So I've been reading a bunch of manga, predominantly horror, and have some reviews for them in the making. I had planned to open with Ride-on King, but seeing
>>>/jp/72171 I might as well go with one of the most positive, for Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu. I it enjoyed quite a bit, second only to Shintaro's work that I'll post about later.
The premise is set up in an admirably elegant way: two boys in the countryside are sitting on a bench, chatting, drinking a bit, and one of the two mentions a little oddity. His best friend's accent... is off. It's been off ever since he returned from a strange trip about six months ago, and that's not the only thing standing out. Hikaru's behavior is not what it used to be.
Hikaru is not what he used to be. It, rather. So, Yoshiki asks, you're not the real one, are you? Thus, a confession, a demonstration, and a threat all at once. "Hikaru" wishes above all to be a human, so please, I beg of you, I love you, don't give it away. Or I'll kill you. All that's certain now, is that Hikaru has died.
Said elegance comes from the fact that this all happens within the span of eleven pages, three of which are full-page drawings. The premise is in a sense an inverted Higurashi where the culprit is known from the get-go, and the protagonist uneasily collaborates with them in order to cover it up. They want to protect each other, Yoshiki cannot let his friend go even if he only lives on as a fake double, but their relationship is constantly in tension as wrongness encroaches upon the town in no small part due to "Hikaru's" direct involvement. And you know what else is in tension? Their sexuality! Take a good at those tags: it says BL right there on the tin. Homosexual tension with the doppelganger, who knows that you that you know. Of course, his name is symbolic: the
light is what's dead and gone. It's absolutely fucking brilliant and I loved it.
More than so any other manga I'm going to review, the visuals do a beyond excellent job at carrying the atmosphere. It uses varying angles, rotation, warping, impeccable lighting, onomatopoeia with great freedom, and some touching abstractions here and there to truly convey the moment's feel and enrich Yoshiki's depressed sadboy mug. There's a part with a bathtub where the main body of water and its splashes and the bubbles inside and the droplets flying out all have a texture that's just a joy to look at. "Hikaru's" real form, too, is not far from the typical body of his kind, but a little twist and a huge amount of detail make it into a superb execution that is rather reminiscent of Bibliomania's gorgeous art.
I can't speak as positively of the plot, its developments are not something that will shock you (at least so far), but I also wouldn't call it predictable. Investigating the surrounding mystery is not as strong as the suspense itself, the atmopshere and the noise, the main two and their warped romance, those are the heavy hitters. It's clearly josei, and the author's previous oneshots include in one story two friends being complicit in a murder and in another outright homosex so it's interesting to see this kind of progression. I do want to note that in chapter 16 Yoshiki does something I respect quite a bit, he may look weak but his resolve is commendable and it really caught me off-guard. Also, I'd recommend skipping the extra chapters and leaving them for later since they kinda obstruct the flow of the story.
Oh, last thing, don't torrent Yen Press' version, the scanlation is noticeably superior. At the same time, that one is FUCKED right now because they lost their translator:
https://desu-usergeneratedcontent.xyz/a/image/1710/25/1710256903197.jpgAnd that's the real horror right there. You can at least read it in Japanese here (spoilers, of course):
https://web-ace.jp/youngaceup/contents/1000183/episode/