@Deebees "It seems you have an image of a predator being some hooded stranger that has very clear and thought out plans to corrupt their victims, but more often than not they’re exactly like this main protagonist."
All that statement really says is that as a society, we've failed, because if more often than not they're people who are driven through the dregs of depression and only find a light of hope in someone much younger without an actual sexual thought along the way, then what does that say about the other people around them who pushed them to that point and could have been that hope instead? What about how apathetic people are to quickly throw stones and demand crucifixion, rather than get help for someone who clearly needs it, without anything more than a few words to summarize and misrepresent a situation? You're not helping your case, you're pointing out the flaws in the system, while actively being part of the problem by being one of those people. Your logic only holds up in a world where mental health isn't part of the equation, by assuming every action made by a person is well thought out and there's no such thing as having a breakdown or panic attack, something so wrong that it's pitiable. The MC isn't right in what he's done, but rather than just labeling the same as those hooded strangers with clear ill intent, he, along with his daughter, her friend, and her friend's mom, all need to get help, because they're all making bad decisions, not just the one guy.
It seems you have the image of an adult being someone who's fully got it together when the reality is it's all a facade, lying to others and even ourselves while we're all just doing the best we can and hoping everything doesn't come crashing down in an instant. We are *all* vulnerable to mental damage, some more than others, but we all have a mental weak point which grows and grows with things like stress, and at the end of the day, we don't have full control over our minds. It tries to provide whatever solutions it can to our suffering, solutions that get more and more out of line as our own resistance to things like stress wane, and when other options don't seem apparent, excuses get formed to justify those thoughts. This is why we, as a species, need other people, other minds to help formulate other solutions to our problems, and why therapy isn't something to be scoffed at or mocked.
This entire manga is just another spotlight on how awful Japanese work culture is. How it doesn't care about its employees and their well being or their lives outside of work, and how it causes all sorts of issues in its people that just get swept under the rug because the overall culture is that appearing as a burden is tantamount to a sin, something the work culture takes full advantage of. If he wasn't entirely stressed out from his overworking, something that he's forced to do, it doesn't necessarily guarantee he'd have a better time dealing with his daughter while she was staying confined in her room, so that would still be stressful, but he'd not be driven to the point where he'd have confided in her friend. Don't get me started on how if the mom wasn't as awful as she is that her daughter wouldn't have taken the opportunity to get closer to her friend's dad and so on.
Personally, I want to see what his co-worker does, the woman who clearly has a thing for him. I want to see if she actually tries to help him (best option), abandons him (sad but most likely), or encourages him (worst option).
