Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Archives for October 2011

Bookshelf Briefs, 10/31/11

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With several important limbs of the battle robot immobilized by snow, David and Michelle bravely forge on with a look at recent releases with a Halloween or costume party sort of vibe!

Animal Land, Vol. 1 | By Makoto Raiku | Kodansha Comics – The most striking thing about Animal Land is that it actually manages to convey the physical sensation of shrillness without actually creating any sounds. I swear my ears were ringing by the time I was done with this comic, and if it had been an animated cartoon, I would have clicked away from its high-pitched shrieking within seconds. It’s too bad, because Raiku has created a clever plot featuring a human baby winding up in a functioning society of tanuki. The baby, who can understand and communicate with all species, shakes up the inter-animal dynamic by helping them understand what everyone else is saying. That’s a really interesting starting point, but the hyperactive characters always seem to have their volume set at shônen 10, which is about 4 levels higher than I can tolerate. Some of Raiku’s anthropomorphic character designs for the tanuki end up being unintentionally creepy rather than cute, too. – David Welsh

Blue Exorcist, Vol. 4 | By Kazue Kato | Viz – There’s a pretty big reveal in this volume and, as is sometimes the case in stories by relatively inexperienced creators from weeklies, it seems a bit rushed. Kato does a great job in a lot of departments. Her art is attractive and stylized, but it keeps the action clear. The character types are certainly familiar, but they’re likeable and distinct in spite of the recognizable functions they fulfill. (I find myself surprisingly fond of hard-ass mentor Shura in spite of her fan-service-friendly wardrobe.) And Kato thinks about the small things in terms of the ways her characters interact and react to events, which is always welcome. As far as the long-term storytelling goes, though, Blue Exorcist seems a little lumpy. While Kato gets good follow-up mileage out of big events, the overall structure doesn’t seem as tight as it could or should be. There’s tons to like here, but it lacks the seamlessness of something like Fullmetal Alchemist. – David Welsh

Gate 7, Vol. 1 | By CLAMP | Dark Horse – Gate 7 is so extraordinarily pretty. From the handsomely detailed settings to the finely carved faces and gorgeous costumes, it’s a feast for the eyes. The glamour of it all almost – almost – excuses the fact that it has very little else working in its favor at this point. The plot reads like a CLAMP Mad Lib. A dorky but good-natured guy falls in with a pack of weird but incredibly attractive people with magical powers and lots of secrets, and he learns that he has some semblance of supernatural ability. In spite of the reams of exposition CLAMP has provided, I still feel like I know very little about most of the cast or what their function is in the grand scheme of things. But I really, really like looking at them, and I think I will be content to do so for at least a few more volumes. – David Welsh

Raiders, Vol. 7 | By JinJun Park | Yen Press – Raiders is such an odd series. It’s somewhat incoherent—the super-swift cuts between scenes don’t help one make sense of what is going on—but there’s enough intriguing about it that I keep reading. And now that I’ve read seven of the nine volumes, might as well keep going to the end! This volume features a pair of guys breaking into Area 51 in order to obtain data on the military’s research into weaponizing the undead. I’ve no idea how they learned about this, or who one of these guys even is, but with Raiders I’ve learned to set aside such concerns and just focus on the action, which is usually pretty cool. Also, the fanservice is not gratuitous—okay, yes, there’s one inexplicably nude moment for Lamia (the sexy zombie!) and copious bra flashes in a fight between two blade-wielding women, but these moments never subtract from the characters’ overall badassery, which I appreciate. – Michelle Smith

Vampire Knight, Vol. 13 | By Matsuri Hino | VIZ Media –So much of Vampire Knight is comprised of angst-ridden scenes and moody grey screentones that important revelations kind of sneak up on the reader. You’re reading along, lulled by the pretty art as you watch Zero mope about his plight as a vampire again (“Inside me… is there anything human left?”) and Kaname wrestle with conflicting impulses concerning Yuki, and then suddenly Kaname’s revealing the truth about his origins to Yuki, which explains how he could be both the progenitor of the Kuran clan and her sibling and also tangentially covers the formation of the vampire hunter society. I wouldn’t say it’s riveting stuff—it’s all a bit too languid to qualify—but it ought to have some interesting consequences. One thing I will say for Vampire Knight—it’s compulsively readable, and even though I’m not a fervent fan, I see myself sticking around for the long haul to see how things turn out. – Michelle Smith

Urameshiya Volume 1

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Urameshiya Volume 1 by Makiko

Available online at Jmanga.com

I was hoping to cover more scary manga for the month of October and the horror themed Manga Moveable feast, but life got in the way and the only new spooky title I’ve managed to read recently is Urameshiya from jmanga.com. This is a historical variation on what I tend to call “spooky shop” manga, where a person with spiritual powers has to intervene in the lives of people who are affected by ghosts. It is a snowy night in Edo era Japan, and an attractive woman named Oyou has used up her welcome and the sake supply at a local tavern. The owner apologies and says that he has to ask her not to come anymore because she’s scaring the other guests. She leaves with the advice that he should throw some salt at the ghost that is standing in a corner and heads out into the night. A handsome man who turns out to be a not overly bright pickpocket stumbles against her. She catches him in the act and tells him that he has to buy her sake to make it up to her. Saji decides that he’ll put a different spin on things by taking her to his house and getting her drunk.

As they travel they cross a bridge with a lonely female ghost. Oyou prevents Saji from getting trapped and they end up spending the night together, but one of Saji’s neighbors turns up frozen to death after listening to the spirit. Saji asks Oyou for help getting back at the ghost that killed his friend. What follows are three long episodes where Oyou and Saji form an incongruous ghost-busting team. Oyou is mysterious and a bit snarky, never confirming her feelings for Saji. In contrast, he’s quietly smitten. He decides to move in with her into the spooky tenement that seems to be inhabited only by freaks of nature. They deal with a case of wronged love, a rapacious rich girl cursed with vagina dentata, and have an unfortunate run-in with a young fox spirit. I really enjoyed the art style in Urameshiya, which is old fashioned and stylized in a way that highlights the historical setting. Oyou and Saji both have glossy black hair, long flowing robes, and angular faces with gigantic eyes. Saji provides Oyou with a bit of a grounding influence, tying her to the real world. For all that Oyou protests that she cares nothing for the young thief, she’s actually incredibly protective of him if he’s threatened. Having only three chapters in a single volume seemed to give the author the room to more thoroughly set the scene for each episode. I enjoyed the relationship between Oyou and Saji, the space given to each monster of the week, and the historical setting of Urameshiya. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the next volume in this series.

Random weekend question: costume drama

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Okay, here’s the obligatory Halloween-themed random weekend question: if resources and logistics were no object, what manga character would you emulate for your costume? While it seems fairly easy, I’d probably go with Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack. Now, I know you’re probably thinking that’s fairly simple — a trench coat, a wig, a few scars drawn on with an eyebrow pencil, and you’re finished. But that coat would take some wicked tailoring, and I’d want the whole armory of surgical tools in the lining, just for the effect.

 

License request day: Franken Fran

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I swear I’ve seen Erica Friedman describe Akita Shoten’s Champion Red as a shônen magazine where dignity and hope for a better world go to die, perhaps even suggesting that its readership should be monitored for their potentially detrimental influence on the gene pool. I trust Erica implicitly, but there is a horror series that’s run in Champion Red that was recently… well… championed in comments, and – as sometimes happens with horrific scenarios – curiosity has overcome good sense. (Don’t go in the Champion Red basement, you fool! It’s filled with the creepiest kind of otaku!)

I refer, of course, to Katsuhisa Kigitsu’s Franken Fran. Those covers make me wish for the swift oblivion of death to end my shame, but the host of Sunday Comics Debt sent me on the road to no return with the following remark:

I like to think of Franken Fran as Pinoko all grown up, and being raised with the Doctor’s medical skill would make her a prime candidate for doing outlandish operations that would be banned in any country. Admit it – all the elements are there – she’s a childish tumor with no qualms of ethics or humanity, and enjoys operating madcap experiments that would make Desty Nova proud, just for the fun of it.

Now, you all know of my completely misguided adoration for Pinoko. I’m not going to bore you by repeating it, but she’s so creepy and disturbing and precious and… ahem. Sorry about that.

It’s being published in German by Panini, and you can see some preview pages at the Amazon listing for the volume. The insides look a little more restrained than the “purchase by mail and try not to think of the shipping clerk judging you” covers would suggest.

We’re almost done with Black Jack (Vertical), and while it seems like a series with great snowy-Sunday reread value, I’d feel better if I knew there was something similarly ridiculous and entertaining on the way. Franken Fran’s potential tackiness may overwhelm its giddiness, but I’m willing to take that risk.

 

The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes

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From the back cover:
Banished!

Old Witch likes nothing better than to fly about on her broomstick crying “Heh-heh!” and casting abracadabras, but now she has been sent away… by two young girls.

Amy and Clarissa love to tell stories about Old Witch… until one day they decide she is just too mean and wicked. Drawing a rickety old house upon a barren glass hill, the girls exile Old Witch there with the warning that she’d better be good—or else no Halloween! For company they draw her a Little Witch Girl and a Weeny Witch Baby.

Old Witch tries to be good, but anyone would get up to no good in a place as lonely as the glass hill… as Amy and Clarissa find out when Old Witch magics them into her world, a world of make-believe made real.

Review:
If you’ve got a clever and charming child and are looking for a clever and charming Halloween book that they might enjoy, The Witch Family just might fit the bill.

Amy and her best friend Clarissa, both “ordinary real girls,” are almost seven. Amy’s vivid imagination has been captured by the tales her mother tells about the wicked Old Witch, and she enlists Clarissa—who, with her faulty memory but pleasant disposition, is content with the sidekick role—in drawing a series of pictures that continue Old Witch’s adventures.

The story is presented in a really neat way. For example, it’s immediately clear through vocabulary that Amy is concocting Old Witch’s story herself. (She’s fond of big words, but doesn’t always know how to spell or pronounce them, so when she sentences Old Witch to live alone on a glass hill as punishment for her evil ways, she declares, “I banquished her!”) But a lot of the book is told from Old Witch’s point of view, so kids would probably enjoy the “is she really real?” mystery.

It’s certainly a fun Halloween tale, but I think Amy is the most fascinating character of all. What a bright little girl! Seriously, I found myself wishing for an epilogue that read, “And then Amy became a super-famous novelist” or something. There’s a real whimsy in the language used, and I love that she does typical little girl things like write the bumblebee who’d been in her yard into the story and give him a noble and heroic part to play. She’s also inserting herself into the story in a way, by giving Old Witch a little witch girl named Hannah to keep her company who looks so much like Amy that no one can tell them apart when Hannah comes to visit Amy on Halloween and goes trick-or-treating with her friends.

I find I haven’t a lot more to say about the book than this. It’s very cute. There are kitties and weeny witch babies and things to make adults giggle and the most adorable bee on the planet. Thanks for the recommendation, K!

Re-flipped: Tokyo Zombie

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It doesn’t seem right to go through all of the current Manga Moveable Feast without addressing zombies, and it doesn’t seem right to address zombies without considering ironic zombies, so here’s an old Flipped column on a title that checks both off of the list.

I think Yusaku Hanakuma’s Tokyo Zombie (Last Gasp) has helped me crystallize my objections to zombie fiction in general.  Given the limitations of the genre, it very often seems like too much effort has gone into its various renderings.  Tokyo Zombie looks like it was dashed off during study hall, and that works in its favor.

The official tag for the style is heta uma, or “bad, but good.”  I might modify it to “bad, but appropriate,” to be honest.  That Hanakuma’s style of illustration suits the material doesn’t mean it’s aesthetically pleasing in any meaningful way or that a practiced knowledge of the fundaments of drawing seems to be peeking out through a conscious effort at crudeness.  Proportions are odd and shifting, and body language and composition are stiff.  To be honest, the living and the undead aren’t always immediately distinguishable from one another.

But really, the best a zombie story can be is crude, quick, and maybe a little subversive, and Tokyo Zombie is all of those.  The action begins on “Dark Fuji,” a mountain of garbage, studded with illegally dumped toxic waste and human remains.  Whatever the opposite of a primordial soup is reaches boiling point, and the undead begin shambling down from Dark Fuji to do what zombies do – very slowly overtake the living.

A small subculture of survivors build an enclosed area where the rich live on the labor of an oppressed class of slaves, and the balance is maintained by brutal enforcers.  Stripped of most of their comforts and diversions, the rich become extremely bored, and a brutal arena featuring slaves versus zombies springs up.  There isn’t much in the way of subtlety in the way Hanakuma portrays the class conflicts of post-zombie society, but there doesn’t need to be.  It’s just a backdrop for gross-out violence and a source of jokes about brutal things happening to generally terrible people.

Hanakuma’s greatest strength is probably pacing.  He rarely lets a sequence drag on longer than necessary, and he keeps the inventively gross gags coming.  If they’re imperfectly rendered, how much artistry does flesh-eating really require?  There’s plenty of gory event if not detail, and what would lovingly drawn innards really add to what seems intended to be a brisk, coarse outing?

(P.S. Tokyo Zombie was originally serialized in the alternative manga anthology, Ax.  In August of 2009, Top Shelf will publish a 400-page collection of stories from the decade-old magazine.  Kai-Ming Cha has an interview with the translated collection’s co-editor, Sean Michael Wilson, at Publishers Weekly.)

(P.P.S.  Last Gasp is also the publisher of one of the finest comics I’ve ever read, Fumiyo Kouno’s Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms.  Aside from its publisher and creator’s nation of origin, it has absolutely nothing to do with Tokyo Zombie, but I like to mention it whenever I can, no matter how feeble the pretext.)

 

Haunted House

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By Mitsukazu Mihara | Published by TOKYOPOP

I blame my “meh” reaction to Mitsukazu Miharu’s Haunted House—which I honestly wanted to like!—on the back cover, which promises that readers will be “kept guessing—and giggling” by the behavior of Sabato Obiga’s flamboyantly goth parents. I might’ve smiled a time or two, but that’s about it.

The basic premise here is simple and reiterated several times throughout the volume: Sabato would like a steady girlfriend, but they inevitably ask to see his house, which means they will have to meet his bizarre, “death-flavored” family and be scared off by their creepy antics. Sabato’s mother strongly resembles Morticia Addams, his father (despite being a banker) often sports a sort of Victorian dandy look, and his twin sisters have a gothic lolita vibe and spend their free time making voodoo dolls. The Obiga family also likes to decorate their home with skeletons and shrines and threatens to serve the family cat for dinner. Sabato always obtains their promise to behave before inviting a girl over, but this is invariably broken.

Haunted House is pretty repetitive, but I think I wouldn’t have been dissastified with it if the powers that be at TOKYOPOP hadn’t strongly hinted that Sabato’s family has some reason for treating him like they do. Okay, yes, they abruptly promise to support him when it seems that he, after fancying a long string of random ladies, seems to have fallen in love at last, but it’s not like they actually follow through with this in any meaningful way.

Looking kooky is one thing, but they’re frequently just down-right mean. At one point, Sabato is hospitalized with a broken leg and his family comes to visit. Most of what they do is innocuous—bringing him only hospital-themed horror novels to read, for example—but his mother actually feeds him dog food. I just don’t get it. Is that supposed to be funny? Is that supposed to be someone who is merely tormenting their kid, as the back cover implies, in an effort to encourage him to grow up, become an independent person, and stop pursuing meaningless relationships with random girls?

I don’t know, but I am certain that I am thinking too hard about this. And I partly blame the back cover that encouraged me to expect more from a story that is really just a diverting bit of goofiness.

Manga Bestsellers: 2011, Week Ending 23 October

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Comparative Rankings Based on Consolidated Online Sales

last week’s charts
about the charts

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Manga Bestsellers

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [461.1] ::
2. ↔0 (2) : Sailor Moon Codename: Sailor V 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [442.8] ::
3. ↑1 (4) : Vampire Knight 13 – Viz Shojo Beat, Oct 2011 [434.3] ::
4. ↓-1 (3) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [434.2] ::
5. ↔0 (5) : Naruto 52 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2011 [416.5] ::
6. ↔0 (6) : Rosario+Vampire Season II 6 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Oct 2011 [400.0] ::
7. ↑19 (26) : Yotsuba&! 10 – Yen Press, Oct 2011 [373.5] ::
8. ↑19 (27) : Black Butler 7 – Yen Press, Oct 2011 [354.8] ::
9. ↓-2 (7) : Blue Exorcist 4 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Oct 2011 [339.9] ::
10. ↓-2 (8) : Skip Beat! 25 – Viz Shojo Beat, Oct 2011 [331.9] ::

[more]

Top Imprints
Number of volumes ranking in the Top 500:

Viz Shonen Jump 83
Viz Shojo Beat 80
Yen Press 72
Kodansha Comics 37
Viz Shonen Jump Advanced 34
Vizkids 28
Tokyopop 21
Viz 18
Del Rey 15
DMP Juné 15

[more]

Series/Property

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon – Kodansha Comics [1,064.4] ::
2. ↔0 (2) : Vampire Knight – Viz Shojo Beat [784.3] ::
3. ↑2 (5) : Black Butler – Yen Press [724.2] ::
4. ↔0 (4) : Naruto – Viz Shonen Jump [723.2] ::
5. ↓-2 (3) : Maximum Ride – Yen Press [702.7] ::
6. ↔0 (6) : Negima! – Del Rey/Kodansha Comics [577.4] ::
7. ↔0 (7) : Blue Exorcist – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced [512.4] ::
8. ↑6 (14) : Highschool of the Dead – Yen Press [508.1] ::
9. ↔0 (9) : Skip Beat! – Viz Shojo Beat [505.7] ::
10. ↔0 (10) : Rosario+Vampire – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced [472.7] ::

[more]

New Releases
(Titles releasing/released This Month & Last)

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [461.1] ::
2. ↔0 (2) : Sailor Moon Codename: Sailor V 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [442.8] ::
3. ↑1 (4) : Vampire Knight 13 – Viz Shojo Beat, Oct 2011 [434.3] ::
6. ↔0 (6) : Rosario+Vampire Season II 6 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Oct 2011 [400.0] ::
7. ↑19 (26) : Yotsuba&! 10 – Yen Press, Oct 2011 [373.5] ::
8. ↑19 (27) : Black Butler 7 – Yen Press, Oct 2011 [354.8] ::
9. ↓-2 (7) : Blue Exorcist 4 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Oct 2011 [339.9] ::
10. ↓-2 (8) : Skip Beat! 25 – Viz Shojo Beat, Oct 2011 [331.9] ::
11. ↑22 (33) : Pandora Hearts 7 – Yen Press, Oct 2011 [327.3] ::
14. ↓-2 (12) : Negima! 31 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [309.0] ::

[more]

Preorders

4. ↓-1 (3) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [434.2] ::
18. ↓-5 (13) : Sailor Moon Codename: Sailor V 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [275.0] ::
19. ↓-2 (17) : Sailor Moon 5 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [274.9] ::
21. ↓-2 (19) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [257.1] ::
24. ↑1 (25) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [246.0] ::
53. ↑49 (102) : Fullmetal Alchemist 27 – Viz, Dec 2011 [157.1] ::
60. ↑7 (67) : Negima! 32 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [141.1] ::
71. ↔0 (71) : Maximum Ride 5 – Yen Press, Dec 2011 [131.0] ::
77. ↓-12 (65) : xxxHolic 18 – Kodansha Comics, Dec 2011 [122.5] ::
85. ↑264 (349) : Sailor Moon 6 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [115.9] ::

[more]

Manhwa

121. ↓-17 (104) : March Story 3 – Viz Signature, Oct 2011 [88.6] ::
342. ↑63 (405) : Black God 14 – Yen Press, Oct 2011 [32.6] ::
514. ↑406 (920) : Bride of the Water God 9 – Dark Horse, Oct 2011 [19.4] ::
531. ↑307 (838) : March Story 2 – Viz Signature, Apr 2011 [18.5] ::
545. ↑new (0) : Antique Gift Shop 9 – Yen Press, Nov 2009 [17.9] ::
646. ↓-91 (555) : Goong 12 – Yen Press, Sep 2011 [13.4] ::
948. ↑135 (1083) : Jack Frost 4 – Yen Press, Dec 2010 [5.4] ::
966. ↑ (last ranked 2 Oct 11) : Totally Captivated 3 – Netcomics, Jun 2008 [5.2] ::
981. ↓-237 (744) : JTF-3 Counter Ops (ebook) – RealinterfaceStudios.com, Mar 2011 [4.9] ::
1005. ↑955 (1960) : Black God 8 – Yen Press, Feb 2010 [4.5] ::

[more]

BL/Yaoi

34. ↑10 (44) : Finder Series 4 Prisoner in the View Finder – DMP Juné, Aug 2011 [209.5] ::
90. ↓-20 (70) : Maelstrom (Kindle ebook) 1 – Yaoi Press, Jun 2011 [113.0] ::
110. ↑35 (145) : Finder Series 5 Truth in the View Finder – DMP Juné, Dec 2011 [93.9] ::
132. ↑2 (134) : About Love – DMP Juné, Nov 2011 [82.5] ::
149. ↑16 (165) : Private Teacher 2 – DMP Juné, Jan 2012 [74.3] ::
156. ↓-8 (148) : Secrecy of the Shivering Night – DMP Juné, Dec 2011 [69.5] ::
164. ↓-41 (123) : An Even More Beautiful Lie – DMP Juné, Jan 2012 [67.1] ::
165. ↓-13 (152) : Mr. Convenience – DMP Juné, Nov 2011 [67.0] ::
187. ↑new (0) : Attacked on a Tiger’s Whim (ebook) – DMP Digital Manga Guild, Oct 2011 [57.3] ::
245. ↓-15 (230) : Only Serious about You 2 – DMP Juné, Dec 2011 [45.9] ::

[more]

The Favorites Alphabet: spooky supplement

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We interrupt your regularly scheduled, letter-by-letter installment of The Favorites Alphabet in honor of the horror-tinged Manga Moveable Feast! This week, the Manga Bookshelf Battle Robot retreated to the dank catacombs of our secret base to conjure the spirits of our favorite spooky manga! Read on… if you dare!

 “The Enigma of Amigara Fault” | By Junji Ito | VIZ Media – I haven’t read much horror manga. In fact, aside from the delightfully bizarre Tokyo Zombie and one volume (so far) of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, my experience is limited to the works of Junji Ito. While Gyo and Uzumaki certainly deliver weird and disturbing tales, it’s “The Enigma of Amigara Fault,” a short story that appeared in Gyo’s second volume, that I find most memorable.  In it, an earthquake has revealed a rock formation riddled with human-shaped holes that go farther back into the rock than researchers are able to measure. People flock to the site, drawn to holes that seem to be custom-made for them. Those who enter the holes are committed to moving forward with some profoundly jibbly-inducing results. Just thinking about it is kind of giving me a wiggins. Look for images from this one in this weekend’s Let’s Get Visual column! – Michelle Smith


The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service | By Eiji Ōtsuka and Housui Yamazaki | Dark Horse – Despite my ongoing reviews of Higurashi: When They Cry, I’m not really a big reader of horror manga, tending to find it too scary. Which says more about me than about the genre. However, I picked up Volume 1 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service for its unusual cover, as well as the fact that it was translated and edited by Carl Horn. Imagine my surprise when I got one of the funniest, most satiric, and, yes, scariest manga coming out here. For our heroes, dealing with corpses isn’t like searching for mysteries a la Scooby Doo – it’s a job, and they are usually trying desperately to get paid. It just so happens that their various skills go really well with solving problems involving dead bodies. Nestled in among the sarcastic dialogue and long pointed looks at Japanese politics and society is some really creepy imagery – watch out for the chapter with the birds, or the one with the ears. – Sean Gaffney

Parasyte | By Hitoshi Iwaaki | Del Rey – There are just so many reasons this eight-volume series is awesome, not least of which is Iwaaki’s facility with really gruesome and surprising bits of violence. It’s an invasive-species nightmare scenario featuring bizarre space spores taking over indigenous creatures (mostly human) and turning them into ravenous, shape-shifting, and dangerously intelligent predators. Fortunately, one of the parasites doesn’t quite make it to its host’s brain, turning average teen Shinichi Izumi into humanity’s best protector, and his right hand into a formidable defensive weapon, not to mention an adorable and insightful pet! Iwaaki jumbles a lot of elements together – coming-of-age drama, violent suspense, evolutionary theory, family tragedy, and boy-and-his-dog sentiment. The beauty part is that Iwaaki jumbles it all well, making for one of the most beginning-to-end satisfying tales you’re likely to find on the manga shelves. Originally published by Tokyopop, Del Rey picked up this out-of-print gem and did a bang-up job repackaging it. – David Welsh


School Zone | By Kanako Inuki | Dark Horse – In this odd, hallucinatory, and sometimes very funny series, a group of students summon the ghosts of people who died on school grounds, unleashing the spirits’ wrath on their unsuspecting classmates. School Zone is as much a meditation on childhood fears of being ridiculed or ostracized as it is a traditional ghost story; time and again, the students’ own response to the ghosts is often more horrific than the ghosts’ behavior. Inuki’s artwork isn’t as gory or imaginative as some of her peers’, though she demonstrates a genuine flair for comically gruesome thrills: one girl is dragged into a toilet, for example, while another is attacked by a scaly, long-armed creature that lives in the infirmary. Where Inuki really shines, however, is in her ability to capture the primal terror that a dark, empty building can inspire in the most rational person. Even when the story takes one its many silly detours — and yes, there are many WTF?! moments in School Zone — Inuki makes us feel her characters’ vulnerability as they explore the school grounds after hours. – Katherine Dacey

Tokyo Babylon | By CLAMP | TOKYOPOP – When David suggested that we all pick favorite horror manga for this week, at first I thought I didn’t have any. Though horror movies were a favorite genre once upon a time, that preference never really transferred to print for me, or at least I didn’t think it had. Then I realized that some of my most beloved occult-themed comics fall closer to the horror mark than I thought. My favorite of these (and indeed, one of my favorite comics of all time) is CLAMP’s 20-year-old series, Tokyo Babylon.  Complete in just seven volumes, it’s a decidedly immature work, featuring uneven storytelling, outrageous outfits, and one of the strangest, most over-the-top examples of BL-leaning shôjo I’ve seen to date. On the other hand, not only does it finally rip our hearts out with the precision of a serial killer, but it scares the bejeezus out of us all along the way. This is a dark, cruel little series, that takes real joy in its emotional shock value, and its occult setting provides ample opportunity for that quality. Not that I’m complaining. When I look at the images I chose for my review of the series , I can see that I picked out several of those that had creeped me out the most. For genuine scares and emotional brutality all wrapped up in one delicious “classic” shôjo package, you can’t beat Tokyo Babylon. – MJ

What are your favorite horror stories?

 

Psyren, Vol. 1

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By Toshiaki Iwashiro. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

When it comes to weekly manga publication, there are several things we have to face up to. First of all, the editor of Weekly Shonen Jump has to get 18 series out every week. And they can’t all be One Piece. Sometimes you get super blockbuster hits, and sometimes you get those ‘workhorse’ series. Secondly, when Viz is looking for Jump series to license, they may see a series that’s 19 volumes and still running and think “Will this be profitable enough to risk it never ending like One Piece or Naruto?” Much easier to take a chance on a medium-length series, 16 volumes or so, that’s already over.

And so enter Psyren, a perfectly serviceable Jump series that I suspect is not going to gain much of a following simply as its first volume, like many Jump series, is pretty damn average. Of course, One Piece 1 was pretty mediocre as well, but it was already a huge phenomenon by the time most folks here read it. No one is telling Psyren readers, “Just wait it gets so much better later.” Indeed, it may not, I’ve no idea. But if this series is like most other Jump series, I suspect that it is a slow builder.

So, Psyren! Let’s see, we have the guy on the cover, who is our hero, Ageha. (No, he doesn’t sew designer accessories, wrong series.) Ageha is fairly cocky, likes to hit things, helps out cute young girls… he’s a very likeable teenage hero. He happens across a rather beaten and stoic classmate, Sakurako, who flips out when he returns her wallet that had been stolen and notes a red phone card in it saying Psyren. Mysterious card… damsel in distress… time for Ageha to jump to the rescue! Especially once he gets a phone card of his own.

Psyren’s predictability is both its strength and its weakness. You know to a certain degree what to expect, so the book moves fast and the plot sets up nicely. Naturally Ageha will never turn his back on someone in need, even a stranger he barely knows, and his stubborn desires impress his new soon-to-be friends. On the downside, there’s nothing that leaps out and makes you want to read Volume 2. It’s a fun read, but if the series was cancelled after this volume, most readers would simply never notice.

The setting is a desolate wasteland, so naturally there’s lots of room for battling huge ugly monsters, another Jump staple. These battles also seem to involve psychic powers, or at least they do for everyone but our hero, who I’ve no doubt will be unlocking his true abilities soon. And yes, the heroine does get a nosebleed after using her powers. It’s not just Marvel Comics doing that cliche. If there is one surprise in the volume, it’s the cliffhanger, which makes a refreshing change from the ‘we’re on an alien planet’ or ‘we’re in another dimension’ that I was expecting.

So the question is, is it worth getting volume 2 in hopes the series takes it up a notch? Not sure. But I don’t think you’ll have wasted your money if you get Vol. 1. Psyren is a perfectly normal manga series, which unfortunately may not have enough hooks to make folks come back for more.

Off the Shelf: Generally Halloweenish

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MJ: Boo!

MICHELLE: Omigawd, you almost gave me a heart attack.

MJ: Yay?

MICHELLE: I suppose that is the spirit of the season.

MJ: So, speaking of the season, I expect you’ve been indulging in some spooky manga this week?

MICHELLE: Some spooky, others not-so-spooky, but generally Halloweenish, yes.

One thing I checked out was the debut of a new manhwa from Seven Seas (their first, I think) called My Boyfriend Is a Vampire. This series appears to be complete in fourteen volumes, and Seven Seas is releasing it in 2-in-1 omnibus editions.

I have to say, this does not get off to a very auspicious start. A girlish boy collapses on the street from a neck wound and the police are called when he is found to have no pulse. Just when the cops arrive, however, the guy sits up and takes off. When he gets home, the wound has already healed but he has inexplicably turned into a girl.

Cue flashback to a month ago, where the boy (Gene) is getting into lots of fights over the fact that he looks like a girl when he isn’t agreeing to masquerade as one. This is all fairly silly until he, in the middle of defending gang territory, ends up in the middle of a squabble between two vampire half-brothers, each with the potential to become their powerful father’s heir. Long story short, he saves one guy (Ryu) but ends up being made a vamp in the process (cue paragraph one) and of course there is some awesome legend or prophecy or something about a girl who survives being bitten and how she will be the 1337est vampire ever and also have the ability to change genders or something.

Honestly, a lot of this story is pretty ridiculous and the art is totally generic, but by the end I was looking forward to reading more. Strip away the supernatural trappings and what this reminds me of the most is Click, another manhwa which was published by NETCOMICS a few years ago. You’ve got the tough/bratty guy who becomes a girl, the best friend from childhood with whom there will now presumably be romantic tension, and the undesirable element to whom the protagonist finds him/herself drawn. The fact that vampires are involved really doesn’t matter very much at this point, since this seems poised to be a gender-bending comedy.

I believe you’ve read this one, too. What did you think of it?

MJ: Well, I’m absolutely with you on the general ridiculousness of this series so far, though I admit to enjoying it for its silliness more than I would have expected. While it lacks the cracktastic brilliance of something like Reiko Shimizu’s Moon Child or even slightly more down-to-earth treasures like SangEun Lee’s 13th Boy, it has enough of a spark to grab my interest, even in its lesser moments. I’m sad to note that there are many more of those “lesser moments” than I’d like, but I can’t help looking forward to the next volume.

MICHELLE: Same here, and though the second volume was much stronger than the first, which bodes well for things to come. It might not be a masterpiece, but it will likely be entertaining.

So, have you been reading spooky manga this week?

MJ: I have indeed, or at least partly so. My first read this week was volume seven of Yuki Midorikawa’s Natsume’s Book of Friends. Though this supernatural series tends more towards adjectives like “quiet” and “touching” than it does things like “scary,” this particular volume actually kinda hits the mark.

In this volume, Natusme finds himself relying on his uneasy friendship with flashy exorcist Natori in the face of someone much more terrifying, whose disregard for yokai puts Natsume and his friends in danger. And as it turns out, this is a really good thing. This is not a series that I generally consider suspenseful, but I was hovering on the edge of my seat for this entire volume, worried and anxious and generally creeped out.

Midorikawa’s artwork has always been a highlight of this series, creating wonderfully rich emotional moments with imagery alone. Even so, I was surprised here by how easily she was able to put me on edge with the tiniest visual details. The shade of an umbrella, a part of the hair, the shape of a lip—each of these tiny details is used in a way that stood my hair on end. It’s marvelous to behold.

Though this series was a fast favorite for me, early on, I’ll admit my interest waned during some of its middle volumes. Those days are clearly over now, and I simply can’t wait to see what comes next.

MICHELLE: I know I say this every time you mention Natsume’s Book of Friends, but I really am planning to get caught up on it soon. When you wrote about the worry and anxiety you experienced it reminded me of the similar atmosphere created by Ghost Hunt when that series was firing on all cylinders. Which, in turn, made me sad that we’ll probably never see its twelfth and final volume in English. Unless Sailor Moon makes Kodansha so much money they can afford to take on charity cases.

It seems like Midorikawa also gets that the secret to engaging your reader like this is not concocting frightening situations but creating characters that people will genuinely be concerned about. Sometimes that’s lacking in straight-up horror manga.

MJ: That’s a great point, Michelle, and definitely appropriate to this series! Yes, we’re anxious here not because Natsume has met a really creepy guy (though he has) but because of the vulnerable position Natsume and the yokai are in. It’s really quite harrowing!

So what’s your other maybe-spooky-maybe-not selection for the evening?

MICHELLE: The first volume of the Yen Press adaptation of James Patterson’s Witch & Wizard, drawn by Svetlana Chmakova, who has become somewhat of a Halloween fixture for me thanks to her Nightschool series.

Alas, I don’t like this one as much as Nightschool. At least, not yet. I can’t tell if the problem is Patterson’s original novel (which I haven’t read) or this adaptation, but I am leaning towards the latter. It’s not that it’s outright bad, but it’s extremely rushed and the juxtaposition of comedy (I use the term loosely) and drama (ditto) is jarring.

An oppressive organization known as N.O. (New Order) has taken over government and is rounding up anyone who does not conform to their ideals of law, logic, order and science. To this end, soldiers break into the home of the Allgood family and take children Whit (nearly 18) and Wisty (15) into custody. For some reason, N.O.’s representative during this encounter is some snot-nosed teen whom the Allgood siblings make fun of. Anyway, through various miscarriages of justice they end up incarcerated and facing imminent execution, until they are brought into the “Shadowland” by Celia, Whit’s deceased girlfriend.

I mean, there truly is potential here, but everything just happens so fast that many things ring false. For example, Whit pines a lot for Celia, his “soulmate” who has gone missing. When his powers have developed enough that he is able to slip through a wall and arrive in the Shadowland, she tells him that she’s been murdered. Only it’s like she’s fine one panel then in the next tears are suddenly streaming down her face as she infodumps the details of her demise. Nine pages later, Whit is making stupid quips again. That just seems so wrong to me. Where is the impact here?

MJ: Like you, I’ve never read the novel, so I can’t really make a clear call here, but what you describe seems to me to match the most common problem I’ve seen in comic adaptations of novels overall. Maybe some of it can be chalked up to some things transferring better from prose than others, but really most of the time it just seems to come down to… well, time. It takes time to tell a story well, regardless of the medium, and for some reason that’s where comic adaptations really seem to skimp.

MICHELLE: Yeah. I’ll probably give it another volume to see how it develops, at least. Maybe now that the exposition’s out of the way the story will be able to breathe a little.

So, what else have you got for us this evening?

MJ: Well, you know, “horror” can have various meanings, and in my ongoing experiment to see just how much “horror” I can take, I decided to delve into volume eleven of Kanoko Sakurakouji’s demon-centric romance, Black Bird.

It’s possible that the most horrifying aspect of the latest volume of Black Bird is that, relatively speaking, it’s really not all that bad. Sure, Misao walks around with a permanent flush on her face and Kyo is possessive and controlling, but somewhere along the way in this volume it seems like… I can’t believe I’m going to say this… it seems like maybe he kind of learns something.

*blink*

Assuming you haven’t died of shock, I’ll continue.

Furthermore, this volume is actually kind of scary in the more traditional sense. Kyo’s brother, Sho, has returned with an ugly agenda, and for once there seems to be some real danger here. And though there is a seriously overplayed “scorned woman” in the mix (groan, why do authors do this to women?), I have to admit that the volume wraps up with some genuine suspense, and I almost-sorta-kinda want to know what happens next.

Now, before you lose all faith in reality as you know it, I’m not exactly giving a positive review of a volume of Black Bird. But finding myself in a position where I’m not inclined to give a scathing one certainly seems like a step up.

Have you died? I hope you haven’t died.

MICHELLE: I haven’t died, but I did have to fetch my smelling salts.

I’ll be interested to see whether Black Bird will ever be able to redeem itself in your eyes. I keep thinking I should read it—and, indeed, I have quite a stockpile of volumes—but I only have so much time and I always prioritize something else. So, in a way, you’re doing this for all of us who want to see what happens without investing our own time and eyeballs.

MJ: Well, time will tell whether my eyeballs are truly up to the task. But thankfully, this particular volume offered up a not-too-horrible Halloween-appropriate read.

MICHELLE: I think it’s fitting that we end our Halloween column on the topic of eyeballs.

MJ: Agreed. Happy Halloween everyone, from Off the Shelf!

Manga the Week of 11/2

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Oh dearie me. (deep breath)

Bandai is shipping the 4th volume of Code Geass: Knight, the doujinshi anthology series that focuses on the male characters for female fans of the series. Expect lots of BL tease with no actual BL.

If you want actual BL, then DMP is the place for you. We get new volumes of the awkwardly titled Great Place High School Student Council, the deluxe edition of Kizuna, Seven Days, and The Tyrant Falls in Love. And there are three new series debuting: Mr. Tiger and Mr. Wolf (no, it’s not a Tiger and Bunny spinoff), Only Serious About You, and Private Teacher. I think this giant pile of BL will satisfy even the most hungry enthusiasts.

Remember when I said we’d get the rest of Kodansha’a October this week? I was indeed correct! New Air Gear, which has hit 20 volumes of rollerblading frenzy. Vol. 2 of Bloody Monday’s intrigue and Cage of Eden’s potboiler antics. And two new thick omnibuses: Love Hina 1-3 (which I reviewed here a couple of weeks ago), and Tokyo Mew Mew 1-2 (for those who can’t get enough magical girl shoujo and can’t wait for Sailor Moon/V).

Speaking of omnibuses, Seven Seas is releasing Vols. 7 & 8 of Gunslinger Girl, which I believe means we’re now caught up with ADV and getting new material. Yes, it’s about killer loli assassins and their kindly adult male guardians, but it actually manages to deal with the serious issues surrounding such a plot and not be too skeezy. Mostly. Well, a lot. OK, over 60% not skeezy. Seven Seas also has the third volume of Toradora, which does star a tsundere, but it actually manages to deal with the serious issues surrounding such a girl and not have her be too tsun. Mostly. OK, maybe 40% dere? Perhaps an actual math degree would help.

Vertical is debuting its new Furuya title, a modern updating of the famous Japanese novel No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. I’ve also reviewed this, and it maintains Vertical’s reputation for cutting edge manga that makes you think.

And Viz has its first-week madness. From the Jump and Jump Square file, we have new volumes of Claymore, D.Gray-Man, the Death Note “Black Edition”, and Tegami Bachi. On the shoujo side, we have new Ai Ore! and Black Bird, some Dengeki Daisy (which I warn you has another nasty cliffhanger), Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time (earlier BL manga, I’m sorry I called you unwieldy after reading this), The 11th volume of Kimi ni Todoke (wait, you mean it keeps going after they get together?!?!), and new Oresama Teacher and Story of Saiunkoku. It is a very Viz week.

So, in among that deluge, what do you want to buy?

Re-flipped: GoGo Monster

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Okay, I don’t know if this comic counts as horror in the strictest sense of the term, but it’s one of the first titles that came to mind when I considered this month’s Manga Moveable Feast. It’s one of my favorite spooky-ish comics, and yesterday was Taiyo Matsumoto’s birthday, so…

“Yeah, well…” a grade-schooler opines early in Taiyo Matsumoto’s GoGo Monster (Viz), “There’s a kid like that in every class, right?” He’s talking about Yuki, a classmate who claims to sense things no one else can, an invisible population of mischievous creatures and a new insurgence of more malevolent beings. And the classmate is right; if manga is to be believed, the schools of Japan are well stocked with young people who traffic in the eerie. None of them are quite like Yuki, though, probably because not many creators are quite like Matsumoto.

Matsumoto has an extraordinary talent for rendering kid logic, their concepts of loyalty and justice and the way they engage with the world around them. This knack was on vivid display in Tekkonkinkreet: Black and White (Viz), for which Matsumoto won an Eisner Award in 2008. Like that book, GoGo Monster features two temperamentally different boys cleaving together to face the inevitable.

Many supernaturally sensitive manga characters can be divided into two categories. They either use that sensitivity to protect the unaware, or they struggle to conceal their abilities for fear of ostracism. Some are driven by both motives, but Yuki answers to neither. He’s disconcertingly matter-of-fact about the things he perceives, and he’s genuinely immune to the ridicule of his peers. He’s an excellent student, but he’s a disruptive presence. Yuki doesn’t perceive his own abnormality, and he doesn’t feel any pressure to conform.

While Yuki has few allies in the student body or faculty, he does garner the sympathetic attention of a new kid at school, Makoto. Average in every respect, Makoto is less intrigued by Yuki’s beliefs than by his indifference to ridicule. Maybe he recognizes it as a kind of strength of character, or maybe some emerging empathy makes him realize Yuki is at risk. Makoto is engaged in all of the aspects of Yuki’s character, not just his oddity. Instead of limiting him to the role of sidekick, this engagement actually makes Makoto Yuki’s equal in terms of reader engagement, or at least it did with me.

Other benevolent figures in Yuki’s sphere include the school’s elderly groundskeeper, Ganz, who understandably takes the long view of things. While the teachers yearn to fix Yuki, Ganz is content to listen to the boy. Then there’s IQ, who is even more ostentatiously weird than Yuki. IQ, who’s in an older grade than Yuki and Makoto, wanders the school grounds with a box on his head with a single eyehole cut into it. It’s telling and slyly funny that this is less disconcerting to his peers and teachers than Yuki’s less obvious strangeness and bursts of temper. Like Ganz, IQ has an odd kind of faith in Yuki, though the source of that faith is oblique.

The most interesting thing about GoGo Monster, the thing that grounds it, is that it’s ultimately irrelevant whether or not the things Yuki perceives are real. It’s Yuki’s belief in their reality and the possible consequences of that belief that drive the drama. That belief is never in question; Yuki is absolutely sincere, as is Matsumoto.

Tekkonkinkreet was set in a dying fantastical city slowly being destroyed by crassness and consumerism. Treasure Town was a richly imagined, almost living place. In GoGo Monster, the school setting couldn’t be more prosaic, but it’s no less vivid. Matsumoto captures the rhythms of the place, the mundane snippets of conversation, the casual cruelty, and the bustle. Even without the meticulous visual detail Matsumoto lavishes on the place, you can practically smell the food from the cafeteria.

That fidelity makes it all the more effective when you start to see glimpses of it through Yuki’s enhanced perspective. Matsumoto is positively restrained in introducing the weirdness that Yuki sees infesting Asahi Elementary. You glimpse it from the corner of your eye at first, or blink and it disappears. The clearest sense of them comes from Yuki’s crude drawings, and even he admits that they aren’t literal renderings. “This is just a conceptual sketch,” he tells the closest thing he has to a friend. As the school year that constitutes the book’s timeline progresses, Matsumoto reveals more of what Yuki is sensing.

Beyond his marvelous illustrations and elliptical storytelling, the fascinating thing about Matsumoto’s work is his ability to make me root for undesirable outcomes. In Tekkonkinkreet, I found myself hoping that its protagonists would accept the futility of their fight for Treasure Town, that they would cut their losses. In GoGo Monster, I found myself siding with the forces of conformity. Admirable as Yuki’s sense of self is, and enviable as his immunity to social pressure may be, I still was persuaded by Matsumoto’s argument for a healthy, happy Yuki, even if it resulted in a less interesting, less special Yuki.

I should probably mention that GoGo Monster is a beautifully produced book. It’s magnificently colored hard cover comes sheathed in an equally handsome slipcase. The edges of the crisp, white pages are tinged red with a continuation of the cover image. It’s all very lovely, but the book would still be extraordinary even without those bells and whistles. Matsumoto has craft, intelligence, and heart, and he balances those qualities as well as almost any creator alive. In a fairly extraordinary year for challenging, artistically satisfying manga, it seems like a certainty that Matsumoto will garner a second Eisner nomination, perhaps even a second win.

Halloween Week 3.0!

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It’s that time again! The third annual Soliloquy in Blue Halloween Week begins today, October 25, and continues through October 31. As before, I’ll be posting daily reviews of novels and comics with a supernatural bent. Some may be cute and fluffy, some may be genuinely creepy, but all will fit the general theme.

Each year I solicit ideas for future Halloween reading, so if you’ve got a favorite book or comic that you’d recommend, please leave a comment below! Last year I was able to tackle two reader-suggested works—The Mystery of Udolpho and Gyo—and this year I shall have two more in The Witch Family and Uzumaki.

Here’s this week’s menu. I’ll update with links as they become available.

Uzumaki, Vols. 1-3 by Junji Ito
Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
Haunted House by Mitsukazu Mihara
The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes
Yurara, Vols. 1-5 by Chika Shiomi
The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury (OMG, I really tried but Bradbury takes the lyrical language to such an extreme that I veered between feeling very sleepy and feeling very annoyed. It’s exceedingly rare that I do not finish a book, but I was practically physically incapable of doing so in this case.)

The Let’s Get Visual column planned for this week was unfortunately delayed due to weather-induced power outage and will appear at a later date.

My contributions to this week’s Off the Shelf will fit the theme, as well, and the whole Manga Bookshelf gang will get in the spirit for a horror-centric installment of The Favorites Alphabet and a special Halloween edition of Bookshelf Briefs.

I hope y’all will enjoy all this as much as I do!

Uzumaki, Vols. 1-3

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By Junji Ito | Published by VIZ Media

As with Ito’s two-volume work, Gyo, the best word to describe Uzumaki—despite a back cover blurb promising “terror in the tradition of The Ring”—is “weird.”

High school student Kirie Goshima lives in Kurôzu-Cho, a small coastal town nestled between the sea and a line of hills. She narrates each chapter in an effort to share the strange things that happened there. It all begins when, on the way to meet her boyfriend Shuichi Saito at the train station, she spots his father crouching in an alley, staring intently at a snail. Shuichi confirms that his dad has indeed been acting odd lately, and suggests that the entire town is “contaminated with spirals.”

Mr. Saito’s fixation with spirals grows to the point where he dies in an attempt to achieve a spiral shape, which drives his wife insane with spiral phobia. She too eventually passes away, leaving Shuichi alone to become a recluse who is able to resist the spiral menace while being more perceptive to it than most. Other episodic incidents fill out the first two volumes, including unfortunate events involving Kirie’s classmates (boys who turn into snails, a bizarre rivalry over spiralling hair, etc.), her father’s decision to use clay from the local pond in his ceramics, a mosquito epidemic that leads to icky goings-on at a hospital, and an abandoned lighthouse that suddenly begins producing a mesmerizing glow. Things come to a head in volume three when six successive hurricanes are drawn to Kurôzu-Cho, leaving it in ruins. Rescue workers and volunteers flock to the area, but find themselves unable to leave. Dun dun dun!

Creepy occurrences mandate creepy visuals, but I wouldn’t say that anything depicted herein is actually scary. Oh, there are loads of indelible images that made me go “ew” or “gross,” but was I frightened by them? No. The real horrors of Uzumaki are more subtle: the suggestions that there are ancient and mysterious forces against which humans are utterly powerless and that the spiral’s victims will live in eternal torment. Many tales of horror involve bloodthirsty monsters, but a menace that forces you to live and endure something horrific is much more capable of giving me the jibblies. It’s the ideas behind Uzumaki, therefore, and not the surfeit of disturbing images, that evoke dread.

Uzumaki has a much larger cast than Gyo, which prompted me to notice that Ito actually draws some really cute and realistic-looking female characters. Kirie is a prime example, but her classmates and TV reporter Chie Maruyama also fit the bill. I was pretty distracted by Ito’s rendering of a girl named Azami, though, because she reminded me so much of Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White in Clue. Observe:

Flames... FLAMES on the side of my face!

Uzumaki definitely delivers an unforgettable story with memorable art, but I would’ve liked to get to know the characters more. Kirie is a reasonably accessible lead and is smart, strong, and kind, but I felt at times that she was too strong. If anything gross is going on in town, Kirie is the one who’s going to discover it, and though she reacts in the moment, there wasn’t much emphasis on the cumulative effect of having witnessed all this madness. She keeps going and being shocked by things right until the very end, but a more normal person would’ve broken down long before. And why weren’t more people fleeing, I wonder? True, once the storms hit, nobody could leave, but for a while there plenty of crazy stuff is happening and folks are just sticking around.

I also would’ve liked to spend more time with Shuichi. He’s a pretty interesting guy, who wants to get out of town from the very start but remains because of Kirie. He seems to have inherited equal parts fascination with and fear of the spiral from his parents, which keeps him alive if not entirely sane, and is able to function at times when others are mesmerized, allowing him to come to Kirie’s aid on several occasions. Through these actions we see how much he cares for her, but I actually had no idea they were supposed to be a couple until he was specifically referred to as her boyfriend a couple of chapters in. Okay, yes, this isn’t a romance manga and I shouldn’t expect a lot of focus on their relationship, but even just a little bit of physical affection would’ve gone a long way.

Uzumaki is grim, gruesome, and a whole host of synonyms besides. This isn’t jump-out-of-your-skin horror, but a psychological tale with a decidedly grisly bent. I’m not sure I’d universally recommend it—I think I know several people who definitely shouldn’t read it, actually—but if it sounds intriguing to you, give it a whirl.

Uzumaki was published in English by VIZ Media. It is complete in three volumes.

For more entries in this month’s horror-themed MMF, check out the archive at Manga Xanadu.