[manga] WTL8 - First Impressions

[saisei_dono]

Got With the Light Volume 8 this morning and burned through it in about an hour.

Just my first impression here.

I loved it, of course, and I wish there was more coming (but there isn't and I'm sad).

But after I finished the whole volume, including the two awesome oneshots at the end, the only thing I could think of was:

Comments

[hoshiko_2000]

That was my reaction ^^;. The reason I never named 'Shouhi' as 'the boyfriend' in my own review was because I was having such trouble digesting it myself. I found Shouhi a bit stupid, and he did have sex with a 14 year old girl without protection, but he seemed a like a nice(if somewhat thick) guy, and I could never, EVER imagine him being abusive, especially towrds Eri. And I did like him. When he was shown abusing and threatening to *KILL* Eri, part of me died inside :(. I really did like his character, and it seemed such a reversal of his personality. Oh well, a lot could have happened to change him in the last couple of years since we have seen him and Eri *shrugs*.

[saisei_dono]

I myself always considered Shouhei like an older, less intelligent version of Nobuaki (sort of). Aside from the semi-pedophile like relationship he has with Eri he's a very sweet and likable guy. This abusive streak just came completely out of nowhere.

Maybe something happened during the time we didn't see him and I imagine that if Tobe-sensei had more time with the story she could've shown how his personality changed. Who knows, right?

And if anyone was gonna over the deep end and threaten to kill their partner I would immediately assume it to be Eri's parents.

[hoshiko_2000]

She probably, like a lot of things, would have steadily stretched this out over a period of time in the course of the manga, if she had been able to. But, like the rest of this volume, it was rush written while she was dying of cancer, and I know that Tobe-sensei just wanted to give 'endings' to all of her beloved characters in the short time she had left.

And I was really just happy to finally see Eri getting a happy ending. Reading the chapter with Eri and Shouhi I was actually almost crying with frustrated anger. I was like 'This is just so unfair!! She's grown up with domestic abuse, she's horribly pressured by her mother, she's suffered a pregnancy scare, and now this?! It's just too cruel!!'. But I really was incredibly relived and moved to see Eri finally getting a happy ending :'). It made this volume for me.

[saisei_dono]

I'm glad that she and her mother were able to get to somewhere safe away from all the abuse. I think it's too bad that we didn't see more of Eri in the series since she lived in the same apartment building as Hikaru.

It really does suck that it took this major trauma to finally convince Eri's mother to leave her husband and start to repair her relationship with Eri.