Apr 18, 2023
The introduction is a very compelling and creepy flashback. After reading about 6 chapters, I realized the story leans closer to slice-of-life. On the pixiv website this series is labeled under mystery/horror and slice-of-life.
The story premise is exploring ghost stories and urban legends. The chapters are lengthy, about 30-40 pages, so it's a decent chunk of time and has enough pages to draw you in.
The manga has nice art and beautiful facial expressions, and dialogue-heavy as typical of Josei. The author overexplains a lot of the mysteries so even if the horror is subtle, I felt a bit let down about the mystery aspect. The
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story dumps info about describing the role that mysteries and stories play in our lives. This manga might not be the greatest if you were expecting confusion or intrigue to be a major aspect.
The main draw of reading this story would be the emotional development of the protagonist Naoya Fukamachi. It's similar to the Sherlock + Watson dynamic, with Takatsuki as Sherlock with supernatural memorization abilities, and Fukamachi as Watson to provide grounding and support.
It is a bit flawed in the characterization. The author portrays Fukamachi as passive in the wrong instances while brave/active in others, which feels inconsistent, and the story is weaker for it. Professor Takatsuki is portrayed too perfectly and seems like an ideal rather than a person. For example, Takatsuki is already good at detecting lies so why does he need Naoya Fukamachi's special ability? The given explanation doesn't stick that well. Maybe the author will improve their writing later, but for now it's jarring.
EDIT: I realized this manga is an adaptation of a novel, so maybe the writing suffers from adaptation awkwardness?
The manga is still worth reading for its wide portrayal and variety of Japanese folklore, well-done scares and atmosphere setting. It doesn't have romance from what I can tell, and the story doesn't rely on shock or terror.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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