MARIKO

ONE SHOT ActionYiska

REVIEWS

SoulBlade17
80/100
What happens to those left behind?
Please note
This review is all subjective and my own personal opinion. You do not have to agree with it, nor am I asking you to. I hope that this just helps you get an idea of what the manga I am talking about is like and form a basic and general consensus on it. The ratings I give anime and manga are mostly my personal overall enjoyment. This review may contain some spoilers, but all of them will be hidden using the spoiler tag. A big thank you to [Nikz](https://anilist.co/user/Nikz/) for proofreading my previous reviews and giving me feedback. TL;DR will be at the bottom.
Caution
____My Broken Mariko is a manga that deals with dark themes including depression, abuse and suicide. As such, this review will be delving into said themes in some detail. If such themes cause discomfort in you, please close this review now. This manga and review is not for you.____
Introduction

My Broken Mariko by Hirako Waka presents the story of Tomoyo Shiino. After hearing that her close friend, Ikagawa Mariko has died, her life is thrown into disarray. My Broken Mariko delves into how Tomoyo Shiino deals with the death of a loved one, and her past with Mariko.

Plot

From the very beginning, the plot depicts a dark and dismal story, immediately beginning with news breaking of Mariko's death. As we are thrust into this immediately, we do not know what we are supposed to feel for a characters death we just got introduced to. But what this manga does is that it changes this feeling of perhaps initial confusion over the course of the story. As the plot unfolds, we learn more about the relationship between Shiino and Mariko, and the many horrible things Mariko had to go through. Most of the plot involves Shiino attempting to understand and deal with Mariko's death. Alongside this, numerous flashbacks take place showcasing Shiino and Mariko's past together, why their relationship is so significant. The plot is bleak and gives of a sense of hopelessness, conveying the emotions both Shiino and Mariko experience. Despite its overall dreary nature, the plot does have breaks of bright moments, which were welcome to break the sometimes overly gloomy nature of the manga. My Broken Mariko is only five chapters long, but in that short length it managed to craft a story and characters both engaging and intriguing, and easily made my sympathise over the two main characters. Another thing that the plot does well is to illustrate the five stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. This was mostly conveyed through Shiino going through the phases of her grief. The stages subtly progressed through; it was not overly upfront about it but I was able to notice the shift in the periods of sorrow. When Shiino finally reached acceptance, it felt like a long journey was as its end, and it was very satisfying to see that. Overall, the plot was well written and managed to keep me in for the five chapters it had.

Characters

There are not many characters in My Broken Mariko, with the two main characters and one notable side character. Firstly, there is Shiino, one of the main characters in this manga. The most captivating part of her character is how Mariko's death affects her. We see the extremes that Shiino will put herself through for Mariko, and this just makes her the more engrossing. What happens to her throughout the course of the story can happen to anyone, creating a character that is easy to relate to. Coupled with the intense and bleak story, she brings the manga to life. Her development was also executed adeptly, like I stated earlier her transition between the stages of grief was a great part of the manga. The five stages of grief is something most of us can relate to, even if it is not at the scale of Shiino's. Furthermore, her dialogue effectively reflected the raw feelings she held, and further exuding the same emotions to us, the readership. The second main character of this manga is Mariko. Her character is developed through flashbacks, building up her character over time. This method of character development creates a sense of mystery, at first leading us to question why she would commit suicide. Only as we read on, we start to learn more about her, why she took that final step, and we start to connect to her. Mariko's life is a sad one indeed, filled with abuse and depression. Her only light in her life was Shiino, and thus the two develop an intimate relationship. Their relationship was captivating, to see how the two connected even through all the pain was uplifting. As the manga goes on, we see small snippets of their relationship. I found myself wanting to keep reading, to see what their relationship was like. Finally, we have a notable side character who as far as I recall does not have a name. He appears a little later in the manga so I will not say too much in mind of spoilers, but he was an interesting character as well, and played a vital role in the story.

Art

My Broken Mariko's art is nothing short of wonderful, at least in my eyes. The rough art style very nicely compliments the bleak and dark themes the manga holds. The characters are drawn with expressions that seem so real; their raw feelings are projected onto you as you read. Hirako Waka illustrates a world that feels alive, and only helps to further draw you in.

Conclusion and TL;DR

This is certainly different to everything else I have read, but that does not mean it was not a good read. In the end, I was captivated by the story and the characters. I would recommend this to someone who wants a short and engaging read and you can handle the dark themes this manga tackles. In summary:
- The plot tackles the themes of suicide and abuse, tackling the question of "what happens to those left behind?"
- The plot is engaging, drawing you in with its characters and their relationships.
- Well paced and built character development.
- The raw emotions of the characters are conveyed well through the rough art style and dialogue.
The first chapter of the manga received voice acting, which even if you are unable to understand Japanese, is great to listen to alongside reading the first chapter. The voice actors do brilliantly to convey emotions of the characters in the story and overall make it feel even more alive.

Thank you to those who took the time to read this review. Hopefully you were able to get something out of it. If you did not like this review, then I apologise for wasting your time.
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smokedubu
85/100
Living With Dying, Spoiler Free
Short disclaimer: This manga helped me get through a tough mental hurdle, but I can't say the same for everyone. So if you do need help, call a hotline and remember that you matter.

This short but impactful manga has a simple but powerful message, living with dying. If that sounds familiar to you, you aren't alone. This is a line from a movie called I Want To Eat Your Pancreas which similar to this one, portrays living with dying.

The story talks about the life of Shiino, a salary woman working her usual nine to five, who finds out about the suicide of her other half in life, Mariko. That's when her reality starts to crumble and when she begins living with dying. It's an incredibly gripping, heart-wrenching and gritty story that not only seems believable but portrays itself so well in the mere 4 chapters it has. From the start to the end of the manga I was holding back my tears constantly, trying my best to say it's okay, it's just a story but truthfully, throughout my reading, it became frightening to me how real the story seemed and I just exploded. In the scene of the fisherman staying aside Mariko and the sign at the beach, humanity is ugly, but sometimes I just wish everyone was good at heart no malice, no evil. All pure and white.

And last but not least, the scary realness of the story. Almost like people are going through the same troubles and struggles of life just like Mariko and Shiino are, but suppressing it and sweeping it under the rug to go on with their lives and live. But to those people, I ask, are you living? Or are you just surviving? Death is something inevitable, we will all go through it one day no matter who we are, how much money we have and how many friends we have, Death is what grounds us to the earth and reminds us that we are human. Be it human enough to be kind to people and love, or human enough to take that kindness and love to crush it into the ground and stand above it just to feel some sort of satisfaction or a form of happiness.

At this point, I just want to show my appreciation for the story and its writing, but I can only do so much through my own words and thoughts in my head, so please take a moment of your time to read this beautiful story for yourself, you will not regret it.

All in all, I love this manga. Its short, but meaningful message helped me out of a hard mental block and I hope it does to anyone else reading this. If you are having any second thoughts holding yourself back from living your life, just do it and never look back. You only have one life to do what you want so live it to the fullest.

Once again, thank you for reading! I hope my thoughts and feelings will convince you to check out My Broken Mariko and support the author in her other works!
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Benkei
85/100
A spoiler-free review of My Broken Mariko. The cruelty of abuses.
════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Considerations ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ ● __This is a spoiler-free review.__ ● __80+ in my rating means very good media.__ ● I've got to read this work on a friend's recommendation. I'd heard about it and knew about the themes already, so I knew what to expect. ● __This manga deals with heavy themes such as abuse, suicide, and depression.__If you feel like those themes are sensitive topics for you, please skip this review and the manga. __If you are struggling with any issue, call your country's hotline.__ Take care ♡. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Story ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The story is centered on Shiino, who on a typical night while eating her dinner finds out through the news that her childhood friend, Mariko, who suffered abuse for the entirety of her life, has committed suicide. Now Shiino starts spiraling down and sets a goal of freeing her already deceased friend. The story is heavy, cruel, and I personally felt on the edge of emotions while reading it. The narrative is good; the author starts to tell the story and constantly comes back to the memory of the past, impactful moments. I felt like I was reading someone screaming a true story. The pacing of the story, in my opinion, helps to give this impression in conjunction with the art. Even with only 4 chapters, it's very impressive how this work is able to convey so many emotions. There's nothing to complain about the story. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Art Style ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The art in this work is absurdly good. The use of darkness with black backgrounds and dark, bold outlines gives an emphasis on the sorrow and anger, while there are also a lot of shots with flickering, which gave me an impression of anger. ‎ The backgrounds are well drawn, and there are even reflections in some panels. They also play a lot with angles and perspective. It's a very nice detail that is also very well done. To be totally honest, everything looks amazing. There's nothing to complain about art. Several points were so well drawn that I stopped and appreciated the art. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Characters ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ There are not a lot of characters in this work. Everything is focused on Shiino and her interactions with Mariko. There are the supporting elements, but they're not the focus, and it's not something that, in my opinion, was lacking as we were focused on the sorrow of Shiino. ‎ ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Conclusion ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ If you're like me, you skip everything and read only the conclusion because you don't want to get spoiled with other themes. So I will try to be brief on this point: __Read it.__ I found this work amazing. I've previously read Oyasumi Punpun, which is considered by many the "depresso expresso," but __this one in four chapters was able to convey so many feelings and emotions that it is just absurd.__ I could go on talking about how it portrays the effects of abuse on people and how one should be aware of their own mental health, but I will leave all that for you, the reader, to think about. It's such a good piece of work, and I can't help but quote the review from the user Soulblade17: __" What happen to those left behind? "__
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