Shounen Shoujo: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes

Manga Details

• Aka Ill Boy, Ill Girl
  • The title is a play on words. Instead of using the regular kanji 少 (meaning “few,” referring to a person having lived few years) to write shounen and shoujo, it instead uses the kanji 症, meaning “illness”
• Ran in Jump Square
• Author:
  • NISIO, ISIN (Story)
    • Prolific career as light novel writer, he’s done A LOT
      • Zaregoto series
      • Katangatari
      • Mongatari
      • Pretty boy detective club
      • Death note another note
      • JoJos Over Heaven - crazy novel about dio’s diary
      • Medaka box
    • There’s more but you can see Maxybees notes on patreon for the full scoop
    • Loves word play, puns, etc rip any translators
    • Currently in WSJ doing Cipher Academy
  • Akatsuki, Akira (Art)
    • Did a bunch of hentai fancomics under pen name kuuya
    • Contractor M&Y in WSJ for 2 volumes and 10 chapters lmao
    • Also did Medaka box
    • Lunger Code 1951 in jump plus - 3 chapters
    • Jun Taisen Zodiac War: 4 volumes in Jump SQ
    • Boxers Blast - not very good boxing series
    • Was assistant for Katsura Hoshino (d gray man)
• Run dates: Jan 4, 2016 to Apr 4, 2017
  • Replaced Gakumon! Wolf Girl Won’t Give Up! by Robinson Haruhara
  • Was replaced by Super HxEros
• Chapters/Volumes: 16 /3

About the Manga

• Plot
  • This boy has a disease where he doesn’t see anyone’s individuality which is a shame because is obsessed with his own uniqueness. He looks at peoples faces and sees black scribbles over their faces. The disease has a life expectancy of 12 years. As in exactly 12 years. As in you die on your 12th birthday. The day that is 12 years from when have been born. The boy is happy about this because he thinks that dying as a 12 year old of a disease that only he has will make him really special and put him in the history books. Unfortunately a little girl shows up who is also sick and a little older so she’s going to die before him, what the fuck how could she do this? The little boy decides he wants to kill her so he can be the first to die and get remembered. They can’t see personal identifiers so they only know each other as “little girl” and “little boy” and it’s very awkward to read. The boy goes to stay with her at her fancy rich hospital in order to get close when he discovers to his horror that she’s like, way more of an individual than he is. Like wow her individuality is off the fucking chain and she’s the smartest person who ever lived as well as a talented artist. All the nurses and doctors talk about how she’s so great and he’s so lame and normal. However her name won’t be revealed to the public because her dad is a serial killer and her mom is an arsonist. Meanwhile she has ulterior motives of her own and seems to be manipulating him into doing… something?
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  • The boy finds that he has trouble actually killing her so he goes into her own super library to read a book literally called “how to kill the unkillable” where he meets a guy named “Doc,” a generic doctor who starts pushing him to kill her and gives him a bottle of poison. The boy tries using it on her but it doesn’t work cuz it’s water but he thinks he fucked it up as he tried putting it in black coffee which she won’t drink cuz he subconsciously has a crush on her. In the middle of wanting to kill her the boy is pushed down the escalators and seemingly dies but wakes up and is fine. Then the little girl decides to draw porn of the little boy - thanks author that’s great. A bunch of doctors who probably would’ve been important if the series didn’t get cancelled get together and talk about how smart the girl is and how lame the boy is. It turns out that the little boy’s goal is pointless because since the disease kills you at 12 you can’t die until that happens which of course makes sense and is not stupid. Soon two more kids get the disease: “princess” and “little child” but the boy and girl immediately notice that they’re fake cuz they can’t see their faces, and the two kids are found by the little boy hung to death. Just an 8 year old and a 6 year old who the adults claim committed suicide by hanging while right next to each other lmao ok dude To his horror however, the little boy discovers that he can no longer see the little girl’s face. Meanwhile the little boy has a bunch of weird metaphorical dreams where the author asks tough questions that really make you think, like “is killing ok?” Eventually he decides to just go for it and kills the little girl to death.
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  • Doc meets up with the little boy again and explains that the little girl’s parents weren’t dangerous before she was born. Instead they became evil to try and kill her. Her mother burned down houses and her father literally murdered 100 people all to train themselves to kill her. Her dad even wrote that book about killing people earlier. They wanted to do this because she was too smart. She was so smart that she could prove that flat earth was real and that kind of information would fuck society up so her parents knew they had to end her life to preserve the ball-world myth. Then Doc reveals that the little boy didn’t kill her. No she was already dead. She killed herself a day before her birthday. The little boy, now dejected, discovers a DVD hidden in the porn drawing the girl made of him, and decides to watch it on his birthday on his massive screen tv. She says that she created the disease and maaaaybe she killed herself or maaaaybe someone else killed her but honestly fuck you reader for wanting answers. Why should I have to tell you the subtext of this? Make up your own damn mind about art Jesus Christ. Anyway the little boy dies and the author has an epilogue chapter where he outlines all the subtext of the manga. The disease prevents your cells from regenerating and also lets you take all transplants with no problem. So the little girl died from denying a heart transplant that they were going to give her a day before she died and the boy stopped being able to see her face because she started growing boobs - yes really. Anyway you mother fuckers can’t handle the fact that I wrote a manga with a truly original premise and don’t you know that individuality is a scam made up by marketers anyway? Maybe you should just go back to dragon ball z, pleb. NO IM NOT A HIPSTER FUCK YOU! Also the boy and girl were both named Shou Yamai which is a twist so we’ll never know who the disease was named after.
  • 
    
• Characters
  • Boy aka Shou Yamai
    • Edgy broadening teen
    • Physically weak
    • Has a disease that makes him not understand a lot of details
    • Disease that kills at 12
    • Excited to know he’s got something unique’
  • Girl aka Shou Yamai
    • Has same disease so they can see each others faces
    • Parents are criminals
    • Wants to kill the MC
    • See paterns instead of faces
  • Doku aka Doc
    • Biggly smartman
    • Wants to kill girl

Why it failed

• I don’t know how you could make this series last 50 chapters
• This plot is blatantly dragged out like c’mon
• He so cartonishly evily wants to kill her it’s wild
• I have no idea what the fuck is going on
• Really a guide on killing? That’s just dumb
• If he can’t see names how did he know that Doku was the doc’s name?
  • He also looks for women but he apparently can’t tell gender?
• This series feels like it’s just treading water with no growth of the characters or disruption of the status quo for a lot of it, like this is monthly you have to move faster
• This series kinda sexualizes the kids but not school judgement but still weird

What it did well

• I like the I’m here to kill you | I’m here to meet you parallel
• Art is solid
• It has a lot of recycled panels but I feel it makes good use of them
• I gotta give it props for the author remembering to make the MC short as he’s legit like 11
• Fucking finally starts playing around with things on chapter 9
• The can’t die before 12 reminds me of the instant bullet predicted death thing

Where it could have gone

• Probably not made both character psychopaths, perhaps a simple learn to love life kinda story like damn shit doens’t always have to be this bad

Misc Thoughts

• Kinda feels like an edgy mr. robot
• So names get filtered but what happens if you don’t know someones name or someones name is a common noun? Like Stone West?
• Maxy Bee thoughts:
  • Ironic to have a super chunibyo disease that kills you before you actually hit eighth grade.
  • The Doc (‘doku’) gives the boy poison (‘doku’).
  • The vomit is the same material that obscures identifiers for each character. That also explains the boy’s affinity for markers throughout the story, and the girl’s design.
  • Nisio Isin has a habit of inserting… slippery politics into his work, often by posing it as leading questions, or having characters come to certain conclusions. My general impression is libertarianism, but it’s hard to say.
  • Of course, with chapter 12 it’s clear this is about stories with individuality. Man who writes weird stories has a chip on his shoulder about generic isekai, news at 11.
  • Telling that ‘reader comments’ sneak in right before it ends.
  • The translator notes already make it clear but they’re both called Yamai Shou, which is a homophone for the disease they had (‘Disease illness’, basically, or Yamai-shou). Also adds a THIRD meaning to the title, SHOUnen SHOUjo, innit.
  • The epilogue explains everything, but don’t think I didn’t also twig Isin saying that welcoming foreign bodies erases individuality. Very “we should all have our own country” stuff.
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Final Verdict

• Six Word summary
  • Community
    • Tucker: Bitter pill with no medical benefits | Pill with jagged edge, few benefits
    • Maxybee: The Rolling Stone, “Paint It Black”
    • Duderocks: Not for boys, girls, or anyone
    • Meru: You thought shone had sad backatories?
    • Isekai Sensei Sama: Being treated for my Heroine addiction.
    • Chickenwarlord: Make-a-wish couldn't save this
    • Orange: kill? kill kill...oh definitely kill
    • Twolfwood: First Panel: Boy stabs a corpse
    • Blamoomoo: More like "Edgy Boy Edgy Girl"
  • David: Dull writing ruins this manga’s edge
  • Jordan: the fault in our original content
  • Guest: Excessively Sophomoric. This stuff is stupid
• Flop or not
  • If flop, what they could read instead
    • Was a flop, honestly the art helps it not be a certified flop
    • Takopi's Original Sin
    • I don’t know, Blood on the Trail? Animal man? The fuckin cremaster cycle? Lmao.
  • If not, how it compares to Chainsaw Man
• Is this the best/worst series we’ve talked about