“Can’t buy me love,” or so the song says. But Hishikawa Shun is much too young to know that song and and she has much more money than sense, so she approaches classmate Komaki with an offer she could refuse – Shun will pay Komaki for her companionship. And, she’s convinced, more. Komaki doesn’t refuse the first part of the offer, but consistently refuses the additional services requested.
Shouraiteki ni Shindekure (将来的に死んでくれ) is not exactly a likable story, for many reasons. The premise is silly, but it’s played for laughs in a way to guarantee I’ll never so much as crack a smile. Hishikawa is a shouty character, whose reactions to everything appear to be at high decibels and with the ugliest open-mouthed tear-filled weird faces possible. When a bit of creepy service goes over the line, I considered dropping the book altogether, but didn’t. And I’m kinda-ish glad I didn’t.
Because, while Hishikawa is a perv and Komaki’s little brother is a perv and I fucking hate comedy based on perving because it’s gross and not at all funny, there’s something here, buried behind the idiotic premise I do find interesting.
Hishikawa has very poor people skills. We can see that even when she speaks with her best friend, Saya. Saya seems to understand Hishikawa’s lack of human skills and explains it for Komaki. And, for her part, I genuine believe Hishikawa when she tells us that she’s genuinely in love with Komaki. I just also think she has no belief in herself as desirable or interesting and doesn’t have enough peopling practice to realize that offering money for friendship and sex might get you want, but won’t get you what you need. In turn Komaki doesn’t actually dislike Hishikawa and she is always very, very clear about her boundaries. I think that Komaki might just train Hishikawa to become a person.
I sure hope so.
Ratings:
Art – 4 Ugh
Characters – Anywhere from 3-7 variably in a single chapter
Story – 4 Creepiness is not funny. It just isn’t.
Service – 6 No upskirt, but very much in the creepy.
Yuri – 5 – Buried pretty far down, but it’s there and it’s sincere.
Overall – 5
There’s at least one more volume of this series, but I’m likely to give it a pass. I didn’t care enough and more panels of Hishikawa’s shouty, teary, snotty face, or her shouty weird smile face, is not needed in my life.
Oh, heavens, there’s two more volumes! (Volume 2 | Volume 3). If any of you read them, let me know what happens! ^_^
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