Sometimes, Yen Press picks up some fascinating one-volume manga that completely tell a self-contained story and offer different types of insights into personalities and relationships, and What Do You Call This Trash is a perfect example. Tetsukazu’s story fills a substantial, 348-page tome that could probably have been divided into two installments. Instead, it offers a detailed look into a number of unhealthy relationships that develop due to certain personality traits and abuse and highlights how people recover from or reshape them as a result of personal developments. While disturbing to see how far individuals could go, it also ends up being heartening to see each recover and grow in their own way.
Editor’s Note: There will be some mild spoilers for the What Do You Call This Trash manga and its relationships below.
Akira is an obsessive girl known for clearly having issues with anxiety, codependency, and disturbing behavior. She is in Yuuto’s class and dated his older brother Kai briefly. Why? He saved her, and she obsessed over him as a result. They broke up due to her toxic mindset and behavior. However, because of his own background, a savior complex, and the fact that in some ways Akira can be “cute,” he has a crush on her. But because she is still fanatical about Kai, he ends up assisting her in her continuing stalking endeavors so he can be close to her. At the same time, Kai seems to grasp something is wrong and wants to help his little brother, but doesn’t know exactly what it is or how.
Right away in What Do You Call This Trash, the manga hits us with the two most obvious toxic relationships. Akira’s fixation on Kai and the way she’s acting on it, which involves hiding out in Yuuto’s room so she can listen in on him and observe, stalking him outside of school, and even following his new girlfriend, is terrifying. It is completely wrong and we see Kai took measures to try and separate from her before this happened. At the same time, the “partnership” Yuuto and Akira created is just as horrifying. She’s using him to get access and cross boundaries in an extremely unhealthy way. He’s using this as an opportunity to gain access to a girl who needs serious therapy and crossing his own boundaries. These two dynamics are only causing pain to each of them in very visible ways, as well as harming someone unaware of the betrayal going on around him.
It’s once we see those unhealthy relationships between Akira and both Kai and Yuuto that we also start to understand how messed up the relationship between the brothers is as a result. This is 100% Yuuto’s fault, of course. There are story segments that highlight how close the brothers were in the past, with Kai looking out for his younger brother and Yuuto idolizing him. However, instead of repaying that loyalty, we see the younger brother allowing his older brother’s boundaries to constantly be violated so he can be around his crush. As I read, I kept wondering how they could even go on as brothers after this. Like is what Yuuto is doing even forgivable?
We also get to a point at which we need to consider the relationships Kai is in, as well as the new arrangement that comes up with Akira. He’s incredibly smart and astute. We can tell he grasps something is going on. It just takes him a bit of time and observation to realize what. However, he doesn’t seem to understand the exact situation, which results in him taking action to protect Yuuto again. Yet at the same time, while it’s understandable and noble in a way, it’s also resulting in a choice that’s incredibly unwise and damaging to yet another innocent individual.
What I appreciate about What Do You Call This Trash is that this could have been a manga about drama in toxic relationships, but Tetsukazu takes measures that seem to highlight just how bad things are. There are moments when Yuuto is definitely aware of how far he’s fallen and bad things have gotten, and he does try to hold Akira back in her stalking of Kai. However, he’s so caught up on his own that he’s not willing to completely abandon her or put a halt to things. Kai likewise gets when things are going too far and, aside from some mistakes, makes wiser choices.
It’s also helpful that Tetsukazu shows exactly what kinds of situations and backgrounds got everyone to where they are today. There’s no excusing Akira’s behavior. She is doing terrible things in her relationships with both Kai and Yuuto in the What Do You Call This Trash manga. But once we see her backstory, it at least makes sense. Likewise, we get glimpses at why Yuuto and Kai turned out and responded the way they did as well.
What Do You Call This Trash is definitely a manga filled with drama, but I also feel like Tetsukazu executed it in a way that it’s pointing out exactly why toxic relationships are so terrifying and damaging. It never glorifies what happens. Instead, I felt like it was designed to show how people like Akira, Kai, and Yuuto ended up in these situations, why it’s damaging to everyone involved, and how the best thing is to completely break those ties to look for a healthier way forward. It reads more as a cautionary tale, and I appreciated the way backstories are brought up and different sides are shown to highlight every element of the situations. I also appreciated the ending, which feels quite realistic and highlights the growth of different individuals once they come to terms with everything.
The sole volume of the What Do You Call This Trash manga is available via Yen Press now.
