Maddies Manga

“We’re looking for applicants who don’t mind their lives being completely changed” – an apartment agency.

“This is a story I heard from a friend…” – a unique neighbour with a passion for telling scary stories.

Author

This series is written by Akai Mash and Nebune Hayase. This is a manga based on a light novel.

Genre & Tropes

Horror, fantasy.

Info about this series (ongoing)

This is a brand new series, with one volume currently published. There is also one volume of the light novel published.

TL;DR rating

I fell in love with this story at page one. It’s such a strangely unique story, I can’t wait to continue!

What’s this series about? (chapter one spoilers)

A young man with mysterious circumstances moves into a new apartment. He knew it would be a rather unique living situation before ever moving in, as the ad was written with some strange requirements. Namely, it was a recruitment ad for new residents that didn’t mind their lives potentially being thrown upside down.

Seemingly desperate to have a place to live, the young man applies. While there are indeed some rather distressing things about the apartment—the fact that something has chased out tens of prior residents, the human-shaped stain on the bathtub curtain, and the feeling like he’s always being watched… He has been able to dutifully ignore all of these potential stressors, as again, he really needs a place to stay. There’s just one thing he’s been having difficulties coping with—his literal tentacle monster of a neighbour.

While it’s clear the neighbour is a literal monster, it remains unclear if it itself understands this. It enjoys talking to our protagonist, often telling him scary stories whenever they bump into each other on their respective balconies. The monster seems to really enjoy telling scary stories, even having a campfire story-type way of starting each new story. While he isn’t particularly a good story-teller, the young man always opts to listen until the very end. Whether it’s because the stories are actually interesting, or because he really doesn’t want to offend to tentacle monster, remains unclear.

The one fact that is perfectly clear, is that the monster telling the stories is infinitely scarier than any of the stories it tells.

My thoughts on this volume (Spoilers!)

I started reading this manga because I was intrigued by the promotional art—you have to admit, it’s eye-catching. I’ve been having difficulties finding a new horror series that I thought I would really enjoy, so I’ll admit I downloaded it with somewhat low hopes.

I ended up really, really enjoying the first chapter! There is a constant tone of mystery, with absolutely nothing spelt out. We know that our main character has mysterious circumstances that force him to take a chance on the apartment, but not much else. He seems to be a rather normal person, but he must be hiding something, right? Any completely same person would absolutely run screaming the second that tentacle monster made its appearance.

The tentacle monster is also mysterious in its own way—it really doesn’t seem to understand that its a monster. And why does it enjoy telling scary stories so much? As a terrifying monster, the way it moves its body to peer into the young man’s apartment as he’s saying goodnight is horrific. If it was a young child doing the same gestures however, it would almost seem age appropriate. Also, who exactly is it hearing all of these horror stories from? Are they completely made up, or perhaps stories it overheard from previous tenants?

Either way, I’m very invested in the story. Now I have to decide if I’m going to continue with the manga or light novel…

You can check out this series for yourself below! (JP)