This inspired manga adaptation creeps up on you and packs a wallop. Haruka, a high school student who has just moved to a small town, endures relentless bullying with the stiffest upper lip since Kaji Meiko in the Female Prisoner Scorpion series. Only the handsome and honorable Mitsuru takes her side, further enraging her tormentors. After the hazing escalates to unfathomable proportions, Haruka metamorphoses and shit gets real. Director Naito Eisuke elicits nuanced characterizations from his talented young cast while deftly unspooling a pressure-cooker narrative bursting with madness, twists, and catharses.