神様がうそをつく。

KAMI-SAMA GA USO WO TSUKU.

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
1
RELEASE
July 25, 2013
CHAPTERS
5

DESCRIPTION

Natsuru Nanao, a 6th grader who lives alone with his mother, strikes up an unlikely friendship with the reserved and driven Rio Suzumura. Natsuru plays hookey from soccer camp that summer, and instead of telling the truth to his mother, he spends all his time with Rio and her kid brother at their rickety house, where a dark secret threatens to upend their fragile happiness.

(Source: Kodansha USA)

CAST

Rio Suzumura
Natsuru Nanao
Yuuta Suzumura
Ritsuko Nanao
Suzumura

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

AdmiralNyan
100/100
Understated Yet Affectingly Artistic
the gods lie. (神様がうそをつく。) is a single-volume, seinen, drama, romance manga that takes place during summer vacation and follows an eleven-year-old boy named Natsuru Nanao. Then he encounters a girl named Rio Suzumura who is the tallest girl in his class. Through chance encounters, they begin spending their summer together until one day Natsuru learns about Rio’s dark secret, altering the shape of their bond forever.

As I sat down to read this manga, I was somewhat aware of the fact that it was going to be sad and emotional. What I did not expect, was to be utterly floored by the depth of the narrative and its subtle exploration of various themes. This isn’t your typical novel where all the major themes are going to be laid out before you in an easy to consume format. This is distinctly a graphic novel; something that brilliantly utilises the artistic aspect of a manga to tell a story that is wholly character-driven. It’s not so much about the events or the tragedies that are explored here as much as it is about the solitary individuals that are affected and moulded by the experiences they are forced to undergo.

When the gods lie. begins, it feels like a soft, slice-of-life tale. We have a kid who is lonely and through a simple action alienates himself from his classmates, which then leads him to find companionship in an unlikely person. Yet, the more that we get to know about Natsuru and Rio, the more prevalent it becomes that the slice-of-life take is increasingly abnormal.

Natsuru resides in a single-parent household with his mum who is light novel author. Rio lives with her younger brother in an environment where her single-parent is mostly absent due to their occupation. They bond over the losses and the loneliness that they both share. I found their dialogue about one another’s personal history to be haunting. It created a small vortex in my gut that kept sucking away any semblance of happiness I felt by them discovering comfort in one another. There is just some facet about the gods lie. that triggers instincts in your brain to be on guard for the despair that is to come. Because of all these responses that I was undergoing, Natsuru and Rio started to feel precious to me; I wanted to protect them and to keep them safe.

The loneliness that Natsuru feels comes from being abandoned by one of his parents at a young age thanks to cancer. For Rio, it’s having both parents walk-out on her of their own volition. Parent A does it on a whim and Parent B does it for work. Abandonment in any form can create emotional feelings of inadequacy. It prevents us from building relationships out of fear of the people with whom we formulate those bonds with of walking out on us, or it makes us constantly question if there is something about us that pushes others away.

The same thing can be said when you’re dealing with loss and grief. Death is another form of abandonment. As a kid, it’s far more difficult to grasp it as this out-of-control or inevitable force of living; it’s not about them dying, but the fact that they’re gone. Most kids don’t recognise that these things just happen. Sometimes far sooner than not. At least with death there is no residual hope of the people returning that lingers behind to constantly taunt you or tease you.

The breath-taking artwork is what tells these kids’ stories. You can see the depth of their feelings eclipsed in a tear-soaked stare, or amid the fine lines around a half-forced smile. The mangaka uses expert placement and varying levels of shading to showcase the realm of grief, anxiety, fear, or plain and simple frustration, and occasionally even joy and warmth. The narrative is in the details. It’s actually a fundamental part of Japanese literature—the part that I’m such a humongous aficionado for—and being able to see it incorporated in a graphic novel was astounding to me. the gods lie. isn’t a manga that you can merely read to get the full-picture or the full bulk of the thematic power from. It’s one you have to take in visually and experience via its artistry.

The story in its entirety is not a happy one. It’s an exquisitely gut-punching, bittersweet telling of what happens when kids are forced to grow up too damn quickly. It’s a force of a nature that really puts into perspective the impact of tragedy and abandonment, and how those two things can influence the way those individuals will grow up. the gods lie. places before us the tremendous strength that a sole person’s kindness can make on those of us that are so terribly lost, broken, and defeated. Contrary to many reviews I’ve read, I don’t see it as “tragedy porn” or anything of the like. For me personally, it was graphic novel encapsulation of Japanese literature at its finest; one that uses the tools of penetratingly stunning drawings, simple dialogue, and sublimely subtle use of details to depict that not all moments of youth are light-hearted. Sometimes the essence of youth means learning the harsh reality of responsibility and the gratification of truth that resides within the most basic of lies.

If you enjoy Japanese works that are akin to Yōko Ogawa (The Housekeeper and the Professor), Julie Otsuka (When the Emperor was Divine), or Shuichi Yoshida (Parade), then I recommend that you read the gods lie. If you enjoy manga that are understated yet strongly evocative, then I believe you may enjoy this as well.

10 sunflowers outta 10.
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oolonoui
79/100
A Review of The God's Lie, a story of, Secrets, Lies and Truths. [Spoilers and and some Sarcasm]
A Review of The God's Lie, or God's Truth or something shit. *spoilers and sarcasm* Hi! It's me again, here reviewing some manga stuff, so here's my review or re thingy. f-mc = main girl mc = main guy LMAOOO this was my first time reviewing manga, I don't think it's amazing, I am still currently (2/21/2022), perfecting my critic/reviewing skills, but this was before, I was even at my current level, so please don't judge my entire talent of reviewing based off this lol, I would say I've gotten better since then, and yeah I edited some stuff to make it better, but It's still not the greatest review ever lol, This also wasn't supposed to be entirely serious, and I was very tired because I had finished this manga at like 2 am or some shit, so I was almost passing out lol, so imma stop saying why it isn't my best lol, anyways enjoy I guess _____ *__The Secret__* The driving force of the story, Nanao, our main guy, a sixth-grade soccer player, finds out that Suzumura Rio, a classmate, and fellow 11 years old, (with her brother) are living alone with no parents. A surprising fact to Nanao, who tries to keep this a secret the entire story. ______ *__The First Lie.__* MC talks to his mother about going to a soccer camp thingy over the summer (I'm fucking tired, I'm writing this at 4 am) But he lies, the first lie... SEE WHAT I DID THERE... Anyways, he goes over to Girl MC's place, and he spends time there- see I don't know how long, I'm not sure what they said- Anyways at some point, Rio tells him their father visits each summer. Fast Foward, it's the day of a festival and it's the day the father comes! __ A Father's Lie__ He ends up not coming... A Father's Lie to his children... They figure that they better just go to the festival because they figure out the asshole ain't comin' so... MC fell in love... With her, obviously... They come back, and apparently the beetle thing- that I didn't figure to mention -died, so MC buries it. The kid is sad so... He IG tries to dig it back up, IDK lol. But then he finds another secret... *__Jesus, how many secrets at this point...__* The body... The Body of their dead grandfather... Obviously, after a little talking MC run's off to his mother and stuff, then we get her backstory... Apparently one day The Father said, hey I'm going to get crab's in Alaska... FUCKING ALASKA??? YOU BELIEVE THAT?!? Okay, Okay, they're kids, but like, alright, never mind lmaooo. SO YEAH, he goes and CRABS in Alaska, some type of crabs alright, idk bout' the food kind. Anyways so she goes to the festival, I'm guessing or some mall or some shit. The kid and the grandpa want to go upstairs... Younger Brother of Female MC, accidentally, *accidentally*... *C'MON WE ALL KNOW HE IS A MURDERER, FUCKIN' PLANNED IT OUT*, I'm kidding, like /s or whatever. Anyways he accidentally tips his grandpa over, and he's not breathing well when GIRLMC, comes back. She's like, welp gotta bury em', buries him in the yard ig, sad, ik sad. (It was actually sad for seriousness.) AND WE'RE BACK TO THE PRESENT. _____ *__RUN FOREST RUN.__* They run away because he comes back unphased like yeah I love this girl who buried her grandpappy. *yes, I get it makes at least half sense* So they go to someplace far away after traveling on a bus, end up in some hotel, they get a room, then the hotel personnel rats on them to the cops- *understandable, I wouldn't want kids in my hotel either* -They come back home after runnin' away, mom not angry with her child. The 2 kids there,- holy shit my headset is playing Lose Yourself by Eminem, YESSS, oh right: a review. -they get sent to some home, and mom is not mad with her kid like I said. So one day, MC gets's call with FEMALE-MC, she's like: yo let's meet again, but imma say it in a way that can be used as an ending text. okay so there is also, a whole theme of even god lie's- HAHAHA, THAT's THE NAME OF THE MANGA -and how his father lied to him about living, and f-mc's dad, really didn't go to alaska- *noooooooo, really?*, actually that was surprising, lol -and he was in the town the entire time, and he was just tired of living with his family, like what? ___ Anyways, how did your reviewer like it, well here: it was quite good, I liked the overall theme, the art was extremely solid, the main 2 were pretty cool, the little brother was adorable... the ending felt anti-climatic, a tad bit, like yeah let's meet again, like sure, but... SO like, I normally hate the distant finale trope- https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DistantFinale but it was pretty good in this, the one that ruined this trope for me was- bly manor, a Netflix og, very good until the end... sad -anyways they did it pretty well. The characters are pretty decent, their character designs are quite okay. I thought the older sister's relationship to her brother was very interesting to see how a child raises a child if that makes sense. I thought it was pretty well handled in general, the topic of abandonment. It's not the greatest piece of media ever to exist, but I thought it was pretty good. A lot of the secrets we're quite good, like the grandpa being buried in the garden, like can you imagine a child having to do that I thought the character development was quite good, I guess it could have been a bit stronger, but children having to carry this with them, and then them running away, all of the pressure. I mean be in this girl's position having to raise a child by herself, while shes like Eleven herself, and like then this other kid comes in and now she has the pressure that he will also keep that secret, she doesn't wanna be possibly separated from her brother either, so she has to keep the secret that she doesn't have any guardian with her. It's kinda nuts, but I think it's handled pretty well. Anyway, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and recommend it. __Plot: 7.5/10 Characters: 7.9/10 Themes: 9.7/10 Art: 9/10 Ending: 7/10__ Overall pretty solid... __Overall: 7.9/10__
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