If you are someone who believes in spoilers be aware that this essaylike review will explore some of the main themes of the manga and some key elements of the plot may be exposed. That said in my opinion the idea of spoiling this story is silly. This is a good manga and it doesnt rely on shock factors or hidden plot points to keep the audience interested. While using those resources can make a shallow story seem interesting and sometimes even good Shimeji Simulation doesnt explore this mode of narrative instead it uses philosophical ideas to challenge the reader and make them think about concepts and structure of life. In our trying times every thing that misquotes Nietzsche gets the philosophy tag and a group of fans that will come with this piece of media trying to explain how deep it is. In reality we humans are built to find meaning in things even things that are not that profound as a result if you are like me and like from time to time to experience a challenging media that uses philosophical ideas with good intentions probably already realized that its becoming increasingly more difficult to find something that lives to the expectations. We eventually find these works which are usually exploring philosophical themes in a manner of picking an idea and zooming on characters and that world sometimes juxtaposing and weighting an idea with the other usually the latter are presented. With this method if well done we get good works profound works exploring ideas and philosophy as an allegory to drive the plot of the story some good examples that comes to mind right now are The Ghost in the Shell franchise Evangelion Texhnolyse and Land of the Lustrous. I love all these stories but I can sense a line between what is a narrative component and the presentation of the idea its like they create a space for the audience to prepare to think. Shimeji Simulation is different it creates an interesting world with equally interesting characters setting up the perfect conditions to explore various philosophical ideas derived from Arthur Schopenhauer Albert Camus JeanPaul Sartre Immanuel Kant George Berkeley Ludwig Wittgenstein Carl Jung and many others. But not only presents these ideas built one upon another alongside with the story exploring existentialism loneliness reality death meaning in life social constructs capitalism and so on. Doing all this in a very smart way sometimes its difficult to tell if what its happening its plot narrative or the concept that its trying to convey. Im going to try to exemplify this by presenting some of the ideas explored in the manga to give you an idea of how this is done. The existentialism explored by the pessimistic Mogawa Sensei the loneliness of Shijima and the structure of reality and the exploration of the self are themes that I feel more close to and can relate more so lets focus on those for now. Existentialism The meaninglessness of the hole digging club is such a good way of twisting the Myth of Sisyphus into a very absurd yet relatable example. In this we have Mogawa lost in life with a meaningless existence and no motivation but there is one thing that she looks forward to in her life to do some digging. Its meaningless she knows it but by doing it she finds a meaning or creates one to justify the action of digging a hole. Shijimas sister points out that in the past that club was called hole filling club which indicates that their existence is a circle of creating problems and then solving them but devoid of meaning so they can keep themself busy and by keeping it busy meaning its created. https://i.ur.com/SKaAfkc.png After introducing technology to the problem of digging a hole faster the activity is no longer structured the same way as before and the person who once looked forward to digging now is left unmotivated and in despair. https://i.ur.com/W1wIWLX.png After reading this Mogawas hole stuck with me and so a few days later my boss showed me a new AI tool aimed for enhancing my productivity at work. This tool promised to handle most of my manual activity leaving me to concentrate on what he referred to as the interesting parts Id called them the only aspects AI cant handle yet. At that time I felt like technology was going to take my hole digging away from me. After developing this idea of the hole digging club in a few chapters the existentialism topic and the search for meaning are explored further and from different perspectives especially with Mogawa. She goes from exploring social constructs and the systems that brought her to the digging hole club through changing the original club to another type of club but maintaining the meaningless meaning as its nature. Self and narratives About the self this is one of the main topics explored in the manga. Since the beginning of the story we see questions start to surface about it with Shijima Majime Yomikawa and Mogawa. The nominative determinism in Shijima and Majimes names explored and joked around in the early chapters. The difference in their bodies when comparing with other people around them understanding how the world works and trying to find their place in a chaotic reality. They explore how communication works exploring the limit of language and to get others to understand your ideas and concepts as well as how relationships work and how they fit in all of this. The further development of the self goes to proposed JeanFranois Lyotards idea of the the grand narrative which implies that we are only stories and that reality knowledge and identities are constructed by narratives: https://i.ur.com/L4mpNHR.jpg https://i.ur.com/1LtUNl2.jpg Creating a connection between finding meaning existence and the self we realize that meaning its a projection of the individual upon an activity its fitting in a narrative that encapsulates the self and its action into a context and the observation of this forms a reality and validates existence. By this time Mogawa becomes a being yet not being type of being living only as representations inside art not having a body and letting Sumida in control of her narrative. Loneliness Almost every character goes through periods of loneliness but we get a better understanding through Shijimas perspective. She goes from being accustomed with this feeling then adjusting when this feeling is no more as present as initially was and when this feeling strikes again its so poignant that even after trying to adapt again as once were its not the same because she experienced the company of Majime and now being a loner its not so appealing anymore. The loneliness presented in Shimeji Simulation feels so familiar. The distance that Shijima puts between herself and other people is not always a conscious decision and you can feel the pushing and pulling away from people. The wanting and not wanting to be with people. The pushing people away when they are too close but also yearning for connection every time that you wake up from a dream. She is the embodiment of Schopenhauers hedgehog dilemma. https://i.ur.com/1JOFZoG.jpg https://i.ur.com/D6mdsjM.jpg Extra The comedy is really good the moments of comedy makes the moments of despair feel way more authentic because it creates this balance between happiness pain and despair. https://i.ur.com/ARrBPF5.jpeg https://i.ur.com/kr3fBAG.png Conclusion We have philosophical textbooks providing poignant and complex ideas about our reality society and ourselves. That often are abstracts hard to digest or see a way of this idea applied in your day to day life. A good philosophical anime or manga though hard to find can take these ideas and explore them into a narrative presenting to an audience in a way that makes that digestible thought provoking and reflective. Ideas do not necessarily need to be originated from a philosopher but also in narrative by the author but for some reason finding a good idea that came to fruition this way is even rarer than the previously cited. In Shimeji we get the best of every world. Overall this manga earns the philosophy tag and like few works in this media does a very good job exploring philosophical themes and ideas with world building and character development. If you are someone who likes works that can make you think and reflect on your life then Shimeji Simulation is something that you might find good. I tried exploring some of the ideas brought up in the story to exemplify how good this is but there are many others trust me. Almost every chapter you can have interesting ideas making waves on you. This is my first review so if you liked it or not let me know for future reference. Also I would be glad to explore more philosophical topics either on Shimeji or another title manga or anime if you have recommendations or want to talk about it let me know Ive got nothing else to do really I think I may transform reviewing into my hole digging club.