YMMV / Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied?

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Shinji really love Shiori? There have been many moments showing he dotes and care for her, but at the same time, it does feel like he loves her only because he sees her as an extension of himself.
  • Shiho baby traps Shinji into marrying her to raise their daughter, Shirori. Shinji definitely sees it as such and resents his wife greatly for trying to save their deteriorating relationship and forcing him to settle down when he was young. Whether that was the case on Shiho's side is unknown, though later chapters show she dearly loved her child the moment she was born. While Shinji truly believes that Shiho's baby traps him, we only have his opinion, and we don't know if Shiho indeed hid the pregnancy to force Shinji to marry her. Interestingly, when Shinji told Shiho she planned to divorce him for the sake of their daughter, he angrily stated that she only had Shirori force him to marry her and that she was just using Shinji for the sake of their marriage. Shiho was genuinely shocked at the accusation that she didn't love her daughter, stating that how could she not love her daughter since she was the one who gave birth and raised her while acknowledging that she wanted Shinji's favor by turning their daughter into a perfect daughter for him but now she only cares about her daughter's well-being. But still, Shiho did not outright deny that she baby-trapped Shinji, so unless she tells her side of the story, we never know if she really baby-trapped her husband Shiho to force him to marry her.
• Anvilicious: The story is not exactly subtle about its message. Aizawa exposes the very real problem of school bullying and the inadequacy of current methods dealing with it. He might be presented as a Byronic Hero using extreme methods to fight the problem, but the story also presents him as being right. It's not a coincidence that one of the people he takes down is an old-school anti-bullying activist. Furthermore, schools adopting some of his methods to monitor and fight the bully problem is presented as a step in the right direction.
• Catharsis Factor: One of the major draws of the series.
  • After all the pain and humiliation Nagumo and her Gang of Bullies put her through, it's really satisfying watching Shiori publicly expose them on social media and seriously messing up their lives.
  • Also, Shiori's confrontation with Yumi, where she chews her out for being a False Friend. Yumi has the gall to shame Shiori for exposing Yumi as the bully she is and tries to make excuses, telling her she had no choice, but Shiori has none of it. She rubs the chat logs in Yumi's face and makes her read the entry where she recovers the Shameful Strip video she went through a lot of trouble to erase and is excited to destroy Shiori's life. Cue My God, What Have I Done? moment from Yumi.
  • Likewise, the Engineered Public Confession Aizawa takes full control of thereby completely exposing the school principal and Nagumo's mother for the hypocrites that they are. Both of Nagumo's parents get so destroyed, in fact, that they can't show their faces publicly ever again and are literally forced into hiding.
  • Nagumo's eventual comeuppance after all the callousness and cruelty she displayed throughout the series is truly a joy to behold. After the disastrous television interview mentioned above and hurting Shiori one last time (by revealing her father's illicit relationship with Yazaki-sensei), Nagumo joyfully runs back to her house thinking she can be a happy little Karma Houdini by studying abroad. She cheerfully opens the door and announces the plan to her parents, who stare at her blankly for a moment before hitting her with the full ramifications of her actions: due to the huge public backlash after the interview, her father lost almost all of his customers and her mother is no longer being invited to give university lectures, meaning they effectively have no present income. To make matters worse, the bank is about to foreclose their house. They can no longer afford to keep their home, let alone send her overseas. Nagumo's face forms an Oh, Crap! expression as it dawns on her she is stuck in Japan, forced to live the rest of her life with the social stain of her monstrous actions. She proceeds to throw a fit demanding her parents to fix her problems for her, like the Spoiled Brat that she always was. Her mother owns up to the crappy way she raised her and finally chastises her as Nagumo breaks down and collapses into a Pose of Supplication, realizing how screwed she really is, begging her parents to somehow make her problems go away. When we next see her, in the final chapter, she has a huge This Is Gonna Suck expression on her face as she is forced to go on the run with her parents, all of their collective lives completely destroyed. Gee, I guess actions really do have consequences, who would have thought?
  • After watching Shinji be an unrepentant asshole for most of the story his Humiliation Conga over the final five chapters is really satisfying to watch. And the best part is that he really brought this all on himself.
• Love to Hate: Shinji is a Hate Sink, but he is also extremely memorable as an antagonist and a joy to watch, especially during his Humiliation Conga and Villainous Breakdown.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Himekawa is the first to walk over it by brutally kicking Shiori while her back is turned, simply because she had a brief chat with her crush.
  • Nagumo passes it when she talks about arranging for Shiori to get gang-raped, just because Shiori finally retaliated with a Bitch Slap since Nagumo taunted her with a doodle of Shiori witnessing her mother's attempted suicide, while under the impression she was "worried".
  • Yumi goes through it when she helps Nagumo recover the very same deleted Shameful Strip video of Shiori and feels excited at the thought of destroying Shiori's life.
  • Last but not least, Shinji blasts through it when he refuses to apologize and rethink his actions towards Aizawa in the past, and acts like a Smug Snake to him even after finding out about Shiori getting bullied.