A brash explosion created and populated by self-proclaimed pulp obsessives, the manga takes place in the golden age of Japanese mystery literature and positions this mass creation of the unknown as simply a reflection of an unknowable world. There are ghosts and ghouls (or are there?) and murderers abound, and everyone has a secret, a trick which allows the reader to be in a constant state of unease. Nobody is free from suspicion. But the secrets they all hold are also what connects everyone, what traps them all in this world of unending horror.
And those secrets are that the characters of Yuureitou aren't who they say they are. They are not a man, or a woman, or straight, or sexually active, or a horrible ghost monster. The manga explicitly tackles gender politics with a zeal, the cast populated by confused LGBTQ+ individuals. Throughout the main mystery of the series, characters try to 'solve' their gender identities and their perception of other non-binary people. But, as with their attempts to discover the secrets of the mysterious clock tower, they only ever seem to find more layers, more confusion. They traverse literal mazes while hunted by deranged killers, paralleling their scared wandering through gender and the threat that what they were is dead, and what they are can not survive.
The blending of mystery and horror with gender dysphoria is interesting and gutsy. Unfortunately, while Yuureitou tries and succeeds in many aspects to discuss gender politics and promote a more open and progressive society, it falls face first just as much. The characters are deplorable in their society; they are degenerates. And while on one hand the attempt to mirror this with a world full of crime makes sense--society accepts neither and views both as beyond saving which in turn makes the characters question their own goodness--by positioning almost the entire cast as both non-binary or queer AND criminal, the manga trips over its own message, equating LGBTQ+ people to killers and monsters. This is clearly unintentional, as Yuureitou desperately pushes for acceptance and understanding in the confusing struggles of its characters, but is an awkward reality of the manga all the same.
Furthermore, through much of the manga when the transgender male character is sexualized as female, it is specifically through the prism of other characters who often are struggling with their own identity. This is great and creates nicely complex moments. The characters can't simply turn off their own sexual desires or the mores forced onto them since birth like a switch. However, the title pages almost always ignore the character's identity and insist on falling back on tired, sexy poses. This is bad. When outside of the narrative, the manga leers and creeps and ignores its own message, becoming another piece of the oppressive society weighing down on the cast.
As a final note, the manga for whatever reason steps back from some amazing paneling as it progresses. The first volume in particular is filled with astounding sequences which quickly focus in on the smallest of character reactions or brief flashes of memories which create some of the honest to god best horror scenes in any manga ever. There are pages in Yuureitou that should be used in schools to teach visual storytelling. By the end, Yuureitou largely neglects this style and whether this is a thematic choice (their secrets aren't hidden anymore) or a practical one, it is a bit of a shame.
Yuureitou is like a storm. Loud and violent and inevitably messy, striking down trees and turning the ground to mud. Storms have potential to be good or bad--they can destroy and hurt, but they can also provide water that is desperately needed. Of course like most everything, they're never really just one or the other, and neither is Yuureitou; a good-hearted, hurtful, hopeful, gross, storm of a manga.
