imperfect girl is a manga adaptation of a novel with the same name covering what it presents as a true story that would ultimately mark the beginning of the authors time as a writer rather than an aspiring writer as he described himself prior to the events depicted in this manga. truthfully speaking i dont even remember when or why i came across this story and decided to add it to my list and through almost the entirety of the first volume it seemed like a mistake to spend time reading The Worlds Most Nonsensical Chain of Events. obviously as a recounting of something that actually happened its not possible to fully critique the characters or their actions the way you would with most other stories but time and again in that first volume and even a couple of points later on i found myself frustrated with what i was reading from the perspective of the main character especially simply referred to as I throughout the manga. but at some point things really started to set in. since these arent purely fictional characters the thoughts they have and the things they experience carry that much more weight. thanks to the narration we know I is just as frustrated with himself as the reader may be and as he starts to understand more and more about why U the other primary character is doing what she does everything stops feeling like just a chain of ridiculous occurrences. i found myself much like the main character himself going from mostly detached to being completely invested in not just his experience but the experiences of the mysterious girl called U i promise this isnt a the girl reading this joke. as he learns and observes more the story gets into portraying things that might be called uncomfortable at best but it does so with a tone completely appropriate for the nature of the content. its disturbing because our perspective character is disturbed. theres no attempts to gloss over things or inject out of place humour into those moments or really the manga as a whole. youve probably noticed im going out of my way to tap dance around describing what happens in this story in great detail and thats honestly in this case because the story is so short its almost impossible to talk about without spoilers i sincerely believe the best way to go into this manga is pretty much how i did without much context because it does help tie you to I and build a certain level of tension. that said though its not what id call a gloomy or completely depressing story. part of the humour came from just the absurdity of what was going on which was why i didnt drop it straight away but as it goes on theres humour in the stilted conversations between our characters and in I seeing inspiration in unconventional places as someone who wanted to be a writer. eventually i thought to check out the authors other works because whether or not the events of this true story were Perfectly accurate the way it was told and the balance between levity and the more serious content made imperfect girl into a very enjoyable reading experience. looking at his anilist page my primary thought was wait this is from the guy who wrote monogatari? truthfully thats a series ive never engaged with and in recent years tried to avoid like the plague because in my mind it was The haha pedo enthusiast anime before mushoku tensei rolled around though i have actually watched and read the latter. nonetheless that association made me even more impressed by how respectfully certain moments are handled here and in possibly the biggest praise i could give this manga it had me actually somewhat interested in giving monogatari a genuine try. the question then comes in as to how much of this storys approach and quality is down to nisioisin the original author and how much of it is down to the mangaka who adapted the novel. theres not much point speculating on that i suppose even though the mangaka mitsuru hattori said in the afterword of the third and final volume that he was given a lot of freedom because the area where his ability shines most clearly here is in the art. from the arrangement of the panels to the perspectives on the characters and the visual details of the backgrounds theyre set against the only word you could really use for the art here is beautiful. obviously ive not read a whole lot of manga so i may just be too easily impressed and its true that its not necessarily The Best Art Ever but it is still of really great quality. something in particular that stood out is the fish used throughout the manga as a stylistic thing around U in some panels. the coelacanth is the one i took most notice of and is the first one we see overlayed on panels featuring her and if thats meant to have any symbolic significance i think it comes in two ways. the coelacanth is pretty much a living fossil once thought to be the ancestor or missing link between fish and land animals. by associating her visually with that fish it could be placing greater emphasis on Us role in transitioning I between two states of being and two phases of his life from aspiring writer to being a real writer so to speak. the coelacanth was however thought to be extinct for a long time since it was only observed through fossils before being rediscovered alive and well. that particular association could be interpreted in a couple of other ways but i think the most prominent is that it serves as foreshadowing for the end of the story. theres what appear to be catfish as well which in japan are associated historically with earthquakes and disaster rather than sweaty dudes and disaster and in this story the catfish make their appearance when U is going through a time of upheaval. im sure theres lots more symbolism presented as overtly and more subtly but im just highlighting how the mangaka really has elevated this story in a way that makes it feel like more than just biographical thanks to the artistic liberties he took without detracting from the overall tone or realism of the events being depicted. overall what we have here is an engaging and enjoyable story with art thats great and also rewarding to look at in terms of subtext with an ending thats both satisfying and as a crappy writer myself a little inspirational. its a grounded realistic story even if it feels a bit insane at points in the beginning and for fans of nisioisins other works from monogatari to bishounen tanteidan im sure itll be an even more fulfilling read as you get insight into how one of Japans most successful authors got what he considers to be his real start and what he thinks about himself as an author. maybe gift the series to yourself for christmas idk but if you have a couple of hours to burn then i absolutely recommend imperfect girl and give it a score of 82 out of 100. https://files.catbox.moe/afsqmm.gif thats the end of this review i tried something less structured since the story was so short this time but if you liked it maybe check out my last review of the anime series texhnolyzehttps://anilist.co/review/14593 from last week if you didnt like it then post pictures of cheese or something on my profile to show your anger i really dont like cheese. oh yeah and if youve already read this manga and want something else like it then the gods liehttps://anilist.co/manga/80217/TheGodsLie/ is a personal favourite of mine that has some passing similarities in how events unfold later on in the story and in tone though as a work of pure fiction its a lot more pointed about its message