Metamorphosis (manga)

Did You Know?

• The manga was first serialized in Comic X-Eros from 26 July 2013 to 26 March 2016.
• A hardbound edition subtitled 'Hard Edition' was announced at Anime Expo 2022 and released at Anime Expo 2024.
• The English version was published by FAKKU digitally on 27 October 2016 and physically in February 2017.

Plot

Saki Yoshida, a shy and socially awkward first-year high school student, decides to change her appearance with her mother's help. At a convenience store, an older man named Hayato compliments her and invites her to a karaoke box, where he gives her alcohol and MDMA before raping her, claiming he loves her. Intoxicated, Saki believes the encounter is consensual and professes her love. Hayato leaves her unconscious but inputs his phone number into her phone. They begin dating in secret, and Saki becomes addicted to sex while on drugs. After discussing her family's financial struggles, a friend recommends compensated dating. Saki meets an older man named Kumagai, who takes her to a hotel, offers additional money, and rapes her. She returns home and breaks down, comforted by her mother. At school, male students blackmail her with photographic evidence of her encounter with Kumagai for sexual favors. After her father is laid off, he begins drinking heavily and rapes Saki, then tells her mother that Saki seduced him. Enraged, her mother beats Saki and evicts her. Saki drops out of school and spends more time with Hayato, who has accumulated eight million yen in debt at a heroin bar. The bar owner, Mr. Obata, threatens to kill Hayato if he does not repay. Saki begins accepting money for sexual favors from bar patrons to help pay the debt. She alters her appearance again, bleaching her hair, getting spray tans, piercings, and a tattoo of Hayato's name on her chest. Her sexual encounters frequently result in pregnancy, leading to regular abortions. She returns to Kumagai, who forces her to do increasingly degrading things. Mr. Obata sexually assaults Saki with other workers, injecting her with heroin to make her compliant. She develops an addiction and forgets about paying off Hayato's debt. When Saki is robbed and Hayato finds only drugs in her wallet, he breaks up with her, leaving her homeless.

Characters

Saki Yoshida is a shy, friendless student who transforms her image from a quiet, geeky girl to a sex-addicted gyaru. Her high school makeover appearance is partly based on Rin Shibuya of the Idolmaster franchise. The back cover illustration of some releases offers the possibility that the story was a pornographic film and the actress playing Saki is still alive, though the author reiterated in the expanded English release's extras that he intended Saki to die at the end. Hayato is Saki's boyfriend, who tricked her into an illusion of love and manipulated her into a drug-addicted prostitute.

Reception

Critics have called Metamorphosis a deeply bleak and upsetting read, though they often commend its narrative and production quality. A reviewer from Manga Sanctuary was harsher, arguing the explicit sexual content seems purely shocking without advancing any theme, and doubted the work held any real moral or message. Several manga artists have produced fan works inspired by it. The story’s grim conclusion prompted fans to craft an alternate ending where characters from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Josuke Higashikata and Okuyasu Nijimura, rescue the protagonist Saki.

Analysis

Shindo L has said the title Metamorphosis was inspired by Kafka's story, noting parallels in its dark themes of change. He first planned for the protagonist Saki to kill herself at the end, but Wanimagazine's editors pushed for a more upbeat conclusion, so he created a dream sequence as a middle ground. In the afterword, he explains his goal was to show the "charm" of a female lead in misery.