Real World by Natsuo Kirino

I am actually scared reading this book. I’m scared of Worm in this Real World by Kirino Natsuo. He actually killed his mother because he cannot stand being perfected. Since he was small, all he ever was asked to do was to be better, smarter and work harder. He was told that he had to be first and then with a little effort and he will succeed. Or something along the line.

  I find it interesting to see that Real World mirrors the same identity of other Japanese story, like they have a template or something. It has been years since I read a novel by a Japanese writer. Do we consider Memoirs of A Geisha as Japanese written?

  It’s disturbing to see young people, especially the characters in Real World; having to struggle with their surrounding. It seems that all that their parents can think of was for them to be real smart, excel, enter university and a real top one at that and be popular. Like, not being able to achieve those will make them as a total failure.

  They were young and yet, they were exposed to dangers since they were at a very young age. Kazuko for example, had to face sick people on the train that just cannot help themselves when they see schoolgirls on the train alone. Her parents insisted that she should commute, on her own, on a train to an elite private school. She was still young then and it must be scary to her having to face these sick people.

  But the similarities among the characters were quite outstanding for me. They feel trapped. They do not enjoy their young age because all they had to do was study, go to cram school (I suppose like a tuition class or something, correct me if I’m wrong) and more studying. There was this one part in the book that nearly made me go WHAT in capital letters, red font, font type 72 in KL Sentral. Something where a character said that he studied for 12 hours per day and his grade increased 10%. I’m sorry…study for 12 hours. This is exactly what is happening here, around me at my place. And it is really scary. If local kids end up like this; studying, having no interaction with people, are not encouraged to ‘feel’ about the community, its not impossible to see the things in Real World happening.

  I have rambled to long on the studying part. The story was quite interesting where four young girls were involved in a case where a guy being called as Worm, killed his mother, Then, he stole Toshi’s phone and start calling all her friends. They started talking and in fact, at least two talked for nearly an hour.

  Things turned sour when the four girls got too interested in what Worm did and start helping him to be a runway. In Real World, he progressed from a nerd to a criminal and then to someone who can barely make a decision.

  Real World might be disturbing but it does make me think about the Real World out there. Like, can’t the kids have fun once in a while rather than being forced to study night and day? The online chatrooms, they are still sick people trying to pick up young girls through that place. Isn’t it a bit too decade ago?

  Its something to feel you are blamed and to take the blame. The book is not light at all and Real World made me think real hard that it sometimes got be real frustrated.

  OK adik-adik, mari makan ubat dengan ucapan: nasihat jangan main hujan tu bukan untuk kanak-kanak sahaja. Boleh digunakan pada semua orang (padan muke sendiri tanak pakai payung masa hujan uwe8runfa8yfab)