wait, this is from the guy who wrote monogatari?

~~~imperfect girl is a manga adaptation of a novel with the same name, covering what it presents as a true story that would ultimately mark the beginning of the author's time as a writer rather than an aspiring writer as he described himself prior to the events depicted in this manga. truthfully speaking, i don't even remember when or why i came across this story and decided to add it to my list, and through almost the entirety of the first volume it seemed like a mistake to spend time reading The World's Most Nonsensical Chain of Events. obviously, as a recounting of something that actually happened, it's not possible to fully critique the "characters" or their actions the way you would with most other stories, but time and again in that first volume and even a couple of points later on i found myself frustrated with what i was reading from the perspective of the main character especially - simply referred to as "I" throughout the manga. but at some point things really started to set in. since these aren't purely fictional characters the thoughts they have and the things they experience carry that much more weight. thanks to the narration we know "I" is just as frustrated with himself as the reader may be, and as he starts to understand more and more about why "U" - the other primary character - is doing what she does, everything stops feeling like just a chain of ridiculous occurrences.

i found myself, much like the main character himself, going from mostly detached to being completely invested in not just his experience but the experiences of the mysterious girl called "U" (i promise this isn't a "the girl reading this" joke). as he learns and observes more the story gets into portraying things that might be called uncomfortable at best, but it does so with a tone completely appropriate for the nature of the content. it's disturbing because our perspective character is disturbed. there's no attempts to gloss over things or inject out of place humour into those moments or really the manga as a whole. you've probably noticed i'm going out of my way to tap dance around describing what happens in this story in great detail, and that's honestly in this case because the story is so short it's almost impossible to talk about without "spoilers," i sincerely believe the best way to go into this manga is pretty much how i did, without much context, because it does help tie you to "I" and build a certain level of tension. that said though, it's not what i'd call a gloomy or completely depressing story. part of the humour came from just the absurdity of what was going on, which was why i didn't drop it straight away, but as it goes on there's humour in the stilted conversations between our characters and in "I" seeing inspiration in unconventional places as someone who wanted to be a writer. eventually i thought to check out the author's other works because whether or not the events of this "true story" were Perfectly accurate the way it was told and the balance between levity and the more serious content made imperfect girl into a very enjoyable reading experience. looking at his anilist page my primary thought was "wait, this is from the guy who wrote monogatari?" truthfully, that's a series i've never engaged with and in recent years tried to avoid like the plague because in my mind it was The "haha, pedo enthusiast anime" before mushoku tensei rolled around, though i have actually watched and read the latter. nonetheless, that association made me even more impressed by how respectfully certain moments are handled here and in possibly the biggest praise i could give this manga it had me actually somewhat interested in giving monogatari a genuine try.

the question then comes in as to how much of this story's approach and quality is down to nisioisin, the original author, and how much of it is down to the mangaka who adapted the novel. there's not much point speculating on that i suppose, even though the mangaka, mitsuru hattori, said in the afterword of the third and final volume that he was given a lot of freedom, because the area where his ability shines most clearly here is in the art. from the arrangement of the panels to the perspectives on the characters and the visual details of the backgrounds they're set against, the only word you could really use for the art here is beautiful. obviously i've not read a whole lot of manga so i may just be too easily impressed, and it's true that it's not necessarily The Best Art Ever but it is still of really great quality. something in particular that stood out is the fish used throughout the manga as a stylistic thing around "U" in some panels. the coelacanth is the one i took most notice of and is the first one we see overlayed on panels featuring her, and if that's meant to have any symbolic significance i think it comes in two ways. the coelacanth is pretty much a living fossil, once thought to be the ancestor or missing link between fish and land animals. by associating her visually with that fish it could be placing greater emphasis on U's role in transitioning "I" between two states of being and two phases of his life, from aspiring writer to being a "real" writer so to speak. the coelacanth was, however, thought to be extinct for a long time since it was only observed through fossils before being rediscovered alive and well. that particular association could be interpreted in a couple of other ways but i think the most prominent is that it serves as foreshadowing for the end of the story. there's what appear to be catfish as well which in japan are associated historically with earthquakes and disaster rather than sweaty dudes and disaster, and in this story the catfish make their appearance when "U" is going through a time of upheaval. i'm sure there's lots more symbolism presented as overtly and more subtly but i'm just highlighting how the mangaka really has elevated this story in a way that makes it feel like more than just biographical thanks to the artistic liberties he took without detracting from the overall tone or realism of the events being depicted.

overall what we have here is an engaging and enjoyable story with art that's great and also rewarding to look at in terms of subtext, with an ending that's both satisfying and - as a crappy writer myself - a little inspirational. it's a grounded, realistic story even if it feels a bit insane at points in the beginning, and for fans of nisioisin's other works from monogatari to bishounen tanteidan i'm sure it'll be an even more fulfilling read as you get insight into how one of Japan's most successful authors got what he considers to be his real start, and what he thinks about himself as an author. maybe gift the series to yourself for christmas, idk, but if you have a couple of hours to burn then i absolutely recommend imperfect girl, and give it a score of 82 out of 100.

that's the end of this review, i tried something less structured since the story was so short this time, but if you liked it maybe check out my last review of the anime series texhnolyze from last week, if you didn't like it then post pictures of cheese or something on my profile to show your anger, i really don't like cheese. oh yeah and if you've already read this manga and want something else like it then the gods lie is a personal favourite of mine that has some passing similarities in how events unfold later on in the story and in tone, though as a work of pure fiction it's a lot more pointed about its message~~~