It was 2021. I was scrolling through MangaDex looking for something new to read. JJK? Nah, I already read the new chapter. I guess I could read Death Note again. Meh, I want something to make me think, but it’s a little too fantastical. There’s always OddTaxi. Wait. What’s that? 

It was here that I came across a stunning cover, of a man lit by the gentle sunlight streaming through a classroom window. A well-dressed man appeared to be a teacher, dressed in a turtleneck, trousers, and even a watch as an accessory. Compared to most anime covers, this was shockingly mundane. My eyes moved up his silhouette, taking in the gentle posture of how he held his instruction booklet, to his face. On the cover you see, his face was the only thing the light from the outside world didn’t reach. His eyes carried that same darkness, staring directly ahead at the reader. Daring, challenging them to reach into his world, and to become a student of ethics. I shrugged my shoulders, fascinated by the cover, and took a step forward. 

I felt right at home with this manga, and my chosen college degree was extremely interdisciplinary, with matters of psychology and philosophy being very common and familiar to me. 

We’re drawn into the world of ethics with a shocking scene, one where a girl is recounting her experience. She decided to have sex with her boy-friend (two separate words) in a random classroom. A classroom that just so happened to belong to our resident ethics instructor, Takayanagi. Of which the most peculiar of things happens. He didn’t scream. He didn’t yell. His face hardly showed any form of acknowledgment, and certainly not one of judgement. Around a year later, this same girl, who we learn to be Ichiko Aizawa, finds herself in his classroom again, this time as a student. Upon introduction, Takayanagi makes a striking declaration. “Ethics is a subject that won’t be of use to your career even if you learn it. It won’t come up often in your daily lives like history or geography. It isn’t versatile like mathematics, nor is it practical like English. If I had to say when it might come in useful, it’d be…When death approaches you.” This spoke to me personally on a higher level. As a student of morals and ethics, this was an incredibly frank, but entirely truthful in its own right. Even more, I think this approach of communicating in such a way is effective for his audience, high schoolers. Clearly, Mr. Takayanagi isn’t just a practitioner of ethics, he’s skilled in convincing students that they’ve made a worthwhile choice in spending their time in his classroom.

The rest of chapter 1 is spent doing more of a deep dive into introducing to us the structure of the remainder of the manga. A student of Takayanagi’s is the sun of which we orbit. We learn of their personal life, their feelings, their desires, their challenges, and how being in Takayanagi’s classroom has influenced them for the better; how Ethics is used as a vehicle for allowing them to think more critically about their life. Ichiko Aizawa, the girl above and the subject of the first chapter who goes from leading her life without much care, to giving her body to anyone who desires it, quickly begins to value herself much more because of the study of ethics she engages in. She strives to be better and to impress Takayangi, her teacher. And so her arc serves as the forerunner and prototype of how all proceeding arcs will roughly be structured.

This is the absolute peak of a slice-of-life manga. We get so many opportunities to look into the lives of many different people. Students, teachers, and others who all come from different walks of life. Some have poor home lives. Some are bullied, and others are bullies. Some suffer from imposter syndrome and others just need a way to shake up their everyday life. It allows the reader to be sucked into so many different worlds in such a short period, and sometimes even revisit them later, when their actions or situation has shifted. 

Do not misunderstand- Takayanagi isn’t posed as some kind of savior to these high schoolers by giving them a taste of what ethics is, far from it. Takayanagi does what I think is the crux of what morals and ethics are: thinking deeper and thinking for yourself. In Chapter 2 he poses to Miyuki Sakai a quote from Schopenhauer, “Every person takes the limits of their field of vision for the limits of the world.” This was in direct response to her snapping at him not to make assumptions about her, specifically her liking philosophy. But, in a roundabout way, she opened the conversation with Takayanagi assuming him looking down on the class, which he explains to be untrue. It is further reflected immediately after in a whirlwind of events, where Maria is thought to be carefree, but is shown to be standing from the top of the building, about to commit suicide. Three events centered around this quote hammers home the author’s intent, of wanting the reader to think more deeply. They expanded their field of view to not only be what they think and how they walk, but they’re all better off for it. I think this series is extremely rich with lessons just like these, and it’s everything that makes a slice of life so good. There’s romance and heartache and real problems that these real people are dealing with.

On a broader scale, it is a reflection of humanity. “Ethics is the path of humanity, a principle that becomes the norm of morality. While it isn’t necessary to learn it, the lessons are laden with the truths of life.”  Personally, the process of reflecting upon yourself and looking inward is always challenging. Looking deeply and acknowledging your thoughts and beliefs and challenging them, is even harder. But this series has been indispensable to me in my process of self-improvement and reflection. I think the most valuable thing a series can provide for you is to be both entertaining and meaningful. “We Shall Now Begin Ethics” has this in droves, and embodies what slice of life really ought to be: A slice of many walks of life.