stories that temporarily reset my personality and pov of reality on a metalvl for some reason

this convinced me to read the novel, and the novel is SO GOOD. it literally goes into so much detail about the gameplay itself, that you can understand the tension the gaming competitiveness creates without it having to be verbalized. I've NEVER rooted for someone so hard, or cared so much about a set of characters the way I do for everyone in this novel.

WHEN I SAY I BASED THE WORLD BUILDING OF SO MANY OF MY STORIES AND DREAMS OFF THIS MANGA,,, like??? it's like adult swim's studio ghibli (like. amazing world of gumball in a cryptic historical sense)

WHAT? a story that addresses heavy sexist undertones of reality without exempting any male protags in its story? like even if the guys are "good" or potential love interests, the novel takes time to assess that they were still raised in a discriminatory society, and that they benefit from the system even if they develop to grow awareness of it themselves. acknowledgement & sympathy doesn't fix sexism, and the novel is sure to underline that. this fucking story is my BABE

i just remember reading this as a kid, and it influenced me the way that uzumaki had.

edit: reread this, and it reconstructed the neural pathways of my mind. maybe it's nostalgia, or maybe it's bc for a manga published in 2003 it feels simultaneously modern and old school, but i'm so into it. like,,, it eases topics like learning disabilities/nonbinary dudes without even drawing attention to them tf

this injected the definition of aesthetic into my bloodstream, as well as indirectly fueled my eating disorder at the age of 13 bc i wanted to look like the characters. i love this manga so much

if studio ghibli made an episodic series in a manga format it would be this. if i was an alien who's never been introduced to the concept of friendship outside of an involuntary my little pony marathon, i think i could revert my autism through one thorough read of this story

mmm yeah. this genuinely fucked me over on a meta level. i resonated way too hard with denji like??? boobs, and the existential dread of everyone's moral obligation that you lack and you wish you could dump the responsibility and hard decisions onto someone else and find your purpose and worth in them using you because then you don't have to think for yourself nor judge yourself because of it once this lack of self-perception and codependency has been established which in turn colours

mmm minecraft with shameless steve.

im just a sucker for anything that includes cultural lore or history (like,,, god the artifacts aspect rlly got to me)

THIS MANHWA RIGHT HERE. IM

edit: okay i like i have to rewrite my review on this, especially after the inclusion of that one tang daughter girl whatever. i fucknig love her. all of mc's child labor servers are fucking missing a brain cell, but this girl is missing the whole nogging and i love her for it.