Forum - View topicREVIEW: Perfect World GN 1
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Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
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Nice review, makes me interested in checking this out. But, was "torture porn" the phrase you meant to use near the end there? i usually picture stuff like "Saw" or "Hostel" when that term is used
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Yeah, that seems like a misused term. I've changed it to "tragedy porn," which is more indicative of what Rebecca meant. |
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2392 Location: United States |
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Interesting! I'm not physically disabled myself, but I am interested in learning more about this kind of stuff and making attempts to write about it in my fan fics, plus the story does seem fascinating. I think I'll check it out some time! I wonder if my library will have it?
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2245 |
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I'm expecting this to take a more melodramatic turn, but at least this isn't starting out like the manga version of Me Before You.
 That alone gives me hope. 
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2607 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Whoops, yes, I had meant to write "tragedy porn" there; I must have mis-typed.
 Thanks for the fix, Jacob!
whiskeyii, that was my fear going in as well, so I was really on the look out for it. So far, so good! |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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This sounds fantastic! The only other manga I know of in English that features adult wheelchair users is Takehiko Inoue's Real, which is excellent, but there's always room for more realistic depictions of people with disabilities. Is Perfect World out in print, or is it digital only for now?
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FireChick
Subscriber Posts: 2392 Location: United States |
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Last I checked, it's only available digitally.
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Weazul-chan
 Posts: 625 Location: Michigan |
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Okay, I haven't been in the mood really for anything romancy lately, but I'm gonna have to check this one out. I don't see near enough stuff that deals respectively with disabled people and this sounds like it may at least be trying to do that. being a wheelchair user myself (part time, I do have some mobility without it given with me it's multiple conditions that cause chronic moderate to severe pain and fatigue that have me using it, not paralysis) it'll be nice reading something I can relate to a bit more. if this doesn't turn out to be tragedy porn (or, just as bad, fictional inspiration porn, ugh) this could become a favorite, I hope.
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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Unfortunately, I've got to warn people off Perfect World. It starts off as a sensitive take on disability, but it does not stay that way. I actually rage quit reading this one because it became too full of over the top drama that to me came off as completely tone deaf given the subject matter. Big TMI and spoiler warning!
spoiler[The point I couldn't handle was when the protagonist was hospitalized, and unable to use the bathroom due to complications, his girlfriend and the love rival literally fought over who would get to help relieve him by uh, manual simulation, to put it politely, in order to prove who was better able to care for him. This fight was not a screaming match so much as a verbal disagreement, but still I was grossed out that they were both more absorbed in their stupid rivalry than paying attention to the fact that they were humiliating him, and no one told them to knock it off because they were being terrible.] I also had some issues with Japanese culture intersecting with disability in a bad way, at least in my opinion. spoiler[In particular, the girlfriend gets into an accident and the protagonist is blamed for being too disabled to protect her from the accident. This really annoyed me, and I know that part of what was going on is the cultural idea that men have the role of protector in a romantic relationship. It's treated in the manga as at least somewhat legitimate concern, rather than as super ableist as it reads to me, who is not culturally Japanese. There's possibly other details like that too, but this one was the most obvious.] |
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treeofjessie
 Posts: 31 |
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spoiler[Wait. Waitwaitwait. Hold on. Please clarify. Are you saying that they were fighting over jerking his d*ck so he could take a leak? MY DUDES THAT IS NOT HOW PENISES WORK, YOU CANNOT PEE WITH AN ERECTION WHAAAAAAAT. Please tell me you meant something else and I’m just confused because you were being politely vague... send help.] |
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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spoiler[No. To be completely TMI, he couldn't poop. They were fighting over putting a finger up his butt. So yeah, this manga really does get pretty terrible. ] |
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Weazul-chan
Posts: 625 Location: Michigan |
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Ugh. And here I was hoping for some respectfully done fiction involving a disabled character that I could get into. Why the heck can't there be more stuff out there that disabled fans like myself can relate to more that treat disabled characters respectfully?
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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If you want something good that deals with disability, read/watch March Comes Like a Lion. There's no wheelchair bound characters, but the protagonist has depression, his friend suffers from a chronic illness that gets him periodically hospitalized, another character is deaf, and another character suffers from chronic stomach pains that are bad enough to affect his ability to go out and do things. In other words, many characters with various forms of disability, and it does show how these disabilities can negatively impact their lives, but most of the time it just shows these disabilities as something they have to live with, and is rather positive about it, rather than trying to be dramatic about it. I wish more people would watch it, because it's unusually good in that regard, besides being a very arty introspective show. It's very unfortunate that Perfect World goes the way it does, because it had the potential to be a cute romance involving a disabled person. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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I had a suspicion that certain details were not accurate, though I can't say I have the knowledge to say whether a detail is true or not. But it's also clear the manga author either had to have done a lot of research, or had some personal experience with this type of disability because there were far too many details that felt like they must have knowledge on the subject, even if there are inaccuracies also. However... spoiler[ It seemed that normally the protagonist was able to go on his own, but due to a sudden illness that required him to be hospitalized, he was suddenly unable to. Perhaps then the reasoning may have been they only needed a one-time fix? But again, the situation seemed kind of contrived to me in general, like the fact the doctor showed up while he had visitors to relate this medical issue, instead of first asking if he consented to their being present, which I cannot recall the doctor ever actually doing. The other thing that I found weird about it is that I got the impression that the doctor was basically asking for volunteers for the job. Wouldn't the doctor insist on doing it? Or have a nurse do it? Though the rival character might have also been qualified as she was his part-time caregiver, the girlfriend had no training at all. It just gave me the impression that the whole scene was written for maximum drama. ] It's also possible the translation I was reading had errors, though I got the overall impression that it was higher quality than many translations I've seen. |
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