A good part of the manga is far, far darker than the cute anime series and the first chapters allow you to see...
Spoilers below!
- To the outside world, Arima appears to be a well-put-together genius, with his only match being his girlfriend Yukino, but any time that he's onscreen, you just know he's seconds away from shattering - we get to see Arima's dark side, with his thoughts morphing from wanting to be with Yukino to wanting to isolate her from everyone and keep her just for himself. Moreover, he's well aware of these thoughts and has to fight them off constantly, making him much more sympathetic and making the viewer dread every moment he imagines e.g. tying Yukino in chains. Not only he a 'stalker' in a committed relationship with his crush, but he's so wrought with intrusive thoughts that you just want to save him from himself.
- The worst has to be the end of Chapter 42, right after Yukino decides that she wants her world to be bigger than just her and Arima. The realization that he cannot bind her to him makes the dark side that Arima was always trying to hide come out. And it is frightening.
- In Chapter 72, Arima also stabs himself in the hand after he believes that he has raped Yukino in order to atone for his mistakes. Made worse by how that scene comes out: Arima is still in his Break Her Heart to Save Her phase after recovering his memories, and she has given him a Cooldown Hug. Then Arima gives Yukino a Forceful Kiss and pins her to the floor, and the scene pans to her disheveled hair and spread school things as she tells Arima to wait. This is followed by an odd scene where Yukino sees a small Arima in the middle of a thorny path and he keeps explaining to her how Ryouko abused him one last time before she abandoned him and he was taken in by his uncle and aunt. And last but not least, as Yukino lays on the floor covered by Arima's school jacket and hugs it in tears, Arima mentally berates himself at home for "forcing his feelings on her"... and THEN goes the Impaled Palm way. It's both terrifying and heartwretching: how really fucking broken you must be to do that?!
- Yukino's last-ditch attempt to save him can also qualify actually arguing with Arima about whether or not he raped her [he believes he did, she replies (paraphrased) "I *did* want to have sex with you, I told you to wait a little but not to stop!"] and then she smashes her hand on glass to mirror his own hand injury.
- The worst has to be the end of Chapter 42, right after Yukino decides that she wants her world to be bigger than just her and Arima. The realization that he cannot bind her to him makes the dark side that Arima was always trying to hide come out. And it is frightening.
- Before all that, Ryouko's treatment of child!Arima is both horrifying and tear-jerking to the nth degree. It can be considered Nightmare Fuel because by the time he was finally adopted by his aunt and uncle, his mother had decided to let him die and left him alone as he starved to death with an extreme fever, right after kicking him across the room for begging for help. Had Reiji arrived a single day or even a few hours later, Arima would have died never knowing anything but constant hatred and abuse.
- Especially Reiji's horror once he notices that Soichiro's crying in the background and he doesn't even know the address to save him.
- And seeing Soichiro's broken little body in the snow from Reiji's perspective was pretty horrifying too. No wonder he immediately handed the poor kid to his brother and sister-in-law and years later wants to murder Ryoko.
- His father Reiji's childhood wasn't much better. His mother went insane and tried to drown them both. The only reason Reiji survived is that he kicked her in the face until she let go...
- The fact that the very first meal Arima had with his aunt and uncle served as the very first meal he had ever had, having basically survived up until than on table scraps, stale bread and whatever cheap crap his mother left in the house that he could get to. And said mother would torment her starving child by eating in front of him while refusing to share; even flying into a rage when a lady offered him a free ice cream. That is how horrible a mother Ryouko is.
