"God sometimes tells lies too... because... he really loves you."
Five short chapters. In just five chapters, Kaori Ozaki has managed to tell a compelling story about people that reduced me to tears and melancholy nostalgia. I don't know what sort of ending I was expecting, but this is certainly right up Ozaki-sensei's forte. It's not really a story about the unfairness and cruelty of life, though Suzumura and her brother definitely experience plenty of that; it's really a story about Natsuru and how he comes to terms with Suzumura's situation. It's been clear that he loves her, and it's been clear that he truly cares for the family's circumstances, but it's also painfully clear to us as observers that Natsuru has always been too naive to truly help. Yet is that really a bad thing? In a world where she and her brother face losing the very thin facade of their old family life, Natsuru and his love are exactly what Suzumura needed. She needed someone to trust, someone to be friends with, someone to care for her when she's always had to be the one caring for others. His kind gestures, his concern and attempt to run away with her, and his companionship are all she needed to keep going, and thus it is all the more heartbreaking to see that come to an end, even if only temporarily so.
In the end, Natsuru has to grow up and face the titular lies: the lies of a dying father, the lies of a selfish father, the lies the children tell themselves and the adults around them, and the lies of life itself. But not all the lies are cruel ones; sometimes, loving someone means you have to lie, in order to protect them from far worse things. That doesn't make the lie harmless, or even beneficial, but it does, at least in the moment, convey just how much you care for the person you lie to. Natsuru and Suzumura face the consequences of the lies in their lives and it breaks them apart, but the residual love nevertheless allows them to hope, and hope is something they both need.
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