Wakanae Akira wakes up to a normal day on her boring island home, only to learn that a new student is going to be transferring to her class. Much to everyone at her middle school's disappointment, the new kid, Nishigami Matsushirou, turns out to be an incredibly concentrated ball of pure angst. He introduces himself as a shinigami and tells the class that everyone who gets close to him dies.
Nishigami proceeds to alienate his classmates to the best of his ability, but ends up class president alongside Wakanae to their mutual displeasure. However, as they interact, they begin to develop feelings for one another...
Shindere Shoujo to Kodoku na Shinigami ("The Dyingnote Girl and the Forlorn Death God") is a short-lived manga written by Masaki Himura (under the pen name Yuki Shinkiba) and illustrated by Yoshie Katou. It builds off of a generic premise to become anything but, as Wakanae and Nishigami weave their way through dubious traditions, xenophobic natives, and desperate foreigners in search of the truth behind the island's greatest secret.
The manga began serialization in September 2011 in Gangan Online; however, at the end of March 2013, it was announced that the manga had been put on indefinite hiatus, due to Himura coming down with a sudden illness. On September 24, 2015, she was reported to have died three months earlier, on June 17.
This manga provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: It turns out that Wakanae's death was a result of Nishigami accidentally pushing her over a railing and off a cliff. Fortunately for them both, she gets better, but not without cost.
- Accidental Truth: Nishigami stumbles upon Touka's hidden identity on nothing more than an empty hunch.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: One of the perks of being the island's shrine maiden is the right to pick any man for your husband with a 100% success rate.
- Arkham's Razor: Miko Doctors? Puh-leeze, Touka, that's too damn rational to be true!
- Berserk Button: Yoroizuka doesn't take kindly to people insinuating that he approves of Lady Hahane or the associated myths.
- Big Damn Heroes: Kuro takes out Jane Doe; Touka saves Wakanae from being taken off the island.
- Bound and Gagged: Wakanae can't help but wonder why the hell anyone would restrain a corpse so thoroughly.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The leads. Nishigami is as brooding as they come (and with good reason, it seems), whereas Wakanae is far too nice to buy into his 'everybody hate me' facade (while being brave enough not to be scared away, unlike Rin).
- Catchphrase: Nishigami has "I hate that part of you too", usually aimed at Wakanae.
- Clear Their Name: Wakanae is far from thrilled that Nishigami has fallen under suspicion for a series of disappearances, even though he wasn't even on the island when they started.
- Close-Knit Community: Since the story takes place in a small island town, everyone is childhood friends and outsiders are grudgingly tolerated. Naturally, this leads to Small Town Boredom.
- Cut Short: The manga ran for only 20 chapters before going on indefinite hiatus due to the writer's illness. She passed away a few years later, leaving the story unfinished.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Nishigami states in the first chapter that four people close to him have died in front of his eyes. The story has yet to expand on this...
- Devil in Plain Sight: Kuro piles on the creepy and suspicious behavior just when it seems that he might be the serial killer. Of course, he isn't, but he ratchets the creepy stuff back up to 11 the moment he becomes substitute school nurse.
- Disposable Fiancé: Subverted. Their relationship has all the hallmarks of this and Touka even gives Nishigami the option to back out of their marriage, but he decides that it would be too inconvenient to be unable to talk to her. Also literal, in that Touka is a literally disposable fiancee since she can resurrect.
- Eagle-Eye Detection: Nishigami's specialty. In one example, he constructs an entire narrative from a splash of water on a curtain and a broken necklace at a fountain.
- Elective Mute: As shrine maiden, Touka is bound by oath not to speak with any man, up to and including her own brother. The sole exception to this is her husband, Nishigami.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Wakanae is a skilled cook, something that works wonders on Nishigami. On a more depressing note, she had to learn how to cook because her mother left the island years ago and hasn't been heard from since, and her dad works long hours as a police officer.
- Figure It Out Yourself: Itsuki can't figure out why everyone else searching for the missing cookbook keeps ignoring him. The entire situation could have been avoided if he wasn't so Oblivious to Love...
- Girl Next Door: Wakanae is a Nice Girl in general, though not as bubbly or outgoing as Rin. She isn't submissive or traditional enough to be a Yamato Nadeshiko, though.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Nishigami also happens to be a genius, and has a knack for deduction.
- It's All My Fault: Nishigami is convinced that the deaths of his four friends were caused by his existence, which is why he resolves to hate absolutely everyone, especially Wakanae. Unknown to him, she heard his reason as he was grieving over her corpse, and she accepted Lady Hahane's offer of revival just to prove Nishigami wrong.
- Left Hanging: The third and last volume sets up "Touka" having some kind of connection with Kuro and Kuro doing something with Yoroizuka's hidden eye, but with the manga Cut Short these mysteries never get explored.
- Master of the Mixed Message: Neither Wakanae nor Nishigami have managed to properly state their feelings.
- Near-Death Clairvoyance: Dead people get to float around for a bit before they're sucked down into the afterlife.
- Non-Action Guy: Nishigami to a T. He'll still force himself if he has to.
- Oblivious to Love: Although they have their fair share of love-related miscommunication, averted with the protagonists (in a shonen manga, no less!). On the other hand, Itsuki is bad enough to make up for both of them.
- Pride: Yoroizuka's defining trait, although his family has already fallen on hard times.
- Resurrective Immortality: Through Lady Hahane's powers, a soul who dies on the island can revive in a body if they make their way back to it, even if it's someone's else body. This is why people want to die on the island.
- Sadly Mythtaken: In-Universe, the general public isn't entirely clear on the intricacies of the Lady Hahane myth.
- Sailor Fuku: Wakanae and her female classmates wear white and blue ones, while Nishigami and the guys wear gray and dark blue blazer uniforms.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Nishigami's barbs often cause another side of Wakanae to come out. While she tolerates his occasional tirades against her because she knows for a fact he doesn't mean it, she'll lay into him verbally or physically if he does it to any of her friends on the island. This happens frequently enough that she can come off as a Tsundere.
- Staircase Tumble: In Chapter 16, Wakanae falls over the staircase to the roof while trying to take her letter back from Nishigami. This is surprisingly not lethal thanks to Nishigami catching her in time, but he's still sore from earlier and has to be brought to the infirmary.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Lady Hahane's existence both enables and kicks off the plot.
- The Unsmile: For his date with Wakanae, Nishigami tries to follow Kuro's advice of "complimenting her with a smile". Unfortunately, his "smile" looks more like a smirk, which makes his compliment sound condescending.
- Unwanted Spouse: Touka marries Nishigami so they can hold a conversation. Neither of them are particularly thrilled with the situation, but it would be too inconvenient to call it off.
