Souboutei Kowasubeshi

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It's been quite a while since I've found myself this hooked on a story of any kind. Souboutei Kowasubeshi excels at thoroughly engaging the reader through a maze of mystery and the unknown, as there's always a plot twist waiting around every few chapters, and one's entire perception of the narrative as a whole can be shifted in the span of a few pages.

This is a story best reviewed with the finer details left out, as the mystery of the "mysterious mansion in the Numanakarai region of Tokyo" unravels with each flip of a page, until the mansion itself seems almost infinitesimal in comparison to ... the overall scope of the story, and the many parts that work within it. As is the case with many mystery series, the more knowledge a reader has going in, the less the expansion of the plot impacts you. Given only the knowledge of the mansion's existence and the fates that befall most who have entered it, Souboutei Kowasubeshi can take the reader on a journey in which they're met with every emotion a human is capable of feeling, cranked up to 10.

One of this series' most interesting aspects is its pacing. Levels of action one would expect a manga series to stretch out across months are experienced in the span of a week in Souboutei Kowasubeshi. From roughly chapter 100 to the chapter I've caught up to (translation teams are still working on it, will update when all chapters are translated), the characters have been navigating the mysteries of Souboutei in the span of the same day. It truly baffles the reader when the true scale of time is contextualized through seemingly unimportant dialogue.

Such a phenomenal series being so seldom rated on here should be illegal. Beneath its vague synopsis, Souboutei Kowasubeshi hides one of the most engaging mystery stories manga has to offer, and deserves to be given a chance by any reader.

The plot of Souboutei Kowasubeshi is just as the English translation states, Souboutei Must Be Destroyed. The plot of this manga? There is a mansion known as Souboutei, and it must be destroyed.






Ideally, I feel going into this manga only accompanied with that info alone will grant you the most enjoyment out of this series, as it has one of the craziest and convoluted yet consistent plotlines I have ever read. So I heavily implore you to stop reading this review here and just go read the first chapter. Taking the blind plunge into the insanity of what lies behind Souboutei's walls is half the ... fun of this manga.

But for those not convinced, here is some background of what the story entails:

What does an intergalactic war between two liquid species and paintings that drag you into them and show you your deepest and darkest insecurities have to do with each other?
Who is this mysterious man painting within Souboutei and why does he seem unphased by possessed Imperial Japanese Military Police who patrol the mansion, or the hordes of zombies, or the mysterious little girl who bounces a ball and sings a nursery rhyme?
Where did a plane that disappeared 60 years ago come from, and why onboard is a monster child whose hands become drills?

All these question are not only answered, but are all just fragments of the bigger picture in Souboutei Must Be Destroyed, a series that had some crazy twist seemingly every chapter for what felt like 100 chapters straight.

And the cast is just as colorful as plotline: A struggling children's book author, an ordinary boy with a shaman older sister, the said monster whose hands turn to drills, a mad scientist and his daughter who can teleport objects with her mind, an elderly couple who deals in exorcisms and uses a burnt baby doll to shoot fire balls, three sisters with psychic abilities, a bandaged Imperial Japanese Military Lieutenant accompanied by a woman covered head to toe in black whose face is hidden and hair can heal all wounds, and a modern day JSDF Lieutenant trying to reign them all in.

It has been extremely difficult to write this review without making myself feel like I spoiled something. But if you are still wondering if this manga is worth a chance, then all I ask is that you read the first chapter. Souboutei Kowasubeshi is the first series in over 8 years that had gotten me fully invested in the plot from the first chapter, and I believe it may do the same for you.

Story 10 - What a kickass, crazy manga Fujita Kazuhiro has made yet again. From the author of Karakuri Circus, Ushio no Tora, and Bakegyamon we see another amazingly inspired work. Souboutei is the quintessential action, horrer manga that more people need to read, the story is fantastical, mysterious and extremely interesting. Everything is revealed at a good pace where the reader can take it everything that is going on and enjoy the crazy ride.
Art 8 - Fujita Kazuhiro's art is very hit or miss as it is reminiscent of the old manga artstyle, full of imperfect lines, luckily in this horror manga, who gives ... a sh** about neatness. Kazuhiro makes sure to go all out with the creative powers, monsters and environments the story needs and they are a true joy to look at. The action is fantastic and easy to follow and like his other works the facial expressions the characters make allow you to really experience their emotion and get yourself involved into the story.
Character - 9 Kazuhiro always makes his characters great, from adults to kids, everybody gets their fantastic badass moments and with the great facial expressions the artwork provides, it becomes very easy for the narrator to relate to the characters.
Enjoyment Overall - 9 I feel this is one of those hidden gem mangas more people need to know about, it has a crazy story that still is easy to follow and has no plot holes, it has great action and mental horrer elements, overall its a fantastic manga and as long as you can get down with Kazuhiro's old artstyle, you will love the hell out of this manga.

I really tried reading it through. I really did. I was really hoping, that somehow, the manga would get better. But no. Souboutei Kowasubeshi is pretty bad through and through, with little upside.

The story is pretty nonsensical and are just a few seemingly random supernatural events connecting everything together to form a "comprehensible" plot where a group of people try to take down an evil, mysterious, house. While at a moment's glance, the story seems pretty logical. Indeed, the events that happen in this narrative seem to make sense. However, when analyzing the likelihood of these things happening on tandem with each other makes the ... story completely unfeasible. What's the probability that this guy "coincidentally' meets with another person three times in a row? What's the probability that an unrelated supernatural event happens right after a decision is being made to destroy the house? In the end, the story is just a string of lucky coincidences that lead to a sort of cohesive simple plot, where the main objective is to kill the house.

For such a simple concept, you think that the plot events would be that simple, but no. They're complicated, kind of stupid, and overly complex for no apparent reason. This theme continues, and I just can't wrap my head around why this is the case. Alright, let's talk about characters. Honestly, all are pretty generic and not super memorable. You don't know which characters will end up being killed in two chapters, or the ones that will actually stay, so don't really feel like you need to be invested in any particular one except the male and female lead, who are also both equally boring, archetypal leads. The "cool, pretty, powerful, but sometimes clueless" maiden tag teaming with the "powerless, but actually has a unique power, dullwitted, but smart when he needs to be main character that empowers whoever he works with." Other than those, you have random characters that don't get a lot of development, and you basically have no characters you care about.

The art is decent at some points, and terrible at others. For a horror manga, I'd say that the horror elements, ie the house, monsters, creepy architecture and other ambience is actually pretty decent. however, the character art feels like it's straight from the 80s to 90s. Extremely lacking in particular detail in any characters, and of course, the mandatory panty shot once in a while, however, I do have to admit, these ecchi scenes are rarely emphasized or shown. My problem is that: why are they there in the first place, if they're not emphasized, and they're not even good? Especially for a horror genre type of series, it strikes me odd to have these rare ecchi shots.

Random supernatural events paired along with a string of coincidental events lead to an extremely convoluted plot that no one cares about. Pair this with lack of character creativity and bad character art, I really don't have any motivation to move on past chapter 50. There's basically only bad things to say, with one positive being: the art when it comes to the horror genre.

Souboutei Kowasubeshi is quite possibly one of the most overlooked manga series I've had the pleasure of reading. If it weren't for a random recommendation on a back-end manga site, I would have never known it existed in the first place.
Story:(9/10) While the story seems straightforward and simple, don't be fooled. Every event and line of dialogue bears some manner of importance to the story, be it big or small. While said story can be extremely ridiculous at times, becoming more so as time goes on, it has only served to keep me interested and guessing what insane turn of events will come next.
Art:(9/10) ... Fujita Kazuhiro is a mangaka that I have respected for lord-knows-how-long for his experimental, rough, innovative art style, and this series has reinforced that respect greatly. His distinctive character designs, minute attention to detail, and dynamic way of illustrating action have kept my eyes glued to the pages for the past year and a half.
Character:(8/10) As much as I love the characters in this series, it's hard not to mention how simplistic many of them are. Many of them undergo a good deal of character development, but others are left with little to no change throughout the series. Thankfully, said characters are ones that don't have much time on screen (or should it be on-paper?), so I can forgive that much.
Enjoyment:(10/10) Ever since i started reading this series, I have't read a single chapter that hasn't left me begging to see more. As I read, I constantly try and guess what batshit insane plot-points will come up next week, and every time a new badass confrontation occurs involving magic, spirits and what have you, I can't help but have a ridiculous grin on my face. It's safe to say that I've had more fun with this manga than many others I've read recently.
Overall:(9/10) If you have the time, please for the love of GOD give this series a try. I can't guarantee that you'll enjoy it as much as I have, but I can guarantee that you'll be in for a ride the likes of which you've never seen before.

Most of the times I am very tiring in my review, but I will try to express myself in an as lightweight manner as possible. So I apologize in advance.

So, Souboutei, I started this manga thrice, and the first two times, I dropped it around the seventh or tenth chapter. But it was not until having read the rest of the author's works, that the interest for Souboutei began rising inside me. I broke through the barrier of ten chapters in my third time reading it, and I was hooked. The story was fairly paced, with nice "stops" as I refer to them, in order ... to dwell upon the backstories of its characters and then the action scenes, which have two purposes, stalling and climax. Stalling because battles are used to prevent our protagonists from advancing in the plot, and climax because they pose a final step before the resolution of a storyline. This technique may cause some pacing issues sometimes, but most of the times it is a nice gearshift in order to raise the speed in the next lap.

By reading Souboutei I noticed that the author loves to follow a certain trope in his series. He lays a extensive group of characters, and begins by slowly and steadily exploring each one of them, giving a deep backstory to every character, and trying to serve each character his own personal conclusion and reward in the climax of the narrative. The characters are always distinctively portrayed and in such ways that you instantly create a separate box inside your head for each of them. Different Motivations, different backgrounds but the same core purpose, which is a recurring them in the author's works.

In the art section, the author Fujita Kazuhiro as always outdid himself. His shot in the horror genre was somehow expected, since his previous works had some creepy and eerie vibe into them, but Souboutei is the pure horror entry in his entourage of works. The excellent usage of shadows, and the attention in detail of the decay and rot of the scenery immerses the reader inside the world, making him partake in this chilling and dreadful narrative. Even knowing Fujita-sensei's colouring style, I was amazed by how fitting the colour selection in the colorpages was. Each distinct colour was used to represent the aspects of the series. Ghostly green, eerie purple, ashy purple and blue, deep red and hallowing white makes the series feel like a halloween horror movie which went the japanese way, and it works out perfectly. And the last thing I want to talk about is the emotion depiction. I get the chills whenever a character has a mental breakdown in Fujita-sensei's works, mainly because he showcases the emotion through every small detail of the character's body, from their posture, to the wrinkles in their face, the body language explodes into a firework of pure emotion, and overwhelms you. The pages feel full of tension and you almost want to avert your gaze, depending on the emotion expressed. Which gives the art a glorious 9. Why not 10 you say, too much perfection sets the bar too high, don't you think?

I will wrap up this review with my overall opinion. This read was enjoyful, I still read the series weekly, but the catching up was worthy to say at least. It was not as strong as the previous works, but still packed a punch. I really look forward to the series completing in the near future, so I can come back and write a full review of this exceptional and bizarre series.