This teen romance is a psychologist’s nightmare.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Megumi Morino
Translation/Adaptation: Alethea & Athena Nibley
What They Say
High schooler Tetsu Misato is hardworking, frugal, and easily scared, but he commits to a part-time job at the mansion on the hill—the one that’s rumored to be haunted. As he toils away, he notices a building separate from the estate, and the mysterious girl who lives within it: Shizu Karasawa. Tetsu slowly becomes enchanted by Shizu’s lonely smile, but by their second encounter, he quickly finds himself in over his head. There’s an unsettling feeling he can’t quite shake, but there’s love there, too.
Content: (please note that content portions of this review will contain spoilers):
Japan does not have a great track record when it comes to treating mental health. Neither does the US, but while the US was busy sticking everyone in asylums Japan just pretended that mental health problems didn’t exist or that the people suffering from them didn’t exist. This has slowly been changing, as is evident in manga series that shed light on real mental health issues. The girl at the center of this series is a reminder of how families were likely to treat someone with mental health issues, by locking them out of sight of the public.
That’s how the male lead of this romance series, Tetsu, meets Shizu. Tetsu comes into the story working a part-time job doing housekeeping for the well-off family, trying to prove to his father he doesn’t need college. (Although the reason behind needing money is deeper than that.) Shizu is a lovely girl locked away in a carriage house in an estate on a hill. She appears to be a prisoner in her own home or at least a shut-in, and the common story from the staff is that she has an illness which keeps her from going out. That illness isn’t physical, but mental… or so it first appears.
Tetsu, when confronted by what he believes is the truth, is surprisingly understanding and accepting. He offers to help Shizu go out into the world, and falls in love with her. Then he makes a real effort to befriend Shizu even after Haru turned down his love confession. (His love confession ended up being made to a male personality, which is a whole can of worms they don’t get into.) Never mind that in real life dissociative identity disorder is poorly understood and possibly a misdiagnosis of other existing personality disorders, it’s been a staple of fiction for a long time.
Now, this series takes a hard shift which absolves it of some of the baggage of the very real issues of mental health. The idea that Shizu is actually possessed is a very weird twist that flies in the face of modern medicine. It adds a weird new layer to the relationship between her and Tetsu, one which triggers all of Tetsu’s childhood fears. Now, it’s possible that the ghosts aren’t real, but this being a shojo romance it appears to be genuine in the reveal. I’d almost rather that the ghost element remains nothing more than a possibility, but it won’t, and that’s a cop-out. It is amazingly silly that Tetsu was more comfortable dealing with mental health issues and working toward healing than dealing with the supernatural.
The real hang-up I have with the narrative is Tetsu’s motivation to have a job and earn money. It also relates back to the title of the story. Is the title referring to Shizu, or is it referring to Tetsu’s mother? Tetsu’s mother is comatose, or so we are to believe. Tetsu’s trauma involving ghost stories and ghosts delves back to when he lost his mother and possible feelings of guilt. Tetsu has taken on a very domestic role in his family, even though he has a sister who is close enough in age to also take on those tasks. He’s portrayed as very sensitive even though he remains firmly masculine in every other regard. He was clearly Momma’s boy and the tension with his father adds to that image. When Shizu via Haru’s smile triggers a feeling of warmth he thinks of his mother’s smile and wow that’s a bit of a yikes since he caught feelings for Shizu/Haru.
So, is the title a plea for the mother to wake up or Shizu to stop sleepwalking through life? At this point, it really appears to be the former.
In Summary
Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty is mixing plenty of themes and subjects, and never with the outcome that you would expect from the melding. There are already so many role reversals and challenges to what the status quo should be with the characters in the story that it really seems quite interesting. Tetsu is a sweet leading man and Shizu is fascinating. Sometimes Tetsu seems very forward-thinking in his acceptance of one situation, only to be thrown through a loop by something else entirely. It’s also a bit of a cop out and I’m worried that the story may be oversimplifying, ducking and weaving through what should be some very heavy material. This first volume on a very unusual note which reframes the relationship in a painful way that can only be summed up in one phrase; it’s complicated.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B +
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: A –
Age Rating: 13 +
Released By: Kodansha
Release Date: December 5, 2017
MSRP: $12.99 US / $16.99 CN
