Naraku no Hanazono

One of the most perfect disturbing stories, ruined by one character, and an unearned ending. Reading this story without any kind of synopsis was fantastically messed up when I started it. Seemed like a very personal story of a little girl experiencing a troubling move to the countryside. A shift pushed on her, one which left her lonely, out of touch, ultimately without anybody to turn to, even her mother. Money is all she can connect with, and nobody takes her as anything more than just money to be used. She stumbles into the titular garden, where a little girl asks help burying something. Fantastic storyline,fantastic main character, with an easy goal to understand. The girl in the garden was an INCREDIBLE portrayal of abuse at home, and the learned helplessness which comes with it. The disturbing elements which come into play left me with the jaw on the floor. I read this without knowing where it was going at all. I was at work without much to do, and I had to pretend to be okay after the first act revelations. It messes you up in the most innocent perspectives possible. Who knows how to deal with this? Even adults have a hard time approaching the subject or problem, and lives of abuse keep happening for a reason. A little girl, looking at this from the outside can only stress, and I mean, the kind of stress that ruins your life. To know your existence is tied to morally helping, being there, understanding, complying. Is walking away an option? Is her mental health worth sacrifycing when she can't deal with this in any way, shape or form? The questions, and the ways she answers them is storytelling mastery. Deeply complicated, fantastically dealth with, until… the last chapters. Whatever the conclussion could've been, this was just a terrible way to do it. Not because it's edgy or too tragic, or too happy. I believe this deserves a hopeful ending, but not that way. The story ends with ass-pull after ass-pull. Somehow, everything turns out okay, without a proper, logical explanation as to how. It's just a terrible execution of an otherwise fantastic story. A story about morality and weighing your happiness against another person's sadness from the perspective of two girls, inside, and outside that suffering. The art has the makings of a perfect innocent-looking manga. I adored the bubbly character designs before understanding the brutality of what it was holding in reality. It isn't bad in this one, quite the contrary, it's from the perspective of a small cast of small kids. They see the world as this, they see bad people as monsters, they see horrors as something beyond understanding. I wish it was better than this, I really, really do. I wish the ending was more logical, and it wasn't about the explotative elements of a “reveal”. That it wasn't about behind the scenes manipulation, and it was more about a proper self-realization and taking of responsibility which florished into truth. 7/10. The first two acts are still, fantastic. A disturbing story worth visiting. The rest is just not it. Happy 200 review for myself.