So I read 11 chapters of a fascinating manga called I reincarnated as the little sister of a death game manga’s murder mastermind and failed and its interesting.
I have some nostalgia since I HAVE read a couple of manga with the plot of students stuck in a school having to face off and situations that can cause their death or fight eachother while trying to solve how to get out and why everything is happening so I instantly related to Mai(the main character and step sister). What fascinating is she notes there ARE differences in personality and little details in the reality she lives in that doesn’t match one for one from the manga and its not like it was some change she hadn’t picked up after she did something after regaining her memories...she seems to have kept her original personality of being rather cheerful. But she also picked up important aspects are the same....such as the box of bugs that she would catch and bring her brother torn up in the same hiding place as the manga said it would be.
I like how because she cares for her brother but this insite she got from reading the manga about him gave her some insight into why he did what he had done and how it escalated...she doesn;t hate him and tries to help her brother by trying to minimize it escalating and trying to give him something else to be interested in because he startes the deathgame in the manga out of boredom.
so she tries to give him ‘surprises’. The thing that peaked my interest the most though is we do end up seeing some chapters from her brother’s perspective...and that her surprises aren’t surprising him at all...he thinks she is acting weird but his interest hasn’t really been peeked..which I thought would dishearten me....but ironically its one fo her first pranks(which was to throw herself off a bridge into the water) which I think sparked a change.
See apparently he woudl often imagine hurting things and he had thought pushing her off would be entertaining and one of the signs of him being horrible in the manga was him actually pushing her off one day....
but by jumping herself she fullfilled his erge of seeing her fall off the bridge AND surprised him in that it had actually bored him and wasn’t as entertaining as he thought..and it took away him giving into a big erge since she had already done it.
This means he will have a few more herdles that he hasn’t jumped yet so his escalation will go slower....and her clinging just a little less means he has less chances of finding her annoying while not suspecting that she has figured out his nature. her actions can seem like they aren’t having the affect she wanted but we do end up seeing she gets his interest in a different way as he notices that she tends to prank him using herself(aside from the weird bentos) and that it might have peeked his interest by using that he is already interested life and death and wounds....she was trying to surprise him...
but what caught his interest was at times she would get hurt by her pranks(like bruises and stuff or could be seen as odd) but that she would enthusastically continue to do more pranks. I like how it used one of teh few things he is interested in to make that connection of his interest in her increasing rather than is just simply being surprised.
Not gonna lie I was worried when we heard that a killer was lurking around and not getting caught..what if it was her brother...but we find out he WASN’T the killer...but that he was obsessed with trying to see a dead body and could predict where the victims might be with him not getting there in time to see it happen...we us seeing signs of slight care for the sister in getting rid of a teacher who kindof assumed stuff and took teh gift she ws going to give her brother...but he someone found a way to get that teacher to be around a area so she could get targetted by the killer...which is chilling even if there was relief she didn’t die and that he wasn;t actually the one attacking anyone.
and then she knows when he sees a cat get run over he is suppoused to get even crazier....so she is able to stop teh cat from getting run over....but SHE gets hit by the car right infront of him...and from her perspective she doesn;t understand why he is acting a bit odd after she comes back from the hospital...but WE get to see from hsi perspective...she had fullfilled part of what he had wanted to see, someone getting hurt right infront of him (he thought she was dead for a bit), but much like that scene where she jumped off the bridge he didn’t feel what he thought he would feel(which was entertainment or a sense of satisfaction he would get from killing bigs).
He felt ‘unpleasant’. his heart hurt and he was so confused as to why becuase its not like her surprises entertained him. heck he had been around her so people would think he was even kinder than he was and be even less likely to notice the signs he isn’t actually caring yet he was flumoxed that he foudn ehr hit by a care unpleasant.
mind you she didn;t die so part of him did wonder fi the issue was maybe that she hadn’t died but he’s clearly more protective afterwards after she was hurt. checking on her phone, going out with her and being close when crossing the road......and he tried killing his bugs again but he seemed upset like somehow it made him feel bad...its like ehr almost dying tainted it becuase maybe he got a sample of what he thought would be satisfying made him feel differently than he wanted.
whats fascinating is he does eventually figure out that he cares about her and that he might love her(it made me laugh because if I was surprised, HE was doubly so, especially since he got one of THOSE~ type of dreams where he stubbed his foot after waking up.
He still doesn’t change as he still has killing temptations and he is smart as he knows he is abnormal yet doesn’t want to change but still wants her and he knows it woudn’t be healthy for her.....
yet its kind of funny to see him come up with plans to see if she could like him like making her jealous by bringing a study group where a beautiful girl he knows tends to get envy and hatred from other girls... likes him. yet our girl obviously supports this crush thinking it could help her brother and teh rest of the class and hersef avoid that bad ending if makoto gets more ranges of emotions...unknown he ha dalready fallen for herself and was getting a slighly wider range of emotions...wth him even getting jealous as one fo teh guys gets a crush on Mai XD his logic didn;t even pick up it was obvious that Mai wasn’t interested in the guy.
the bro being a bit childish and spending more time with her by saying she needs to study more to join his school.
and whats even more fascinating is SHE is technically more aware of his nature than he is of hers....she also has insight into herself as even if she doesn’t have the same attitude as the sister in the manga she read....the other version of her had a brother complex....and her now did use to dream of marrying her brother...like she genuinely was rooting for the bro and the female lead....but WE actually can pick up she isn’t as unaffected as she seems...she isn’t exactly happy at the idea he might hear the female lead’s confession despite her acting like she supports it. she breathes a sigh of relief when the female lead wasn’t hanging around her brother. and honestly if she was nromal...you’d think she’d distance herself consider most would...especially when she KNOWS a different version of him killed a version of her as a fact....but nope...we might be having signs she likes him to...she isn;t quite there yet(thankfully). but it really interesting to knows this and know the brother semi thinks he is failing at grabbing her attention and that she is in the dark of his true nature.
Heck before when he would want to see something die it fet more impersonal...like it wasn’t about the person specifically.......but now it feels very personal...maybe its the plot armour saying she has to be his first victim but he feels like he shouldn’t kill someone who isn’t Mai...or at least Mai should be his first even while he clearly wants her safe.
but he also clearly personally wants to kill the dude who has a crush on Mai from his study group despite and doesn’t really pick up its clear Mai isn’t interested in that guy. we see him genuinely imagining killing the guy in many ways...heck I thought he died somewhere offscreen was what was coded for the school transfer...but he genuinely did choose to transfer the guy...and he did it while being nice and ‘helping’ the guy get the scholarship to cover costs so they would have more for the hospital bills for the crush guy’s mom.
he could have clearly just pushed him onto the train tracks...but what I like is i actually wonder if it was mai’s accident that save the guy from the bro taking that easy way out...because the bro might have some ptsd from her getting hit by that car and associated it with it being unpleasant. AND we know that guy had been destined to die in the original story...so him being transferred means at least one guy is officially saved.
the bro doesn’t quite know how to feel taking this smarter less bloody route to get rid of a rival....but its definitly giving me alot for food for thought about the developents that Mai hasn’t quite caught on to.
These could backfire or work in her favor...mind you since he is touching on Yandere...he is at least semi more selfaware than most...but definitly worried since he could snap at anytime.
mind you I thought I would be more distressed about the potential ship since brother and sister...even if they aren’t actually related and met when they were 9 and 10 years of age...and lets face it all the red flags...but I realized that hey at least they aren’t related IS a successful bar to pass when it comes to some manga and if this can save lives....lets hope she can at least save everyone ad herself from death and if the feelings are mutual its at least way better than if it was onesided.
oddly enough I’m getting weird vibes from the female lead for has a crush on the brother. I think she is aware that Mai could be a rival for the brother(as the bro did mention they weren’t blood related to try to get her to be more active with flirting infront of Mai to try to get Mai jealous)...but if she figured out Mai could have feelings before even Mai knows...female lead could have some redflags of her own.....definily more worried because the brother knows the female lead(who was knows as teh beautiful lonewolf type in the original manga) is actually just a bit socially awkward...so him helping her integrate with the class gives her all the reason to have feelings for him and out him on a pedistal...so if the female lead potentially blames Mai for the bro not being interested...things could get messy.
this is a fascinating manga...since morally the brother is a walking red flag..but technically hasn’t done anything of the murder viarity to anyone yet and was born this way.
I keep thinking of teh conversation the brotehr had with her at teh grandpa’s house where she was defending her friend liking her fashion choices as its not like it hurts anyone..and she actually thought that is someone likes things like killing and the like it must be hard because what they like isn’t socially acceptable as that maybe if they compromised and got the erges out in ways that don’t actually hurt anyone it wouldn’t be too bad...while her bro who we know is tehone who actually wants to kill people or animals raises that those people would be better off dead as it doesn’t change what they could do.
cuz honestly he should get professional help or something...but it does make me wonder about some people just born this way and how both of their views might clash. but also about how people can genuinely love people like this and what happens about those people born like this when it comes to relationships and how they can blend in.
it reminds of cheese in the trap where one of the male leads clearly has some manipulative tendencies and emotion issues but it raises of he can love why can’t he try his best to love people or have a family? and how much you can get better or be motivated and what it can actually mean though this one is one of those ‘he hasn’t done extremely wrong yet’ ,and us knowing for SURE how bad it could get for him as a individual to snap.
