After reading this oneshot, I felt deeply disgusted. At the same time, I was amazed at its brilliance. The "best friend" narrates the tale like it's some sort of postmodern war literature---something that you cannot distinguish as either fiction or nonfiction because you've never experienced the same thing. In fact, it rather reminds me of the book The Things They Carried, except the nitty-gritty sex scenes. Actually, that's something I want to comment on. The sex scenes are...well, they're right on the borderline between disturbing and typical. In war, rape occurs. It just does. That's almost expected. But what isn't expected is how young the girl appears. The boy looks a pedophile in comparison. That slightly bothers me.

Another thing is, I really liked the feeling of the last few pages, right when the end was coming. The girl saves the boy, just as he saved her. Both could have put an end to each other's suffering, but they're human. They want to live. They want to have sex, etc. No matter how horrible the conditions of the war is, they still want to be alive.

But from the beginning, I didn't expect a "happy" ending for the two. There might have been something like love, but love only under the condition of war. It might have been something that would blossom into love, but it would never fully blossom; the war corrupts it. And that's why the title is so appropriate. Love Story, Killed. It's a story about a kind of almost love, but before it even gets the chance to really become, it was killed already, from the beginning.

All in all, a highly thought-evoking manga. It actually reminds me of the story of The Crow and the Yakuza from Endo Hiroki Tanpenshuu. The background is not the same, but the ending...hmm. It feels like the same situation to me.