[DeepL Translation - needs review] Volume 1: "Won't you fall in love with me before you die?" High school student Senko is about to commit suicide over a broken heart when her physics teacher, Hitoshi Haiha (a.k.a. Haihito), interrupts her. She confesses to her teacher, "Will you fall in love with me before you die? He confesses to her, "Won't you fall in love with me before you die? The story is a dangerous love story between Sengen, who is impatient with the teacher's confession, and the t...
cw: death, suicide, self-harm, stalking, possessive & manipulative behavior
I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone who doesn't like student/teacher sub-genre in general, but understands there is a range in how that can be portrayed. This book made me really uncomfortable a lot of the time, b/c of the sensei's stalking, possessive, and manipulative behavior. It's partially intended for humor (the story relies on dark humor), but it's still really creepy. It would be creepy in any relationship, but all the moreso in a student/teacher one.
Anyway, the book starts off with an interesting hook... a girl is talked down from jumping off the roof, by her irresponsible physics teacher telling her he likes her, and asking if she'll be in a relationship with him, instead of killing herself (yes it's weird). In that sense, I appreciated the beginning - because what's not to like about saving someone from killing themselves? Beyond that, I think the characters are portrayed fairly realistically and organically, and act their ages - which is both good, and a large part of why it's so uncomfortable. The book is essentially an episodic slice of life sorta thing, and there aren't any relevant side characters to speak of yet (except sort of in the last chapter). I know more are introduced as the series goes on.
The book has frequent references to death, suicide, or self-harm often via comedy. It's not trying make light of these topics, but rather to normalize talking about them. In that sense, I can appreciate and respect for it. The other humor in the book is around the sensei being a serious creep, and Mikoto immediately distancing herself, threatening to call the cops, etc. I kind of appreciate that, but at the same time, she doesn't really see how many of his actual actions are red flags (which is realistic for her age).
Overall I found myself both fascinated and horrified by this book. Normally if something made me this uncomfortable I'd have put it down much earlier, but I wanted to try something outside my comfort zone, and give it a fair shot. While I'm somewhat interested in seeing where the story goes, I don't think I'll read the next volume anytime soon.