Manga Pick: Look Me In The Eyes When You Talk

“Look Me In The Eyes When You Talk” is a horror/seinen manga (one-shot) by Hitoshi Iwaaki.

Official description:

After getting beaten up by a bunch of thugs, an apathetic man who is afraid of looking other people in the eyes wakes up in the hospital, only to discover to his horror that he literally can’t see other people’s eyes.

I read this manga a couple of days ago, and it’s really moving. Here’s a quick synopsis that I’ve written:

A man who never looks people in the eyes for reasons other than shyness or inattention. His girlfriend explains that behavior by him being not caring about other people. In short, she accuses him of being selfish. The man do not deny that he doesn’t care about other people, but he still does not know the exact reason for not looking people in the eyes. He gets beaten up by a bunch of thugs only to wake up and find out that people have lost their eyes. Though confused, he finds that he’s getting along socially even better than before, because he’s now looking people in the ‘places of eyes’. His girlfriend notices that. He gets mad and yells “I’m gonna get out of this world! I’m going back!”. She, as if aware of his problem, tells him that he’s been living in the very same world, where people have no eyes, hinting on how he never looked at people’s eyes in the first place as if they don’t exist.

I really liked this manga despite its gloomy mood. One thing I’m not sure about is: was the author with or against the protagonist? What his girlfriend mentioned in the end hints towards the latter. As if the author do not like people who do not look other people in the eyes. Also, why was he hospitalized and intubated at the very end? Was it a dream?

Download this manga (for 18+ yr. audience; English-translated; thanks to Kotonoha)
Download “Comical” (free manga/comic reader; reads .zip as-is)

P.S. Manga is read from right-to-left.