Finding one's purpose in life.

Friday 17 November 2017

Manga Review - Fuan no Tane - "Forgettable" Short Horror Stories

I was just browsing r/horrormanga when I found this manga suggested by readers. Since there was also a sequel to it, I looked into it and started reading. Fuan no Tane is essentially a series of short stories, spanning no longer than 8 chapters per chapter. I'm not sure what the author's approach for the manga was - was it to just show a couple of freaky creatures/incidents or was it to develop a story? In my opinion, it's not the latter because there's definitely not enough development for each chapter to understand the characters.


Story (3/10):
There is no one singular plot in this manga since it is a collection of horror stories. The problem with this however, is that there's sometimes "repetition" of similar monsters and sometimes this can get stale as you move on the chapter count. Another problem I found was that some stories were so short I didn't know what happened. Some chapters were only 2-3 pages long and it was so random - there seem to be nothing spooky about what was happening in these short chapters and they also didn't seem like "transition chapters". The other chapters are not entirely spectacular either - some of them are not even the slightest bit creepy and this is pretty disappointing in a horror manga. However, I would say at least half of the manga had some weird monsters that would definitely make me shit my pants if they take form in reality.

Characters (6/10):
There's not really any main characters in these stories - they are just ordinary people encountering spooky incidents. However, the characters act like they should when they encounter these creepy monsters/weird incidents. If you count the characters as the monsters, then this is slightly above par. The monsters are generally creepy.

Art (7/10):
The art is above par. Some chapters had a lot of detail in it - like the splatter of blood and the organs after a "girl" slits her throat in front of people viewing a new residency. The monsters are drawn well and are pretty weird.

Enjoyment (7/10):
Even though this manga had no plot, I was still somewhat engaged when reading the manga. I think this is due to the short chapters, which make me forget about how "dull" the horror stories are. The fast-pace nature allows me to enjoy reading and completing it. Each volume really only took about 15-30 minutes to read (it's about 140 pages each volume).

Overall (5/10 or 6/10):
If you are looking for a horror manga that is extremely creepy and have a plot-line like Junji Ito's works, this is probably not for you. Some parts of Fuan no Tane are "laughable" or just plain confusing, so this may ruin your experience. However, if you are looking for a quick read and like to see a variety of creepy monsters, this is not a bad recommendation. I probably judged it too hard because some of the monsters are really creepy. It won't make me have nightmares, but if I see them in reality, I would shit my pants.

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