Boku wa Mari no Naka

I'm going to be honest: I didn't have that high of an expectation for this manga, the moment I first picked it up, but since I had nothing better to do at the time, I decided to give it a shot, and boy, am I glad I did so! This manga is one of those shiny gems that you find in the middle of others that don't shine, taking a concept that has already been used a couple of times, and cleverly giving it a whole new meaning. Also, don't avoid to notice how this manga is classified as "Psychological". It certainly won't disapoint you in that department, as the setting is absolutely shiver enducing (specially in [**SPOILER**] chapter 33, where Isao suffers from a psychological trauma). Now, let's jump into the review itself (may contain spoilers, read at your own risk!):

STORY (10):
This is perhaps, as I've mentioned before, the most appealing part of the manga to me. Komori Isao has been a hikikomori ever since he's stopped going to University, because of his inability to make friends. His first year was sad and frustrating for him, because of that, but he kept struggling through until the beginning of the second year. If you suffer from any kind of social anxiety, you'll know exactly how he felt, as he was looked down upon by the other students, and (I'm guessing, as it's not mentioned in the manga) made fun of, as he arrived at the entrance of the University. At that moment, his feet locked on: he realized he was unable to step inside, and ran home, where he has been ever since... What is life, may I ask you? Isn't it just a countdown before death? What's the point of living, when there's nothing out there? That's what every hikikomori asks himself, and would like to shout out as loud as they could to every person who's living a "normal life". But this manga assumes something that those who live a "normal life" fail to realize: they are just deceiving themselves, trying to act differently from their usual selves in front of others, in order to keep a social status. Isn't that Hell? Is that even living a "normal life"? That's where people like Yoshizaki Mari come in. People who have realized they are in a living Hell, and have realized their lives are not any different from those of a hikikomori: they are unable to have fun, they are unable to feel any actual happiness, they are unable to extend their wings as far as the wind blows; they are stuck in a hailstorm, being forced to protect themselves with their wings. And thus, Isao became Mari, who thought and felt exactly just like him. They aren't any different from one another. Actually, they were the same person all along.

ART (8):
The art certainly wasn't bad; in fact, it was really good! Even so, it wasn't on the same level of manga like Death Note. ...But they're different genres... I guess I really don't have a lot more to say about it, other than I enjoyed it. I suppose you can say you were able to truly appreciate on chapter 33. You'll see what I mean by then!

CHARACTER (8):
Man, I kind of ruined this section of the review with the STORY... Lol. I already explained everything I had to say about Komori Isao and Yoshizaki Mari, so, I guess the remaining main character to review is Kakiguchi Yori. She's much like Isao, in the sense that she was also a stalker, her life was horrible (since she had no friends) and she also viewed Mari as her only beacon of hope, although she somehow had a much darker aura... Perhaps because she wasn't the chosen one to become Mari, since she was her crush? Whatever the cause may be, she's certainly not your average comic relief; in fact, she's the opposite, really!

ENJOYMENT (10):
It took me less than an hour to read all the already published and properly translated chapters, and in the same day, I am writing this review. It's quite clear I REALLY enjoyed this manga. Please, do read it!

OVERALL (9):
Summing up all the points I've rated it so far, my final score for Boku wa Mari no Naka is a 9! Great job, Oshimi-sensei!

ADDTIONAL NOTES:
If I was to predict a possible ending for the manga, I'd say Isao (in Mari's body) would start dating himself, as weird as that may sound; but hey, this is a Psychological manga, isn't it? Another possible ending, and perhaps the most likely one, would be everything returning to normal, and Isao would date Mari. Although, where would Yori fit in that? Maybe take advantage of the Ecchi genre, if you know what I mean? I'LL SAY NO MORE.

Here's my take after reading 80 schizophrenic chapters of Boku wa Mari no Naka (I'm inside Mari) Shuuzou Oshimi.

How would I put this... Mari no Naka is not your typical body swapping manga since it is not a body swapping manga. It is is a story that dives into the psyche of the characters and their actions on given the circumstances similar to other of Oshimi-san's works.

In this mind bending story, we are looking the eyes of Mari Yoshizaki a seemingly perfect high school girl that everyone adores, and Isao Komori one particular college hikikomori (reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life) that is obsessed with Mari.

The story started after one incident where Mari was on her way home from the convenience store, and was being followed by Isao when she suddenly passed out and woke up not Mari anymore, but "Isao" in Mari's body.

There is only a few out there that would appreciate this kinds of story about deconstructing the human psyche's inner workings through the experiences portrayed by the characters. And I am one of those people, as the story for me expose each of the character's darkest secrets truthfully in their own way.

Mari's character is one of the most interesting characters out there as she is able to create a sense of open mystery for you to uncover all throughout the story up to the last volume which held me as a reader to finish it in one go.

The supporting characters Isao, Yori and the others complements the evolution of Mari through each chapter of your read.

As with every Oshimi manga, the art is really based on the reader's preference, but it wonderfully works for me. It is the perfect art to push the story to stand out more. But keep in mind that there are sexual contents in the story so this is not for young audience.

All in all, if you are looking for an unconventional story that keeps you hooked with the thrill of solving a mystery and not afraid to experiment with new genres. Mari no Naka is the one for you.

With that said, I give Boku wa Mari no Naka 9 chocolate bars out of 10.

Note: I have intentionally written this review like this since I do not want to totally giveaway the story for you, but still leave a hint about the it.

I binged this manga in Just 2 days. This is how thrilling and interesting in was to me. I will not bore you with one more summary of the story. However I will state this while trying not to spoil the story : one of the genres listed in the description page is misleading. I won't say more and will let you enjoy the discovery of which one it is.

One thing I would like to mention is that one of the top reviews with a very negative score is quite inaccurate in how it describes the story, as well as the reason why the reviewer does not like in the manga. I cannot tell you exactly where as it will spoil a big element of the plot but it is telling that the top negative review failed to grasp the twist. It tells me that the reviewer did not actually finish reading the 80 chapters.

I would say that if you enjoyed the Flower of Evil by the same author, you will probably enjoy this book as well. I feel like the art is one notch better in "inside Mari". The author changed his style in some drawings but you will find the same beautiful lines and flow as his usual self.

On the minus side, I wish some side characters were more explored. The brother and his relationship with Mari, Yori's sister, but I guess it would have distracted the viewer from there main story line .

Story : 7
Art : 7
Character: 8
Enjoyment: 8

I'd initially given this a low rating, but didn't want to give this a review because I often prefer to write reviews based on really giving them a chance. But after stumbling upon it on MAL again, I realized why I didn't find this worth a thorough read.

I'll admit to doing something I usually never do when reading anything -- I skipped ahead in parts. What you won't know about me is that I'm a book worm who feels a sense of pride in sticking something out. But this manga made me want to skip ahead. Too much of it felt unrealistic, even if I knew it was a manga supposedly hinting at the supernatural.

Later on I did read a synopsis of the plot, to at least understand the story and possibly where the author was coming from. But in the end, I felt like the story had a crass ambiance with a plot that was both predictable and an end that didn't mesh with how the character was behaving.

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***~~~Note, Potential Spoilers~~~***
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When I read enough about the story to feel like skipping ahead, reading up toward the ending disappointed me. All I'll say is that I feel this poorly represented someone with a mental illness. Split personality disorder is pure fiction. I have family who works in mental health, one of the few who truly care, and I've had various disorders explained to me. While part of this is personal bias, with hating to see misconceptions being furthered in fiction by acting like this is really how trauma or stress can manifest, I really do feel that this could have been executed in a better way.

Beyond that, trying to find a connection with the story was difficult. I understand the desire to write about a teen with struggles and stress, with parents who are too blind with their own struggles to pay attention to how their own child is feeling. But trying to read through it all felt like a disconnect. And parts of it were very predictable.

I could have boiled it down to a girl who chose escapism like so many other teens, and chose to throw a bit of a tantrum in the process. Nothing really happened in her life to cause such drastic trauma (that I recall, it wasn't a short manga, mind you), that she'd more likely acquire Dissociative Disorder (not multiple personality disorder). Did her parents beat her? Was she bullied at school? No, she woke up one day and literally didn't want to be herself. No reason or cause for trauma.

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Overall, the rating I gave, I tried to be fair with since there clearly was an effort put into creating a complex story. A bit of mystery with breadcrumbs left to lead the reader to the discovery of truth. I just don't feel it flowed that well, and it felt very easy for me to figure out where it was going. Knowing it and not caring for alleged multiple personality disorder as a plot device both soured the story for me, given that the ending left me feeling as if something horrible and heavy should have happened to cause her to behave like this. No one simply snaps without cause.

To those who raved on about this, I'm sorry for ripping apart something you liked, but I don't just simply leave a low review without finding what I feel is a good reason to leave a low review. I felt like it was trying to be edgy, when mental health isn't something to be edgy about.

'Hrmmmm' is what I initially felt about pondering the question 'is this manga good?' The more I thought about it, the more I've realised, no it really isn't. It certainly has its merits,I enjoyed the mystery aspect, psychology and in general found it a weird and interesting read. But for the most part though the story was only so-so, and despite being a pretty character focused manga, I didn't like a single one, nor thought they were handled well, in terms of both their character and the respective issues related to their flaws.

Story
The story isn't too bad it mostly deals with a central mystery to the events which transpire in chapter one, on what exactly did happen. I liked this mystery aspect as It gives you enough to figure things out for yourself way before the manga does, i think I did around chapter 40. This meant though the twist wasn't really a twist, when they finally came out and did it, it took the characters in the manga way longer than me. But this aspect was done well enough, it really did add up with everything and make sense so I like the mystery aspect of the story.

Though the story had issues, If I was able to work out the main twist by the forties, which to me was the biggest hook this series had going for it, then what else is there to do? Just read to confirm it, I suppose, the manga for me, for not only that but its actual content got a lot more boring towards the later half, i worked out the mystery, the manga as a whole was less interesting than it was initially and I was just waiting for it to end, which isn't really a good sign, I basically lost most of my engagement by the second half.

I'm going to give this a slightly above average rating which might be a little bit generous, I did enjoy the mystery aspect of the show, it was initially engaging and interesting to me. But I dropped of towards the end, it started to get stale, I stopped caring and just wanted it to end, though it wasn't painful or terrible towards the end, I just personally had gotten bored.

Characters

My least favourite element of this show was its characters, i like very degenerate characters, one which fall into depression or ills, but I also feel like they need to have a redeeming factor, or reasons of why they're there, they sort of do in this series but not really. Most of the characters are kind of just creepy and weird and aren't really likeable in the slightest this read has its fair share of stalkers or people who are just obsessive, any character who gets focus fits into this, its okay to have this but I think they lack a counter balance to actually make them likeable and interesting. Most of the cast I didn't care for it was the mystery which kept me reading and not them in the slightest.

Lets take the MC for example he is a hikikimori neat, who hates going outside, a university drop out. The show really puts him down by making him seem pathetic, he can't talk to people he spends most of his time fapping and playing video games and he has an unhealthy obsession with a highschool girl to the point the only time he goes out in a day is to watch for her and stalk her. The psychology of somebody so degenerate could be interesting, but he lacks the balance to make us find him likeable in some way, he just comes of as a bit creepy and weird.

A lot of the cast lacks this balance I guess their interesting, but there are a lot of stalkers or obsessive people, and they're not likeable or well balanced.

Mari is another main character and well in regards to her they do go into her through talking about her interactions and what she did, but I think towards the end I would of appreciated them being more thorough and whilst I learn a lot about her circumstances I never felt I really got to learn about her.

So I'm give the cast a low rating they're all kind of creepy and unbalanced most of them lack proper development and growth and the ones who do get it, i felt like it could of been done better. i guess glasses girl gained a lot of confidence and grew as a person, but she was so unlikable, I didn't care for her. She was an obsessive stalker who was constantly putting down are main character and just whining about things. Overall for characters I can't give this a high rating, I don't really like the whole cast, the development for most of them is weak, and their specific issues aren't really dealt with that well.


The art

I'm going to give this a 8, I suppose I know its deserving of a score around there. Its high quality and clean, the panels are easy to read and its definitely good. Nothing really for me to critique here, more its just not the best manga i read in terms of art, I've had manga which really make me gush of how fantastic they look and this one doesn't really get me to do that.


Enjoyment

This series nails a few things, the mystery is interesting enough to keep you going, the psychological pressure the character goes through is something you can really feel and its initially interesting for how unconventional and weird it felt. The enjoyment gets taken away a little bit with scenes which go a bit too far, there is a scene where a character decides to watch another masturbate, that made me uncomfortable and I almost stopped, there are quite a few like this through out, i guess I can appreciate the fact that it doesn't mind being explicit so it isn't a huge minus. The Characters are unlikable, and the mystery hook and my interest in its unconventionality dissipated in the second half which was as a whole a bit boring for me. I'm going to give this an average rating, as I did like it initially.

Conclusion

This manga is interesting, its explicit, the characters are weird and it certainly is non conventional, but is it good? No not quite, but it does have its merits and its not a complete waste of time, there is enjoyment to be found here despite its faults, but its definitely not up there with the best.

Overall I'm going to give this a 6/10 its faults unfortunately hinder it from me giving it a higher score, i do like how unconventional it is, there is enjoyment to be found here, but for such a character driven manga I don't like any of them, and I don't think the story is that good either so I'm only giving it a six.

For those of you who aren't looking to read an essay, I have decided to post a quick summary of the series first. This review is spoiler free (as all reviews should be). :)

Summary: Inside Mari is a captivating psycho-analytical manga, with dazzling art and a fleshed out protagonist. The premise is based off a body switching scenario in which a social outcast finds himself in the body of a popular female girl by the name of Mari. The story is thouroughly engaging and is only hindered by a few plot inconsistencies as well as the fact that it could have been condensed into fewer chapters. Some of the characters could have been involved and dissected a bit more, but the development of the protagonist makes up for this. The author does a good job of conveying his message to the readers, and you will be lost in thought after you finish the manga. I recommend you read the first 3 chapters and if you don't find yourself hooked by then, this might not be for you.

My rating without personal bias: 7/10

Now firstly I will say that this was an enjoyable read, certainly bing-worthy and I read it in under two weeks. This is a psychologically motivated manga, and it's concepts are explored with a dark palette of colors. It is not for the faint of heart, so if you are unable to take nudity, sexual examination, bullying, ejaculation, depression, extreme social anxiety and a lot of fucking cringe then don't read this.

The basic premise of the story is about a socially awkward hikikomori who lives off the income of his distant parents who innocently believe he is spending his days studying and making friends at college. Ironically he actually goes to college at first, but over time the social atmosphere becomes too overwhelming and he finds refuge playing games in isolation at his apartment. He is infatuated with a girl named Mari who he casually stalks with no harmful intentions. One morning he wakes up to find himself inside Mari's body, but although his former self still exists in the real world, Mari is nowhere to be found.

I gave the story a 7, due to plot conveniences involving a supporting character as well as an inability to execute on its full potential. The quality of its narrative elements remains relatively stagnant throughout the story and by the end, the manga becomes defined by the progress of its psychological components.

The art is gorgeous, and I often found myself completely dazed by the emotional expressions exhibited in the panels. Each scene is crafted carefully, and the mangaka portrays the general atmosphere in every chapter with wonderful precision. I never found myself questioning the correlation between the art displayed and the actually events taking place.

There is a clear change in the mentality of numerous characters throughout the series. In the supporting cast, we see an evolution based on dialogue, facial expression, and the portrayal of their actions.The main character differs from the others in that the development is based on introspection. You are able to see every facet of the protagonist's mind, sometimes to the point of disturbance. So, in this case, the development is driven by introspection rather than self-action, although the two sometimes coincide. This, of course, is to be expected when dealing with characters who are socially troubled.

My rating with personal bias: 8

I gave this story an 8 because I connected deeply with it. Now, something like this might be new to you, but don't be discouraged. There are a lot of scenes that are uncomfortable to read, but I think it's important to note that this is intentional. Don't just skim past those pages, instead look over them and think about why they make you feel the way you do. You might find, no relatable association to these characters but that's not a bad thing. This an emotionally fueled story based on the sentiments a lot of people have gone through in their lives. By understanding them, you are allowing yourself to understand the feelings of more people in the real world.

This series starts out weird and suggests all sorts of strange perversions. The premise is indeed kind of strange:

Komori Isao wakes up one day to find himself in somebody else's room, but it turns out he's actually somehow in the body of Yoshizaki Mari a girl he has been hopelessly following at night. S/he and a classmate try to figure out what happened as Isao tries to maintain Mari's friendships at school.

However, don't let that stop you from reading on. In the beginning Isao is weak-willed and his behavior is cringeworthy at best, but as he sees the troubles surrounding Mari's life, he can't leave it as is. The mangaka begins to raise questions about identity, gender roles, friendship, and family, which I hope will make the rest of this series a worthy read.

This is a manga by the Aku no Hana guy. Since it started in 2012, he was writing it concurrently with late-stage Aku no Hana. Because its Shuuzou I can't commentate on the aesthetic front, who is sort of a poor man's Inio Asano, but that does him too much injustice. His drawings are kind of stiff and mostly functional. His faces and characters are more or less same-looking with just slight variation. His plots all deal primary with weird psychosexual Evangelion-esque angst, but with more realism than symbolism or whatever. He probably thoroughly hates society, and hates himself.

The plot, like Aku no Hana, involves an extremely submissive and good-for-nothing main protagonist, this time a hikikomori, Komori Isao, who finds himself magically transferred into the body of a school-girl. The school-girl in question is the Mari of the title. She's been going to the same convenience store to buy the same things at night, and he keeps seeing her and of course he thinks she's his 'angel'. Each time he'll also stalk her back a bit. But this time when he stalks her back he finds himself in her consciousness.

For a body-swapping plot, the main difference is that this time Mari doesn't go into Isao's body, but rather just vanishes. And now there's two Isaos going about, one which is Mari-Isao, and the other which is his original hikikomori self, completely unaware of the existence of his new counterpart. So of course some can theorize that Mari pulled off a sort of Pierre Menard/Don Quixote thing and decided to 'become' a hikikomori just to experience the type of viewpoint she wouldn't normally have had. Like a bi-personality disorder born from societal pressure. But that's just speculation. In any case its a magical realist thing that doesn't matter, since the how is not exactly the crux of the plot.

The other character is Yuki, who is Mari's 'stalker', and is the first to notice that Mari is not Mari anymore. She's the lowest on the social tier, while Mari is the highest, and the whole story is about how Mari-Isao navigates Mari's past relationships and tries to maintain her social ties, whilst trying to find her original self. Whilst Inio Asano works with high verisimilitude, the difference is Shuuzou, and I don't think this is his failure as a writer but rather his style of getting at the themes he wants to convey, is that his characters are more like archetypes in human bodies. So in Aku no Hana we had the principle of Chaos, Nakamura, and the principle of 'Normalcy', Saeki, and the everyman caught between both, and how all three became amorphous in nature and started to mix into one another. Likewise in here we have Loser-girl Yuki, Loser-guy Isao, the different superficial facets of society represented by Mari's bitchy friends, and the spiritually-hermaphroditic Mari-Isao who serves as the primary explorer navigating these different landscapes. So maybe you could call Shuuzou the 'ecchi-Kafka' (in that case I wouldn't mind calling Asano the ecchi-Dostoyevsky)

In a Synecdoche New York, Charlie Kaufman, kind of way, looking at yourself from an outsider perspective, as in the view of someone else, can lead to interesting revelations. Yuki tells Mari-Isao more about Mari than probably Mari herself acknowledges, and then Mari-Isao in turn overturns the life of Yuki and Isao by forcing them to confront their respective psychoses. Psychosexual and angst filled climactic moments are everywhere. Feels kind of more 'mature' than Aku no Hana, and more focused on meditating upon the themes, but as a result less crazy cathartic.

Probably Shuuzou is also getting outside his comfort zone by writing from a more 'female' perspective, since in this work the amount of female characters are a ton more than the male ones, and thus he spends less time romanticizing male-angst. Especially apparent since Mari-Isao also comes to the conclusion that Isao is a completely horrible useless human being (although also admitting that everyone is sort of like that) and Isao goes through a hell lot more pathetic humiliation and breakdowns than Takao, without the Anarchist breakthrough to go with it. If you go from the perspective that Mari-Isao is a girl rather than a guy in a girl's body, then this manga definitely passes the Bechdel test. Although Shuuzou also has that bleak 'socially active people do stupid useless superficial things' sort of view, and the 'girls enact in brutal social terrorism against each other' sort of view.

So all in all we have a somewhat intense psychological manga about societal farce and why bonding over video-games and getting crazy hyped in karaoke sessions, and Love, is the true path of self-actualization.

(Update 20/03/2017)

I completed this manga around 2 years after I started. In the meantime, I developed a greater skill to analyze art due to my own training in drawing as well as coming in contact with stuff like Sakura no Uta. I take back what I said about Shuuzou's drawings being stiff & mostly functional - because he seriously cross-hatches everything to the point where it all feels like some drifting impressionistic fantasy of a school life. Shuuzou has to be one of the single-best artists working in the world of manga today. You can feel the sheer amount of work emanate from every page. I think he changed his style over time though - because I flipped back to an earlier chapter and it seemed more normal.

Honestly, though, after reading a certain few other works - the psychological aspect isn't as cutting. But there is a caveat. It isn't as cutting if you take it only in terms of the plot elements. On the other hand, the way the art syncs with the psychological states is absurdly ridiculous.

This magisterial cross-hatching Shuuzou pulling off his masterful ziggy-zaggies on the latter sections deepens the narrative a whole lot. I was reading the comments in the later chapters where people were going crazy about how 'silly' it was getting - but on the other hand I think I'd probably return to the later sections more and more just because I want to eat every single page of that cross-hatch goodness that he delivers. How the fuck did Shuuzou get so good? Did he get possessed by the ghost of Van Gogh or something? This will probably remain one of life's greatest mysteries. Now if only he'd stop making those goddamn angst plots and start using his skills for something meatier and more powerful.

Anyway - read this for the psychological angst stuff and stay for the cross-hatching & Yuri.

What if you swapped bodies? What if you found yourself in the body of the person you most admired, the “angel-like” school idol who you pass every night (and possibly stalk)? Well that’s what life has install for Komori Isao, a hikikomori who lives for no one else but himself, playing games and masturbating endlessly on repeat. Until he becomes Mari of course. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that "Mari" is nowhere to be found, and Mari-Isao has a stalker, a shy, unpopular girl who is totally devoted to Mari.

If anyone has heard of Oshimi Shuuzou, it’s undoubtedly for his notorious manga-turned-anime Aku no Hana. So don’t be surprised about the fact the Oshimi Trio are back again- angel, devil and the boy in the middle of nowhere- potentially to take apart the idea of a perfect angel, once again. Although I wouldn't put too much emphasis on these tropes, as the characters and plot do significantly depart from that of Aku No Hana.

Oshimi explores gender expectations, and the complex fabric of social hierarchy and friendships, which Komori must now maintain as Mari. Moreover, Oshimi utilises the “body swap” to question the idea of self- at one point the protagonist admits they are no longer either Isao or Mari, but Mari-Isao. A character with both the memories and minds of Isao and Mari. Through the double lens of Mari-Isao, the original “Isao” is able to gain deeper insights into the world and into relationships, that they would not have been able to make, if not for the unbelievable situation.

Inside Mari is an interesting twist on the body swap trope, that provides commentary on social and philosophical issues. However, I would warn readers that it contains nudity, sexual scenes and suggestions of abuse, in case that is something you would like to avoid.

The bad reviews for this manga are completely missing the point. It's as if they didn't even read to the end.

This is NOT a manga about bullshit "wish fulfillment" like most body swap stories which are basically "oh man it's so fun to be the other sex", or at best are "wow I didn't know the other sex was like this".

This is a story about the main protagonist being surrounded by a shallow life that is slowly and painfully transformed.

The most interesting thing is that this sentence "This is a story about the main protagonist being surrounded by a shallow life that is slowly and painfully transformed" means something completely different at the very beginning of the story than at the end.

This is a story that is about abandoning friendships that were subtly toxic. Replacing those friends with real mutually cherished friendships. And realizing how some people who say they "love you" don't.

It also makes you question who you really are and if you are being true to yourself.

And that is why I have to give it a 10/10.