Colette Decides to Die Manga First Impression & Review [Video & Transcript]

This is the transcript from my Colette Decides to Die review video. Some grammatical errors may exist.

Cold Open

When an overworked apothecary haphazardly commits suicide after being overworked and burnt out, she has no idea what is in store for her on the “other side.” What she initially believes to be a break from being needed and attending to patients, turns out to be another opportunity to work, as she is sought out to heal the ruler of the underworld, Hades. This quirky premise, which was originally a one-shot manga, turns into a rich emotional journey about life, love, and purpose in this life and the next one.

Intro

Welcome back to The Wonder of anime YouTube channel my name is Lisa and in this video we are going to talk about the long awaited finally imprint manga Colette decides to die. Now I knew Colette decides to die was going to be good the buzz on ShoJosie Twitter never lets me down and yet when I started reading it I was completely caught off guard I was not prepared for just how good it was going to be now I went in mostly blind except for like the synopsis on the back cover on kind of like what to expect and that was like nowhere near enough to prepare me for the journey that I was about to go on.

Immediately as I was reading I got xxxHolic vibes from CLAMP and you guys know me you guys know it always comes back to CLAMP but I just can’t help but to compare a series to CLAMP when it talks about life death and purpose and that xxxHolic is my holy grail but it wasn’t just the Deep topics that reminded me of xxxHolic but also like the funny moments the actions that goes on in the background and the perfect balance of comedy and lifechanging moments. I think as soon as I finished book one I realized that this manga was most likely going to enter my favorites list because I enjoyed it that much.

About Colette Decides to Die

Colette Decides to Die was created by Alto Yukimura and was initially a one-shot published in Hana to Yume magazine on November 5, 2013. It was then given a short term serialization on March 5, 2014 and then became a full serialization in July. It ended on October 5, 2021 and has 20 total volumes.

Yukuri notes that the title Colette Decides to Die was just the title for the one-shot and doesn’t match the ongoing story.

On the Subject of Death

It’s important for me to start of this section with discussing my personal feelings about death because that completely shapes my reaction to this story and why it has hit me so hard. For as long as i can remember, I’ve always been scared of death. I grew up Catholic so I was raised with the belief of Heaven and Hell. But I always thought about what it would mean to be dead and be nothing. Not conscious, not thinking, not seeing or experiencing life at all. This is not something I harbor on often, sometimes it’s months and months, or even years when a thought like this will come across my mind. However, it is something that when i do think about, it makes me very anxious.

In 2018, I experienced mental breakdown that lasted over a month triggered by a reddit thread discussing death. I suffer from intrusive thoughts so the entire month was just a month of being anxious 24/7, having thoughts of no longer being alive (not that I wanted to end my life but just the thought of not being alive for it,) and an unending spiral. What finally broke me from this haze was discussing with a friend that fears of death are normal. I soon learned that this is often called existential dread and many people deal with it at one point or another.

This mental breakdown changed me and really how I thought about life and death. I sometimes need to limit my intake of news surrounding death, like when a celebrity dies or a mass casualty occurs. I also don’t like discussing death at times and I’ve changed my language. I don’t like using terms like “I’m dying” when I’m laughing at something funny or in pain, tired. etc. I hate when people say “imma kill myself, KMS” all the time or as a joke. I found that the language in which I discuss life an death feels powerful to me.

All this to day, a story like Colette Decides to Die has all the components of something that could trigger my death anxiety. A few years ago, freshly after that breakdown, I would have never been able to read this. But now, so many years removed from that, instead of it being triggered, i felt comforted strangely enough. Obviously, this is only 2 out of 20 volumes, but these 2 were enough to make me feel comforted, even if its a fictional portrayal of the afterlife.

I think for me what feels so comforting about Colette Decides to Die, is that the story so far is not just about people dying and the afterlife, but what their life is like on earth or was like. Each story touched upon so far left me in tears when i relate it to the human condition overall.

The first chapter, the oneshot which ultimately becomes the story, felt so poignant to me. Colette, who thinks she has died, is thinking about how much she carried in her day to day life, because she had to be the strong one and didn’t want to ask for help. Her realizing that she could have done things differently. When Hades tells her “ Live a life you can be proud of for when you face me at your trial.” that hit me hard. Ultimately, we may not know during our time what comes “next,” but what we can do and control is our NOW. Colette serves as a reminder that what we do every day is what shapes our lives and who we are.

Colette x Hades

Now that the deep stuff is out of the way the other thing in this story so far that has me giggling that has me blushing is definitely the developing relationship between Colette and Hades. There’s something about Hades particular ularly his character where I wouldn’t say he at so far in these two volumes of portrayal that he is a tsundere character 100% but there’s something about him that is kind of aloof and cool but at the same time his actions and his words and how he treat Colette you just know that this man is fallen and then we know that Colette is falling and I love this so so much I’m a romance girly always and forever and I find it just very refreshing to read and it seems to be moving at a slow pace it seems to be very deep or that it’s going to be a deep romance and I for one am very very excited to see what comes of this relationship and I am actively rooting for them I am actively shipping them and I’m just very very excited for this

In the Details

The third and final thing that really has me drawn to this manga is the art style is the funny things that happen in the background or how certain moments are depicted within the story and I know this seems very minor and very small in the large you know in the grand scheme of things but I am someone when I read a manga I I am usually somebody who reads it first to like get the story okay what’s happening especially if it’s a series where there’s multiple volumes and coming out at different times so initially I’ll read it right away and like okay what’s happening next what’s the how are we moving along and then I read it a second time to really go back and absorb everything that I’ve read and look over all the details on the page that I may have missed and there’s something that yukim Mara does in this series where when she’s drawing either Colette like flashback to the Past Colette kind of like in the background she draws kette and other people just like as incomplete stick figures and it probably isn’t as funny as I’m thinking it is but to me it is hilarious and I love the contrast of having like these beautiful drawn characters and like amazing art about them and then in the background there’s a stick figure of cette falling into a well or col healing somebody or Colette tripping or something and it’s such a contrast and every manga you know they have their thing whether they draw like little chibi versions of them but specifically the Colette sticks figures I just think they are so funny they make me laugh every time that I see them and it just makes the story especially enjoyable and I think it also really helps that the servants who serve Hades in the Underworld they are skeleton faces so then when you also draw Colette in a similar Style just adds to the hilariousness of it and it’s such a minor detail but sometimes those little details are what sets apart a story for me and it gives you a little extra to laugh at or enjoy when you’re reading it.

Conclusion

As a surprise to no one I am absolutely in with Colette Decides to die I was able to read an advanced reader copy shout out to Net Galley and Viz for allowing me to do that. So I don’t have the physical manga with me just yet I’m going to wait till a couple of the volumes come out so I can get them all at the same time and binge read them but I am I like knew that I was going to enjoy it but the fact that I am loving it and it has resonated with me on such a personal level on something that to me uh as I mentioned earlier the conversation of death can be so sensitive to me can trigger me in certain moments not as much now as it has in the past so to read a series that brings me Comfort about that topic where normally I would feel a lot of fear and anxiety just feels so good and I love that a series like this exists and make may be helpful to someone else you know aside from myself I don’t think I’m the only person that deals with issues like this but I I love it and I shared that personal story I don’t usually get that personal on here but I shared it because I found that it was important and I wanted to know I wanted people to know like stories like this manga whether they’re fictional whether they’re based on real life like they can have an impact on us on our mental health Journeys on just who we are and can provide us comfort sometimes about the darkest things or about regular life happenings that we have to make make do with because life and death is just a natural part of the human existence so thank you guys so much for watching this video and if you’ve read Colette decides to die if this is your first time reading it or you’re someone who has been waiting for the official translation for a couple years let’s talk about it in the comments I am I’m ready I ready to talk about this to any and everyone that will listen and I’m so happy that you guys decided to listen today thank you so much for watching this video and I will see you on the next one. Peace!