Praying to Be Average - The Hateful Love of Himizu
There is a certain shame humans try to repress when confronted with their own negative thoughts - isolation and denial are sure escapes but inevitably crumble down.
Vulnerability is praised as a tender and comforting facet of humanity, but it’s so ugly: messy and unwarranted, opening up about abuse and depression and yearning for the bare minimum of unrelenting normalcy is hard to get used to.
Himizu, the manga, captures that wholly. It tells the story of Sumida, a young boy who is a critical pessimist - at least to the reader. His character is possibly the least sympathetic a protagonist could ever be, but Himizu never marketed itself to be a fun manga. Created by Minoru Furuya, the art illustriously depicts the madness: straying at times from realism, expressions become distorted and dramatic, further pushing the limits of the characters.
Sumida’s abusive father walks out of the family home, and so does his mother, in order to chase frivolous thrills with her new boyfriend. But he’s determined to make the best of it, as his dream is the complete antithesis of a dream: he just wants the most average life, with nothing particularly bad and nothing particularly good, just a flat line of a life until he flat lines too. However, neutrality is an illusion, and due to all the love and hope withhold from him, his spiraling is inevitable - especially when the people that are still in his life are caught up in their own frustrations as much as he is.
Himizu was famously adapted into a live-action movie by Sono Sion, this time loosely copying the story over a post-Fukushima nuclear disaster setting, enhancing the desperation for a normal life and emotional stability.
Furuya created a disturbing, heartwrenching manga that dangerously closes up on reality - sometimes a bit too much, and that’s why it’s such an intense experience.
About the Author:
Mizuki Khoury
Born in Montreal, based in Tokyo. Sabukaru’s senior writer and works as an artist under Exit Number Five.
