Raise wa Tanin ga Ii is another bubble baby, and part of the Patron poll at that. Not without support either, and I can see why – it’s interesting. But this is a tough show for me to get a handle on. Superficially it has a lot in common with The Fable – a low-budget adaptation of a critically acclaimed yakuza-themed seinen manga. And I wouldn’t want to have made up my mind on that one too early, as I didn’t fully appreciate the appeal of The Fable until fairly deep into the series. But make no mistake, I have some issues with this one.

To be clear, measuring Raise wa Tanin against The Fable isn’t the point. But it’s not as good, for what that’s worth. I do think this adaptation is particularly uninspired – The Fable, cheap as it was, had at least some sense of style. But I also found the characters more endearing on the whole. I kind of hate this whole syndrome of trying to figure out whether the mangaka realizes their protagonist – or deuteragonist at the very least – is a horrible person. Am I supposed to think that about Kirishima or am I supposed to admire him or find him charming? Beats me.

Whatever the answer to that is, the way the series deals with him annoys me. Shouma (who for the record is much better in every way) calls him a stalker and while he is a stalker, that’s really the least of it. He’s murderously violent with no sense of right or wrong. He has zero respect for Yoshino’s privacy or independence. He spies on her and stalks her and menaces her constantly and as far as I can tell, the series is fine with it. Are we not supposed to be concerned for Yoshino because she seemingly isn’t concerned for herself? Is her nonchalance over what a freak Kirishima is supposed to transfer to us? And am I supposed to forgive him his faults because he’s a masochist and obsessed with Yoshino – cause I don’t.

I have no doubt Shouma is a piece of work in his own way – he makes allusions to his misdeeds himself. But the way he acts towards Yoshino is night and day with Kirishima. There’s something twisted about this whole enterprise to begin with. I don’t know what Renji is up to – and neither does Shouma, seemingly. But whatever it is I don’t trust him an inch, and that was before it became clear he had some sort of deal with Kirishima. I’d like to think the man who raised her wouldn’t stoop to straight-up using her as a pawn in a brewing mafia war. But in a series where a guy like Kirishima might be held up as someone admirable or charming, who the hell knows?

There’s a morbid curiosity to finding the answers to all this, no doubt. And Yoshino – despite her rather stunning lack of common sense – is a character I genuinely care about and worry for. She clearly thinks she has everything under control, and she clearly doesn’t. Her one-year plan may make sense to her, but with dudes like her grandfather and Kirishima around, Yoshino isn’t especially in control of her own destiny. Not nearly as much as she thinks, anyway. Whether that morbid curiosity is enough to keep me sticking around much longer I don’t know, but it’s pretty much all I’ve got.