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Sensor
My Review: Cosmic horror and cults, two of some of my favorite themes of Junji Ito’s work. Sensor, originally titled Travelogue of the Succubus is a mish mash of ideas that tie together into a bizarre story. The first story starts with a beautiful young woman stumbles upon a haunted town that venerates the “angel hair” that falls from a nearby volcano, this story was wild but interesting.We must view the universe, appreciate it, sate ourselves on it. This manga started off as an idea that gradually evolved farther and farther away from its premise. Ito himself writes in his epilogue that the story was originally envisioned to be about…
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Final Girl
My Review: Classic slasher flicks have become a cultural touchstone in horror cinema that has spawned a number of tropes that define the genre: final girls, deadly shower scenes, and the slut characters dying first. Though slasher stories can at times be ludicrous they continue to engage audiences after decades of films. The genre has become the perfect vehicle for comedy and satire, and Final Girl is a silly little one-shot that tackles these tropes. The story follows a young man that finds himself transported into the plot of a slasher flick that is reminiscent Friday the 13th. He wakes up in the body of Summer, the “slut” character, doomed…
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Hideout
My Review: Sometimes you run into those manga that is worth reading for the art alone, even if the story is not the strongest. I didn’t know what I was getting into when I picked up Hideout but boy was I happy that I finally read it and I ask myself sometimes why I waited so long to do so. Kakizaki’s art is incredible with gorgeous inking and shading. There were so many times that I had to slow down and admire the extreme detail of a panel, the art was breathtaking. It was at this precise moment that the very little hesitation that I had left shattered into tiny…
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Waltz
Also by this author: Inside Mari, Sweet Poolside, Welcome Back Alice Warnings: Violence, Bullying, Homophobia My Thoughts This little one-shot had so much to say in just one chapter, the story felt like a hard slap. I didn’t expect to have my heart crushed in such a short number of pages. Things start in the same way that many transgender stories in fiction do, a girl meets a cute boy and helps him find himself. The two become close over their shared secret, she comes to his defense when he is bullied. It’s a step away from the fetishized M/M fiction written by cis women. “I’ll just have to make…
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Final Girl
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Look Back
Warnings: Violence My Thoughts Why do we create art? For enjoyment? For praise? To compete with our rival, or to live up to our idol? For money, a successful career? Creating art can be filled with joy, but it can also be painstaking too. This is the idea that lies at the heart of Look Back, a thoughtful one-shot manga that pays homage to the manga industry. Look Back follows two young girls, both aspiring manga artists, and how their art brought them together. Fujino is the best manga artist in her class, she lives for the praise of the people around her. Yet she finds herself upstaged by her…
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Palace of Water
Warnings: Violence, Abuse, Mild Sexual Content, Death My Thoughts One of my favorite story arcs in Kodocha was the on-location shoot for Sana’s first film, Palace of Water. It is during an arc where Sana grapples with her personal relationships and realizes feelings she didn’t know existed. Brief snippets of the film are included in the story for different parts of the shoot, and for years I had always wondered what the movie would have been like! The premise sounded really interesting, and the bits of story that are shown showed the usually cheerful Sana taking on a more somber, chilling role. This is an ever-present desire whenever I read…
