Is it alright if I could request a review on -Metamorphosis?-

Will you ever cover murder drones?

Nanako is not lobotomized in the story. She clearly consents to the sex and is an active participant. If you want to argue that she died afterwards, as we see the trepanation hole bleeding and never see her again, that's fair, but nothing implied she was lobotomized or couldn't consent. With the teenage girl, as well, you misrepresented several things. First, it was not Nakoshi's idea to take her virginity, it was his crackpot crossdressing "doctor" who came up with the idea because he was attracted to her. Second, it isn't the rape that "helps" the girl, its after Nakoshi exposes her self-harm wounds on her leg that begins her awakening into her own person. She needed that hidden part of her life exposed, as her self-harm was a coping mechanism she kept secret as many teenagers do. Still, incredibly messed up scene. She calls the blood-splatter beautiful because it was her first ever truly selfish and free act, she splatters the blood right after Nakoshi says to her "Now, do whatever you want," when confronted by her Mom peering into the car. I'm not at all saying the whole scene isn't absolutely messed up, but it is clearly more complicated than you represented it to be. I think the author is trying to express a difficult truth about people, that we don't want to hear or admit. Some people only truly gain their own self-identity through a sexual lens - granted usually in a much healthier way than in the story for the girl. Just look at how many people claim their sexual identity in their teenage years and how it helps them form their own self-image and inform their personality going forward. Also, saying that Nakoshi only helps one more person after the girl is wrong. He helps the doctor, Nanako (though truly by that point it was unclear exactly how much was projection and how much was legitimate), and the second Yakuza boss who comes after Nanako. I think you saw Nakoshi do something horrible, but complicated, to the teenage girl and then decided he was a villain, as you said in the video. I don't think he's a black and white villain, though at times reprehensible. He is someone who has completely lost his identity and is struggling to find any authentic version of himself after royally screwing over his self-identity by having cosmetic surgery and repressing his memories of his own youth. Also not recognizing Nanako is not a knock against Nakoshi, as she too had had a large amount of cosmetic plastic surgery to change her face. Overall, I like your content, but you seem to have dumbed this one down quite a bit in a way that is disappointing. If you don't want to go in depth about controversial topics like teenage sexuality, crossdressing and transgenderism (which you didn't mention at all despite the doctor's story being a major focus throughout), self-harm and identity - then you shouldn't have tried to make a video about Homunculus. Don't take this as personal criticism, I do like your work and want to see your channel grow - but please don't become one of those surface level analysis channels that spreads lackluster interpretations of complex stories.

Do you take requests? Because there's a storytelling trope I'd love to be educated on

VPN's dont provide all the security that they claim too. Especially depending on the browsers people use, like chrome and edge that collect as much data as possible regardless of vpn's

Agreed

Reality check

Yeah he could be a vending machine!

​@@2peoples785 Oh no you don’t, no one could have such an incongruous and idiotic idea and then think that investing a large amount of money into animating it is a good idea, that would be silly, UNDERSTOOD. As they say "There is no war in Baa sing se" and "There is no vending machine protagonist".

@@whitelight2195 I love this one replay (thanks for making my day)

Yo, that is SUCH a good way of putting it! :D

Yeah, look at eren yeager or walter white. People PRAISE these guys for being "right", depsite the fact that the story is basically warning you to NOT root for them.

BoJack Horseman had this to a point the show itself even tried to address it.

Doflamingo from One Piece

You're goddamn right

He wants to feel special, so he took his visual hallucinations and projection of his own issues onto other people as a sign that he had Special Protagonist Powers. He wants to build an identity out of other people's trauma because he feels empty inside, but he's so narcissistic that he can only see what he _thinks_ is their trauma, which is what he expects of them, and he makes his judgements very, very quickly.

I think that's dead on. I knew a man like him and, though he had no holes in his head, he were certain he knew how everyone worked - which just so happened to be men were really like him and women were all jealous and emotional vampires.

My exact thought!

Nah, he did see Yakuza's issue, cutting off pinkies is way too specific to be accidental even considering it's more common about Yakuza since as a boss he has no boss to potentially apologize like that to. IMO the thing is that this power is personal to both people in seen-seeing dynamic - he seen Yakuza boss as a child in armor of a toy as expression of insecurity because he himself was a childish man unable to bear responsibility and escaping his pregnant GF and only the sickle to the pinky was inherently that man's specific, with the girl true issue being constantly collapsing and reshaping, afraid to show her true self while body made of sand was expression of vulnerable and easily broken ego he shared with her, similar with egg head - that homeless man was encapsulated whole as a safe heaven while protagonist face was of his making, a sign of abandoning his previous life to embrace success and wealth, just as now egg to face was a sign of new transformation to insane fixer of humans. It's like seeing color, all of us see it sligtly differently because of slight variations to eye shape and different eye colors seeing it slightly differently, it's just that in the end he became so self-absorbed his ego overwritten all he could see completely.

I don't think narcisissts are necessarily good at understanding people or seeing past their presentation. In fact, I think it's the opposite. They see in people whatever suits their own mood or interest. That is why they try to control and manipulate you into exactly the role they chose for you. They can rarely see past their own delusions projected onto other people.

thats something to consider fur sure! in that case "the magic" within this horror is just the worst case of magical thinking imaginable..one of a sick and twisted mind. your findings help to uncover a pattern which suits perfectly a pestilent narcissist. their modus operanti is very much about abusing the weakpoints of other people while projecting their delusions on them

ye that's probably it

Tr😢

True

Not everyone who goes into a career based around helping people is doing so for good reasons. You need to be able to recognise your own biases and bracket them off before trying to help other people, or you risk doing more harm than good.

Everyone believes themselves to be the good guy.

This guy has read too much epic fantasy lol

i think the homeless guy who stops him from staring down explains it perfectly, the reason why he couldnt see his face had nothing to do with his face, he spent his whole life looking down, at firs he looked at his feet then he looked down at women as he ejaculated on their faces and he looked down at everyone from the hotel window, even after going homeless he looked down at the other homeless people refusing to set up a tent or telling them how he ended up like that and he brought them alcohol as a way to look down at them, his only meaningful relationship was with a girl he knew for 3 months. He never was a person, there was never anything inside of him because he only ever looked down thats why looking at himself in that old picture did nothing he just saw the same empty person he always was

​​@Wolfenzorn Bro, What you are describing is HELPING people not "fixing" them. Both are very diferent and you should know that. Thinking you can FIX people IS narcissistic, HELPING people is not, being empathetic and sympathetic is not narcissistic either. Why do you confuse both AND get offended by your OWN thoughts.

​@WolfenzornYes you got offended by your own faulty interpretation. So in a way your own thoughts. Anyway, back to the topic. Thinking you can just come in someone's life and fix all their psychological problems is as delusional as believing that someone can do same for you, which some people actually believe in. You can always help people if you know how, that's why therapy and counseling can work if they are done properly. None of the characters in a story asked to be helped. Neither the help provided was appropriate.

I think one way of breaking down the difference between "helping" vs "fixing" is like this: I have a source of trauma in my past that has left me with a lot of trust issues. "Helping" is something my friends and family and therapist do, where people respect boundaries I set, offer support when they can, etc. Its something that they do because they care about me. "Fixing" is if someone met me in the supermarket, saw I have trust issues, assumed they could figure out said trust issues and the trauma related to them in a single one-sided conversation they attempt to corner me into, assume that they can make all those problems go away in the same conversation, and then attempt to remove said problems without asking me. Also, on op's point about thinking the story would be shallow if it was about fixing people - I think it would have felt good to read that story, where our protagonist goes around and makes everyone around him better by confronting their demons for them, but I don't think it would be a story that stuck with me, outside of the 2am realization of the horrifying ableism that idea plays with. A story where the point is that people can be """""""helped"""""""" by removing their trauma without their input or consent, and that after doing that, those people are perfectly happy and doing great; it would feel good to pretend that was true, but it would come with a layer of ick because I know its NOT true and that the real life consequences of that kind of belief are incredibly harmful. Its a pretty and neat solution for a messy and complex problem, and while sometimes its nice to pretend, stories I find deep and impactful aren't usually ones that pretend problems aren't as complex as they actually are for the sake of a feel good solution.

My ex-roommate tried to do the same thing. He isn't a 'bad guy' just an incredibly self-centered, head in the sand type of person. And that I can "fix" my depression by just "think happier thoughts". Trying to explain that over a decade of mental illness cant be fixed with cat memes and a walk was like trying to pull teeth, but he genuinly believed that depression could be fixed this way. I conpletely agree with you. Thinking you're shallow understanding of someone's trauma can be fixed with a single act or conversation is the height of self-aggrandizing delulu takes. I had such a hard time getting through the movie (I know, not the same thing as the manga, but close enough) and I was like "yikes, this went from 'hay I like this" to actively hopeing the protag gets got)

Yeah that's a good point. The premise was flawed from the beginning, because the main character was flawed. A story is better if it examines those flaws than if it ignores them.

Agreed

YES.

If I had a homunculus, it would be a half demon, half Angel whome feet don't touch the ground but chains connected to the homunculi of those closest to me with a hole like that of protagonist on forehead or a third eye and having two extra hands with one holding a medical box and other a knife. Now can you guess

@@Grey_angel1536 mine would be a pencil with no eraser, which is constantly, lightly touching the ground, slowly dying, but gets themselves in sharpeners and think its a bad thing

If i had a homunculus, he'd be half wold, half dragon, half demon and cool and sociable and the king of the jumgle, he has 19 abs and a lot of muscles and a demon tail and a halo also he has mind control powers and can warp reality, he is also the princess of the netherlands and he get all the girls also he has a horse that can transform into a jetplane which can fly at light speed and his name is "Dexter" because its a cool name

he is also very good at fortnite and minecraft

PTSD Radio is so ahead of the other ones you mentioned it's unbelievably good

True PTSD Radio is similar to those two and I do hope if he interested on reading the manga😙

@@osmiumGE Personally Both Homunculus and Radio are GOATED in my opinion. But yeah youre right. PTSD Radio is PEAK. HORROR. Anyone who disagrees is wrong.

@@gananfisherman1926 I sure hope he is. That manga was what made me interested in haircare as a younger teen lmao.

I read a lot of homonculus, that’s REALLY good, been years since I heard that

No it’s not a Illness it’s a mental thing my brain makes me feel like my stomach is in pain but it isn’t

​@@Majik-7121 that makes sense

It sounds like you need to not eat taco bell before reading manga.

@@AjenjoAnejo i don’t even eat Taco Bell

U good?

The title stems not from the literal meaning of the word but rather the Sensory Homunculus diagram showing how we'd look based upon how much different parts of our body send information about our surroundings to our brain. You've probably seen this image dozens of times, the man with huge hands and face. The story is a twist on that concept, how we'd look based upon our psyche. A Psycho Homunculus if you will.

I'm fairly certain you are wrong, because that isn't the main theme. It's more of a forth wall projection, and while Nakoshi isn't constantly villanized, the ending is... Well, fitting for what he did. I sincerely urge you to read Homunculus if you have a strong stomach (I know that after the TW I wouldn't recommend it lightly) because I personally think that even Tale Foundry omitted important details that deepen the nuances of dark greys of Nakoshi's character that at least would contextualise the whole manga. "Hero" isn't the word I'd use for Nakoshi, because even he (and the writer) is disgusted by himself in several instances. But he is a complex protagonist, born out of a culture that us westerners cannot totally accept, and if possible we would censore him even as a literary figure.

Nowadays yes. Before the 19th century it was used as a cure all for a lot of different mental illnesses. It fell out of favor due to its high mortality rate and due to the invention of the lobotomy but, like you said, is still used today in case of emergency

​@@slopbucketeer6129😮 people did it even in the neolithic stone age days. Sometimes people had a LOT of holes in their head, AND they healed.

It's also the first/oldest surgery that we have archeological evidence of.

I own copies of that series (still ongoing) and I LOVE it!!!! The Sunmer Hikaru Died and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun are my two favorites.

Umm, thats not true. Sociopaths can feel repulsion and self loathing, to my knowledge, all humans can. Its just that different things activate those emotions in them, and they typically dont feel it as intensely as the average person

Sociopathy actually hasn't been used as a standalone diagnosis for quite a while. Instead, it got folded into disorders like Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder.

@@0320hkada And those personality disorders (and, I think, likely most or all personality disorders in general) are basically just systemized forms of medical malpractice. Psychiatry is, in its current form, little more than a dangerous pseudoscience used to repackage a given practitioner's biases as a set of diagnostic labels. The underlying behaviors that have been labeled in these ways are primarily trauma responses and maladaptive coping mechanisms.

@Wolfenzorn I'm a psychologist and have written papers on the dark tetrad. Policing others online isn't doing you any good.

@@0320hkada Sociopathy is a heuristic used to describe where someone falls on the APD spectrum.

Not to be that guy but absolutely to be that guy. technically the protagonist saw people as monsters. and since that is vital plot point for the stories message technically it did.

@@Kobe-Saikai-Incident That's the point. Humans are monsters by just being humans.

@@lerneanlion I know I’m just being technical here.

@@Kobe-Saikai-Incident Thanks for saying it anyway.

Agreed.

sleep with one eye open :)

Hohoho, oh yeah, SekaiOni is something else.

It was wild how that series was both grim and weirdly cozy

Agreed.

True

Emergence flashbacks

177013

Cool

ok

Is that the manga that the artist had to stop drawing because their own work started to scare them?

@@psychotophatcat Kind of yeah, a lot of very strange and supernatural things began happening around him and his team so he decided to stop

Speaking of gens work he also wrote for Karen rider look up Karen rider gaim if you haven’t already seen it it’s fantastic as well.

@@linktotheendyeah I’ve heard Kamen rider is good, I just listed the examples I know decently well lol. I just wanted to mention him because Homunculus seems almost like it’d be something Urobuchi would like or write in some ways lol.

And the anime adaptation is nice and so well done 😁

DUNGEON MESHI MENTION??

Cool

​@@tescomealdeal8329 yup

Hearing that name makes me so sad 😔

I recommend reading Shadow House for a similar premise of children trying to outsmart an oppressive system of adults. I think so far it's still going strong, while I felt like Promised Neverland kinda deflated after the first couple of acts, once it starts trying to build the wider setting.

Major spoilers for the whole thing, really. The ending is amazing. It had me crying. But Norman was always my favorite character. I'm not sure why.

I seem to vaguely remember one with holes. 🕳️ No, no -not "THIS hole was made for me!" Junji Ito

I feel the same way, horror manga just doesnt work for me the way it should, intead of scaring me it just makes me feel curious to see what new bizarre monster will appear, but I really get way more nervous when Im reading horror books, I cant explain why though. homunculus was the only manga that made me actually feel uncomfortable

I think we're the same in that regard. Nevertheless, feel free to check out PTSD Radio, Higanjima or Jagaan, if you haven't already🤷‍♂️

​@@SorrowduskThe Secret/Mystery of Amigara Falls? Something like that, with the holes in a wall shaped like human sillouhettes, right?

​@@lucascaracas4781I think it's that your imagination is stronger than any image can be. Homunculus is special because there isn’t a monster at all. The horror comes from seeing the depraved depths of a very Human narcissist.

Berserk was great until it reached a point where it felt like the author didn't know how he wanted to end it. IMHO somewhere between when Griffith came back and they reached the elf island. And in the end he never did finish it.

He left notes and the studio is still producing the story off what he left. It'll probably be a faster end than if he was still alive. I don't see him as loosing his ending but having to slow the story to build up the base for the final push.

@@adams5613 I don't know. I preferred the low fantasy horror style over the high fantasy messiah story it became later. Maybe the end will be worth it.

With Griffith's ascension it really couldn't stay low fantasy.

@@kaltaron1284 It definitely accumulated more flaws over time. I still think that the high points of later arcs reach nearly as high as they did in the early series, though.

It's going to be a weird experience

@@somelonelyguy000 Excellent.