People either avoid or enjoy the stories of the horror genre, and I am the latter. I always liked reading any stories of the horror genre, particularly psychological horror. Nemuri No Fuchi is unfortunately a disappointing horror story. It starts off with an interesting story, but as it progresses, the sense of dread, shock and horror loses its spark, and the reader's engagement is lost.
Story (5/10):
The story starts off with an interesting premise - childhood friend mysteriously disappear while playing hide and seek. the "maze" is created, and protagonist experiences traumatic memories from it. It starts off with a foreboding atmosphere when the protagonist discovers these mazes. The creepiest part was when the protagonist figures out that travelling into and from the mazes, allow you to go back in time, but as a result disfigures you. This was a fair concept, but some could debate that "the time-travelling aspect of the maze" is confusing. I wouldn't have mind if it meant that time in the real world has stopped when you travel into the maze.
After this part, the story just progressed too fast, missing out crucial details and creating massive plotholes. It seems the author just wanted to finish the story because he didn't really have any solid ideas to further develop the concept. The story added some "secret government officials" and with the protagonist, they ascend down to the maze. There was also some "time-skipping" scene where the protagonist's older friend become one of these officials, which made the story even more confusing.
Characters (5/10):
The characters are pretty generic. There is nothing amazing, or anything noteworthy about the characters
The art is not badly done because some of the drawings really creep me out. The monsters from the maze were really creepy so this manga artist knows how to draw at least. The disfigured individual whom becomes a monster after traveling back in time through the mazes was drawn pretty well too. At least there was some redeeming factor for this manga.
Enjoyment (5/10):
The manga was enjoyable to read at the start, but then it became boring as it progressed. Fortunately it was only 14 chapters.
Overall (5/10 or 6/10):
For horror enthusiasts, Nemuri no Fuchi is a disappointing read despite having a good concept, and a good start. Unfortunately the story wasn't done to its full potential and this could be due to the manga having too few chapters. I would recommend staying away from this manga, but since it only has 14 chapters, perhaps readers can try it out and see whether they like it.
Honestly, this manga failed as a horror manga in the sense that all of its horror elements later in the story got crushed by its storytelling. Still, your review is too harsh regarding the story itself. The plot was actually well though of and not with that many plotholes.
ReplyDeleteThis manga was trying to tell a sci-fi story (sort of) presented as a horror story. It had the potential to be really good and it actually was up to a point. Just think of the scene with the guy trying to save his girlfriend by going into the past, only to keep failing and getting more and more deformed. Like come on, it was really well made and definitely the highlight of this manga.
But then it all derailed. The horror got replaced by typical shonen elements and action, skintight combat suits (like come on why), and a constant bombardment of information, while some key points were never addressed.
Anyways, the mood was ruined.
I don't know whether with such a plot the manga had the potential to be a typical horror only story, but what it shifted into (probably due to the author trying to rush it) downright sucked compared to the highly promising initial chapters.
Still, I found myself reading to the end, as I had already read past the point of everything derailing, just to see where this story was going to.
I actually enjoyed how it concluded and everything came together, but oh boy, the entire manga felt like such a waste.
Such a waste of good art, the entire maze horror idea, and a good plot.
I would love to see this all done better.
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Anyways, it's getting late here, I think I'm gonna sleep. To anyone reading this, I wish you a nice day. To anyone not reading this as well. Why not.