niracler

A Manga to Continue After Ten Years#

I got hooked and watched "The Girl Who Cried" from start to finish twice in a week. The trigger was a video on Bilibili introducing the sequel plot of "The Girl Who Cried." I saw a comment in the opening saying that there were twists in the later parts of the manga, so I decisively turned off the video (Opened B Manga to read). Then I exclaimed, "The Girl Who Cried" has turned into a bland, cute manga about a few girls (So delightful).

It all started during the summer vacation of my first year in high school, ten years ago. I remember that I started discussing life with some strangers using the drifting bottle feature in QQ Space because I watched the anime of "The Girl Who Cried" (I had no friends to chat with). I don't even remember how I spent that summer; it seemed that only immersing myself in the virtual world of online games could fill the void. (I played until I felt sick, to the point where I couldn't play games for a long time). So while watching "The Girl Who Cried," I found Xiao Sang's story exceptionally relatable. Looking back now, it was quite normal; people who are immersed in the cyber world due to a lack of real-life experiences will inevitably do many awkward things in social interactions.

I remember that during my early high school years, I really didn't like gatherings because they took away my gaming time~~

(Cute, bland manga)

Turning Point#

Just like Xiao Sang's school trip, high school was a turning point in my life. The anime didn't reach this point, so I only learned about the school trip as a turning point ten years later. You could say her turning point was even smoother than mine; suddenly, due to my grades, I was recognized by my classmates and even nominated as a top student, achieving the "Imposter Syndrome" for five years (There was even a plot in "The Girl Who Cried" that resembled my own experience, "In the first monthly exam of high school, I shocked everyone by coming in first in the class," and so on).

During this time, I also reflected on this work, thinking, "I'm no longer socially anxious; I should be different from Xiao Sang," so I never continued reading the manga. I never expected that during this significant change in my high school life, Xiao Sang also changed during her second-year school trip. I saw my own shadow in Xiao Sang. From a character that no one knew or cared about, I transformed into someone who could always have "friends to confide in."

(Later stage sea king Sang)

Brief Review#

A rare manga where I can remember the names of various characters after finishing it. Honestly, it's quite difficult to remember character names while reading manga. First, when reading text, I rarely mentally recite the character names, and second, cultural differences may make names harder to remember. Angel Yu, Perverted Komiyama, Hime Gay Xiao Zhen, Emoji Xiao Nei, Yoshida, Tofu Head, Brother Kuroki, Yuri, Gorgeous Sister Kato, Protagonist Xiao Sang (I might not necessarily remember if they are first or last names, but I am very clear about their nicknames 😄)

The text volume is actually quite high; it generally takes about an hour to read 10 chapters. Normally, I can read other mangas in about 20 minutes, like those by Fujimoto Tatsuki; even "Look Back" I finished in 20 minutes.

A slice-of-life work that I never want to end: The characteristic of slice-of-life works is that "the timeline often does not progress" (calling out "Minami-ke," how many Christmases have passed?]{.spoiler}). However, this work's timeline progresses smoothly through first year, second year, school trip, third year... but I absolutely do not want this story to end (Damn, why can't the tears stop). This is the sad part of slice-of-life manga; you never want it to end.

(Xiao Sang's harem group, nearing the end)

Saying Goodbye to Youth#

Just like Xiao Sang is about to graduate from high school, I too am graduating from youth. I miss the campus life with classmates from those years. It's time to say goodbye to youth, a phrase that comes from "Slam Dunk," which I recently watched the movie of. At first, we all thought we were Sakuragi Hanamichi, but in the end, we are at most a Miyagi Ryota, or even a Muroki. A slow process of becoming mediocre.

Rigid repayment is my promise to the world as an adult. I learned this term from Lao Liu at Reading Library. The way I can confirm who I am might be through my random list. (I might write about "What is my current rigid repayment" in the future)

Postscript#

Regarding my rambling writing style, writing happily and having that self-deceptive vanity is also nice. From the perspective of nonsense literature, I can indeed write many articles of various lengths.

I remember when I was in college, I took a humanities reading course and wrote a reflection on "Fortress Besieged," which was also in this style, focusing more on my own experiences than on analyzing the work. As expected, my assignment was off-topic. In the end, the teacher gave me a score of 60 for emotional points. I could probably write better if I followed some rigid writing styles and analyses.

If you expect this to be a functional piece telling you whether this work is worth reading, I can only say, "I really like it." When I saw the score of 60, I truly felt ashamed, but I no longer think that way. Let GPT write the rigid essays. For me, I just want to write some of my own understandings; isn't it good to write articles that make me happy?