The MAL description does make it sound like it could be a trashy yandere romance, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In the first place, contrary to my expectations, it didn’t go down the obsessed yandere route like in Happy Sugar Life. It also doesn’t go down a typical romance route where two people forced into some situation develop feelings for each other somehow and everyone is all smiles and we accept the situation happily (think those shoujo where some forced marriage ends up well despite the initial abuse and somehow everyone is okay with it)
It’s not even romance, despite the romance tag on one of the sites I found it on. It’s a portrayal of a complicated relationship based on strange dependence and differing motives.
Two people with their own complicated circumstances end up in their current situation, deciding to play their role of kidnapper and kidnapee for various reasons. It’s a relationship based on benefits, not out of love, so we can, for now, avoid the issue of whether we can stomach kidnapping for love reasons.
Either way, the manga makes it clear that the whole kidnapping situation is unacceptable in society. At the same time it also manages to show how for Sachi, it is much preferable to whatever life she could have had. It’s hard to decide what I want to happen in this story because what is good for the characters are objectively considered a bad thing. Whatever the reasons behind it, kidnapping was not the right choice - but what if it was the best choice? Dilemma ensues.
The characters are the main draw for me. Both main characters are smart and aware of their situation, not being brainwashed, tricked, or clueless about how complicated or wrong the situation is. This allows them to have interesting interactions where they can discuss, compromise and weigh cost-benefits with each other. One important thing is that the interests of the two are not necessarily aligned - it’s not a “protect our safe haven, us against the world” situation. While the-world-is-the-enemy seems to be somewhat true given the circumstances, the “us” part doesn’t hold so true due to their misaligned interests and the fact that their priority isn’t always something like being together always/maintaining status quo. They also change over time and are likely to continue to do so - it will be interesting to see how they end up affecting each other.
The story starts off a little slow and even slice-of-lifey, but it gets better. It’s a manga that starts out with just two people in a wrong situation that seem to be making the most out of their lives for the moment. But as expected, things really get complicated after the initial chapters, and it gets more interesting as more is revealed later and the facade starts to crack. The characters are really interesting, and while we’re privy to a lot of their inner thoughts we’re probably just barely scratching the surface of it at the same time... the characters themselves probably don’t understand all that well what they’re truly thinking or want.
How are things going to end? How should it end? Is a good end even possible, because such a thing can’t be easily available to criminals, also I’m not sure the current situation is a good one... And in the first place, the definition of a good end for these people seem to be twisted in more ways than one... Either way, it’s really interesting to see things play out, and my enjoyment value is high for this series due to the interesting characters. The art is also great when conveying expressions (very nice empty/crazed/scary/etc looks).
Entertainment wise, story wise and character wise, it’s definition a read worth your time. If you like complicated and you like drama, then plus points for you too. Likely one of the more memorable ones amongst the common stories nowadays.