Skimming parts of a manga recently recommended to me made me curious for a particular sort of plot. A character has done something really bad. It might only be bad due to its effect on one person, like breaking a promise that meant an incredible amount to someone, or something really big. He is unable to achieve forgiveness or redemption and thus spends much of his time in a sort of self-imposed penance, struggling to at least demonstrate his contrition even if he's unable to earn forgiveness. Bonus if forgiveness is eventually given. Also, while it should be something big, not something for which the audience is unable to forgive, and again the person must actually repent his action.

The only thing I can think of is Koe no Kitachi, where a boy and his friends bullied a deaf girl until she transferred schools at which point he was not only given sole blame for the incident but also became the target for equal or greater bullying himself. He eventually decides to end it all but goes to see the girl first, and somehow winds up unintentionally seeking friendship from her and struggling to give at least a little to her, even though he knows he can't really make up for what he'd done.

While I don't have an example, I'd particularly be interested in a story where a guy is acting out of penance for a really severe crime that he committed or contributed to under duress or out of fear.

I don't have any recs to give you but I've also seen a few recs recently that made me also crave a similar stories.

I heard that Kimi no Sei fits .

Also, I recommend Imitation (PARK Kyung-ran). The male lead kinda bullied the female lead, which makes her traumatized. He begins to regret it after falling in love with her.

UPDATE:
After searching around on the internet, I read that Onanie Master Kurosawa and Zansho (4th story) might fit.

Last edited by Elysia_ at 9:43 pm, Dec 23 2016

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The second half of Vinland Saga fits.

Shut Hell also has some of this in the second half.

Bloody Cross has this too, though the character's motivations are not revealed until near the end.

I vaguely remember Blade of the Immortal fitting too, but it's been years since I last read it.

P.S. There's also a Redemption tag if you're interested in searching for yourself.

Now reading Kimi no Sei. Definitely a good story so far, even if the guy still at the point I'm at seems to think of the things he's seeking "redemption" for as rather minor, and the girl seems to be growing guilty and view the incident as not as big on account of his own experiences. I'd have liked it if he really seemed to look at what he'd done to her and really realized the weight of his actions rather than "I was a jerk but that's pretty normal for a kid right?", but as I said it's still interesting.

I've read OMK and I'm not honestly sure how well it fits. As I recall the guy spends the majority of the story committing the crimes and then "repents" for a brief period by admitting guilt and letting himself get bullied until graduation, and that's it. It fits alright, but there seems to be very little time spent on efforts to repent and a whole lot more spent on him finding people to "punish".

Zansho's 4th doesn't seem to fit really, though it was a very interesting read. The boy never really seemed to actually want or seek forgiveness or even really feel bad or want to make up for his actions, he just got bored and quit, and then wound up in the same boat. Still, as I said it is a very interesting story and the boy at least learned to respect her. One odd thing, and it might just be my having recently read some manga with this sort of theme, but I seriously wondered whether the author wanted to imply certain things. I mean, you have a girl's family fall into ruin, then she becomes completely expressionless, her clothes and underwear are always filthy, and she's always going by an older man's place after school; then she uses a handkerchief to wipe blood off the hero's face and tries to stop him from taking it to wash, and he finds that there's a whole lot of blood already on it, suggesting that someone had made her bleed a lot. And then she vanishes. I wonder if I wouldn't see the same implications had I not been reading the same material lately.

Also I'll look through the category. I rarely have much success with these (and for some reason more than half of the manga listed is always yaoi unless I block it), but I'll still look around.

Last edited by Oobaka-san at 10:49 am, Dec 26 2016

Thanks for taking the time to reply ! Have you tried reading Imitation though? I think it fits quite well.

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I might try at some point. I've always been kind of hesitant when it comes to manhwa. Japanese names look normal to me now and I can see a name and recognize it and the character, but with Korean names I have a lot of trouble keeping track.

Oh, I see. I get that .

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What I'm about to recommend may seem like a little stretch and somewhat of a major spoiler? This is a fantasy josei manga called Bokura no Kiseki.

To all Bokura no Kiseki fans out there, if you haven't caught up to almost the latest chapter that's out in Japan (and not in scanlation land), really don't highlight my carefully worded spoiler tag. To the OP, you may or may not want to read my tag. It's up to you. It's kind of hard to explain it when it, itself, is a spoiler for chapters 56+.

Ok, so although this story stars a guy, whose past life is a princess, there is

Another manga that pops into mind, about redemption, is Black Cat. Not sure if that fits into your criteria, but the MC became a Sweeper from an assassin.... (Like Ruroni Kenshin? Haha...)

I'm kind of running out of time to say any more. Laptop's dying.



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