Komi Can’t Communicate Vol. 1 – Tomohito Oda
Contemporary, high school, communication disorder, manga, fiction.
Rating 10/10
Tadano moves to a new high school and wants to be normal even though he is beyond normal. He runs across this girl who is always silent. A fellow classmate tells him that Komi doesn’t speak at all. Never mutters a word and she is worshipped like royalty. He doesn’t believe it until after class, he confronts her to talk with her. After a few minutes of failed attempt to make her talk, he gives up just as she decides to write what’s wrong with her. She suffers a communication disorder and feels bad that she can’t speak to anyone. She confides into him that she wants to make one-hundred friends. He promises to help her gain that number of friends.
I was hunting for manga that wasn’t so science fiction nor fantasy, just contemporary fiction, and was happy to have found this gem. I can’t express how much this manga left me feeling after I finished reading. I was on a rollercoaster of emotions with this manga. There were times where I was like going aww, tearing up, and laughing. A truly heartfelt manga that is about the difficulties that those who have communication disorders face every day. It’s not that they don’t want to be social, they can’t be social. This brought to me an understanding with some people who suffers communication disorders or different abled abilities that causes them to not be able to speak. I highly want everyone to read this manga because it’s truly a work of contemporary manga that can be read to understand the perspectives of those who medically can’t speak.
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