Manga / Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied?

It never ends for us. For us bullying victims, bullying stays inside us for the rest of our lives.

Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied? (Ijimeru Aitsu ga Warui no ka, Ijimerareta Boku ga Warui no ka?) is a 2020 Revenge Drama manga written by Kimizuka Chikara and illustrated by Yen Hioka. You can read five chapters daily for free on the comikey website or app and support the author by buying the rest.

During a certain middle-school reunion everyone's focus is on the former Student Council President, Shinji Suzuki, who is currently a banker making high figures in a very well known bank. The women are envious of his wife and the men are envious of his success. It's not an exaggeration to say that Shinji is standing on top of the world as he picks up the mic and greets his former fellow students.

Everyone seems to be having a grand old time... Until Aizawa Yuuichi shows up.

Aizawa was the unfortunate victim of a Gang of Bullies of which Shinji was the ringleader. The bullying was so cruel and so brutal that he eventually stopped coming to school. Everyone present in the reunion is shocked and dismayed that he actually dared to show up. Shinji however remains unfazed, puts on a huge fake smile and gives out a toast to "all the good times everyone had".

Shinji then takes Aizawa out of everyone's earshot and chastises Aizawa for "not reading the room" and ruining the mood of the reunion, telling him that everyone was having fun until he showed up. He playfully recounts the numerous painful ways in which he caused pain to Aizawa and concludes that "There's a reason why some people get bullied".

The pained expression on Aizawa's face makes Shinji extremely happy.

The reunion ends and Shinji returns home to his happy family. He has a beautiful wife and an adorable daughter Shiori, both of whom love him very much. He is very content with his life and laughs at the misery that he caused Aizawa in his youth. He doesn't feel an ounce of remorse. In fact, seeing Aizawa's miserable state during the reunion and thinking how much pain his words caused him brightens up his day.

Unbeknownst to him, his daughter Shiori is being targeted by another Gang of Bullies...

...And Yuuichi Aizawa is Shiori's homeroom teacher observing it all...

Will Shinji Suzuki still say that "There's a reason why some people get bullied" when it's his own daughter that gets ruthlessly bullied?

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This work contains examples of:

• Accomplice by Inaction:
  • Shouji Ryoko, the person who seemingly organized the middle-school reunion Shinji attended is guilty of this. When she saw Shinji and his Gang of Bullies brutally torture Aizawa inside the science room, she simply said "Oh, I can see you guys are busy", closed the door and walked away without lifting a finger to help him. This hurt Aizawa more than the torture itself because it signified to him that he was completely alone. We never see what Aizawa did to her, but whatever it was, it was enough to bring her to tears and make her cut all further contact with Shinji.
  • The school principal doesn't do anything when confronted with the problem of bullying instead opting to cover it up in order to maintain his school's "bully-free" reputation and staging an Engineered Public Confession in order to scapegoat Aizawa. By the time Aizawa is done with him, both his personal reputation and his school's reputation are in complete shambles.
  • Himekawa tries to invoke this on her fellow students of her class, telling them that they are just as guilty, since they saw what her and the Gang of Bullies were doing and chose to do nothing. The rest of the class responds by telling her not to lump her with the likes of her, since they never did actively do anything cruel to Shiori, also commenting on the fact that Himekawa's parents were former delinquents. It's then that Aizawa walks in the classroom and calls her out on being a Hypocrite.
  • Shiori later calls out her entire class on how quick they were to condemn her bullies after they were publicly exposed while pretending nothing was going on while Shiori was actually being bullied right in front of them and joining their chants on forcing her to apologize to the bullies once she fought back.
• Adults Are Useless: All adults except Aizawa.
  • Aizawa did report the bullying he received to his homeroom teacher. The teacher proceeded to just give a warning to Shinji and his Gang of Bullies, after they shed Crocodile Tears, allowing them to continue escalating their abuse of Aizawa until he eventually dropped out of school.
  • Not only does Shinji not notice his daughter is being bullied, his Blaming the Victim mentality towards bullying and his Doting Parent behavior actively makes Shiori's problem a lot worse.
  • Yazaki, Shiori and Nagumo's basketball coach, notices that something is wrong with Shiori, but doesn't interfere because the tryst she has with Shinji acts as a deterrent.
  • The school principal is worried about bullying but doesn't take any measures to seriously deal with the bully problem. Instead, he does everything in his power cover it up.
  • Nagumo's mother refuses to view her daughter as anything other than an innocent victim and does everything in her power to justify her horrible actions.
• All Take and No Give: Yumi believes her friendship with Shiori is this. It's what pushes her towards her Face–Heel Turn and eventually fully joining the Gang of Bullies in abusing Shiori.
• All the Other Reindeer:
  • Both Aizawa and Shiori become socially isolated and treated as an outcast due to the bullying they receive. Shiori eventually finds A Friend in Need in Manaka, but Aizawa never had any such luck.
  • Shinji gets a small taste of the social isolation he inflicted on Aizawa in his youth when he is outed at his workplace as an uncaring adulterer and further doxxed as the bully who scarred Aizawa, which leads to him losing the respect of everyone and becoming a pariah. He does not take it well to say the least.
• Ambiguously Evil: For a large portion of the manga it's unclear if Aizawa really is on Shiori's side or he just allows Nagumo's Gang of Bullies to abuse her as a way of getting back at his former bully. Chapter 15 reveals that he was Good All Along and was gathering evidence to help Shiori get back at the bullies.
• An Aesop:
  • Bullying can get started for all sorts of reasons, petty or not. None of them excuse it, since the scars they can cause a child will follow them for the rest of their lives.
  • Most bullies will attempt to shift the blame on you and try to make you the one responsible for their actions. No matter what, never apologize to a bully. Not only will the bullying not stop, it will make him escalate.
  • View your children as fallible human beings and pay attention to them no matter how "good" they claim to be doing. Most of them will not just talk to you if they are being bullied. In the words of Nishima the other bully victim helped by Aizawa, "It takes a lot of courage to expose your own weaknesses".
  • Most apologies are not sincere and you should not accept them at face value, lest you continue getting used and abused. The one who apologizes has to make an active effort to make things right, in order for the apology to be genuine and for you to accept it.
• Asshole Victim: Even though Shinji's and Nagumo's lives are completely destroyed by the end of the manga they are both such nasty pieces of work, it's really hard to feel sorry for them.
• Author Tract: Aizawa's Engineered Public Confession in Chapter 20, where he publicly exposes how the school system itself exacerbates bullying and fails to protect and even provide justice for its victims. He also gives pointers to students on how to use social media as a deterrent and how schools should install security cameras to monitor their students' behaviour and stop bullying in its infancy.
  • Manaka later tells Aizawa that everyone is now scared of social media because of what happened with Shiori and tries to invoke Be Careful What You Wish For on Aizawa. Aizawa responds by saying that while the situation is not optimal, it's definitely preferrable from the past alternative.
• Baby Trap: This was how Shiori was born. Shinji laments his then-wife forced him to settle down since by the time he found out the pregnancy, it was too late to get an abortion. He does admit he did come to love their child.
• Bait the Dog: A seemingly innocuous event in chapter 4 turns out to be this. The day after Shiori received the sleeping Shameful Strip strip video by an anonymous sender, she overhears Himekawa and Nagumo talking about a video they received on social media, further commenting "How do you not wake up with someone doing this to you?". This causes Shiori to scream and knock the phone out of Nagumo's hand. It turns out it was just a sleeping prank video. Seems innocent enough except it was Nagumo herself who recorded and anonymously sent the Shameful Strip video to Shiori, meaning she was deliberately having this conversation with Himekawa within earshot in order to trigger a reaction out of her.
• Beneath the Mask: A major theme within the series.
  • Shinji presents himself as a self-made man, a highly successful banker playing the part of the perfect husband and father, but in reality he is a sick sociopath who regularly abuses his wife, shamelessly cheats on her and relishes on the pain of others. The mask slips off during his Villainous Breakdown, when it turns out his success is nothing but a house of cards and all his actions catch up to him.
  • Nagumo Ai presents herself as a sweet innocent girl to both her classmates and her parents. In reality she is an Alpha Bitch who bullies Shiori because she is jealous of her father's high status and Yazaki-sensei promoting Shiori to the main team after sleeping with Shiori's father. The mask slips off after she gets exposed on social media as the bully she really is but she still pretends to be sweet and innocent to her parents, hoping they will turn things back for her and protect her from the consequences of her actions. Once it turns out they can't, the mask she wears for them also slips off, revealing the Spoiled Brat within.
  • Yumi Yoneda presents herself as a good and caring friend to Shiori. In reality, she is very jealous of her father's economic status, and is actually very happy when Shiori's bullying begins, eventually joining the Gang of Bullies and abusing Shiori herself.
  • Yazaki-sensei presents herself as a caring teacher, in reality she has a sick obsession with the married father of one of her students, which also actively prevents her from doing anything to protect Shiori from the Gang of Bullies.
  • The school principal appears to be concerned about bullying, but at the end of the day he only cares about his school's (and consequently his own) reputation, preferring to cover-up the problem, rather than do anything to solve it.
  • Shiori's classmates appear friendly and kind but choose to actively ignore Shiori's bullying even when it's happening right in front of them. When Nagumo and her Gang of Bullies get exposed on social media, Shiori calls them out on this.
• Beyond Redemption: Both Aizawa and Shiori figure out Shinji is this. Shiori decides to completely cut all ties with him while Aizawa declares war on him and proceeds to completely destroy his bully's life.
• Bitch Slap: Nagumo has the gall to give a drawing to Shiori that taunts her for witnessing her mother’s near suicide, infuriating the latter into slapping the former.
• Blaming the Victim: Both Shinji and Nagumo do this to Aizawa and Shiori respectively, blaming their relentless bullying on imagined aspects of their victims' personalities.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Shinji tells Yazaki that he loves her and fully intends on divorcing his wife in order to be with her. His inner monologue reveals that he has no such intentions and merely uses Yazaki for a quick lay.
  • Once the bullying is exposed, Nagumo and her mother have a meeting with Shiori, Aizawa, and the principal. They claim Aizawa is the one who forced the bullying and Nagumo cries out to Shiori that she would never hurt her own friend. Shiori is just as disgusted as you would expect.
• Break the Cutie: It happens to both Aizawa (in the past) and Shiori (in the present), after enduring abuse by their respective Gang of Bullies.
• Broken Pedestal: Shiori deeply loves her father and starts the story worshiping the ground he walks on. Gradually, as the story progresses and she slowly finds out about her father's transgressions that led to her being bullied and her mother attempting to end her life, she starts to lose all respect for him. Once she finds out he was the bully that destroyed Aizawa's life and listens in on how unrepentant Shinji is about his actions, she decides to cut all ties with him.
• Bullied into Depression: Happens to Aizawa, Negishi and Nomura. None of them get over it. Negishi barely hangs on, Aizawa becomes a dedicated Bully Hunter and Nomura decides to end his own life and Shinji's.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Nomura-san the person who is being routinely denied help by Shinji. In chapter 30 he finally has too much and ends his life taking Shinji with him.
• The Chessmaster: Aizawa. He luls Nagumo into a false sense of security, letting her believe he is on her side, also breaking her phone and replacing it with a bugged one that has spyware installed. He collects video evidence, collects chat logs and hands it over to Shiori, giving her a chance to exact brutal revenge on her bullies by publicly exposing them. Once the whole mess is over and Shiori experiences the full horror of bullying while also gaining her trust, he arranges for Shiori to be in the next room while he confronts Shinji thereby exposing him to his own daughter for the sadistic bully he always was. This makes Shiori cut all ties with Shinji. And that's just the beginning of his revenge.
• Contrived Coincidence: Downplayed. During their penultimate encounter Shinji tries to make the claim that Aizawa somehow pulled some strings to become Shiori's homeroom teacher and use her to make his point. Aizawa calmy informs him that he is a public school teacher and he therefore doesn't get to have a say in which students are assigned to him. Being Shiori's homeroom teacher really was a coincidence and he was just as shocked back then as Shinji is right now that she was his student.
• Convicted by Public Opinion: The eventual fate of the Gang of Bullies and later Shinji, after they get publicly outed as cruel ruthless abusers. Nagumo's parents also suffer this after being doxxed, which causes them to lose their jobs and literally go into hiding.
• Cop/Criminal Family: While they are not exactly cops, Nagumo's parents have made a name for themselves fighting bullying and advocating for it to become a crime. When her mother finds out her own daughter is a bully, her immediate reaction is about what you'd expect.
• Cops Need the Vigilante: When Aizawa's actions are being discussed on public television the legal expert of the panel admits that while Aizawa did break several laws, his actions are not completely wrong as school bullying is too much of an insidious problem to be handled by current methods and a deterrent is definitely needed. He even supports Aizawa's suggestion of installing surveilance cameras to monitor and prevent the bullying problem. The final chapter reveals that some schools took Aizawa's suggestions to heart.
• Domestic Abuse: Shinji is shown to be especially abusive to his wife, Shiho, yelling at her, insulting her and even throwing his drink at her. However, he refrains from being overly abusive towards her at least until Shiho hands Shinji their divorce papers.
• Doting Parent: Deconstructed.
  • Shinji's belief that his daughter can do no wrong is what prevents him to see there's something seriously wrong with Shiori's school life, even when she outright tells him that she is completely isolated from the rest of the class. Combined with his Blaming the Victim mentality this is also what prevents her from telling him she is being bullied.
  • The unshakeable belief of Nagumo's mother that her daughter is nothing but an innocent angel is what prevents her from understanding that she’d bullied Shiori out of her own volition. She chooses to scapegoat Aizawa instead with disastrous results for her professional life after Aizawa's Engineered Public Confession goes terribly wrong for her.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Shiho, Shiori's mother, attempts to take her own life when Yazaki informs her that Shinji cheats on her and doesn't really love her.
  • Shiori's bullying and social isolation gets so bad, she nearly ends her life by jumping in front of a train.
  • Negishi the former bully victim of Aizawa's former school almost took his own life by jumping off the school's rooftop. Aizawa convinced him to exact revenge on his respective Gang of Bullies instead.
  • In the final chapter Nomura-san, the person that is being routinely denied help by Shinji kills himself by grabbing Shinji's rolling chair and taking it for a walk along with Shinji, across the nearest railroad track.
• Engineered Public Confession: Nagumo's mother and the School principal try to do this to Aizawa in order to save face. They don't count on him having video evidence, also showcasing the scars he had from bullying all those years back and they certainly don't count on Yumi breaking down and confessing to what she did to Shiori. Needless to say, it backfires horribly on them.
• Everyone Has Standards: Shinji Suzuki is a successful banker and is popular with his boss and coworkers because he is ruthless and handles cases where a normal banker would be sympathetic towards the client. His boss is happy that Shinji is making money for their bank despite his cruelty towards some of their clients, and his coworkers admire his ruthlessness. While one coworker admitted that he was a little uncomfortable with how ruthless Shinji can be, another defended him, stating that he viewed him as an elite person. However, in the story's final chapters, when Shinji's mistress and former victim revealed him to be a cheater and a bully to his boss and coworkers, they were all horrified and disgusted. Shinji's boss angrily called him out for embarrassing the company like that, denied him his promotion, and demoted him. Shinji's coworkers were disgusted when they learned of his past as a bully and lost all respect for him; they started to ignore him at work and refused to talk and be threatened by him. Shinji's boss and coworkers were willing to tolerate and even admire Shinji's ruthless methods when it was good for business, but they draw the line when they see what a monster he really is and cut ties with him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Shinji is one ruthless prick, yet the only person he truly loves is his daughter, Shiori. He admits in a monologue that Shiori was born via a Baby Trap and resented his wife for tricking him, but genuinely came to love their child. Even after Shiori disowns him once his true colors are revealed, he desperately tries to gain custody of her. Eventually he nearly runs over Aizawa, but he immediately thinks of Shiori and drives off the road. Why? Aizawa reminded Shinji just moments before that it was because of his affair that kickstarted Shiori’s bullying, so if he became a killer, Shiori was sure to get even more bullied due to their relation.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Played With. Shinji might be a prick who hates Aizawa, but even he balks at the idea of killing him, simply to get him off his back. Come his Villainous Breakdown and he fully loses those standards even trying to organize a hit on Aizawa not knowing it was a Frameup by Aizawa to make him lose his job.
  • He hates his wife for trapping him and forcing them to settle down, but he eventually comes to genuinely love their child. But due to their strained marriage, he has an affair with Yazaki. When he comes home, he's genuinely horrified to discover her in the bathtub with slit wrists. Subverted when he runs off to call an ambulance since he's mostly worried over his promotion and confused over her chilling words of how she trusted him. Then Shiori walks up and Shinji desperately tries to protect her from witnessing her mother on the brink of death then rushes to his wife's side to bandage her wrists. Shiori does reveal the parent-teacher meeting and Yazaki meeting them by chance, horrifying Shinji since she likely found out the truth, but denies any knowledge to not traumatize Shiori any further.
  • As for his affair with Yazaki? He only sees her as a walking sex toy, but even he’s put off whenever Yazaki believes Shiori would accept her as her new mom, and continuing this hopeful thought after her mother nearly kills herself because Yazaki taunted her with the affair. This was the final straw for Shinji and who proceeds to dump her.
  • Again Played With in regards to Nagumo, the leader of the Gang of Bullies who is understandably creeped out when she realizes the full extent of Yazaki's Mad Love towards Shinji. That being said, however, she is more than willing to use said Mad Love in order to manipulate her into helping her get back at Aizawa.
  • Nagumo's gang objects when she suggests trapping Shiori and getting someone to rape her. While the girls claim that they are afraid of how much trouble they would get if they were caught doing something like that, their shocked faces and body language imply that even they are horrified by Nagumo's suggestion they do something like that.
• Evil Feels Good:
  • Whenever Shinji does horrible things to Aizawa (such as burning his skin with cigarettes and chiseling the word "trash" on his arm) or Nomura (denying essential financial help), he gets a warm happy feeling inside.
  • During her public apology, Yumi admits to the press and audience that she eventually started enjoying the bullying she inflicted upon Shiori.
• Evil Former Friend: Yumi Yoneda to Shiori. She starts up by being her best friend and moral support. She ends up fully joining the Gang of Bullies in abusing Shiori and even helping Nagumo recover the Shameful Strip video, Shiori deleted in a previous chapter, fully excited to actually destroy Shiori's life!
• Evil Is Petty: The reason Aizawa was targeted for abuse by Shinji? Aizawa got better marks on him on a test, which lead to him on missing buying a game that he wanted. So he made a game of torturing Aizawa instead.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: Subverted. Yumi joining in on Shiori's bullying doesn't significantly change her outward appearance, but it makes her facial expressions creepy and despicable as Yumi herself admits to Shiori after carefully watching the bullying video Shiori posted on social media.
• False Flag Operation: For a long time Nagumo believes that Aizawa is on her side, since he just allows her Gang of Bullies to abuse Shiori, doesn't report her actions and prevents other teachers from stepping in. He is not, he is just gathering evidence to allow Shiori to get back at her.
• Foreshadowing: During their final confrontation, Aizawa advises Shinji to keep looking over his shoulder, because he is such a big bully he probably created many other people like Aizawa. This is how Shinji meets his end in the final chapter.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: After Yumi publicly confesses her shameful actions on public television, and she sincerely apologizes to Shiori, Shiori reminisces about their friendship and forgives Yumi, telling her that she doesn't want to hate her anymore. However, she also tells her that she irrevocably broke her trust and that they can never be friends again. Yumi accepts that and the two part on good terms in the final chapter.
• Gang of Bullies: The story presents us with three sets.
  • The first one is comprised of Aizawa's original abusers, Shinji Suzuki, Satake Yuji and Takano "R".
  • The second one, the one that abuses Shiori, is comprised of Nagumo Ai, Himegawa-san, Takahashi-san and later Yumi Yoneda, her former best friend.
  • The final one to be introduced are the nameless bullies that drove Negishi-san to nearly end his own life.
• Good All Along: For a huge portion of the manga, it's not clear whether Aizawa-sensei is on Shiori's side, since he allows a lot of the bullying to take place and doesn't step in to prevent it as a form of sick revenge against Shinji. Come chapter 15 and it's revealed that he was on her side all along. He was just gathering evidence to get Shiori's Gang of Bullies good and proper.
• Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Most definitely the "bad" variety in both instances encountered in the story.
  • Shinji is a sadist and Yazaki doesn't realize he is an abusive Sociopath, thinking he really loves her. Their tryst is what kickstarts Shiori's bullying in the first place.
  • Shinji's former classmates, Satake Yuji and Takano Ryoko, members of Shinji's Gang of Bullies are both married and cheating on their respective spouses with each other. They are also not shown in a positive light.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • The reason Yumi secretly resents Shiori is that Shiori has a rich father who is about to send her to a private school, while her single mother can't afford it, even though she has better grades than Shiori.
  • Nagumo similarly hates Shiori because of her father's high-status and her Spoiled Sweet personality. It gets worse when Yazaki-sensei chooses Shiori instead of her to be on the basketball main team and it escalates into full scale bullying when Nagumo accidentally sees Yazaki and Shinji walking into a love hotel together, leading Nagumo to believe Shiori was put on the main team because of her father's tryst with Yazaki, instead of merit.
  • Himekawa-san, one of Nagumo's cronies, hates Shiori with a passion because she openly talks with Manaka-kun, the object of her one-sided crush. Ironically, it's Shiori being outcasted by the girls that makes her talk more to Manaka in the first place.
  • The main reason Takano and Satake (former members of the Gang of Bullies that abused Aizawa) help Aizawa get Shinji fired is because they are envious of his high-paying job and him acting all high and mighty.
• Heartfelt Apology: Yumi gives one to Shiori. While Shiori does forgive her, she also clarifies that the two of them can never again truly be friends.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Implied. Shinji Suzuki is a successful banker and is popular with his boss and coworkers because he is ruthless and handles cases where a normal banker would be sympathetic towards the client. The end of the story is the final chapters, where when Shinji's mistress and former victim revealed him to be a cheater and a bully to his boss and coworkers, they were all horrified and disgusted. Shinji Boss denied him the promotion he wanted and demoted him. His coworkers started to ignore him, refuse to talk to him, and be threatened by him. But some of the coworker's words, like one of them saying that they don’t have to suck up to him anymore and stating he didn’t get his former job on merit, hinted that his coworkers had a disliking for him before to revealed. It’s heavily implied that even though his coworkers and boss previously admired Shinji for how much money he was making the bank and his ruthless personality, they also slightly disliked him for some of his cruelty and how bossy he could be towards his coworkers. When his boss and coworkers saw firsthand what a monster he was and lost respect for him, that dislike for him rose to the surface and became hatred because of how much of a monster he was.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Shinji's downfall and eventual death comes as a natural result of his own asshole behaviour.
  • He doesn't apologize and acts like a smug asshole during his penultimate confrontation with Aizawa, after Aizawa reveals to him that his daughter was bullied, not knowing that Shiori is in the very next room and listening in on their conversation. This is what finally drives her to cut all ties with him.
  • His attempt to bribe and manipulate Yazaki into mending his relationship with his daughter is what drives her to cause a scene at his place of work, causing him to lose the promotion he was waiting for.
  • His Lack of Empathy and not visiting his wife in the hospital ends up making his wife realize that she needs to get away from him and serve him divorce papers.
  • Him losing whatever standards he has during his Villainous Breakdown and attempting to organize a hit on Aizawa, is what ultimately costs him his job.
  • Him being a Smug Snake and acting all self-important is what makes Takano and Satake, the former members of his Gang of Bullies, throw him under the bus and cooperate with Aizawa to stage a Frameup in order to make him lose his job.
  • Him being a Sadist towards Nomura-san, a father asking for loan help at his bank and telling his daughter, Megumi, that her father is a thief during his Villainous Breakdown is what drives him to end his life taking Shinji with him.
• Humiliation Conga: Shinji suffers a really long and satisfying one during the final chapters of the series. First, his daughter calls him out on his attitude and his Blaming the Victim mentality. Then his attempt to bribe and manipulate Yazaki into mending his relationship with Shiori horribly backfires and Yazaki shows up at his workplace in full Psycho Ex-Girlfriend mode causing a scene. Then Aizawa hijacks the printers and exposes him as an adulterer which leads him to lose the promotion he was looking forward to. Then he gets doxxed as Aizawa's brutal childhood bully which leads to his boss chewing him out and his coworkers losing all respect for him, making him a pariah at work as he watches the promotion go to someone else. Then he returns home to find his wife who calls him out on his Domestic Abuse and Lack of Empathy before serving him divorce papers. Then he tries to arrange a hit on Aizawa which ends up being a Frameup that costs him his job. Then he tries to kill Aizawa himself but can't bring himself to do it (because he is afraid Shiori will get bullied worse when her father becomes a murderer) which ends up crashing his car and injuring his spine. Aizawa then approaches the injured Shinji and lights up a cigarette, fully intent on blowing both of them up. Shinji then breaks down crying in fear and pathetically begs Aizawa not to kill him while tearfully apologizing to him for ruining his life.
• Hypocrite:
  • Shinji enjoyed being a bully and once told his daughter the one being bullied is at fault. Once he finds out Shiori is getting bullied, he goes on a war path against all that harmed his little girl. Shiori calls him out for his victim-blaming logic, but Shinji decides to twist it around and proclaim it's the bullies who're at fault. Shiori who secretly listens in on the conversation becomes even more disgusted with him and leaves him for good. Aizawa also chews him out since he continues to assert he's done nothing wrong with his treatment towards the former while feeling enraged at his daughter's bullies.
  • Nagumo's mother is an anti-bullying activist and claims she'd never forgive bullying, while she's in denial of the overwhelming evidence of her daughter being an Alpha Bitch. She even goes as low as to plead to Shiori to address to a press conference that her daughter is a "innocent victim" like her. Even as Shiori calls her out and makes it clear her daughter is a bully ruining her life, Nagumo's mother tells her she should open her eyes to the truth. This disgusts Shiori even more and asks her if she had even seen any of the videos proving her daughter enjoyed bullying her without a shred of remorse. Shiori bluntly tells her that it should be her opening her eyes to the truth. Once Shiori leaves, Nagumo's mother laments that she's brainwashed by the "lies" told to her, not realizing that she's being manipulated by her daughter's lies.
• Ignored Epiphany: It does cross Shinji's mind at some point that what happened to his daughter was his fault, but refuses to accept it and it doesn't take him long to go back to his Smug Snake ways.
• Instant Humiliation Just Add Youtube: Nagumo wishes to share Shiori's Shameful Strip video with everyone's socials in the classroom, fully intent on ruining her life and drive her to suicide. Too bad Shiori posts video evidence of her and her Gang of Bullies abusing her first.
• Internal Reveal: The reading audience knows from the first few chapters that Shinji is cheating on with wife with Yazaki and that he was the bully that made Aizawa's life hell in middle school. Shiori finds out about her father's cheating in chapter 21 and his bullying in chapter 25. The latter is the final straw that makes her cut all ties with him.
• It's All My Fault: Shiori at some point tries to placate the Gang of Bullies, by apologizing for "her selfish behaviour" and attempting to put everything behind them to start anew. The bullies accept the apology, welcome her in their ranks as their friend... and then proceed to escalate their bullying in the next few chapters.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Takano and Satake (former members of the Gang of Bullies that abused Aizawa) tearfully apologize to Aizawa for all the things they did to him. At first it seems they turned over a new leaf, but as soon as Aizawa walks out the door, they admit they didn't really mean their apology and only did it to get Aizawa off their backs. They then proceed to have sex with each other, cheating on their respective spouses. Too bad Aizawa is still recording them.
• Karma Houdini: Nagumo Ai attempts to play this straight by studying abroad in order to escape the disastrous consequences of her monstrous actions. It's ultimately averted when it turns out her parents can't afford it because Nagumo's antics have tarnished their reputations and completely destroyed their professional lives leaving them with no income and no option but to go on the run.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Defied. Aizawa doesn't believe in karma. He believes in irrevocably screwing those that have wronged others by destroying their lives, often by manipulating them into doing it themselves.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Shiori is a sweet kindhearted girl, while Shinji brutal sadistic bully. Aizawa eventually recognises that.
  Aizawa: [to Shinji] You've raised a very kind girl... one who understands the pain of others. You should be very proud, since she is nothing like you!
• Love Cannot Overcome: Shiho genuinely loves her husband Shinji and tries to do everything to be the perfect wife to him, even enduring Domestic Abuse. When she attempts to take her own life and gets hospitalized, Shinji doesn't even attempt to visit her which makes her realize out that he is an abusive manipulative cheating asshole, who doesn't really care about her. This leads her to eventually serve him divorce papers.
• Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: Nagumo’s mother proclaims she'd never forgive bullying and firmly believes her daughter is an innocent and kind girl, completely missing her Psychotic Smirk (something that Aizawa lampshades) and failing to realize there’s videos of her daughter gleefully bullying Shiori. Her mother is convinced Aizawa is the only that forced the bullying and tries to convince Shiori that her daughter is not the one to hate and should open her eyes to the truth. She goes as low as to ask Shiori to attend the press conference to convince everyone that her daughter is a “victim” like her. Shiori calls her out on this and asks her point blank if she saw any of the videos, stating that it’s her that should be opening her eyes. At the press conference, Aizawa reveals that Nagumo is the one who took the video of stripping Shiori, and calls out her mother for not accepting the glaring facts that she enjoyed being a bully; Yumi makes it perfectly clear with admitting their joy in the bullying. After witnessing her daughter’s Villainous Breakdown, her mother pleads to a journalist not to publish the story to save face but he refuses.
• The New '20s: The series takes place in the year 2021, with the first chapter at the end of May. The epilogue takes place in March 2022.
• No Full Name Given: We never find out Nomura's, Negishi's and Manaka's full names. The main characters are also not referred to with their full names for most of the story and some characters' full names are only revealed as a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
• Once More, with Clarity: After Aizawa gives Yazaki a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech, Yazaki thinks back with a more clear mind at her relationship with Shinji and admits to Aizawa and herself that it has changed her for the worse. This allows her to break out of her Mad Love funk.
• Papa Wolf: Once Shinji watches the local news talking about a recent bullying case, he notices the uniform of one of the students interviewed is the same as his daughter. Thinking back to his previous conversations with Shiori, he noticed how shy she was when talking about her school life. He pieces it together and realizes it was her nonverbal call for help. When he finds Shiori’s old vandalized notebooks, he’s horrified to find out she’s bullied and confused over why the school didn’t notify him. Shinji decides right then and there to kill all the bullies and incompetent teachers for failing his daughter.
• Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: Aizawa is scarred both in mind and body. He showcases some of the scars to Shiori on the second chapter but it's not until he strips on public television that we see the full extent of it.
• Parental Obliviousness: None of the parents featured on the series have any idea what their children are really up to and what they are going through.
  • Shinji and his wife fail to notice that their daughter is being bullied. Shinji in particular is especially egregious since his daughter makes it completely clear that she is having a really bad time at school and he completely fails to take the hint.
  • Nagumo's mother fails to see Nagumo as the Spoiled Brat and monster she truly is, even in the face of video evidence. Justified in this case, since she is an anti-bullying activist and refuses to believe her own daughter is a brutal bully.
  • Yumi's mother still thinks Yumi and Shiori are friends, even long after Yumi has turned against Shiori and is genuinely shocked when she sees the video evidence of Yumi abusing Shiori.
  • Kaho's parents are also dumbfounded and only watch as their daughter loses her mind.
• Pride Before a Fall: Shinji fits this trope like a glove. He is proud to the point of arrogance about the life he has built and looks down on Aizawa, refusing to apologize and even being smug about his past actions. His final act of arrogance towards Aizawa, after he finds out about his daughter being a bully-victim is what finally convinces Shiori to cut all ties with him and what convinces Aizawa to stop holding back and set his revenge plans into motion. The next final five chapters are not kind to him.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Manaka gives one to Himekawa Reina, calling her out on her bullying Shiori and making it paifully clear to her that he wants nothing to do with her.
  • Aizawa gives a scathing one to Shinji on the story's penultimate chapter.
    Aizawa: Back in the third year of middle-school, I thought of you as a king. Everyone obeyed you and did everything you wanted them to. But that wasn't it. You're actually a pitiful man, one who can't do more than puff out his chest.
• Redemption Rejection: After Shiori's bullying is publicly exposed, Aizawa confronts Shinji one last time, offering him the chance to think back hard about his previous actions, sincerely apologise and rethink his Blaming the Victim mentality. Shinji rejects it choosing to act like a Smug Snake instead. Given that his daughter was secretly listening in on the conversation, he really should have accepted it. Both Aizawa and Shiori then decide he is Beyond Redemption.
• Reformed Bully: Played straight with Yumi, who becomes The Atoner by the end of the story and averted with Takano and Satake who are still horrible people that only pretend to be sorry to get Aizawa off their backs.
• Resigned in Disgrace:
  • The school principal went "on an indefinite hiatus" after getting exposed on public television.
  • Similarly, Nagumo's father lost his job due to the backlash and Nagumo's mother is no longer invited (and consequently paid) to give speeches about bullying.
• The Reveal:
  • It wasn't Shoji who organised the reunion Shinji attended, it was actually Aizawa.
  • It's unclear who recorded Shiori's Shameful Strip video. Chapter 8 reveals it was Nagumo Ai.
  • Aizawa is Ambiguously Evil for a big part of the story. In chapter 15 it is revealed he is on Shiori's side and was just allowing things to happen to gather more evidence.
• Revenge by Proxy: Subverted. At first it seems like Aizawa lets the bullies freely abuse Shiori in order to get back at his former bully. Even though he was really gathering evidence to expose Shiori's bullies, he admits that he let the abuse go on longer than he should have, because he couldn't help seeing parts of Shinji on her.
• Riches to Rags:
  • Shinji starts the story being a highly successful banker, on a fast-track for a promotion and becoming the bank's next CEO. By the time Aizawa finishes with him, he is an unemployed wreck forced to live in his car.
  • Nagumo's parents are highly successful rich individuals who built their reputations on fighting bullying. Her mother's attempt to cover up Nagumo's bullying by scapegoating Aizawa backfires and they end up losing their jobs and their house.
• Rightly Self-Righteous: Aizawa is a highly messed up individual who uses extreme and illegal methods to fight the bully problem, because he believes the current methods schools use to address the issue are inadequate, don't deter bullies and fail to protect victims. And the story proves him right.
• The Scapegoat: Nagumo, her mother, and the school's principal try to set up Aizawa as this by means of Engineered Public Confession. Given that Aizawa is also The Chessmaster, it doesn't quite work the way they expected.
• School Bullying Is Harmless: Averted hard. Aizawa received more physical bullying, while Shiori more psychological and social. Both end up becoming highly messed up individuals and will carry the weight of their abuse for the rest of their lives. Shiori has the mental fortitude to forgive and move on, Aizawa... not so much.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Nagumo Ai attempts this in order to escape the consequences of her actions by studying abroad. It turns out she can't because her parents' reputations and professional lives are destroyed as a direct result of her behaviour and they can't afford to keep their home, let alone send her abroad Cue Oh, Crap! expression.
  • Yazaki-Sensei. During his penultimate confrontation with Aizawa, Shinji finds out that Yazaki moved back with her parents and was never really pregnant with Shinji's child.
• Selective Obliviousness:
  • Everybody in Shiori's class chooses to completely ignore the bullying she receives by Nagumo, even when it's right in front of them.
  • Once Shiori slaps Nagumo over the drawing of her mother’s attempted suicide with her watching, the bullies make it look like she’s a bitch and chant at her to apologize, with the rest of the class joining in.
  • After the Gang of Bullies gets Convicted by Public Opinion, the class turns on the bullies and try to apologize to Shiori, but she rightfully calls them out on this.
• Shameful Strip:
  • Shinji did this once to Aizawa, painted a target on his face and then threw balls at him knocking out two of his teeth.
  • Shiori falls asleep at the infirmary and someone walks in, takes off her blouse and takes a video of it. It's later revealed it's Nagumo Ai.
• Shaming the Mob: Shiori does this twice to her classmates.
  • Once her Gang of Bullies act “concerned” over her wellbeing, they taunt her with a drawing of herself witnessing her mother’s attempted suicide. Shiori gives Nagumo the Bitch Slap and shames her for, well, being what she is. Nagumo is furious at this and attacks Shiori, while the rest of the gang make it look like they’re only trying to apologize while hiding the drawing. They try to force Shiori into apologizing while chanting, and the rest of the class follow suit. Shiori cuts them off and shames them all for being bullies and the rest of the class for doing nothing.
  • The class is quick to turn on the bullies after they are doxxed and Convicted by Public Opinion. They attempt to justify being an Accomplice by Inaction to Shiori by claiming they didn't notice she was being bullied. Shiori rightfully calls everyone out on their Selective Obliviousness.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Shinji's actions throughout the series greatly impact his daughter's life in a very negative way.
  • Shinji's tryst with Yazaki, Shiori's basketball coach, is what makes The Leader of the Gang of Bullies, Nagumo Ai, resent her and target her, since she thinks Yazaki put her on the main team instead of her because of the tryst and not because of her merit. Furthermore, it allows Aizawa to use it to prevent her from interfering with Shiori's bullying.
  • Shinji's bullying of Aizawa is what prevents Aizawa from stopping Shiori's bullying sooner, since he admits that he saw a lot of her father in her. He does ultimately help her stop the bullying by getting revenge on her bullies, but not before Shiori is almost Driven to Suicide.
  • In the case of Nagumo, the trope is inverted. Her actions end up destroying the lives of her parents.
• Spy Cam: Aizawa has them installed everywhere in the school faculty, even the principal's office, and has been collecting evidence not only of Shiori's bullying, but also the principal's unwillingness to deal with the problem.
• Staging the Eavesdrop: During chapter 25 Aizawa confronts Shinji one more time, informing him of the bullying his own daughter went through. He also arranges for Shiori to be in the very next room to listen in on their conversation.
• Suicide is Shameful: Shiori's bullies use this trope to further rub salt on her wounds, after her mother attempts to commit suicide.
• Take That!: The story is a huge one toward the Japanese education system and how they handle bullying by covering it up, instead of addressing it and taking the bare minimum measures to ensure the student's safety (such as installing security cameras). As Aizawa puts it "schools are essentially extraterritorial" and they don't have to, which allows the bullying problem to continue.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Shiori has this expression painted on her face when she gets informed by Shinji that he has arranged for her to attend her school trip overruling his wife's objections. It evolves into an Oh, Crap! expression when she finds out she shares the room with Nagumo and her Gang of Bullies.
  • Nagumo has this expression on her face as it's revealed her antics completely destroyed her parents' reputation and lives, and that they are currently on the run, desperately looking for a place where nobody knows them.
• This Means War!: When Shinji rejects Aizawa's final offer to apologise to him and brags about his bullying, ''after'' he finds out about his daughter's bullying, Aizawa calmly informs him that he will never again have a moment of peace in his life. He then proceeds to completely destroy everything Shinji values in his life over the course of the final five chapters.
• Trojan Horse: The phone Nagumo Ai has turns out to be this. It was given to her by Aizawa who also installed spyware and key-logging software on it to keep track of her actions and also hand over its control to Shiori in order for her to save herself and expose her bullies.
• Villainous Breakdown: Shinji has a very big one during the final five chapters of the story, as Aizawa's revenge plot goes fully into action and Shinji's past bad deeds all catch up to him.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • Shinji dumping Yazaki after she taunts his wife with their affair, which nearly got herself killed and traumatized their daughter was definitely a good call on his part. His "Reason You Suck" Speech wasn't exactly pleasant, but it was only after listening to Yazaki believing that yes, Shiori will certainly hate her once she finds out the truth, but wants to "explain" with Shinji of their "love" so that it would make her understand how serious they are together.
  • Nagumo has legit reasons to hate her coach, Yazaki, since she left her out on most of the basketball club as a means to win over Shiori and marry her father. They form an alliance to take down Aizawa, but once it comes crashing down and Yazaki demands the photos of her together with Shinji, Nagumo laughs it off and calls her out for wanting to use the photos to force the affair to continue. Nagumo considers this behavior disgusting and rightfully calls her a stalker. Once Yazaki tries to attack her, another teacher pulls her back; Nagumo further taunts her by pointing out she should act her age. She’s not entirely wrong with criticizing Yazaki's behavior since it is immature and wrong for her to chase after a married man who also happens to be her student’s father.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The final chapter, through means of a conversation between Manaka and Shiori shows us what happened to the Gang of Bullies. We also get information about Shiori's future and see what eventually became of Aizawa and Shinji.
  • Shiho has custody of Shiori and the two are happily living together.
  • Shiori and Manaka end up graduating and are about to move to the same high-school together.
  • Riho Takahashi has gone into full-on paranoid depression, drops out of school and ends up becoming a Hikkikomori.
  • Reina Himekawa has also dropped out of school and was last seen hanging out with "a rough crowd", the implication being that she became a Streetwalker, given her flashing clothing and closeness to the men.
  • Nagumo Ai's life got completely destroyed after the events of the story. Her parents lost their jobs and moved out of town in shame, trying desperately to find a place where their faces aren't recognized in order to start a new life there. In the last panel we see her, she has a This Is Gonna Suck expression on her face.
  • Some schools are now installing cameras to monitor and prevent the bullying problem, meaning Aizawa's efforts have really made a difference.
  • Yumi Yoneda managed to get into a a good high school, it is still however a public one and rumors about her and will start and spread in an instant once the new term starts, since her shameful actions are still somewhere on the internet. Yumi admits she will most likely have to live the rest of her life with people constantly talking behind her back, she is however more than willing to accept that and carry on. She has one final meeting with Shiori and Yumi parts with her on good terms, the final image we see of her being a warm genuine smile.
  • Shinji is wheelchair bound after his last encounter with Aizawa and currently in recovery. Prideful and remorseless as ever, he is making huge amounts of money in the stock market. He plans on making his own company in order to Financial Abuse his way back into Shiori's life. And then Nomura-san, the person he has been putting down and refusing to financially help for the entirety of the story shows up completely broken, fully intent on ending his own life and taking Shinji with him.
  • Aizawa has cut all contact with Shiori, but still receives her messages. Even though he has put Shinji behind him, he has decided his to dedicate his life hunting down bullies and helping their victims get back at them. The last few pages showcase him helping out an adult man Driven to Suicide by his bullies and offering him a helping hand.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: During his penultimate encounter with Shinji, Aizawa accurately enacts this trope, implying that it was also a big part of Shinji's bullying in the past.
• With Friends Like These...:
  • Aizawa quotes the trope word-for-word when he listens in on Yumi (Shiori's supposed "best friend") and Nagumo talking crap behind her back.
  • Takano and Satake, the former members of Shinji's Gang of Bullies, gladly throw Shinji under the bus once Aizawa gets on their case. Shinji's Smug Snake and Proud Peacock attitude definitely didn't help matters.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Yazaki is on the receiving end by Aizawa after the television interview. Aizawa tells her that he actually looked up to her, because she was the only teacher who noticed that Shiori was being bullied and was on her way to do something about it before Aizawa stopped her, by using her relationship her Shinji as deterrent. This helps Yazaki see her relationship with Shinji Once More, with Clarity and eventually break out of her Mad Love funk.