Hideout is a very short series. I don't imagine that it would take more than an hour or two to read it all, and that might be a very generous estimate depending on how fast you read. Since it's only 9 chapters you might not be expecting a whole lot as far as depth of the plot goes, but Kakizaki actually manages to spin a fairly human, depressing story with the little space given.
The premise (the couple getting lost and stumbling into an utterly horrific experience) is executed well enough. You get to see what led up to all this, the circumstances behind the death of the couple's son and the grisly aftermath, as the husband slowly loses everything important in his life: his son, his wife, her family, his career, everything goes spiraling downwards, and the man is slowly driven into madness. I'm sure the surprises waiting for them in the cave didn't exactly help his mental state either. I'm not sure that I would be driven to the extremes the protagonist goes to, but it's all part of the tragedy, so I guess it's fine. Given that it's only 9 chapters, it does a pretty good job of making you feel involved and making you care about what goes on.
That said, while the plot gets a thumbs up from me, the main thing Hideout has going for it is the art. It takes an extremely skilled artist to paint true terror and create landscapes and imagery that are genuinely frightening. Kakizaki is almost up there with Kentaro Miura (the author of Berserk) in the horror scenes department. Everything is marvelously shaded, detailed, and bleak, which makes the gruesome content of Hideout so much more potent than it would be with only a "good" artist working on it, as opposed to an excellent one like in this manga.
I wish I could say more about this manga, but there really is not much else to say. Hideout is a good 9 chapter series with a good plot and absolutely outstanding artwork. It will not take you very long to read, and it's certainly worth your time to check it out.
