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A review by paula_s
Perfect World, Volume 1 by Rie Aruga
5.0
I read this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review
First of all I should tell you that I requested this first volume of Perfect World for its cover and its synopsis. I intend to read diverse books and it’s not often that I come across books with a disabled person as one of the main characters. I picked it up for this, and for personal reasons.
Kawana starts working with her high school crush, they had been friends back then until he started dating another girl and that tore them apart. He was so smart, so lively and so determined to see his dream of being an architect come true. And that hasn’t changed. Ayukawa is the same optimistic man he used to be as a boy, his enthusiasm for his work is so encouraging that Kawana feels inspired by him. She, on her part, had given up her dream of being an illustrator but her job as an interior designer is what brought them together again and she’s thankful for it. But…
Ayukawa had an accident that left him with a spinal cord injury. He was on his third year of college. He was riding his bike when a car run over him making a mess of his body and since then he’s in a wheelchair. Kawana is shocked, so shocked that, at first, she reacts like everyone else does. Doubting herself, feeling outraged because she liked him but now… she can’t even think of being friends with him.
Ayukawa is so strong, so positive that little by little he gives her little lessons about what it is like to live in a wheelchair. What it feels like to live in a society where being disabled is unthinkable… or so it seems, because of the many hardships he encounters in his everyday life. And yet Ayukawa never loses his smile, he’s always encouraging and hardworking, trying alternatives when he reaches a dead end, both in his job and in his life.
Soon Kawana, as she gets closer and closer to him, learns that most of the smiles are just for show. Ayukawa’s experiences inspire Kawana, she starts learning, she changes and she falls in love with Ayukawa again, only this time she falls deeper than ever. But, as he did with his former girlfriend, Ayukawa pushes her away, he doesn’t want to be a burden, he doesn’t want anyone to feel responsible for him or look after him everytime he gets a fever or ghost pain (a pain you feel when one of your limbs isn’t there anymore or it doesn’t have sensitivity). It’ll be the time for Kawana to teach him the most important lesson of them all… love gives us strength to do anything, to bear anything.
I really loved this manga, and I wish everyone read it. It’s so important. Not only because representation matters but also because mangas, books, movies, etc, that show what it feels to live as a person with disabilities. I loved that everyday barriers are shown in the manga; both physical (stairs, for example) and personal (speaking behind their back, fear of certain topics).
There is a moment in which Kawana stops thinking about how Ayukawa’s situation affects her, up to that moment she thinks about herself. And eventually she starts thinking about him, his life and what it must feel like for him. I started to really like her then. I saw that she was just scared and that’s understandable, even Ayukawa tells her so. That’s the kind of change I would like to see in today’s society. We need to be more human.
It’s really eyeopening the fact that Kawana (at the beginning) says things like: “Ayukawa is strong, determined, intelligent, talented, hardworking, encouraging, and a really good friend… despite being in a wheelchair” please don’t hate her for saying it. This is exactly how people in general react towards disabilities. But thankfully in the manga there are people who tell her “That’s who he is, everything you said, that’s his personality… what does all that have to do with the wheelchair?”. This kind of people also exists in our society, and I’m grateful for that, because they bring hope for the future.
This little book was meant as a standalone but it was so important and it’s so incredibly beautiful and moving that people wanted more of Ayukawa’s and Kawana’s story, therefore Rie Aruga created a series around them. I hope and wish that one day it is published in my country so I can recommend it to everyone, and buy it for all of my friends’ birthdays and Christmases.
First of all I should tell you that I requested this first volume of Perfect World for its cover and its synopsis. I intend to read diverse books and it’s not often that I come across books with a disabled person as one of the main characters. I picked it up for this, and for personal reasons.
Kawana starts working with her high school crush, they had been friends back then until he started dating another girl and that tore them apart. He was so smart, so lively and so determined to see his dream of being an architect come true. And that hasn’t changed. Ayukawa is the same optimistic man he used to be as a boy, his enthusiasm for his work is so encouraging that Kawana feels inspired by him. She, on her part, had given up her dream of being an illustrator but her job as an interior designer is what brought them together again and she’s thankful for it. But…
Ayukawa had an accident that left him with a spinal cord injury. He was on his third year of college. He was riding his bike when a car run over him making a mess of his body and since then he’s in a wheelchair. Kawana is shocked, so shocked that, at first, she reacts like everyone else does. Doubting herself, feeling outraged because she liked him but now… she can’t even think of being friends with him.
Ayukawa is so strong, so positive that little by little he gives her little lessons about what it is like to live in a wheelchair. What it feels like to live in a society where being disabled is unthinkable… or so it seems, because of the many hardships he encounters in his everyday life. And yet Ayukawa never loses his smile, he’s always encouraging and hardworking, trying alternatives when he reaches a dead end, both in his job and in his life.
Soon Kawana, as she gets closer and closer to him, learns that most of the smiles are just for show. Ayukawa’s experiences inspire Kawana, she starts learning, she changes and she falls in love with Ayukawa again, only this time she falls deeper than ever. But, as he did with his former girlfriend, Ayukawa pushes her away, he doesn’t want to be a burden, he doesn’t want anyone to feel responsible for him or look after him everytime he gets a fever or ghost pain (a pain you feel when one of your limbs isn’t there anymore or it doesn’t have sensitivity). It’ll be the time for Kawana to teach him the most important lesson of them all… love gives us strength to do anything, to bear anything.
I really loved this manga, and I wish everyone read it. It’s so important. Not only because representation matters but also because mangas, books, movies, etc, that show what it feels to live as a person with disabilities. I loved that everyday barriers are shown in the manga; both physical (stairs, for example) and personal (speaking behind their back, fear of certain topics).
There is a moment in which Kawana stops thinking about how Ayukawa’s situation affects her, up to that moment she thinks about herself. And eventually she starts thinking about him, his life and what it must feel like for him. I started to really like her then. I saw that she was just scared and that’s understandable, even Ayukawa tells her so. That’s the kind of change I would like to see in today’s society. We need to be more human.
It’s really eyeopening the fact that Kawana (at the beginning) says things like: “Ayukawa is strong, determined, intelligent, talented, hardworking, encouraging, and a really good friend… despite being in a wheelchair” please don’t hate her for saying it. This is exactly how people in general react towards disabilities. But thankfully in the manga there are people who tell her “That’s who he is, everything you said, that’s his personality… what does all that have to do with the wheelchair?”. This kind of people also exists in our society, and I’m grateful for that, because they bring hope for the future.
This little book was meant as a standalone but it was so important and it’s so incredibly beautiful and moving that people wanted more of Ayukawa’s and Kawana’s story, therefore Rie Aruga created a series around them. I hope and wish that one day it is published in my country so I can recommend it to everyone, and buy it for all of my friends’ birthdays and Christmases.