Bakemono Yawazukushi
Phantom Tales of the Night

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A Preliminary review for the first volume, as it's only just been translated into English, and seemingly no one knows about this manga despite the tremendous promise it has so far.

So far, Bakemono Yawa-zukushi, or as it is being published in English, Phantom Tales of the Night, is a manga about a mysterious place called Thundercloud Inn which takes in the unfortunate at the price of you biggest secret! It's possible a grand plot will be revealed, however the manga has been mostly episodic for now, showing semi-unrelated stories of people and spirits meeting the Inns strange and beautiful owner and his two servants Spider ... and Butterfly.

The mysteries as to who these people are and why they are doing this are interesting, but the real treat here is the art.

Let me tell you, Bakemono Yawa-zukushi has succulent art, especially in regards to its handsome male characters who fill the pages with their silky hair and flowing Kimonos. The author also has a good grasp of attractive page layouts, and clearly has a good team working with them as the backgrounds, inking, and little things like plants and fruit are all well designed and realistic.

Important - While this isn't a Yaoi, or even a shounen ai (not yet at least) there is a lot of fanservice with nude pretty Bishounens, so if you don't like that as much as I do, you may have trouble with this one, but personally I think it can be enjoyed by anyone regardless.

please support it so that it gets popular and Yen press knows to keep translating and publishing!

This series.. it’s got a lot goin’ on. IN A GOOD WAY! Overall I would highly recommend this series.

[A note: I will be using he/him to refer to Owner, because that’s what’s used in the eng. publications, no matter the form he’s taking]

General Stuff;
This series contains some body-horror elements, sometimes shown and sometimes just alluded to. For example, there’s a decent amount of cannibalism, as well as some snake-puking and the like. It’s also worth noting that there’s some sexual undertones throughout the series, with a lot of ‘it-was-not-necessary-for-y’all-to-be-that-close-for-that-scene-but-good-for-you-i-guess’ type situations.

ART:
Beautiful. There are many complex backgrounds, patterns, and full page spreads of dramatic/impactful scenes. ... The style is beautiful and emotions are shown extremely well.

PLOT:
Very intricate..lmao. It has a lot of flashbacks with non-aging characters, which is quite confusing at first. The first Volume, (ch 1-4 I believe), feels disjointed and seems to lack an overarching plot, but later on all the sub plots are tied together. (It starts to become more cohesive around Volume 2, or eps 5-7. It’s definitely worth it though, as the characters are all revealed to be linked in various ways (ex. through family history). Additionally, this series displays a lot of quite philosophical ideas, mostly about life/death and inter-personal relations.

CHARACTERS:
There’s a bunch of ‘em. Three that show up most consistently are: Owner, Spider, and Butterfly. Owner, as the owner of the Inn, shows up frequently for obvious reasons, and also to pull strings and be generally manipulative. Spider and Butterfly, as his employees at the Inn, also show up often.

All of the characters have complex motives and relations to each other, and none act as a clear antagonist. (A lot of them are somewhat morally grey, or live outside of human laws/morality).

[Side note: From a queer perspective, it’s pretty interesting to hear Owner, who shapeshifts between masculine and feminine (and sometimes non-human) appearances, talk about how humans judge based on appearance, and try to push this way of thinking upon others.]

A truly unique horror/supernatural manga with fascinating and mysterious characters. This was a lucky find find for me, and a great read! It's one of my favorite mangas I've read so far.

Story:
In the beginning it's fairly episodic, but as the manga progresses the characters and plotlines introduced in the beginning are woven together to create longer arcs. The general storyline is that Owner runs an inn to lure in humans (and other beings) to steal their secrets. However, I'm not sure of Owner's motive yet, but I love the mystery. The manga legitimately gives me the spooks sometimes. It's ... not violent, but more supernatural horror that leaves you with a creepy feeling, and I often would think about some of the more disturbing panels throughout my day.

Art:
I would love to give whichever assistant does all the heavy inking a kiss. All the panels are very dark to give an impression of nighttime, and it seems like the characters and shapes are portrayed by negative space. It's very interesting and unique. I stumbled across this manga in an interest stack grouped on good art.

Characters:
What I love about the main characters (at least the main three working at the inn) is that not a single one of them are good people, but they are all well-written, multi-faceted, and in-depth. I have seen so many authors try to pull off 'wicked' protagonists and the characters were always so shallow and/or annoying. But Owner, Spider, and Butterfly all know exactly what they're doing, they're good at it, and have no qualms about stealing secrets. My only complaint is that we still don't understand Owner's motivation for stealing secrets, but the manga isn't completed so that could still be down the road.

Enjoyment/Overall:
I read this over spooky season to give myself a few chills and this manga delivered. The only thing that might have effected my enjoyment was some of the nudity, but I feel like it contributed to, or at least explained, the plot, so I wasn't bothered much by it (the nudity is infrequent). There was also one graphic feeding scene that frankly made me feel very uncomfortable. However, I would recommend. It's an undiscovered gem of a manga but I think reading it will give you a new experience.