The cover of the first volume of Hozuki no Shima.
I may not suffer from any sort of trauma, but I’m sure my friends would agree I have been the cause of some of their trauma.
In the many years I’ve been reading manga, the horror genre is one I’ve hardly ever come across. Truthfully, there are quite a few horror manga series. But, from what I’ve seen of them, many slowly transition from horror to action. However, in 2007 when Higurashi When They Cry was at the height of it’s popularity, I became much more aware of horror manga series. I’m also not the type of person to purchase a series without any foreknowledge of the series either, but something about the cover of Kei Sanabe’s Hozuki no Shima (鬼燈の島-ホオズキノシマ-) drew me to it. The beauty of these kinds of purchases is, while more often than not the series is average, occasionally it’s spectacular. And, that’s the case with this series. The story itself is thrilling, but when compounded with the art, not just of the characters but also of the locations, the series becomes difficult to put down. On top of this, telling the story from the perspective of outcast children made the story just that much more intriguing.
Horror, except for psychosocial horror such as The Ring, is not one of my favorite genres, as it seems many times the stories break down to how many people the villain can kill within an allotted time. However, the best horror films, books, manga, and other media also have an interesting story to tell as well. I’m sure we all have our favorites we can point to, but for the most part it seems the horror genre has become synonymous with the slasher subgenre of horror. It’s disappointing to say the least, but when a horror story has a good cast of characters, those characters can bring the story to life.
Hozuki no Shima is one of those horror stories that has an interesting cast of characters. Though there are a total of eleven characters who appear in the series, only seven are of any major importance. What makes the series truly superb is four of them are children with troubled pasts who distrust the three adults caring for them. Seeing as how their mother abandoned the main character Kokoro Suzuhara and his younger sister Yume, or how Shuichiro Fuji was almost killed by his mother, along with the abuse the other children faced, it’s really no wonder they harbor those ill feelings. Perhaps because of their histories, or because of their attitudes towards adults, many of the children also suffer from a variety of disorders, and this makes their personalities leap off the page. Among the disorders, the three mentioned quite early in the series are Hatsune Miyazawa being a mute, Futoshi Hakki having an eating disorder, and Rikiya Sudo suffering from mythomania, which is an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating.
While the first two traits make those children more sympathetic characters, it’s Rikiya’s mythomania that should make the reader question the validity of anything he says. Truth be told, my first time through the series I overlooked this minor detail, and because of that I fell into the very easy trap of believing everything Rikiya said. However, the events occurring at the beginning of the story make it seem as if the adults actually do have some nefarious reasons for taking those children into their orphanage on Hozuki Island, as he believes. Considering the story is also told from the children’s perspective, it’s almost impossible not to think Rikiya and the rest of the children are correct in their suspicions.
Shuichiro Fuji shows the other children a secret room in the orphanage.
Although it’s those feelings of betrayal and suspicion that drive the story forward, the artwork adds a great deal to the aura of the series. This is one area of horror manga I feel is superior to its film, TV, and prose counterparts. The artwork has the most dramatic impact when the characters, both adult and children, are seemingly plotting and the shading from the forehead to the cheeks makes the characters appear malevolent. But this is also another way of misleading readers into believing the characters actually are malevolent, except possibly Kuwadate. Throughout the series, because of the fantastic artwork, it appears Kuwadate is in league with the other adults. However, it’s revealed early on he is a pervert. Thus, when he is antagonizing the children, the art makes not just his plans of committing lewd acts eerie, but it also makes the actions of the other adults difficult to determine as well. And so, even in that respect there is some wonderful misdirection at play.
What made the artwork of Hozuki no Shima stand out the most were the catacombs of the island. They have a very haunting atmosphere surrounding them, and with all the tunnels and old machinery, it created a fantastic area for the children and adults to confront each other. What’s surprising is that according to the author, Kei Sanabe, she drew inspiration from a World War II-era abandoned Japanese Imperial Army base. However, in the series the origins of the catacombs have many different explanations, including being a coal or a gold mine. I really wanted to see more of them, but I suspect there were only so many ways for each group to encounter each other in them, and besides there was a great deal of forestry with its own haunting atmosphere that provided other exciting encounters as well. So, the limited amount of time spent in the catacombs was satisfying enough and in the end didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the story.
Hozuki no Shima is an astonishingly short series at only four volumes, but it is definitely a good thriller. Nothing in the series ever seemed thrust upon me and I was genuinely curious about how the children would escape each encounter with the adults. A bit of fantasy does dot the series in the form of a mysterious ghost, but this only adds to the mystery of the story and will have most anyone grasping for solutions to said mystery. While it’s not widely available, this is a series manga fans should consider reading at some point.
Work Info
Title: Hozuki no Shima (鬼燈の島-ホオズキノシマ-)
By: Kei Sanabe
Under: Square-Enix, Young Gangan
Official Site: N/A
More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohzuki_Island
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