This manga was incredibly difficult to finish, not because of the brutal, nihilistic violence, alcohol abuse, cults, and mental breakdowns, but because of the father's repugnantly abusive understanding of family and family dynamics. The primitive digital art and the use of pixelation as a technique, didn't help either, even though some of the male character designs and their facial expressions are grotesquely pleasing.

Maybe this is where Arigatou differs from most manga of this ilk (the ones I've read, at least). Whereas in other series the patriarch's abuse would be presented in the most cliched way ever - through rape and impregnation of his daughters - here is the exact opposite. His overbearing love (represented in the manga through a heart literally brandished on his forehead) is shown through, quite physically, forcing all of the members of the family to stay together. Initially, he locks everyone in the house, later, he starts going to one of his daughter's school, to observe how others treat here. At one point, he even forces everyone to work together at a family restaurant.

Of course, it all has the exact opposite results of what the weak-but-willed patriarch expected. One of the daughters starts living with the boss of the gang that initially invaded her house and raped her sister. The mother joins a cult. The older sister becomes a hikikomori. And all this makes him even more overbearing and abusive, pointing, very weakly, though, to the evil that is the patriarchal system. Rinse and repeat with even more extreme examples until it all, very inorganically and anti-climatically, implodes.

There is a part in me that wants to read the manga as a consequence of the 1990's bubble burst coupled with the mangakas antiauthoritarian beliefs. The father never allows members of family to call the police or go to the hospital, or to have anything to do with any institutions. He hates all of them with passion and knows them to be corrupt, either trying to protect themselves and their image, or steal all of his hard earned money. He doesn't trust even his own company, and yet he abuses his position within it constantly. Until he is fired, that is, and even then uses the false authority he has over one of his colleagues. And if it was a critique of the post-bubble society, then what does this manga tells us? Well, not much, outside of the nihilistic surface level representation of contemporary society as broken beyond repair. Not that necessarily there needs to be a message, especially if there are compelling characters with novel or at least interesting arcs. But there are none here.

The initial home invasion arc is fantastic and strange. Everything after that pretty much dumps on the characterization and character dynamics that the first section set up. The youngest daughter was much more interesting as a troubled manipulator trying to counter balance her father's (well meaning) chauvanism. She's frequently correct in arguments against her father (the police, the knife), at least up until the point where she suddenly becomes a different person and does the thing that everyone who's read the comic hates her for doing. I guess the writer thought she was too sympathetic.
The family goes through a chaotic pileup of frequently violent, ripped from the headlines scenarios, which would have been interesting if they weren't completely different people every other chapter. People calling this realistic read too many tabloids.

This is just a rape hentai disguised as human drama . But knowing his other work, This one is slightly with better plot compare to his other h-manga . Rather than just using rape as shocked value like what today mangaka used, he used it as a plot driven device . Making it more depressing as it goes on . And when he added some human drama with it, It's make it more interesting . It's like reading hentai with vanilla and ntr tag in it . It's feel warm and depressed altogether . And slightly turned on lmao

Don't read the beginning chapters before bed, they'll give you nightmares. I was considering lowering my rating due to questioning the necessity of so much graphic rape content, but it emphasizes the absurdity of the father's decisions and sets the tone for the manga in the strongest way possible. There are so many moments of brilliant black comedy and social commentary in this story, and some surprisingly poignant moments too. None of the characters are likeable, but their lack of obligation to be likeable is what makes it an interesting story.

... Last updated on December 5th, 2018, 7:28pm

Not a 10/10 because the beginning of the story is too far fetched for me personaly. But the end of this is good.
Long before the very end it started becoming good without exception, settling further more in the direction which made it realistic to me, but there were still things I had(have) a hard time accepting (seeing as realistic).
The end of the story is good without exception though. I love it when a story squezes my heart with its fist (without crushing it obviously >.>) when it should not have reached within my thorax to begin with.
Akiko deserved so much better.

... Last updated on February 5th, 2018, 2:43am

Warning! Warning! Warning!
Not much else to add, you have been warned
As written in other comments, this manga is a real mindbreaker.

... Last updated on August 20th, 2014, 7:02pm

GRAPHIC, UGLY look at how things go waaay wrong and people fall through the cracks of "pretty perfect modern societies"... Privileged folk like Tokyo elites from glitzy private schools, American suburbanites from perfect McMansions, and the like will benefit from a good hard look at this

...if you grew up in a less than harmonious environment, with ex-cons for next door neighbours, murders on your block no longer surprising anyone, muggers next to your convenience store and rapists lurking in the bushes next to playgrounds a regular sight, and a few scars and hospital visits to remember your youth by - THEN YOU DON'T NEED THIS ONE.

It's a guided reality-check tour for people who live in a rosey world where "violence" is a boyish scuffle over who made a pass at whose girl, "delinquents" are 17-year-olds who cut class and smoke cigarettes, "criminals" stick to nicking beer and car stereos, "alcoholics" are annoying old guys in expensive business suits who pass out on the train, and "rape" is just a plot device for trashy porn.

...if you already know better, it's just a nasty zoomed picture of an all-too-familiar ugly and depressing sight.

Amazing father, no one on his side but he keep on struggling to keep the the family member (from disaster after disaster) together. The author did a good job with this slice of life of a family, playing with your anger and patient. Now let's reread Yotsuba to change the mood and back to the safe side..

... Last updated on January 10th, 2013, 7:03pm

... This need to labled mature, adult, hentai. = =... Do they seriously need to draw the underbody as realistic? Do they have to uncover the male underbody? DO THEY HAVE TO!?

Nope, that's the answer. Nope. Too bad... wanted to read it, but can't risk myself you see. My imagination is better than I want, so is my memory. Having weird things imprinted into my mind is the last thing that I wanna experience again.

Sorry it was to much, I stopped after 20 chapters, could not take any more of brain damage from it. Way to depressing for me. Author is a sadist, he makes you feel sorry for all the members of the family, you wish them well and when you finally think that their fate may change for better a bit, he turns it to even worst. It just makes me suffer with them ;/ I fell even worst than when I finished reading Me~teru no Kimochi

... Last updated on October 12th, 2011, 9:49pm