About the Mangaka

No info available on Sakae Esuno, if you have any drop me a line through the Contact Me page at the top

About the Manga

Definitely not for the faint of heart, or those with heart conditions!!

I’ve always considered Higurashi as the most creepy series I would read, however this series makes Higurashi look like a love story.

It takes stalking and obsession to all new highs, then warps them into something eerie, and then takes them even higher (or is that lower).

Art wise, this series is pretty rough around the edges, It’s not bad per say, but it could have been a lot better. The characters just don’t have a sense of consistency across the volumes in the way they’re drawn.

However this can be ignored because where this series excels is in the the story. Like Higurashi its a deeply dark and twisted tale, with supernatural twists to it. Yuno and Yukiteru are excellent lead characters with strong personalities ready made when the series begins.

However it’s a very disturbed series that for a lot of people may be overly dark. It has a lot of death through murder involved, which for some will be seen as excessive. The problem lies in the fact that the series is basically a mass killing spree with twelve people out to kill each other to be the last man standing.

The personalities and combinations of certain characters in this free for all however are exceptionally well thought out. We have alliances being made and betrayed all over the place. For me though the main team is Yuki and Yuno, their relationship is twisted as hell, and in the later volumes when it takes an even darker turn, I found myself seriously having to ask if I wanted to keep reading. Certain elements of the series really made my stomach turn.

The story isn’t without it’s issues however. While it starts of fairly smoothly and flows well, from the mid range volumes and up it becomes a bit jerky, with odd time slips. The slips in themselves aren’t a bad thing, however the way they jump to the future then the past and back to now, really bad. It lacks the smooth transition it needs to make it a truly great series.

If you’re into the likes of Higurashi and Monster, then I’d recommend giving it a try. However if you found those even mildly unnerving, don’t bother with it.

If you notice my tags, I’ve listed this as unlicensed, however this technically untrue. Tokyopop picked up the license for this last year and initially planned to release in March and July of 2009. For some reason though this series has been put on their axed list. According to the rep I spoke to it’s now uncertain as to whether the series will be published at all, and at the least won’t be out until 2010. So until they make their minds up it’ll remain on my unlicensed list