Homunculus

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

somewhat spoiler review

I found Homunculus to be one of the best manga I have read in a while. When art mediums decide to use concepts from psychiatry and psychology, I have a very high bar. This manga went over that bar 9/10.

Specifically, the author is able to bring concepts of both psychoanalytic and general psychopathology into the forefront of chapters.

The author's usage of psychoanalytic terminology like unconscious, conscious, repression, self, and the integration of the unconscious and consciousness matches contemporary psychoanalytic theory. Bringing common psychopathological problems and presentations in the manga made me absolutely fall in love with it.


There is an arc, ... so to speak, which focuses on a character who right away based on her presentation has a borderline personality disorder. Before a bunch of plot stuff happened, I already came up with the hypothesis.


She doesn't have a self but only fits molds and once the mold goes away there is nothing (take away all of the labels.. and who are you). The feeling of not being able to express your emotions, help-seeking and help-rejecting, self-mutilation, history of psychological abuse, manipulation, and wanting to become "one" or "whole" are all core aspects of BPD. The manga clearly shows it (literally) and how many times even treating these individuals you do feel a sense of getting swallowed, and the mangaka does a great job demonstrating that. They have done their research into psychopathology and it made me fall in love with it. They even correctly labeled their hematoma and matched it with its general presentation.

It's hard to show what is someone who has BPD is like and this was a great rendition. If you are a student of psychology or psychiatry, read this manga especially.


The themes of identity, self are prevalent throughout the manga. It may be hard for some readers to understand the ending, as it is up in the air. Although it is absolutely amazing manga some of the best I have read in a while.

This isn't just your general Seinen manga with a sixth sense, it's a dive into man's psyche. To see how broken every single person is and how man truly is the cruelest animal (in regarding to the ending).


Story solid 9/10. Can be confusing at times, but not too bad.
Art 8/10 solid great detail on the constructions of minds
Characters: Love them!
Enjoyment: 10/10 Can't love it enough
Overall: 9/10 as no manga is perfect :)

Homunculussssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What-what? 600 people favorited this one? Are you freaking serious? Damn, Ya'll are crazy motherfudgers. I picked this manga up out of curiosity thinking like what's up with that manga cover, and I haven't read the synopsis that time. Yeah, I know stupid me, and I remember It was really terrible year for me, aanddd that's a different story. Anyways, so here I go flipping through the pages, and boom he drilled his freaking skull. I'm like whaaaaaaaat! To tell you the truth there's lots of stuff in this manga that I do not understand what's going on, Its like me having a brain seizure ... because I'm trying too hard to comprehend where the story goes. Of course, there's lots of weird shockingly icky moments and that made me keep on reading till the end.

Definitely will not re-read Homunculus, not trying to say it's terrible, it's just me telling myself how about give yourself a slap in the face and get some manga which you can actually understand and enjoy.

I wrote, re-wrote, and re-wrote some more before deciding on a final draft of this review. The reason why is because Homunculus is a tough manga to put into words. However, after much thought, I think I can sufficiently describe my thoughts on this manga.

Homunculus is a manga that is exhausting, but can also be enjoyable to read.

Homunculus seems simple to understand on the surface: a story about a man who can see people’s inner being manifested into a physical state. An inner being that reflects their feelings, thoughts, fears, past, and etc. As such a manga that uses a lot of psychology and back ... and forth between what’s true, what’s not, and etc, Homunculus utilizes a lot of imagery and symbolism. And I really do mean a lot of imagery and symbolism as virtually every page has it in some form.

Which is why I describe the manga as exhausting to read.

There’s really very little time to digest and think the situation over before the author tries to subject readers to new imagery/symbolism or to revoke old thoughts/misconceptions to form ‘more correct’ ones within the context of the plotline.

At times, the intense imagery/symbolism feels almost oppressive because nothing becomes straightforward anymore. All actions taken by the characters and all scenery shown become symbols themselves. As if the author is trying to force understanding in a very extreme way.

Some would view this as meaning the manga is ‘deep’. I can certainly see that way, but from my view, it’s also a clumsy way to be deep. A manga that tries very hard to be deep and meaningful is alright, but when you have to rack your brain virtually every page because seemingly everything you see appear to be a subtle point by the author to say something, it turns the effort of reading into a great one and, counterintuitively, the author’s point is more likely to be lost.

So would I count the overuse of such plot devices a flaw? Yes, I would. However, as I said, this doesn’t mean Homunculus is a bad manga and it can be enjoyable to read.

The premise combined with the author’s method of art and depiction can make the manga suspenseful and engaging. Sometimes, you want to know what the symbolism means because it seems so strange and interesting. Sometimes, you want to know how the characters will resolve the issues they’ve encountered.

So the actual plotline and the characters (as repulsive as some of them may be) do a decent job at driving reader interest and moving the plot at a good rate.

Overall, I would recommend Homunculus as a read, but I do it hesitantly. This kind of manga really is an acquired taste.

Every human most of the time has the same pattern, or the same context rather.. and each person you may encounter can be a representation of yourself, even the sick side of them can be a piece of your own puzzle that you can connect to the past and the present to move forward to the future..

..but eventho you think you've found the answers there will be more questions.. It's like a neverending "why"...

Homunculus is a really good and well researched manga. The content or the main idea of this manga has a mix of philosophy and psychology that is and can be ... applicable to one's self.

I dare to say few things about this series. There isn't much you can say without spoiling this masterpiece. The story is so amazing, the art is truly eye candy, the story direction is so intriguing. I started this manga on a whim and I don't regret it at all. The ending is a perfect fit to the overall story, although some may get confused. I was par and par with this story, enjoying and understanding it through and through. The story really gives a lot to think and chew on. I love how I was kept guessing as to whether the story would stay ... linear and loved the misdirect ions. Homunculus is definitely a story to read and love. I very much recommend any lover of deep stories and interesting plots to read this midlife crisis of an adventure!

Tragic.
A story about a man searching for his true self. It hurts to read, as I think it shares a lot of common with a lot of people (yes, me included). Nakoshi's journey is lonely and at the same time its complicated. He deals with lies from other people, from the world, and from himself. He had to endure with himself all his life.

Story? Unexpected. A wild read through the end.
Art style? Amazing. Some scenes were portrayed beautifully.
Characters? Ito's iconic! Others have a good composition with the story.
Enjoy? Absolutely! You might get confused in some parts but just go and you will understand.

Btw listening to ... Ichiko Aoba is just perfect for reading this manga.

It's a very poignant psychological drama with some horror touches. It's a very good read in 15 volumes, even though some parts of the story seem to linger a bit too much.

The story follows the kafkaesque journey to self-discovery of Nakoshi. Nakoshi, living in his car between a fancy hotel and a park populated by a group of homeless people is approached by a strange man, Itoh, with a lucrative proposition: agree to be subjected to a trepanation (drilling a hole in his skull) that could supposedly unlock psychic potential against as substantial amount of money. Thus begins the strange and disturbing "awakening" of ... Nakoshi.

I really recommend it it's a good read. It takes a deep dive in the characters' psyches and is a bit cerebral in its concepts but the artwork, beautiful and terrifying, really shines and makes the manga very visually compelling.

Warning : contains mature themes and some disturbing scenes/imagery.

When I started to dive a little bit more into the manga media, I often looked for series that were considered as classics, and others that were a little bit out of the standard by proposing innovative ideas, in terms of graphics or narration. But with Homonculus I really enjoyed this manga by Hideo Yamamoto. This is a quite complex psycological manga, with several ins and outs not so simple to understand. First of all, because the characters are quite atypical. Hideo Yamamoto took care to work the psycological aspect. All along the manga, we dive gradually in the strange world that the protagonist discovers ... after the acts he committed. During all my reading, I had the impression to swirl in a maelstrom by saying to me "What I am reading?"
This cryptic aspect is reinforced by the graphic aspect of the manga. Hideo Yamamoto is a very imaginative person and it shows. In most of his mangas, he explores each time interesting ideas, as for example in the violence (see Ichi the Killer). With Homonculus, he plunges us into an incredible supernatural universe, where the elements clash every time. It is grandiose and it is rare to be able to attend such a show in the manga media.
In the end when you put all the pieces of the puzzle together you understand everything and you remain a bit amazed by it all. The only regrettable point of the manga for my part is probably the work on the dialogues towards the end of the manga. I remain confused on some passages but maybe it is wanted by the author.
In short, I think Homonculus is very well written manga and important to discover at some point. Some sequences are grandiose and we really have a work on the visual metaphors subtly approached.

First off I would never recommend this manga to anyone, unless they wanted a recommendation for a psychological horror manga. First off the story is great, it isn't your average plot you would find in an animanga. A man named Susumu Nakoshi is living in his car between a lavish hotel and a park full of homeless people. One day, an eccentric young man approaches Nakoshi in search of subjects willing to partake in trepanation the procedure of drilling a hole in the skull. This mysterious person claims that Nakoshi is the perfect man for the experiment. Initially rejecting the offer, he doubles back on ... his decision after his car gets towed off. Nakoshi agrees to let Manabu Ito, a 22-year-old medical student, drill a hole in his skull in exchange for 700,000 yen. The procedure bears no results at first, with Nakoshi showing no abnormalities. This normalcy comes to an abrupt end, however, when Nakoshi begins seeing the homunculus in every person. With his perception distorted, he sees the person's true personalities and what they really are. The art is amazing, the mangaka is definitely very talented when it comes to drawing the characters and the structure of the manga. The characters are outstanding, Susumu Nakoshi is easily one of my favorite animanga characters of all time. And the side characters are also amazing with ear arc introducing another quirky or amazing character. Now enjoyment wise, I loved the journey of Nakoshi and how he handled people with the disorientated homunculi, but some panels were really disgusting and that is the car rape scene, like many other people I didn't enjoy it as well, but if you can get through that then your in for the enjoyment. After I finished the manga, I went through an existential drive, I really questioned myself and was offline for 3 days. Its the only media that made me do this and thats why I give it an overall of a 9/10.

After finishing Volume 5 I just couldn't bother with this anymore. An intriguing premise, overall great art and a very strong, well-written start didn't make up for all the drawn out pseudo-philosophical dialogue that would follow, as well as symbolism that varied between blatantly obvious and just exhaustingly weird and uncomfortable. The author approaches interesting topics, but tries way too hard to make them seem deeper than they actually are, killing off both suspense and enjoyment in the process. This manga went in a completely different direction from what I had expected and in my opinion it turned out very disappointing.

Homunculus is the only manga that made shed a tear that gave me a reason to five star this (Not like it would make a difference without the tear.) This protagonist is the only character in all the manga that I read (that is very little) who has a relatable feat that affects me deeply and its a very silly insecurity but to me it's the very thing that I question about. Nakoshi is a very good character he is probably top 2 or 3 main character in my list, The end is sad and questionable it's similar to the ending "Monster" but this manga ... has a one year time skip so it's very interesting what happened to our protagonist in that span of time. Ending this review this manga is the best I read so so far only by it's relatable way by myself, Tomato 🍅.

I don't really know how I feel about this manga. The concept and art is unique and refreshing and gripped me in from the beginning but the further into the manga I got, the more of a chore it became. I feel like it was a messy train ride from about chapter 4 till the end. A lot of repetitive bs and just down right weird sexual rapey scenes that tried and attempted to be deep, meaningful and philosophical but failed. Some parts of the manga were done really well and got the point across nicely but that was rare.

In hindsight I would have ... stopped reading half way through but didn't want to feel like a quitter and also lowkey wanted to see what the hype was about

Homunculus is what you want it to be. We can see existentialism in a good amount of seinen mangas, but from everything that I've read nothing compares like Yamamoto Hideo did with this piece in terms of convey, why? that depends on what you see or how much you want dig in.

The manga start with a man between two worlds, rich and poor, the only thing that put a line and separates him is Nakoshi himself ( the main character ) and his car parked between those two worlds. Everything start with trying to understand, to undercover everything, and that is the reason of the ... series, a man and his mind, only that.

Yamamoto Hideo put a lot effort into the meanings of human actions and the conection with the emotions that works as a brige wich sometimes leads to a tragic end. He talks also about the walls we create to hide us to the world, about the narcisism we need to live and trying to accept ourselver. It may be a sober reading, sometimes overexplained and pretentious for some, but I feel Yamamoto's effort to evoke his ideas. He has documented about human psychology and that is something that is reflected in his work very clear.

Art in this manga is stunning, with a great creativity from psichological point of view. It has cauptivate me to the end of it, with incredible symbolisms and a lot of good pages that can be culture of manga ( there are already some ). The pacing between scenes and argumental arcs is acomplished with the superb drawing of Yamamoto. Human factions and expresions, bizarre shapes with human essence, sometimes when no dialogue comes in, the art takes all the work and thats wonderfull.

Underrated manga that everyone that love philosophical and psychological themes should read or try to. A bittersweet experience that can even portrait yourself.

Homunculus is a dark seinen manga that tells a story that has a message. There is a lot of symbolism throughout and it may seem pretentious to some, however I finished this manga many years ago, and, over time, it has become a manga I think about almost every day.

What follows, contains spoilers, but only of the backstory to give perspective:

The story is fantastic. Some of the themes may be difficult to discern at first so I will be clear here my take on it. Homunculus is a story about a man that was ugly and ended up getting plastic surgery to better his life. ... This theme has been explored many times, but nothing like Homunculus. Homunculus deals with the mental breakdown of everything feeling fake. Nakoshi, the main character, achieved the great riches and the status he wanted, but he was never satisfied. Everything he had, had felt built up on how differently people treated him after he became better looking. It felt like nobody loved or cared about him for what he really is. This brings him eventually to a mental breakdown, and he throws everything away and becomes homeless. This brings us to the start of the manga, with this perspective in mind, the themes are much more clear. The trepanation is used to explore various themes surrounding the other characters and himself, it is also a form of escapism from Nakoshi's own problems. Despite being homeless for instance, he can't bring himself to make a decision of what he truly wants, he lives between his ultra wealthy past and a homeless encampment physically.

I greatly enjoyed symbolism with this and believe the work is by far best enjoyed viewing it as a whole instead of its parts. The themes were excellent and have stuck with me for many years, making this truly one of my favorite manga of all time. The difficulties we deal with in day to day life, would it be worth not being ourselves any more if we could artificially solve them all?

Overall this is a timeless manga. It provides many themes for the reader to think about. I just gave my example of what was most meaningful to me, but there are plenty other themes to discover throughout this brilliant work.

This manga entails a very unique perspective on the burdens and insecurities that people take on during their lifetime. These burdens and insecurities are viewed as “Homunculus,” creatures or things that take the shape of such insecurities.

Coupled with the creative plot line of this manga, the art of this manga is among some of the best artistic displays I’ve seen. Every panel is very intricate and detailed, with some panels being the most creative art I’ve seen in animanga.

The characters are not to be taken lightly either, with the main character being one of the most complex and in-depth main characters in animanga. Reading ... Nakoshi’s journey through the manga keeps you constantly engaged, as his actions and his words throughout the story are constant with his character development.
From growing and maturing as a person, to reflecting on past mistakes, to questioning humanity and what it means to be human, to him losing humanity all together, it throws the reader for a ride that is hard not to enjoy.


Albeit his controversial actions throughout the story, you often are curious to see what he does next, and how far his rabbit hole goes. Until you are left with the ending on the last chapter. Depending on how you like ambiguous endings, this could either be a really good ending or a ghastly one. Endings open to interpretation often are good when reading a story as complex as this one, so I enjoyed the ending.

Overall, this manga is probably my favorite written manga of all time (not favorite overall, just in writing) and is something I highly recommend to those who want to read something with substance.

Homunculus presents interesting ideas and concepts, but does not follow through with them well. It has sparks of brilliance among the drudging dullness of the story, and does present a rather great ending, but I fear the only thing I'll remember from this manga is how insane it is people drill holes into their skull (and yes, this is real).

Any broader message or themes the author was trying to hammer in are diluted by the silly abstractions and absurdities and the meandering story. The incredible artwork is hampered by mediocre paneling and composition that clutters and obfuscates the scene too much at times. Characters ... range from forgettable to somewhat interesting, and while this is intentional, the characters who do get attention never break much ground into what I'd call 'good' character writing, besides the main protagonist.


Story: 6/10.

Art, Composition: 10/10, 6/10

Character: 7/10

Enjoyment: 7/10

Overall: 6.5/10

This is one of the most thought provoking pieces of media I have ever seen. Right from the start the characters are so intriguing and there's already such a good air of mystery and as it goes on it just never gets less interesting. You never wanna stop reading (the physical release not separating chapters definitely helps this lol) yet at the same time you HAVE to because you need to let everything sink in. There is SO much the author wants to convey and so many genuinely important and worthwhile messages to the reader which are not forcibly thrown into the story but rather ... conveyed through actually well written characters with amazing development. At the same time there's so many aspects of the story that keep you thinking about it after you finish it, whether that be the extremely profound thematic stuff or intentional mysteries that aren't entirely cleared up. Oh and obviously the art is unreal levels of amazing.
Can be beautiful, disgusting, funny or horrifying, but most of all very very tragic and profound. It has some very heavy content & isn't exactly for everyone (watch out if you have s.a. trauma) but in my opinion this truly is easily a 10/10.

I think it’s a really interesting manga if you’re tired of a typical story. I liked the character work and there’s even some trans representation in it. It gets a little drawn out and repetitive towards the middle end but I think overall it was good and the ending was satisfying. For warnings I would include - Rape, Self Harm, Body Horror, and I cant think of anything else off the top of my head.

Honestly I do think Itou is good representation for trans women especially in a Japanese piece of media from the 2000s. I can’t say I would recommend this manga to ... everyone though, it’s really weird and some parts are gross and messed up.

There are certain types of manga that I leave satisfied with after finishing, and this manga was not one of them. It felt empty as a whole, but how could I lower it to a 9 or 8 because of that?

This work is bigger than a manga, it adresses some issues really well, throws out thought provoking questions that are fundamental (It is my opinion that there are several main questions that doesnt have an easy answer which majority of the people ask themselves, and their answer to those questions determine the way they live) to life so common that sometimes they are sidelined by ... other things, depicts somewhat reality of the world we live in. Across all of that we follow our protagonist on his journey.

I am a sucker for works that focuses on the main characters but I didnt feel it for this work. Yet again, this work is interesting enough that it wasnt even an issue. There was an absolutely beautiful (I am not saying well-drawn, mind you) heroine that is incomparable to "waifu" characters thrown in just to do fanservice without the slightest hint of personality. She made me feel deep emotions that very few characters managed to do.

This work also made me realize that the way I thought how people are coping with the reality of their existence might just be me projecting me own thoughts and actions on them while in reality people can live without even having thought about it. I guess there are more misconceptions I have and the projections I do unconsciously, I hope I too will realize them and confront them successfully

Quite frankly I was not able to make sense of certain scenes and was able to make sense of some scenes, I think this is the kind of work that you have to think about at some points which might be (understandably) not many peoples cup of tea. I honestly dont know how this became this popular since I thought it was intended for a more smaller audience (psychological manga are generally harder to start as it requires a little bit more attention and thinking [which people understandably might not want in their manga they just want to read to have fun])but I am happy that it worked out.

The manga started very promising and unique. To unravel the mysterious symbols that represented the supporting character's past was very clever and satisfying. The movement of the homunculi were very fluid and interesting for each representation. All characters were very well though out and multi-dimensional. However, when we've come to the main character's own personal history towards the end, the pace felt very slow and repetitive and the ending very meh for the tension that's been built up. It just didn't come all together at the end, and it left me wondering what the entire story was supposed to leave me know or understand.

Absolutely loved ... the author's tension building and characterizations through the homunculi. Fell extremely short on the ending.