Manga 1238 Ressentiment

"res•sen•ti•ment
noun
1. any cautious, defeatist, or cynical attitude based on the belief that the individual and human institutions exist in a hostile or indifferent universe or society.
2. an oppressive awareness of the futility of trying to improve one's status in life or in society."

That was a definition I ripped off straight from dictionary.com. I usually wouldn't start anything with a textbook definition of a word – because 1) its cheesy as hell and 2) most titles are arbitrary – but I felt the need to bend the rules just this once to emphasize how important the title is to this manga. Defining its literal meaning though ... is only half the battle – “ressentiment” is also a philosophical term. If we take Wikipedia to be accurate, ressentiment also refers to the hostility directed at the perceived cause of one’s frustrations. More importantly, out of a sense of inferiority one creates a morality to oppose the “cause” of our frustrations, which effectively separates the “cause” from the self, thus denying one of any culpability. The important take-away points here are that ressentiment involves a sense of inferiority, the creation of a specific morality and the rejection of blame. With that unwieldy definition of “ressentiment” out of the way, I can get to why it’s so important to this manga. “Ressentiment”, in both its literal and philosophical meaning, encapsulates the characters and the story so perfectly that just knowing what the word means will tell you everything you need to know about “Ressentiment”, the manga. At its core, this is a dark, misanthropic story that is a scathing critique of both otaku fandom and human greed and vanity. However, it is also incredibly funny, nuanced and – at times – even humanistic in its portrayal of despicable men. It is this tension between these two seeming dichotomies that make “Ressentiment” both so fascinating and tragic.

I believe a review should answer the question: Should I (as the reader) watch/read this? In this case, the answer is a resounding "yes". Though it has its flaws -- much of which I've neglected in this review -- "Ressentiment" is an intriguing manga that features an atypical lead and a lot more depth than you'd initially assume. Overall, a hidden gem that isn't for everyone.

This manga is one focused on the dark side of virtual reality. By that I don't mean the super dark military mind control type stuff, but rather the creepy side where people become addicted to it. From that point of view, it certainly was unique, as most mangas that are VR focused seem to stay away from that side of things as the focus. But at the same time, this results in the characters being unlikable and the plot being pretty pathetic. And unrelated to that, overall it just seemed pretty messy and directionless all around, where no characters exhibited any growth and no major points related to ... the subject matter were ever made. The humor was primarily centered at being at the MCs expense, which seemed more sad than funny to me as it went on. The ending also randomly raised the stakes to a ridiculous level and allowed the MC to screw himself over one last time to end on, which also felt sad. The MC is a pretty terrible person, so I suppose I can understand why he would deserve it, but at the same time, it was just felt pointless and unsatisfying. The art was rough and not that good. 

tl;dr: A manga that doesn't have anything beyond a pathetic character to whom bad things happen.

"Wow, that escalated quickly".

Man this manga is bad. Not because the main character is almost a lolicon or because there is some gross sexual+funny(?) scenes, or not even because the end is completely non-sense: it is bad because it's just like any other manga that hypes you, makes you feel that something freaking cool is going to happen and then......... AND THEN.... nothing. Just bullshit.

I would be lying if I say that I didn't enjoyed reading the first or even the second volume. The story keeps going deeper and being detailed... but then suddently everything starts just being non-sense.

Prepare yourself to tilt at least at ... the last three chapters.
Tbh I wouldn't recommend this manga.