溺れるナイフ

OBORERU KNIFE

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
17
RELEASE
December 13, 2013
CHAPTERS
64

DESCRIPTION

"I don't know what this feeling is … I don't know what I should do now … all I know is, I want him."

They fight one another, they chase after one another, they capture one another—a turbulent tale of preteens on the brink of self-destruction, masterfully brought to life by George Asakura!

(Source: Kodansha USA)

CAST

Natsume Mochizuki
Kouichiro Hasegawa
Katsutoshi Ootomo
Kana Matsunaga
Suzuka Kunihiro

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

RoseFaerie
96/100
As you grow up you realize that those who you worshiped as gods are as human as you are.
I've been reading a lot of darker psychological shoujo lately, including some series I've been wanting to read since I first discovered the world of manga. Last week it was Piece and Mars, and this week it's Basara and Drowning Love. Of the three modern-ish "realistic setting" stories I have to say that Drowning Love was the one I enjoyed the most. I'm surprised that people don't talk about it more since it has a lot to offer, and there's just so much to unpack in terms of characters, themes, and general ideas that are explored.

The story begins with 6th grader Natsume Mochizuki. She lives in Tokyo with a job as a model, against her father's wishes. However, her life turns upside-down when she moves from Tokyo to a tiny seaside town. She finds herself drawn towards a mysterious boy named Kouichiro Hasegawa. A boy who glows. A boy who seems like a god. But as these two radiant people come together, a tragic event can tear them apart.

I'm going to say this right now. Drowning Love does not portray a healthy relationship between stable characters. Honestly, most of the characters in this manga are terrible, messed-up people, particularly Kouichiro (who I will be referring to as Kou for the rest of the review). This manga is about obsession and idolization. It's about how a single traumatic event can change your entire life and relationships. It's not a cute love story by any means, and this manga never intended to portray one.

Natsume may be the main character, but Kou is its center. He has some sort of charisma, some type of beauty, some kind of power that draws people to him. He's described as "glowing" and called a god often in the series. He even has a character who literally takes up the mount of his worshiper, Kana. Even if the other children in this manga view him as a god, he'd be a cruel god. He's violent and dangerous, yet distant and apathetic. In his first appearance, he tries to drown Natsume to assert his power and dominance over her. He states that the villagers let him do whatever he wants, since he's the heir to the Hasegawa family, who are the wealthiest and most powerful in the village, even having control of the shrine. However, he's not infallible. He's not all powerful. He's still just a little boy from a broken family.

He failed to protect Natsume. He could not be as strong as a god, and that's what made her disillusioned with him and realize that he was human. When he wasn't a god to her anymore, that's when their relationship fell apart. I feel like it's necessary for me to explain why everything fell apart, but that enters spoiler territory, hence the spoiler tag.

As a famous model, Natsume acquired many fans, even among her own classmates. And with fans come literal fanatics. There are people who form parasocial relationships with celebrities, people who will obsess over and stalk them. Natsume falls victim to one of these fanatics, someone so obsessed with her he stalks, kidnaps, and attempts to rape her. The first person who comes to her aid is Kou, but Kou isn't a god. At this point he's just a 13-year-old boy. The rapist nearly kills him. It's the adults who come and save Natsume and arrest the obsessive creep.

After that, their relationship is never the same. Both characters have trauma to deal with. Natsume has severe PTSD, seeing her rapist everywhere she goes, even seeing his face on her loved ones. Seeing his face on Kou. Anything could trigger her memory of the event, and she constantly lives in fear. I have to say that this is probably the best portrayal of PTSD I have ever seen in manga, and Drowning Love accurately portrays the aftermath of rape on young women.

Rumors spread. Society isn't kind to women who have experienced sexual violence. Tabloids circulate. Rumors spread. Natsume's a celebrity, and while she tried to keep the sexual violence part of her attack on the down-low, rumors about that circulated. Magazines spread lies that she was promiscuous and romantically involved with her much older photographer. Her "friends" and classmates would whisper that she was "asking for it" due to being a celebrity and wearing flashy clothes. Boys in the halls would say that the reason she and Kou broke up was because he dumped her for being "soiled goods", instead of drifting apart due to intense trauma. She's forced to relive her trauma in her acting career in roles written "specifically for her".

Natsume was about 13 when this happened. People show so little compassion and empathy for a little girl who was sexually assaulted. Natsume has to live with not only her severe trauma, but the shame society placed on her shoulders. She's a victim, and yet no one treats her like one, going so far as to claim it's her fault that she was assaulted. Both the media and people she was close to exploit her trauma and mock her for it. It's an unfortunate reality that most women face. Many are afraid to come forward due to how often they're labeled liars. I feel like this is probably the most realistic representation of how society as a whole treats women who are the victims of sexual violence that I have personally seen. It's not preachy but painfully reflective.

Natsume is left feeling like she's no longer the person she used to be. She was once headstrong, powerful, and unafraid. She was sociable and wanted to stand out. She was a shining star. But after the incident, she became afraid. She's still very headstrong and powerful, but she now is afraid. She doesn't want to stand out anymore. She wants to live a peaceful life, away from the entertainment industry, the place created fans like the creep who stalked her. She's withdrawn, no longer interacting with those who spread rumors and lies, looking down on her for what happened. With her modeling and a piece of her youthful innocence gone, she finds passion elsewhere, on the other side of the camera.

With Natsume no longer by Kou's side, Kana steps in. She reveres Kou. She's in love with him, but she believes that Natsume, a girl of equal brilliance, is the only one who can be with him. She tried to make a fresh start for herself, but she always finds herself following Kou. No matter how horribly he treats her, she can't shake that obsession. And she can't handle the fact that Natsume doesn't share her obsession, her clinginess. She wants Natsume and Kou to be together, but she also hates Natsume and wants to become her to take Natsume’s place by Kou's side. I pity her, but I also could not stand her and her all-consuming obsession. How she felt like she had to control what happened in other people's lives. How she would downplay Natsume's trauma, only focusing on Kou's suffering.

Kou turns to Kana when he loses both Natsume and his best friend Otomo, especially with his influx of family problems. He now has his cousin and maternal aunt in his life. His cousin is on the road to becoming a juvenile delinquent, desperate for his mother's attention. The two begin a tumultuous relationship beginning with hate, and eventually becoming an unhealthy companionship. Two troubled children in a twisted family. His aunt, his cousin's mother, is trying to secure power and take her sister's place in the family, trying to make Kou's father love her, trying to take what belongs to Kou. I do wish that in the Kou's family subplot, there was some focus on Kou's sister, since I have a lot of questions about how she felt about Kou, their father, and their new houseguests.

The reason Kou lost Otomo was because of how just plain good Otomo is. He is the light in this manga, a ray of sunshine in the bleak world. Amidst the mess, there's one pure soul. He's honestly the one character who isn't a complete mess. He began as one of Kou's followers, hating Natsume because of how she took Kou away from him. However, as the years went by, he realized that he and Kou had different ideals and that he didn't want to be cruel in the same way Kou was. He is a kind and respectful person, offering Natsume a refuge, allowing her to process her trauma at her own pace. He's not perfect, but he's kind and straightforward and that is what she needed.

The part of Drowning Love I wasn't super big on was the ending. It was confusing, and I had quite a few issues with it. Kou was unbearable for me since he was treating Natsume horribly and sexually assaulting her. He helps her overcome her trauma, but not in a healthy way. Their feelings for each other are reignited, but at the cost of any respect and kindness I had in my heart for Kou. I do think in the very, very end he's shown to be on his way to becoming a better person, as a lot of time passes, but I still do not like him at all. It was upsetting for me. I viewed their reunion as Natsume being unable to shake an abusive relationship, though there is some ambiguity with who she ultimately ends up with (though it's more likely Kou than Otomo). I also didn't like the way the retread of the traumatic event was executed. It felt like a copy-paste except for the conclusion, and there was less emotional impact. I wonder if there was something going on with the author because the ending was very poorly executed in comparison to the rest of the manga.

The art is to die for. While the beautifully watercolored color pages are stunning, the black and white art has a distinctive charm, which is why I included so much of it. There's something about it that conveys so much emotion. It's beautifully detailed, both with the effort put into the character design and with the backgrounds. There's so much linework. I have a weakness for beautifully drawn, detailed eyes, and this manga has that. It's a blend of stylized and realistic styles, the shading is simplistic and minimal, but the linework is spectacular. I could gush about Drowning Love's art for hours and still not have said enough or express my feelings about it.

This manga is so poignant and has a lot to offer. Even if the ending was rather weak, I still adore the art and what the earlier chapters had to offer. There's so much detail and humanity within this manga, and its depictions of PTSD and societal views on sexual violence are still relevant, even though this manga started back in 2004. I think it holds up, and I won't hesitate to recommend this to people, though with some trigger warnings for both gang violence and sexual assault. It's a beautiful piece that deserves more recognition.
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