Manga: Bitter Virgin

(No, this has nothing to do with my very first entry.)

The image on the side hopefully already gave away the fact that my entry this time isn’t about tech. Like I mentioned in my introductory entry, it was my intention to cover a bit more than just that. And true enough, here I am with my first post in the manga category.

After thinking about what to write for my first manga-related entry, I finally decided to talk about a series called Bitter Virgin.

Actually, Bitter Virgin is a manga that I had encountered by chance after searching onemanga for something new to read. At the time, I had unfortunately already exhausted the supply of chapters of other series that I’ve been following and I simply needed something to keep me distracted while waiting for the next chapters to come out. It was then that I just couldn’t resist clicking on this awkwardly named manga on onemanga’s sidebar. I gave the first chapter a chance, and well, I’ve been hooked ever since.

Bitter Virgin is a seinen series created by Kei Kusunoki. It’s basically about Suwa Daisuke who, while hiding in a confessional, accidentally finds out that his 16-year-old classmate, Aikawa Hinako, was repeatedly raped, got pregnant, had an abortion, got pregnant again, gave birth, and had the child adopted. Now that’s heavy.

Even though the manga tackles some very mature issues, it’s all done in really good taste and with a lot of sensitivity. The characters, and their interactions, are fleshed out so well that you end up really sympathizing and becoming really immsersed in all of it. Everything is played out so well that you’ll just want to keep reading, especially because of the excrutiating cliffhangers that come at the end of almost every chapter. I’m not specifying too much here because I don’t want to give out even more spoilers to you folks that do decide to read Bitter Virgin.

What really sucks is that new chapters come out really slowly. This has been out for a few years already, and yet only three volumes of have been released. It doesn’t help at all that the third volume ends with the biggest cliffhanger so far! Well, I’m almost sure that the wait will be worth it when the next chapters arrive.

Anyways, let me wrap this up before I end up rambling even more. If you want to read a manga that will make you feel giddy, angry, and sad all at the same time, while not being too exaggerated like most other mangas, give Bitter Virgin a shot. I promise that you won’t be disappointed.

Here’s a little preview: