Never Hollowed By The Stare

Perai Sekai – Hal

A freshman in high school wakes up early, excited for another “tryst” with his favorite classmate. Unfortunately for him, daydreaming in the shower may turn out to be the best part of his day. His sister destroys his uniform, and his parents stopped sending him money. He even discovers that his “boyfriend” has been seeing another girl on the side this whole time. When everything seems to be at rock bottom already, the last straw breaks…

Phony World is a psychological drama about an unnamed high freshman’s life that spectacularly fell apart.` It was the kind of rock bottom life, full of misery, lies, and despair that the only way to keep moving was to fake it. At his lowest, he smiles his most brilliant smile.

He lives with his equally disturbed hikikomori sister. Her presence is felt as the aftermath of the damage that she caused his belongings. Later, she makes an appearance after a particularly vicious attack. That’s when he had enough and threw her out in the snow in her sleep clothes. We could pretty much guess her fate.

His relationship with a schoolmate was a hush-hush affair. He is very aware that is built on deceit and that he is a dirty secret. It was sadly the only time he felt wanted.

The artwork and dialogue had a chaotic edge to it, reflecting the chaos of the boy’s thoughts and his life in general. The boy was drawn with a pretty face and too-long hair that made him attractive while conveying an air of neglect.

The manga opens with the boy appearing to talk to someone. Given the title, I thought this would be a story of hallucinations. But no, all that awful stuff is real. This is not romance. I had no illusions it would end in any other way that it did. It was that miserable.

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