In a remote town in the Japanese wilderness, there waits a young woman as beautiful as a doll. It’s said that she has the power to heal anyone, drawing curious visitors from all around the country. Once you meet her though, you can never again leave the village.
You can check out a sample of this manga for yourself below!
Author
Genre & Tropes
Info about this series (complete)
This is a one-shot manga, complete in English and Japanese.
Official synopsis (Yen Press)
In murmurs and whispers, the people living in the shadow of Mount Hinatsugi recount the legend—their legend. A female demon lives on the mountain, they say. She kidnaps people, they say. And when all is said and done, if the stories are to be believed, those who are taken become her servants and may never stray from the mountain again! Be they students or journalists, everyone who seeks the truth behind the myth is destined to disappear…
My thoughts on this volume (slight spoilers!)
While this manga certainly had a message it wanted to convey, there was too much time spent on the set-up to delve into the deeper meaning. I believe this was a manga that would have greatly benefited from being a series rather than a one-shot.
The first few chapters follow different characters somehow making their way to the Hinatsugi village, meeting Kiriko, and eventually meeting an untimely fate. In practice, this is a wonderful way to set up a horror manga—through the victims we slowly learn more about more about who or what Kiriko is and the town she lives in with her mother. In practice, everything unfortunately came off more goofy than scary—like, what was that girl-head cat?
Most of the chapters had very strong setups, which is why I was so disappointed in the end. They typically follow the same format up until the featured characters reach the village. We are introduced to various characters and their motivations for coming to the mountains. They are then lured into the village where something creepy happens, and then things typically go downhill from there. If a character first meets Kiriko, then the chapter generally ends on a stronger note. If they first meet Kiriko’s mother… well it’s hard to take anything seriously after she makes an appearance.
I think this is a story that does horror best when it stays quiet—like in Kiriko’s character. Kiriko is depicted as a doll-like girl with little emotion. Despite being covered in scars, she’s so beautiful it’s almost unworldly. Because of this ethereal air around her, she always comes off a little bit creepy, making the best of any scene she’s a part of.
Unfortunately her mother is the complete opposite of her, negating all of the eeriness that she brings about. Her mother is what I can only describe as a comically evil woman. She scream and attacks at the drop of a hat, and will even attack her own daughter if she dares disobey. They’re so different it’s difficult to believe they’re mother and daughter. I genuinely feel like the two of them belong in different stories they’re so different. The mother almost reminds me of a Junji Ito villain—not something you would think of when looking at the cover of this manga.
In the end we learn of the motivation behind all the evil that has taken place in the village…but I don’t believe there was enough build-up for it to have an actual impact. I was only just starting to like Kiriko’s character and then poof! It was all over!
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