Pity the Living Chapter 2: The Camera Never Lies
Released By: Seishin Ink
Writer and Artist: Katsura and Yuramei
Cover Art: Yuramei
Release Date: Out Now!
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
Here the story continues with Masami taking Toshita out for dinner at a local bar after getting him a job at his workplace in IT. Masami has already shown him round where he works and given him an idea of the kind of work he will be doing, though it isn't work that is on Masami's mind. When they are in the bar he likes the way the other people look at them, knowing his friend is exceptionally handsome and well-dressed.
We already saw how unhappy Masami was at his predicament in a boring job surrounded by dumb women, so once Toshita decides to take a photo of him and upload it onto Facebook to show his old schoolmates, he wonders what they will think of him. After years of being ridiculed for being a nerd at school, he panics as he thinks they might reject him once more, this time online. Though protesting that his hair looks messy doesn't stop his friend from posting it for all to see. Going to bed, he thinks about what everyone will think of him until the next day when he looks and sees the comments that go with his picture - he doesn't have a single bad comment, in fact, someone is annoyed that Toshita didn't invite him.
This is the turning point in his life where he sees himself as nothing like useless, and for once he thinks it would be a good idea to use the photo of him and Toshita as his Profile photo as everyone seems to think it is a good one. He also thought of jazzing up the whole page as he was receiving a lot of interest from people who had never noticed him before. Taking photography to a new level caused Masami to get thumped by a thug who thought he was trying to take a photo of his friends, and even that could get him more noticed - this time without him even trying. For once, despite the pain, Masami thinks he looks like he has got a life as he has seen himself in a different way, as someone who matters.
This coupled with his suicidal tendencies have at the moment subsided as he has accomplished more to boost his self-esteem in the past few days than if he had spent that time alone with his own thoughts. For the most part, you feel like you are rooting for Masami finding a partner who will care about him, and in finding Toshita he has and this second chapter marks his adventures with his new-found friend, hoping it will become more than going out with him. When he finds out Toshita is having an affair with a married man, he knows he can do nothing about it other than brood what it would be like to be in bed with him. Plagued with images of them making love while in his bed, he wishes he had a normal life with another man, but he knows his relationship with Toshita might just be a pipe dream, never to be realised.
Pity the Living Chapter 2: The Camera Never Lies comes with excerpts of other samples of titles from Katsura and Yuramei; Money, Bullets and Swag, The Gangster and the Samurai, An Interview with Kanna Sakamoto from The Gangster and the Samurai, and About the Authors and a list of the titles available at Seishin Ink. Once more Katsura creates a huge teaser chapter leaving us with Masami hoping he will get to be with his one true love, hurt by his insistence that the other man is just a "friend." He knows he is a married man and means much more to him than he thinks. More than anything, he wants to be Toshita's lover, and intends to make himself as desirable as possible if he wants to be much better than the other guy. Who knows what is next in store for the third chapter - hopefully more intrigue, sensuality and well-written story.
Verdict: Pity the Living Part 2 is a continuation of how Masami feels about his old friend.
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