Male Yanderes

The story starts with Asahi playing a game with her friend, Minoru, making a bet that whoever's sprinkler goes out will have to fulfill the winner's wish. Asahi wins and the two go to the "pool" (which is really just their bathtub) and play with water guns together. Minoru invites Asahi into the bathtub, only for Minoru to turn into a sludge like substance. Once Asahi gets into the bathtub, Minoru attacks her, and tries to get in her mouth. Asahi is able to fend him off with Minoru coming back a sludge, stating that he was so close to taking Asahi's life. Asahi states that she will never give Minoru her life (with a smile) as this way, she can be by his side forever. The two decide to nap in bed together, before Asahi pulls out an article about a boy who died in a car accident, revealing that it was Minoru who died in it. We get a flashback of Asahi playing in the playground with Minoru (making balls of sand representing her, Minoru and Minoru's younger brother), before Minoru's younger brother comes to get her. Minoru destroys the smallest of the ball of sand representing Asahi. Asahi returns from the convince store with Minoru waiting in her house and Asahi gives him an ice pop. When Minoru drops it, Asahi tries to help him, only for Minoru to respond that he doesn't have an esophagus to swallow. Asahi "molds" an esophagus for Minoru. We see that after Minoru's death, a strange being came into Asahi's room, before transforming into Minoru. Minoru asks for Asahi's life, which Asahi refuses to give, only keeping him so that the two can be together forever. Asahi and Minoru continue to live together, with Asahi happily planning to make food for Minoru. While at school, Asahi runs into Minoru's younger brother, Wataru for a bit. At home, Asahi notices one of the knives is missing, with Minoru's body holding the extra knives. When Asahi opens the fridge, Minoru's head attacks her, only stopping when Minoru mentions Wataru. Minoru starts to reminisce on what Wataru must look like and how he's changed. Asahi gets a text from Wataru regarding visiting Asahi's grave, and we see that Wataru and Asahi's previous encounter was regarding visiting his grave during Obon. Asahi leaves Minoru alone at home as he goes to meet with Wataru, unaware that Minoru is watching the two from the window. While at the graveyard, Asahi tries to kill Wataru with a knife, only to stop when Wataru reminisces about how he could've stopped Minoru from being hit by a truck, even admitting that he killed his brother. Asahi defends him with Wataru stating that he wants to help Asahi, only to then see Minoru dripping down above him. Wataru freaks out after seeing Minoru, only with Asahi beheading Minoru. Wataru continues to freak out as Minoru fusses over Wateru and how he's grown, with Asahi cutting off pieces of him for failing their promise of staying at home. Wataru, scared, runs home and thinks about what happened, how he saw Minoru die and what he saw at the grave. He opens the door to Asahi, who starts to talk to him about how Minoru has come back, even making sure that he hasn't told anyone. She is interrupted by Wataru's mom, who tries to invite Asahi for dinner, but she declines. Asahi comes home carrying the pieces of Minoru in garbage bags to "clean him up".

We get another flashback of when Asahi started to fall for Minoru. Wataru got a love letter from one of the girls in class, with Minoru picking the two up. Asahi and Wataru leave for a second before Asahi comes back to witness Minoru not only ripping up the love letter but also bashing in the love letter giver's cubby, stating that Wataru is only his. At this point, Wataru comes back, and Asahi and developed a crush for Minoru. Asahi wakes up from the dream only to find Minoru downstairs. He apologizes for leaving the house and calls it "even" as he was able to stop Asahi from killing Wataru, with Minoru being clearly angry. Asahi's father comes back to pick up some things for his next business meeting, with Minoru seemingly about to attack him. Asahi is able to prevent this from happening, telling Minoru to not hurt her dad, with Minoru assuring her that he only wants her life. We get to see Wataru's perspective on Minoru, how he was always a bit jealous of him because he was the "perfect brother", always getting good grades and being able to talk to people. This made him competitive and tried to become good at things he wasn't good at, all because he liked Asahi, who was fond of Minoru. In the present day though, he starts to see hallucinations of his brother and even feels him being weighed down. Asahi brings Minoru to the Obon festival and have a good time, though near the end Minoru asks to give Asahi's life, even attempting to transform into her. However, it isn't enough and he continues to beg her, as he wants to be the person that Wataru loves. Asahi fights back Minoru and feels possessive towards him. She tricks Wataru into believing that she sees Minoru as a monster and Wataru offers to lock Minoru up. After class, Wataru goes to Asahi's house to figure out what to do with Minoru's body, as she has kept all of his pieces in the fridge. Asahi asks Wataru to stay for dinner, even torturing Minoru by keeping his eyes as a necklace around her neck. Wataru continues to suffer from hallucinations as the two eat before Asahi tries to kill Wataru. Asahi immediately starts hallucinating Minoru before ending up eating dinner with Wataru. Asahi panics when she realizes that Minoru is no longer in the fridge, and yet Wataru seems to have no idea what she's talking about, simply stating that Minoru died four years ago.

After this, Asahi can no longer see Minoru, nor does it seem that Wataru remembers that he saw Minoru attack him while visiting the grave. Asahi hangs out with Wataru and starts to hallucinate, seeing Wataru as Minoru, seeing Wataru's head split open amongst other things. She believes that Minoru has somehow taken over Wataru's body. She tries to hurt Wataru while in the infirmary, even choke him to get Minoru out, only for Minoru to taunt her in the hallucination. Despite all this, Wataru seems completely fine and Asahi goes home, deciding to finally kill Wataru once and for all. We learn that Asahi was the one who pushed Minoru into the truck and asks Wataru to skip so that she can kill him. They first go to the aquarium to watch the fish before going to the pier and stabbing Wataru in the neck. She throws Wataru's body off the pier. Wataru's mother comes to ask where Wataru is, though Asahi lies about it. At school she thinks about her kill before spewing out the black associated with Minoru. Minoru comes out of Asahi's body revealing that everything after eating dinner with Wataru was a hallucination and that he had been inside her the entire time adjusting. He ends up killing Asahi in the classroom and takes over her body. In the end, Minoru, disguising as Asahi asks to eat with Wataru together, with Wataru stating that Asahi feels more like an older sibling really.

The artwork in this manga is really pretty and does an amazing job with body horror with Minoru's monsterous being. Considering he seems to be made of a substance similar to mud, he can morph hid body and face in different ways, as well as split off his body into many pieces which makes for great shots in different panels. I think that the clear contrasting black and white on many scenes really show how dark the story is, with Asahi making a deal with the devil (Minoru) to stay close to her and constantly playing with fire until she is ultimately consumed by it. I'm a big fan of the chapter art as well.

I wanted to touch on the ending since, well it is incest, but whether or not its romantic incest is kind of a point of argument. Minoru clearly went for Asahi because she is the person that Wataru has a crush on, and Minoru knows this. The decision to take over her body is to replace her and to get rid of her, to be by Wataru's side. Minoru obviously has an obsession with her brother, given that he destroyed the love letter that was given to Wataru, amongst other things, but we never know why he's so obsessed with him and to what extent. Is it simply a possessive platonic love? Then why does Minoru target Asahi, the person that Wataru has a crush on? Is it romantic love? Then why does it seem that in the very end, Wataru views his relationship with Asahi almost as an older sibling? It is kind of hard to say. I will say that the last lines of the manga, the part that states that a evil spirit is a spirit that cannot pass and lingers in the world of the living, Minoru is that spirit that clings obsessively onto his brother and his desire to be with him.

Before we can talk about Minoru, we have to talk about the other yandere in the room, Asahi, completes this yandere triangle. Asahi is constantly playing with a fire that will consume her, yet this is the only way that she can be with Minoru. Considering that she was the one who got him killed, pushing Minoru into traffic, it must have been an amazing way to be with him forever, even if it meant playing around with him and possibly being consumed by him. She seems so sure that she would be able to prevent Minoru from actually taking her over that she makes promises with him and lets him live in his house, and to be fair, she is able to fend him off for quite a while. She also attempts to kill Wataru to prevent Minoru from being with him (which I guess adds more credence to the fact that Minoru does romantically love Wataru, as if Minoru had not targeted Asahi, she would not have tried to kill him) multiple times. It is ironic that the reason why Asahi became this twisted towards Minoru seems to be because of Minoru himself and how he acted towards the other girl that fell for Wataru. As much as I do like the twist that Asahi was being manipulated by Minoru near the end, there are a lot of things I don't understand, such as why Wataru seems to completely forget that he saw Minoru while visiting his grave, since as far as we know, Minoru only infected Asahi and changed her perspective near the end of the story, not the beginning. It is fun watching her manipulate Wataru and then eventually be manipulated herself, though I wish that the entire reveal was a bit longer since it seems to mostly be crammed in the last two chapters instead of it being more spread out. It's not bad and it is fun seeing two yanderes in a story.

Then there's Minoru, or more of the evil spirit that was once Minoru. We don't actually know that much about why he is obsessed with his younger brother Wataru, which can either be a positive or a negative depending on how you view it. On the one hand, it isn't necessarily needed since we already know what Minoru's goal is and why he's doing it, but on the other, it would be really nice to see more of why he is obsessed with Wataru in the first place, especially since this seems to start even when they were really young. Personally, I think seeing his backstory would be helpful into seeing why Minoru became an evil spirit in the first place, as he seems completely indifferent that Asahi killed him, despite the fact that he so desperately wants to be Asahi to be with Minoru. We also do get to see bits and pieces of their past together, as besides being jealous towards Wataru, we also see that he was very caring towards Asahi, thus why she fell for him, and that he was considered the "perfect older brother", not only excelling in studies but also being someone who was popular and well like, something that Wataru even states he was jealous of, since these traits are what made Asahi fall for him. Despite working with Asahi and coming up with "rules" for what they should and shouldn't do, Minoru always seems to either protect or cling around Wataru, like when he protected Wataru from being killed by Asahi, and even taunts him. Its pretty clear that much of his personality from his previous life is gone, as the Minoru we see is constantly smiling and joking around like a child, while the Minoru we see in flashbacks does feel more like an older brother, hiding his feelings towards Wataru. Minoru's obsession with Wataru has become his core and its warped every ounce of his other personality to fit right through it. I do like both iterations of Minoru though as the monster like version is more raw and does a good job of showing the idea of unsettling spirit, while his original was more human like but still contained the monster like behavior that he eventually becomes.