- Introduction
- How scary is it?
- What’s it about: time loops?
- SPOILERS AHEAD
- The mysteries: solved
- Have you heard of Karada Sagashi?
Introduction
Karada Sagashi is a Japanese horror manga, that published from 2014 until 2017. It was published in Jump plus, totalling 17 volumes. This manga is a bit unique, as it can be separated into two parts, or, two arcs. While I have not yet finished reading the whole series, I have finished part one and a bit! Because I enjoyed it so much, I want to share my thoughts and opinions on what i’ve read so far.
If you’re interested, you can download a free sample of the manga here!
If the title was in English…
It would be translated as “body search”, which is also the name of the game the story is centered around! Unfortunately there is no official English version of the manga, however there is a movie (with English subs).
How scary is it?
It terms of scariness levels, I would say this manga is pretty up there in terms of both premise and visual horror. There is quite a bit of gore, and the main villain is literally called “the red person”, as they are always drenched in blood. Not just the body horror, this manga constantly has a scary, if not on-edge, atmosphere. While there are quite a bit more light-hearted pages, while reading, I always found myself a little bit on edge thinking “this scene is too light, something bad is going to happen”. and usually, something bad did end up happening.
What’s it about: time loops?
The basis of this manga is actually explained very clearly in the first chapter of this manga. In a certain high school, there is a popular urban rumour circulating around the students: If you find yourself alone in the school portable after classes end, and a strange little girl asks you to play with her, you will be forced to play a “game” with her unless you know the proper steps to evade her. The game? she will split your body up into 8 pieces, and have you choose 6 people to find it. There is a bit more lore to it than this, but you don’t need anything extra to understand the whole idea of the manga.
A good amount of the horror in this manga comes from the time loop. Until certain conditions are met, all 6 players of the game are forced to relive the same day over, and over again. When reliving the same day, you would expect the same things to happen at the same time, every time, right? As there is a supernatural element to this manga, there are forces that change little things (and sometimes big things), and they are always unsettling.
The Game
Once the 6 people are chosen, a sort of curse will be set. the following day at school, the person who was chosen to play the game by the little girl will appear in front of the 6 people they choose, and will ask them “please find my body”. And with that, the persons fate will have been decided.
After being asked to participate in the game, once the clock strikes midnight, the 6 students will find themselves being transported to their school. There, slowly, they will begin to understand the rules of the game – never explicitly stated – as a sort of trial by fire. Students will have to search the school at night for their friends body, while avoiding the “red person”. This red person has only one goal: to kill all 6 people playing the game. If a person is killed while playing the game they don’t actually die, they will simply wake up at the start of the same day. They will have to relive the same day of being asked to play the game by their friend, and being magically transported to their school at night to play a life or death searching game, until they finally win.
What changes during the time loop?
- the time/place/method our characters are asked to participate in the game
- where the ask-er appears at any certain time
- anything related to death
SPOILERS AHEAD
If you don’t want the story to be spoiled, please stop reading here!
The mysteries: solved
As you read the story, the number of mysteries begin to overlap each other. The mysteries that I found myself most excited to have solved include:
- Who is the red person?
- What happened to Kenshi?
- What will happen when all 8 body parts are found?
- What is the teacher hiding?
Thankfully, with the end of part 1, all of these mysteries were answered! From here, I will share how I interpreted these answers.
Who is the red person?
The “red person” is actually the victim of a gruesome murder at the hands of a family friend. Her twin sister, is the girl who set up the “body search” game, as a way to play with each other. This sister is also the one pulling the ropes behind the scenes. As the two of them are vengeful young spirits, their senses are twisted, and they seem to honestly think they are just playing games. As promised, once the players of the body search game successfully find all 8 body parts, the twins stop the game, and allow the next day to come.
What happened to Kenshi?
Kenshi, one of the 6 chosen players of the body search game, started growing a little bit extra ~strange~ during his time playing the game. He attempts to assault one of his fellow players, and rather quickly grows into a monster that kills his fellow players more viciously than the red person.
So, what happened to him? It turns out, Kenshi’s grandfather is the brother of the man who killed the red person, the ghost centering the game.
A quick side note, the red person, and her twin sister, were victims of an incredibly brutal crime. The two were often cared for by Kenshi’s grandfather, and their bodies were eventually found by his grandfather. He was then blamed for the crime, and ended up killing himself. The true perpetrator of the crime was not the grandfather, but the grandfathers evil brother. So now, even in death the grandfather is doing his best to protect the girls.
Because of this connection, somehow his grandfather was able to possess Kenshi, causing him to brutally attack the other players of the game, trying to protect the red person. Even before he was possessed though, Kenshi had begun acting strange – he attempted to assault one of the players he had a crush on. While all of the characters agreed it was completely out of character for him, it was explained that he originally had this sociopathic disposition, and the stress of the game along with the ghost of his grandfather caused him to act out.
It is also revealed that he is fully awake while possessed, so he has to watch as he is forced to kill his friends every night, taking a major toll on him throughout the day.
What happens when all 8 body parts are found?
This mystery actually had me upset once it was revealed. When playing the body search game, even if a player dies, they don’t really die. They all still will wake up the morning of the same day. This rule also applies when all 8 body parts are recovered however… To move on to the next day, someone needs to enter the coffin where the 8 body parts were eventually put together. In doing so however, all players who died on the final night, will awake the next day with absolutely no memories of playing the game, and no memories at all of the person who entered the coffin. Those that did not enter the coffin, and did not die in the game, retain all of their memories. This isn’t explained to anyone whatsoever, so you can imagine how upset I was when my favourite character entered the coffin and was treated by her “friends” with such hostility… 😦
I do have to say, this did make for an incredible twist however. It was also a perfect lead up to part 2!
What is the teacher hiding?
Rather early on in the story, we are introduced to a teacher who also was a forced participant of the body search game. He agrees to slowly give the students relevant information, but refuses to divulge too much information at one time. He’s a pretty creepy looking/acting guy, and that seems to just be how his personality is.
It turns out, when he played to body search game, it took him and his friends a total of 5 years to finally get out. Because of this, he is something of an expert of the game. Which leads me to question, why did he not warn them about getting into the coffin to finish the game???
Have you heard of Karada Sagashi?
Have you ever heard of this manga, or the movie? Let me know! 🙂
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