Maddies Manga

A man gets more than he bargains for when he enters a “smiling” cult in search of his wife.

Scroll to the bottom for a link to sample and buy volume one!

Author

This series was written by Hattori Mitei. You can check out their X here.

Genre & Tropes

Cult horror, mystery.

Info about this series (ongoing)

This series is completed in Japanese with 11 volumes.

It is ongoing in English with two volumes currently released.

TL;DR rating

I genuinely enjoyed this volume! Following the journalist as he slowly is forced to learn that he indeed bit off more than he could chew with the cult was very entertaining.

Official synopsis

Yuushi Kamome is a freelance journalist who lost his beloved daughter in an unforeseen accident. His descent into despair following her death drove his wife to leave him, and he lives each day a shell of the man he once was. But his fate changes one day when members from a religious organization he had never heard of, the Smiling Hearts Society, knock on his door and hand him a flyer. He’ s ready to dismiss them until he notices the face of his estranged wife on the flyer, smiling ever so softly. And so begins a tale of religion and insanity. What kind of sinister darkness lurks behind this religion and its strange smiles?

My thoughts on this volume (Mild spoilers!)

Though I am a fan of cult horror stories, I can’t recall when I last read a manga about a religious cult! Kichikujima, perhaps? Regardless, I was long overdue for a new read.

Smile! Introduces us to the “Smiling Hearts Society”, where all will be alright so long as you keep smiling. True to the name, there is only one cult member ever depicted without a smile on their face. Perhaps because we’re seeing the world through our pessimistic protagonist’s eyes, but many of the smiles plastered across the occultists faces appear to tetor on almost demonic-looking. Some of them smile so forcefully that their eyes appear to be closed, and others just laugh instead of speak. By the end of the volume, the thought of a smile felt a little tainted.

We follow along protagonist Yuushi who finds himself joining the cult in pursuit of his wife. I find horror stories that follow investigators, be they police or journalists, rather hit or miss. Thankfully, or maybe sadly, Yuushi’s current situation in life makes him a prime target for the cult, leading for a quite interesting story. After all, they tend to set their sights on people who are mentally distressed or easy to manipule. Once he infiltrates the cult under a false name, he clearly thinks that he’s been doing a good job of being a secret investigator. However, It’s clear from the start that the higher ups in the cult knew all of his secrets from the start, and allowed him to enter so they could manipulate him.

It’s this game of Yuushi thinking he’s being sneaky and clever, and the cult leaders leading him down a clearly set path that makes this story so interesting. At times Yuushi clearly understands he’s being manipulated to do certain tasks and to go to certain places, and though he could rebel, the thought of seeing his wife again doesn’t allow him to. The poor man should have listened to the advice of his loved ones and stayed far away from the cult.

But if he did… there would be no story, now would there?

Check out a free sample below!

You can check out volume one of this series for yourself below!