Sickness Unto Death · review
tldr: A manga that is truly interesting when it gets to its actual substance, but it takes too long to get there and is rushed past it after it arrives. The main story isn't fully revealed until pretty far into the manga, and it's not really possible to talk about it without discussing that, so this will have spoilers, be warned. This manga ultimately leads into a story centered around what value alternate personalities have, whether they're people, and how they should be treated, as well as the effects such treatment would have on those around them. I don't know much about dissociative identity disorder, so I'm not sure how realistic it is,but it was certainly an interesting topic. However, the way the story is portrayed in terms of pacing and structure leaves much to be desire. It has a structure with going back and forth between the past and present, but I don't feel it added anything, wherein it feels like it misleads the reader not in such a way so as to make the twists more interesting, but rather in a way that just makes the truth feel awkward and inconsistent. It really doesn't feel like going back and forth dancing around the issue trying to be mysterious added to the manga in any way. In terms of pacing, it takes far too long to get to the core story regarding alternate personalities, and when it gets there it is far too rushed, barely touching on what it brings up. The two main characters are interesting within this context, but the actual relationship development between the two isn't fleshed out at all and seems to be really abrupt. Ultimately, this leads to an ending that was satisfying in concept, although very bittersweet, but because of it being rushed into incredibly fast with what feels like essential scenes completely missing, how satisfying it is is greatly diminished. The art was okay.