• Author: Higashi 385
• Chapters: 11
• Status: Completed
• Genres: Drama, School Life, Romance
• Serialization: Gangan pixiv

Synopsis

Hoshii, a high school student, helps a girl out of a locker after school one day. The girl then becomes friends with him and he begins to learn more about the girl's circumstances. As he helps his senpai with her problems, it becomes evident that she is supporting Hoshii just as much.

Confrontation is Key

This manga is a story about speaking your mind. When you are in conflict, or you're having some disagreement, that's when you should be letting your feelings come through. Mind you, this is probably a more important message for the Japanese to be getting than a Western audience. Japan's cultural nature of complacency has been well-documented over the years. And that's precisely what this manga wants to combat.

I want to establish this because I feel like there will be people who are more aggressive by nature. People who wouldn't sit still while being pushed around. If you're like that by nature, then it's going to be hard to sympathize with the hardships that these characters go through. Sacrificing your own freedom of expression for fear of escalating a situation.

With all that said, if the above description was enough to make you want to read this manga, then do that now. Otherwise, I'm going to freely include spoilers from this point onward.

Hoshii

Our protagonist is Hoshii. He's the child of two teachers and is struggling to with whether he wants to pursue a similar career. What stuck out to me was that he isn't feeling the rebellious need to defy fate or something. All he's looking for is a clear, definable goal that he can pave the road towards by himself. Now, I feel very strongly about this because my own parents have this strange idea that I'm some sort of trophy that they need to feel some sense of pride about.

I'm a little disappointed that we didn't see him actually decide to be a teacher anyway. He has all the motivation for it. He's been tormented for years now by questioning his path in life, and he could help other children on that path. That would have also supported the notion that he's just confused rather than irrationally insubordinate to his parents. We just hear that he's going to university but never find out what he's studying. Small missed potential, nothing worth making a fuss about.

Senpai

Side Note: We do find out Senpai's name at the end of the manga. She's almost never referred to by name though. Thus, I'm just going to keep referring to her as Senpai.

Where Hoshii's central conflict was with himself and his parent, Senpai's story is focused on her toxic school environment. I've never talked about my feelings on "Koe no Katachi" before. If I were to compare that story to "For Imperfect People", I'd say that Senpai's story is far more grounded but lacks payoff. I can definitively say that it's grounded because her problem was one that I faced in school myself. I was constantly pushed around, bad-mouthed, and had my possessions stolen from me. In response, I could do nothing but smile on as my teachers did nothing to help.

Senpai making herself a target by not retaliating is so true, that it hurts. Which makes it all the more baffling that another girl said she was able to avoid being bullied by ignoring them. She says this as if it's somehow different than what Senpai has been doing all this time. I don't know, I didn't understand what that character was going on about

Is That It?

Quite frankly, yes. That's all there is to this; a mere 11 chapters in total. I've gone on and on about this point before, but the greatest stories are always told in the shortest amount of time required. Sure, the author could have spent some more time fleshing out Hoshii's useless friend, Yagi, or spent a bit more time with Hoshii and Senpai after they meet up again, but it would have all been pointless. Granted, one aspect that I wouldn't have minded getting some backstory about is Yamanashi.

Waste of Time

By far the most insubstantial part of "For Imperfect People" is this love triangle between Hoshii, Senpai, and Yamanashi. The entire way through the story, there's no indication that Hoshii and Yamanashi have any chemistry whatsoever. We never even find out why she got her crush on him in the first place. Meanwhile, Hoshii and Senpai are in this ionic relationship where they lean on each other when they are at their lowest. Yamanashi was destined to lose from the start and there's no emotion to seeing it come true. Maybe if we knew even the slightest bit more about her love for him, it would have meant more to be than throwing away my toenail clippings.

Art Style

"For Imperfect People" has some pretty absurd proportions in that big-headed, pseudo-chibi style. I wouldn't say that it's a problem most of the time. It does become a bit jarring when Hoshii's parents get involved and they look practically the same age as him. One thing that disappointed me was its use of color.

You see, in chapter 1, Senpai is smearing her old elementary school in pink paint (and somehow never gets caught). This paint is some of the only usages of color in the entire series. Senpai says that she wants to color something she hates in a color she likes so that she might like it in the future. I thought that was a great sentiment, but then it never comes up ever again. What's even more confusing was that she took the paint and drew a heart on Hoshii's cheek. I get that this is just a cute gesture, but doesn't that imply that Senpai has something that she hates about Hoshii that she's trying to recolor in her mind?

Conclusion

I admit there isn't too much to say about a manga that's this short, but I just felt such a deep connection to what both of the main characters were going through, that I just had to talk about it. Some of the imagery and themes feel a bit under-utilized, but for the most part, it still nails it on the emotional level. But that's just how I feel about "For Imperfect People". Let me know what you think in the comments below.