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 Not Another Unscary Manga
Written by Barb Lien-Cooper
I'm a manga reader, obviously. But what I am really, really into is Asian horror. Not rubber-suited monsters (although The Great Yokai War was a trip), not monster films like The Host, nor super-violent films like Audition (okay, it's only the last ten minutes or so that are violent, but boy are those disturbing minutes!). I like ghost stories. To get the picture of the type of ghost stories I like, reference great Asian films such as Face, Phone, One Missed Call, Inner Senses, The Eye films, Tale of Two Sisters, and Dorm. In fact, Tale and Dorm are two of my favorite motion pictures of any genre in recent years.
My problem? Finding horror manga that appeals to me, believe it or not.
Now, I've read a lot of horror graphic novels from Asia: Dark Water, The Ring books, The Grudge books, Bride of Deimos, Uzumaki, Tomie, Model (so not my cup of tea), Hellsing (I prefer the anime, frankly), Pet Shop of Horrors, etc. Of the bunch, Pet Shop is about my favorite, although it just doesn't quite satisfy that Asian horror feel that I get from the best Asian ghost stories. And believe me, all I really get into are ghost stories. I am not exactly into zombies, not monsters, not vampires (oh, they're all right, but so many vampire manga fall into the Gothic and/or Lolita category instead of the scary category), just ghost stories.
Added to the problem is that I'm just not into the whole Drifting Classroom 1970s horror manga. The art style, not to mention the storytelling styles, are just too old school. It's all just too what I call "Look! Worms! Worms!" for me. I like my horror to be naturalistic, which is why I'm only into contemporary Asian horror. Oh, I'll watch a Bride with White Hair or A Chinese Ghost Story if I can find it, but Shinto priests doing kung fu isn't what I'm looking for. I like ghost stories about real people who just happen to come across a supernatural occurrence. So also limiting my manga choices is the fact that I'm just not into work such as that of Hideshi Hino. I even tried Scary Book by Kazuo Umezu. I found the book to be a little silly, a bit of a downer, but not very scary.
Added to the art problem is that I don't like my horror just to be an excuse to draw cute goth boys and girls. I mean, I actually like that Gothic and Lolita stuff that I mentioned above as far as real live people go. But when I see the style in manga, it usually means that that's the only thing the work has going for it. I'd prefer a little substance with the art style.
What's more, I don't want anything cute or chibi in my horror. I don't want any manga that uses a supernatural setting for comedic purposes. Horror shouldn't be adorable. So how'd I get through Pet Shop if I don't particularly like gothic bishonen or cute themes in my horror? I saw the anime first. Believe me, the anime is much scarier. Much of the cute factor got totally thrown out the window. Heck, the anime even made those killer bunnies scary! I haven't picked up the sequel yet.
Finally, I don't want the horror manga I read to just be a battle manga with supernatural themes. With the exception of the anime of Yu Yu Hakusho (I'm a big fan of the Chapter Black season, which is the least fight-manga oriented one of the series), I don't just want supernatural themes to be something that adds spice to a book. I want them to take center stage.
Oh, yeah, and along with not wanting cute nor funny nor quirky (not from something that's meant to be horror!), I also couldn't abide the new anime Mushi-Shi. Everything I could have wanted should have been there... but it... just... well... nothing HAPPENS in it! Not enough for me, anyway. Things have to happen, at least somewhat. Horror should be exciting, suspenseful.
Right now, I'm reading Ghost Hunt (Del Rey), but I don't know if I'll stay with it. It's sort of like Kindaichi Case Files meets the supernatural. It's okay. Actually, it's better than okay. It's pretty good. But it's just a little too all-ages for me. Before that, I tried Lament of the Lamb. It was okay (again, probably better than okay) but it was a little too slow moving and attempted-moody for me. Before that, I tried Junji Ito, but the whole "fish got legs and teeth" manga he did, Gyo, just rubbed me the wrong way. I suppose I could try Museum of Terror, but it looks a little old school for me. For awhile, I was into Battle Royale, even though it has nothing to do with supernatural horror, just tragedy, which is why I stopped. Seeing characters I cared about being blown away as cannon fodder just got to me too much. I've also tried Dark Edge--just not for me, thanks. Togari was kind of fun for awhile, but it started acting more like a fight manga than a horror manga, so I got a little tired of the repetition.
While we're in the realm of manga horror, I should put in a plug for my friend Queenie Chan's supernatural mystery, The Dreaming (Tokyopop). High on atmosphere, high on spookiness. It's worth checking out.
About the closest thing I've read to my sensibilities lately is Death Note. It's adult, smart, scary, suspenseful, intellectual, not too violent---and the two live action films based on it are sensational. The anime is a little slow for me. But that might have been because I'd already read the manga and seen both films before I saw the anime (plus, I didn't really like the English speaking cast---and I didn't think L was quite to my taste in the original Japanese anime). Okay, Death Note isn't quite horror. But it's close enough.
My husband suggested that I add Dr. Master's excellent Metro Survive two volume manga to my list of horror manga I liked. When I explained that disaster film manga isn't the same as horror, he agreed and withdrew the suggestion.
Right now, I'm debating reading Mail, brought over by Dark Horse. I saw a really pretty good live action version of it a few years back and I was fairly impressed. And The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (also Dark Horse) looks intriguing, but I'm scared that it'll be more funny than scary. I think that the only reason I've been holding off on them is because I sort of like picking up a volume from my local library before committing to buy a series. Only sometimes, librarians don't always buy the type of horror manga that might actually appeal to readers over the age of thirteen. I know, I should bite the bullet and just buy a volume, but I'm cautious. [Editor's note: she bought Mail v1 since the time of writing. A review will probably be forthcoming, but so far, while some things were done right, it isn't The Perfect Horror Manga, so her quest continues.]
So tell me, if you're out there and you know your manga, what will I like? Would I like them, knowing how picky and fussy I am about my tastes in horror? Also, am I missing something? Is there some great horror manga I'm missing out on? Because unless Death Note has a sequel, I'm sort of at the end of my horror manga rope, except for writing my own horror manga. Oh, right now, it's just some ghost stories---and (I know, I know, I'm a hypocrite!) a one volume bishonin gothic vampire story. I love writing manga--and not just horror either. I have perhaps five or six manga proposals waiting to be sent to companies, but they're waiting on me finding the right artists. So, I guess if you're interested in working with me, could you please get in touch? Scaring people is wonderful.
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