Sensei's Pious Lie Vol 1
@KODANSHA / Akane Torikai
@KODANSHA / Akane Torikai
A bit of context :
Misuzu Hara is sexually abused by her best friend’s fiance. Yet, she continues to live and survive each day to learn and face her fears and anxieties in the hope that she can truly understand why she was abused even though it was never her fault to begin with. This is a story of self-discovery and reflection filled with interesting and deplorable characters.
How is the story ?
I must say that this story will trigger many people as it did for me as well. Sexual abuse is not an easy topic to deal with let alone build a genuinely good story around it. Yet, Torikai sensei has developed this amazing story filled with interesting characters that deserves every bit of attention it receives.
The characters are the major force behind this interesting story. It is very much a character driven story. You do end up forming a love / hate relationship with many characters as you read through the series.
The amazing factor about the characters is that there are no black and white characters (in terms of traits and personalities). They are all grey. They share some common traits and yet have enough attributes about them that make them their own individual selves. To further enhance the interesting characters in the story each one of them takes a journey of self-discovery and reflection that is raw and emotional.
This is what drew me to the story. Right from the first volume I could feel Torikai sensei was clearly plotting something for each of the characters. This is just purely good story telling. For instance, without giving too much away, we get to see how our male and female characters deal with the power dynamics that males have over females.
Our main character Misuzua Hara continues to contemplate and react to this power dynamic in different ways with different people. We get an insight into how unsafe females feel on a daily basis through her eyes. We also get further details about her best friend Minako and Minanko’s fiance Hayafuji and Hara’s student Niizuma.
The amount of character details packed in those 4 volumes of this series is truly a work of wonder. Thus, despite the deplorable actions of many of the characters, this is one story we must all read purely to see how a character driven story can be written.
Conclusion:
As I mentioned, the story involves abuse and is not an easy read for anyone. The driving force behind the story is it’s characters and the depth they portray through either their heroic or disgusting actions. This is one I highly recommend if you would like to see how characters can drive a story rather than the story / journey pulling the characters together.
I do not want to say I hope you enjoy it. Instead I will say, I hope you learn from it. The same way I have. I’ve always respected women but this story truly made me question if I could and should do more to respect everyone. Women don’t need protection from us. They need to be treated with respect.
Thank you Torikai sensei for this interesting piece of literature!