Hello!
Welcome to The Anime & Manga Review!
It has been my dream to create a world on TheO where users can go for anime and manga reviews and finally here it is! I plan to make this world an active, exciting and helpful place for learning about and finding entertaining manga and anime to read/watch.
Mermaid Saga
Also known as Mermaid Forest in anime form
By: Rumiko Takahashi
I don’t care what any of you guys say! Mermaids can be terrifying!!! O.O
I have no idea if it’s a Japanese thing or whether it’s just drawing on the traditional legend of sirens of death that would drown sailors, but I can name more than one manga with evil mermaids…
Anyways of all the mermaid manga this one is probably one of the more popular, as it’s by the same author as Inuyasha, and was widely published outside Japan. Don’t worry though! If you’re thinking this will be too much like Inuyasha! Its not, and it’s also fairly short at, I believe five books long.
Mermaid Saga is based off a legend (that I’m not sure, again, if its Japanese, a widely believed piece of lore or made up by the author, but I have seen the idea in other series) that if you eat the flesh of a mermaid you will be granted immortality.
The story begins with Yuta, a young man who stumbles upon a strange villiage where it appears only women live. Well they kill him less than 20 pages in so I’m not counting it as a spoiler. XD And guess what? He’s partaken of mermaid’s flesh. The story develops from there and is really a great introduction to this world of evil mermaids that the author proceeds to develop in the rest of the series.
If you’ve never read anything else by Rumiko Takahashi other than Inuyasha, you’re really missing out and this would be a good introduction to the rest of her works! The series is a bit more mature than Inuyasha (not by much, though) and keeps a fun supernatural vibe throughout.
This is a great series for people who want supernatural things on Halloween but don’t want to be wading across a river of blood to get them.
And come on! Don’t even pretend like evil mermaids don’t sound kinda awesome!
For those of you that don’t know, Itou Junji writes some of the best and most visual horror manga. By most visual I mean that he is an expert at using manga as a medium to enhance the horror in a way that is unique and terrifying! Ever hear of Uzumaki or Gyo? If so, those are Itou’s work. If not… then clearly you are in need of a proper introduction. I’ve talked about Itou Junji before on Reign of Blood, but here I’m going to focus on my favorite of his short stories. Junji is the master of scary shorts… ah! So freaky!
I really love his work, he’s one of the few manga authors that I follow regularly. His work often feels like a modern fairy tale, not today’s kid friendly fairy tales, but the Grimm’s dark cautionary tales of old. He also manages to tap into my imagination and write the stories in a suspenseful way and show me the horrors in a way that’s somehow unexpected and disturbing, and I love him for it!
So here are my favorite, and what I think to be some of the scariest, of Itou Junji’s short horror manga!
Arg! It was sooooo hard to just choose 5!!!
5. Ice Cream Bus
When I was a kid, getting ice cream from an ice cream truck was the ultimate treat since my mom was always wary of them, and if I had read this as a kid I probably would have never ate ice cream again! This short feels very much the cautionary fairy tale I mentioned above. The story follows a man who has recently been divorced and is now taking care of his 8-10 year kid. After begging and begging to get to ride the ice cream truck with the other kids the father gives in, just wanting his son to be happy living with him. Needless to say some baaaad sh*t goes down! Gah! Just thinking about it! Needless to say I won’t ruin it for you, but (pun definitely intended) you’re in for a treat!
4. The Hanging Balloons
Ever thought that Stephen King’s It was weird for trying to make balloons scary? Well after reading this you’ll find yourself readily agreeing with him! The story begins with a sudden increase in suicides and well… it’s all down hill from there… Or er… up… in the sky… as people soon begin seeing what appears to be giant floating heads in the sky… Yikes! read it to learn all the freaky details! Oh man! Don’t pop any balloons!!!
3. House of Puppets
Why is this author trying to destroy all my happy childhood memories?! Lol Anyways House of Puppets is scary in a different way than the other two as it questions your personal freedom in a way that’s just… freaky! A poor family of puppeteers travels from place to place until the father becomes sick, the oldest son runs away, the father dies and all that’s left is the two youngest. Skip ahead several years and the oldest brother tracks down his siblings and invites them over and what do they find? Their brother is a crazy rich guy who’s made himself into a human puppet controlled by people living in his ceiling. Yeah talk about odd, this manga makes you think about who are the real puppets..?
2. Flesh colored Horror
No more ruined childhood! Woot! Ok this one is one of my favorites (and one of the scariest) The story begins with a Kindergarten teacher who has a problem child in her class. After the kid acts violently in school she decides to intervene with the parents and make sure everything is ok at home. Sadly her intervention doesn’t work and the boy has to be expelled after he injures another student. Even expelled he still sits outside the school every day. The teacher asks him why and he says he doesn’t want to go home. Being a good teacher and person, she begins to expect abuse and decides to visit his house again. Freaky stuff from there on… seriously every time I read it… it still gets me! Lets just say skin is important for many reasons including, protecting you from disease, keeping you hydrated, and protecting your muscles.
1. Glyceride
Ewwwwwww…. This one… This one! Anyways, the story of a girl who lives above a restaurant her father runs, where the oil and grease from cooking coats the air and the walls. One day her brother begins going a bit strange and starts drinking grease… well yeah… its gets gross and extremely disturbing from there! A great one shot that will give you a great horror fix!
Hope you enjoy reading! I know I always do!
You should definitely read this if horror is your genre, heck if horror is your genre you’ve probably at least heard of this guy and should definitely check out his shorts!
You should probably skip these if you don’t like horror… if you want a softer horror series by the same author check out his Tomie stories. They’re a bunch of loosely connected shorts that are a bit less disturbing but still very good!
~Tsu
ps. Do you have an awesome review world of your own? Share it with me and I’ll plug you here! ^-^
Oh this manga… It was one of the first series I ever read on the Internet and it always manages to scare the pants off me!
Zashiki Onna is a classic Japanese horror series from the 90s and follows the story of a young college student who finds himself being followed by a strange woman who is essentially stalking him.
This series has an interesting little history that I won’t go into in depth, but to touch upon it, this manga was written before stalking was recognized as word or a crime so at the time there wasn’t much you could do about it if it happened.
Zashikki Onna plays upon the fear of the known, of having someone following your every movement to the point of obsession and with the fear of the unknown, the things going bump in the night. For these reasons, the manga gives off a very real vibe that feels like it could be an urban legend or a “based off a true story” horror flick.
Zashiki Onna is fairly tame as far as horror goes, in that it has almost no blood or gore (someone gets a bump on the head and a few other injuries) but the true reason it’s terrifying is because it is a psychological horror series. The idea that it could really happen, as well as the artful way the main character’s mental state is shown throughout, from angry, to afraid, to possibly driven to the brink of insanity, is very well demonstrated. As the story progresses, we are made to question everything and it boils to an extremely memorable conclusion that I won’t spoil for you.
Ok so now I have to mention one other series with a similar plot, which is constantly compared to Zashiki Onna, Ibitsu, written by Ryou Haruto and being a newer series is more popular on the net. It also features a female stalker and poor male victim. While I did enjoy Ibitsu, it plays far more into the violence and less into the psychological horror, and also plays more into a supernatural vibe. Don’t get me wrong! Ibitsu is not a supernatural manga, nor is it bad, but it definitely didn’t feel like it could really happen and freaked me out less than the simplistic style of Zashiki Onna. I bring it up because it is eerily similar and clearly takes inspiration from stalker manga that came before it. (Borderline a remake or copycat it’s so similar at a few parts) Read it if you dare as it is still a pretty darn freaky series with a unique flare of its own!
Zashiki Onna is a classic horror manga and a must read for fans of the genre. It is also a good read for people who love horror but don’t want the gore of series like Uzumaki, Gyo, or Manhole.
If you dislike horror manga I would say skip it and try a lighter manga like Assassination Classroom.
~Tsu
PS. Thank you to everyone who reads this world! I have just reached the 3,000 view mark and I am so grateful for the support! If I make it to 5,000 I got a special review planned... so bribery! ;)
Sarashi Asobi
Author: Tobina Touya
Sometimes called Exposing Game (get yer head out of the gutter!)
So I’ve actually reviewed a series by the author before! (Here) So that makes this the first repeat author on this world! Woot!
Ok so to boil the plot down, it’s about a misunderstood girl, a bored shinigami and a little game.
To go into more detail, this shoujo manga starts with Ren Ohba, a girl with a tough stern exterior who just wants to help people but due to the way she acts she is constantly misunderstood. A shinigami is watching her and knowing she doesn’t have long to live, decides to play a game by making it so she shares her inner voice with the world. In other words all the things she thinks, she says aloud. (Trust me when I say this is adorable and hilarious) Anyhoo, wonderful hijinks ensue but it’s not all fun and games… A suffering shinigami, a girl trying to extend her life, and love triangles are also abundant.
I really enjoyed this short series. (I’ve reread it several times… and I’ve made 2 wallapapers for it…) It hits the right balance of adorable fun and heart felt drama. It’s also truly refreshing how the author spins the shinigami and misunderstood girl cliques into a new exciting piece. The characters are well developed and the chapter addressing the love triangle (I call it the creaking chapter) is one of the best portrayals, I’ve seen, of handling rejection and change in shoujo manga.
Anyhow Who’d like this?
Fans of shinigami manga (yes it could be it’s own genre) or fans of shoujo manga. I think even if shoujo isn’t your thing there’s a lot to enjoy here, but if you aren’t in the mood for some romance you might want to skip this one for now.
~Tsu
Ps. No seriously though... there's soooo many shinigami manga...
Maybe I should do a best and worst list of them...
(Also Sarashi Asobi is my favorite by this author)
Ok so last night I was reading a book and completely forgot what day it was…
FAIL! So here’s a review a day late, my apologies to anyone who actually reads these….
I promise I’ll do something to make up for it…
Any suggestions?
Anyways so today I decided I want to talk about Gungrave!
Hifsa wrote a post showing some prop guns from anime series and it reminded me of my love of this series! (Like I need reminding I’ve got a huge poster of the main character starring at me from my wall right now. Lol)
Anyways this series is based off of a video game, by the same name, and the character designs and story were done by Yasushiro Nightow. If his name is ringing some bells in your memory that’s because he is best known for the rather famous series Trigun, (Also a great anime and manga) and both his story telling and art styles are predominate in this anime and also why it is so good.
Gungrave is a supernatural action drama that takes place in some bizarre hybrid between San Francisco and Japan but it is America. (And perhaps a healthy dose of New York or Chicago for good measure) The supernatural element plays very little role in the overall plot until very late in the anime. Well, except for the first episode. I’m not gonna lie, not the best first episode out there… its almost not even important to the story at all, but it is very important to setting up the main conflict between our main character Brandon Heat and the antagonist Harry. The second episode begins a long and elegant flash back that gave me plot whiplash the first time I watched it. (I thought I missed an episode or something…) It is here that the real story begins about two street thugs that join the mob and climb their way up the food chain.
This may sound odd but trust me the characters are so relatable and the whole time you watch Brandon and Harry you’re just wondering how the first episode, for telling the future, could possibly come to be.
The story is ultimately one about loyalty, love and friendship, and I’ve watch very few series that made me feel this as much as Gungrave.
The animation is handled very well and is in that era between the 90s grain and 2000s smooth smooth styles. (if that makes any sense at all) I won’t give spoilers but the ending is handled extremely well, in a way that makes it feel real, gives it heart, and ties into the anime’s themes.
I could go on about the themes and symbolism in this series, but I won’t ‘cause that’d be boring and give spoilers, so I’ll just say it’s a well written piece (save maybe the flashback episode in the middle) that uses it’s visual medium to its full advantage.
This series is great for those who love action or drama series. While this is an action anime it’s not really that gory but is more in the style of a good shoot ‘em up gangster movie and the supernatural element is a nice touch. And let’s not forget the real story! Which is great drama between the characters.
This is a series with heavy drama and if you want something that’s a happy feel good anime today this may be one you save for another time.
Give it a watch! Stick with it past episode and trust me you’ll be enjoying this exciting ride!
So there aren’t really any good trailers that I could find for Gungrave, all the ones from Funimation really advertise him as being called “Beyond the Grave” as Brandon’s nickname. While this is true… only one person in the entire series calls him this and mainly in the first episode… This gives the anime a very different vibe than I think it actually gives so… Opening theme song!
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