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Misumisou
Hepatica Nobilis
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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Misu Misou

Japanese: ミスミソウ

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 3

Chapters: 21

Status: Finished

Published: May 7, 2007 to May 7, 2009

Genre: Horror

Theme: School

Demographic: Josei

Serialization: Horror M

Authors: Oshikiri, Rensuke (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 6.59¹ (scored by 6,580 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #14739²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1287

Members: 15,090

Favorites: 144

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Reviews

Filtered Results: 16 / 19

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Jun 5, 2015

MangaGreat

Mixed Feelings

I changed my mind a lot of times while reading this manga.

At first, I thought it was just a simplistic revenge manga. Then I thought it was a revenge manga with a shallow story. Then I thought it was a story that tries to get a creepy feeling under your skin. Then I thought it was a rather creepy story that shows off a lot of strange and previously unthinkable things. Then I thought…

Well, you get the idea.

The further I read, the creepier it gets. At its core, I still see it as mostly a simple revenge story, but the author sure takes care to ...

May 7, 2019

Xff34

Recommended

This manga definitely isn't for everyone, as it is very often misinterpreted and trivialized. Many mention being lost in the manga, calling the bullies "lunatics" and "insane". Through all manga of Rensuke Oshikiri I've read, no character has been inherently bad, mentally ill nor plainly evil. There has always been a cause, and it is the point of the manga and a common theme occuring in his works - abuse breeds abuse.

Very heavy with a painful message, it requires more from you than passive reading. It is not to be read for enjoyment. I've started reading Misumisou as I've looked for series similar to Higurashi, ... not knowing what I get myself into. Most readers (me included) expected a classic revenge plot filled with gore. It is only an illusion after reading the synopsis.

The characters and bullying are exaggerated, yet the message is painfully real and applying to the world we live in. Each of the kids carried on the abuse they have received from their parents and surroundings - like a curse, it was carried through different vessels. The protagonist wasn't the only victim, violence became a way to cope for many deeply broken characters. The group bullying and flowing violence, turning abused children into monsters themselves is most likely a reflection on Japanese society (although it is most likely a problem in every country, it is not as severe as in Japan where bullying is a subject of many media for a reason).

Rensuke Oshikiri's art is my personal favorite together with widely acknowledged Junji Itou. It is perfect for what it is supposed to visualize - the ugly core of humanity, the part of the world nobody wants to see or think about. Which is shown by most viewers finding it very repulsive, going as far as criticizing the author's skills although they should never be questioned seeing the author's use of flow, perspective and overly realistically shown emotions. It obviously has its flaws (some expressions become repetitive after a longer while), yet calling the art "bad" is blasphemous.

This manga is very heavy, touching subjects nobody wants to think or know about. It is not about bullying and gore, it shows a very real part of society. The children are not mentally ill nor born monsters - they are victims, desperate for affection.

In the end, a very heavy scene occurs where one of the male characters steals the scene with seemingly bizarre behavior. It is very difficult to read, seeing the desperation and thirst for affection and love they have never received from their parental figure, which together with misery and extreme fear of abandonment bred shocking violence.

For someone expecting a "slasher", this is not the right manga. If you look for something very heavy, referring to very real problems of Japanese society and worldwide domestic violence, I sincerely recommend you to read Misumisou.

Jan 3, 2021

ElicePhilips

Recommended

Among stories that have left an impression so deep that I can say they've affected my perspective on something and that I constantly carry around with me there's an oddity, Misumisou. The reason for that is honestly really ordinary, it's short. That's it. But, it's surprising what can be achieved with only 22 chapters. But enough of beating around the bush. It would be funny if my review ended up longer than the manga itself is. Maybe it's actually a legitimate possibility considering that the notes I took 2.1k words worth of notes while rereading for this review.

This is a review that I've ...

Apr 20, 2015

HatefulEnjay

Mixed Feelings

This manga was not bad, but it wasn't really all that good either. The setting seemed like a realistic small town, but it seemed like everybody in it was a violent psychopath. It seemed like this was supposed to be a message about bullying, but the middle school-age bullies are so cartoonishly evil that it's impossible to take the story very seriously. On top of that, (pardon the probable spoilers) the only villainous characters that ever show anything even remotely sympathetic or even human do so shortly before or as they die.
The other reason this doesn't really work as a message about bullying is because ...

Oct 15, 2014

TakunDes

Recommended

Preliminary (12/21 chp)

This manga is extremely sad. filled with killing intent and hate. I can totally understand how the main protagonist feel when she is in that situation. it makes you want those bullies to die as well. this sort of stuff happens daily, most of the time teacher/ family won't be able to support those victims which only makes the situation worse.

the story is mainly around someone who gets bullied almost daily and there are alot of F-word up shit everywhere. Reminds me of how i got bullied when i was in secondary school. the intent of wanting to kill someone when being bullied is understandable, ...

Sep 6, 2017

spyrocoot

Not Recommended

Revenge tragedies have proved incredibly popular throughout the ages. Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' is still studied in institutions all over the world while 'Berserk' is one of the best selling manga series of all time. 'Assassin's Creed 2' is one of the most critically acclaimed video games of the 21st century while 'Gladiator' is among the most memorable live-action films of the 2000s. Good revenge stories are filled with captivating characters, intrigue and the potential to elicit an emotional response from the viewer. Rensuke Oshikiri's 'Misumisou' fails to achieve any of this and then some. It is truly one of the worst pieces of fiction I have ... ever had the displeasure of experiencing.

'Misumisou' is about a middle school student, Nozaki Haruka, who moves from Tokyo to a small backwater town following her father's new job. Unfortunately, Nozaki immediately becomes a victim of bullying in her new school. Nozaki's trials and tribulations become increasingly severe with each passing chapter until our protagonist reaches breaking point and goes on a murdering spree. Now, the plot in and of itself is fine, if a little simple. Where the series really falls flat is in its execution. Particularly, the crux of the series' problems can be found in its characters.

The characters in 'Misumisou' suffer from the same weakness that plagued 'School Days'. That is, the characters are essentially caricatures in a series which is supposed to be based in realism. This is most obvious with the bullies. The bullies pierce Nozaki with tacks, steal her possessions, push her into a ditch filled with garbage, call her names, attempt to shoot her with a crossbow, assault Nozaki's father on school premises with tack-studded shoes, invade Nozaki's home and ultimately set her house on fire with her family trapped inside. That's not all: it turns out that Nazoki's home-room teacher is the only recurring member of staff in the series and is revealed early on to be in cahoots with the main bully. All of this takes place within the opening three chapters, no less. Their motives? They did not want the new kid to be part of their graduation ceremony. Sorry, but that is utterly ridiculous. That 14-year-old kids could commit such reprehensible acts and not feel even an iota of remorse is too outlandish an idea for any critical reader to get behind. One simply can not suspend their disbelief while reading 'Misumisou'. None of the bullies have any redeemable qualities and little effort is made by the author to provide any sort of backdrop or fleshing out of these characters. There was one instance where a flashback was shown just before one of the bullies meets their fate, but it was awkwardly tacked on, almost as if an afterthought.

Unfortunately, the rest of the cast do not fare much better. As the protagonist, Nazoki assumes the role of the innocent beauty turned killer. Nazoki's grandfather takes the role of the frustratingly ignorant relative. Aiba is Nazoki's only friend and also just so happens to be a psychopath. It may feel like these one-sentence descriptions are doing the characters a disservice, but in all honesty there is only so much one can say about what are effectively cardboard cut-outs. The mangaka doesn't give the reader much to work with: character development is non-existent and attempts at fleshing out come at a premium. In any other series, seeing the antagonists get their comeuppance would be cathartic, but not here. If the author doesn't put the effort in to making the protagonist likeable or the antagonists realistic, then why should the reader care about their fates? A good indicator of the quality of a cast of characters is how many of them you can remember by name and, in the case of 'Misumisou', it was just one. It is difficult to see any positives in what was a completely forgettable, unrealistic cast of characters. It's an extremely poor effort, it must be said.

If the characters and contrivances of the plot didn't already kill the series off then the art made sure to finish the job. Honestly, the character designs look awful. Eyes are drawn too far apart, the faces are not drawn consistently from panel-to-panel and ultimately it never felt as if the mangaka was comfortable drawing his characters. There is also a disgusting expression that the mangaka draws on all of his characters when they are angry. Needless to say, it looks more amusing than it does threatening, at least until it begins to feel nauseating due to how grotesque it looks. While the character designs were a huge let-down, credit must be given for some of the backgrounds. In particular, there is one panel in chapter three where Nazoki and Aiba are drawn as silhouettes looking up at the starry night sky. It looks stunning, so much so that it feels out of place in a manga of this quality. The mangaka also appears to have talent for drawing weapons - lots of detail went into the crossbow and pistol. These instances are rare and it doesn't make a massive difference to the overall package, but it at least saves it from attaining the lowest possible marks.

Overall, I went into 'Misumisou' with extremely low expectations and still managed to come away from it feeling disappointed. This was my first taste of Rensuke Oshikiri's work and chances are it is going to be my last. 'Misumisou' reads like an amateur's debut work, so to see that Oshikiri is an already established mangaka with a large body of work behind him came as a major shock. The characters are flat and unrealistic, the plot twists are contrived and the art is highly unpleasant, save for the odd panel here and there. I'm still not sure what message the mangaka was trying to convey, but in any event he failed. In all good conscience, I could not and would not recommend this manga to anyone.

Aug 2, 2022

TheLewdOtakuRe

Mixed Feelings

At it's core this is clearly a manga that is meant illicit negative feelings in you and make you disturbed and bothered by the happenings within, it's good at doing that on surface level. But when you try and look at it objectively, it honestly appears very shallow, I would say that it's attempt at depicting abuse are caricaturist-esque.

When you see the kids and adults alike slowly unravel and show their true colors and begin acting erratically and sadistically, it tries way too hard. These characters are just way too cartoonish in nature for any of this to really matter or strike a ...

Jul 31, 2017

TheDarksider

Mixed Feelings

The word I chose to describe Misumisou is "inconsistent", though it's possible to find this inconsistency functional for the plot, but perhaps I felt that only because of some narrative choices of the author being different than expected in most manga similar to this one. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this manga. Please, allow me to explain.

Starting with the story, what I tought would be just a manga about some girl dealing with bullying, turned out to be more centred on delibarate violance than anything, at least for some of the chapters. It's a story about revenge with students as main ...

May 19, 2021

HentaiHotsauce

Not Recommended

This is my first time writing a review so if it isn't the best then you know why.

This manga was so unbelievably disappointing. Going into this I thought it would have at least some type of twist on it but no, it does not. It is the cliche revenge story but the characters are all horrible. Not a single character is relatable and they all act so atrociously crummy. Maybe the horrible characters are just part of the story because most of the characters are insane but it's still not a good representation.

For there to ...

Dec 22, 2018

TheHentaiKing

Mixed Feelings

*Disclaimer*
Just personal scratch.
Advised, possible spoilers.
Opinion & Informal

Art: 4/10
The anatomy and proportions in this manga were something else lol. I won't give examples but the anatomy and proportions were really off in this and I don't think it was intentional. However, what I do think was intentional was the contrast in facial distortions between people based on changes in their state of mind and their natures. For example, people who were being evil had slowly evolving changes in their facial features that made them look progressively distorted. However, good characters and characters who eventually tried to redeem themselves had nice-looking faces. There were no showcases of ... the artist's skill such as panoramics or other things. There were no nice looking nature showcases. The impact shots didn't look like they were a cut above the regular art. The impact shots also looked a bit meh. There was a lack of supporting tones as well as detail in a lot of the objects and environment. For what I think overall...the art was pretty bad...

Panel Progression: 5/10
The panel progression was average. The layout was plain and uninteresting. Panel-cutting was kept at an absolute minimum. The pacing was at a good speed, but there were a lot of places where I would have liked a few more panels for context. There were multiple times that it felt like a few more panels could have made the interactions or action sequences clearer. Overall, the panel progression didn't have any flair and was just about average.

Characters: 5/10
The character designs were mostly normal-looking but I didn't feel like anything was done to make any of the characters memorable. Most of the characters actually had very similar faces and facial structures so it would have been hard to tell characters apart other than by their hairstyles or context. The character development was a bit underwhelming too. The reasoning behind the bullying was sort of lame and all the craziness didn't have a good foundation to make anything believable. The blond girl who wanted to be a beautician was alright. It was nice how she came to her senses and eventually wanted to reconcile, but all of that hopeful development was quickly buried just like how she was became buried in the snow after she died a few pages after her redemption. The camera boy was stupid. Sure, it was a good twist that he was actually a terrible person but after the blond girl died, it felt like the story was going to head into a very predictable ending. The growth of the MC was also not too eventful. After losing her family all of her interactions past that was just killing the people who wronged her. I sort of wished that there would have been some sort of personal aside or contemplation about her state of being during this time. I didn't want the rest of the story to just be an exercise in revenge and nothing else; unfortunately, it was just that and that ended up making most of the latter half pretty boring and predictable.

Plot: 5/10
The setup was nice. The flower, hepatica, and what it represents was a good way to introduce the plot and the coming events. The whole, "blooms after the winter snow" was a good foreshadowing to what the manga would be about. I liked the initial setup of the plot.

Development: 5/10
While I did like the plot setup, everything else development wise was a bit boring; girl gets bullied, eventually gets pushed over the edge, kills everyone. That's about it. None of the characters showed any redeeming or likable qualities. A majority of the characters were made to be mindless scumbags just to fit the narrative of the plot. A few of the more notable bullies got some background stories and were fleshed out a bit, but they still ended up being lame. None of their past tragedies or circumstances made any difference in how I felt about them while they were alive or when they were dying/dead. The only thing I liked about this manga was when the blonde girl tried to redeem herself and reconciled with the MC. It was a kick in the shin when the blonde girl ended up dying a few pages after this event.

Conclusion: 6/10
All the questions or plot points that should have been resolved properly didn't need to be answered because everyone was dead. The final fate of the MC was fine. She gave up being a flower and as a result it was appropriate for her to wither away in the snow storm. A hepatica, which she no longer was and was something that she willingly chose to lose, blooms when the snow clears. It was appropriate for her to die in the snowstorm because she gave up everything for her revenge.

Overall: 5/10
This was entertaining enough. The initial plot setup was neat and I liked the foreshadowing it created. I also liked how at least one of the characters, the blonde girl, tried to redeem herself and the character development of this manga. I disliked how linear/straightforward the development became after the MC went over the edge. It was so linear that it made the later half of the manga very predictable: MC goes around getting revenge then either gives up on revenge and moves on or dies in the end because of her path of revenge. This manga was entertaining for what it was, but the art and development choices were turn-offs for me.

Mar 7, 2021

nyankoburger

Recommended

I personally really enjoyed this manga, as high school tragedy is one of my favorite genres, though it really does seem to be revenge porn focused on guro.

It's definitely satisfying seeing the mc take her revenge, but due to the shortness of the manga, it really felt rushed and we didn't get to know what went on inside her head, like in say, aku no hana, which is something I felt would have helped make this story less two dimensional.

The interesting art style really does set this apart from others, though often it detracts from the story as it's hard to tell who's who, ...

Apr 12, 2021

CrystalMountain

Recommended

***Spoilerless Review***

This series left me stunned not gonna lie ,like I was expecting something dark ,but totally not this much and I guess I liked that about it.

Story: 7/10
The story is about a girl that moved to a new place and gets bullied in school.As the story progresses unexpected things happen ,which lead to some major changes in the narrative

Art:8/10
The art was really mesmerizing .The character's emotions were ...

Jul 7, 2020

deli_

Recommended

A girl has been bullied throughout her last year of school, before her graduation. She hopes to wait patiently until it ends. If only things were that easy.

There's an ugly sense of realism in this manga if you look past the ridiculous and edgy violence.

A revenge manga that doesn't glorify revenge is a revenge story done well. It's frustrating, but it's a reflection of real life. Is Misumisou exaggerated? Dramatised? Sure, a lot of the violence present feels unnecessary and too much at times, and the facial expressions of its characters only act to serve in its seemingly obnoxious edginess. Nevertheless, it's in this ...

Feb 22, 2022

MayTheFool

Recommended

I don't know where to begin with this story, although I should probably say I actually started reading this a couple of years before I'm writing this review. I could hardly stomach reading this manga if I'm honest, which I guess was the point huh? I read the first 12 chapters a while ago and had to stop, I only came back to finish reading it just before writing this review. There are plenty of gorefest mangas out there, and while this may not have the most gore it certainly made me feel it on an almost visceral level. I did not enjoy reading this ...

Aug 2, 2020

The_Brave_Frog

Recommended

At first glance "Misumisou" does not look like it would be a horror story, based on its art style. However, this manga does a really good job at showing some truly terrifying emotion and detailed gore that truly made it a horror story worth reading.

The story follows a middle school student named Haruka, as she transfers to a small town and is bullied at her new school, when the bullies go to far she decides to kill those that have taken away what was important to her. Even though the plot is simple, it gets its emotions across well ...

Jan 20, 2021

DyceAverruncus

Recommended

Haruka has it rough. She moves to a school in the countryside due to her dad's family getting a new job and gets tormented every day by a group of bullies. Her family and a boy named Aiba seem to be the only traces of happiness in her life, but will this happiness last?

Hepatica is a brutal depiction of middle school bullying and the cruelty of children. The torment Haruka goes through ranges from regular verbal abuse, being pushed into garbage, and the event which kicks off the revenge plot of the entire manga: her house gets burned down with her family. This is the ...