It's been a while since I read some manga and two months since my last monthly post. During this time, I did some searching under the genres of mystery, horror, and supernatural. The titles I read this month fall under all three. Like most of the time, I am reading several titles at once and only managed to finish three on my list.
Kyoukotsu no Yume
Kyoukotsu no Yume is part of Natsuhiko Kyogoku's series following Akihiko Chuuzenji aka Kyogokudo, the atheist onmyouji. Strange to see atheist paired with onmyouji. I stress that this is a very niche series because the general audience can find it very boring due to extremely long exposition and the author's tendency to describe even the most extraneous events in detail. I have watched Mouryou no Hako prior to reading Kyoukotsu no Yume and I highly advise new readers to do the same. Either watch or read Mouryou no Hako first to familiarize yourself with the characters and the style of story telling. Though the exposition is very long, not to mention Chuuzenji doesn't even appear until volume 2 of the manga, there's something very compelling about the story.
A woman claims to have killed her previous husband three times and has strange dreams concerning bones. In the course of the first volume, this same story is told by three different times, once by the woman herself, once through a confession, and another through a writer. What makes the story compelling is that it brings in lots of characters each with different hypotheses about this woman and you as the reader are intrigued to find out which part of the story is fact and which of it is fiction. Readers familiar with Kyogokudo know that even with his extensive knowledge on occult practices and spiritual belief, the very thing he exorcises in the end is more sinister than a demon itself. I am looking forward to see what twisted story Kyogoku has installed for his readers.
Tousei Gensou Hakubutsushi
Set in the Showa era, Shinobu manages his father's antique store and solves paranormal mysteries. As he solves more and more, he unravels what would be the secret to his origins. Overall a much lighter story than Kyoukotsu no Yume. True to the shojo genre, the protagonist is calm and collected, but also very handsome and charming. The one thing I wished to see was more mysteries. It gets more predictable as you progress. I grow less interested in Shinobu's predicament in the end and the supposed antagonist of the story is not as lethal as I thought he would be. If you are looking for a quick read or looking to pass time on a flight, the three volume story should suffice.
Godchild
I read Godchild without reading the Count Cain Saga first. It might be known as Earl Cain to some people. It's a very dark and gothic manga with heavy emphasis on beauty masking the grotesque nature of crimes. Cain is an earl of the Hargreaves family said to be cursed to bring death wherever he goes. The true reason is that his father, Alexis, is the mastermind behind the treacherous secret society called Delilah. Cain tries to uncover the motive behind Delilah and protect the people involved in Delilah's schemes.
You can tell Kaori Yuki did a lot of research for her story weaving Victorian symbolism and nursery rhymes. I am particularly fond of her drawing style. However even as she illustrates beautifully for her story, the writing seems to falter. The characters do not develop greatly throughout the events and remain one sided. Delilah's origins to me as a reader felt forced. I wished there was a smoother transition explaining events instead of just chucking in a flashback like "So this is really what happened."
Akumu no Sumu Ie - Ghost Hunt
This one serves as a closer to the original Ghost Hunt manga. Mai and company are plunged into their final case concerning a very strangely built house. Not only is it strangely built, it has caused the mother and daughter inhabiting the quarters experience unease. This isn't a typical ghost involved either.
The ending was bittersweet for me. While it did have an exhilarating horror narrative, there were some parts of it that I didn't like. Having members of the Shibuya Psychic Research complete the same squabble over who knows what's haunting the house becomes repetitive especially when it's apparent that Naru always discovers the key details.
Inugami
I have this thing for vintage manga. I'm talking manga produced relatively in the late 80's and 90's. I have only read a couple chapters of Inugami and it got me hooked. This story is straight up horror and I'm looking forward to whatever sick shit may happen in the future chapters. Fumiki is an aspiring poet and one day he encounters a dog in an abandoned house who seems to have taken interest in Fumiki. To Fumiki's surprise, this dog has learned to talk and tells Fumiki that he only recounts a voice from a higher being telling him to spy on humans. Meanwhile some pharmaceutical company has been developing animals with fantastical mutations, namely these horns that emerge from their bodies. At the same time they are tracking down an organism with the number "23" as this organism holds the genes for immortality. It's to no surprise that the dog happens to have the number "23" tattooed on its ear.
While inugami is from Japanese folklore, the series uses this concept only briefly. It's more of a science fiction horror. Like I said, I'm only a few chapters into the story, but I have a feeling this can dark and gritty really quickly. I have yet to return to reading Inugami, but I sense some deep thoughts about greed and malice in human nature as one of the themes.
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