Nemuri no Fuchi by Ayumu Nakamura

I'm so late with this review I'm posting it this week instead of last week, that's procrastination meeting pumpkin patches and corn mazes for ya. I'm going to save myself some trouble this week and have the pictures between the paragraphs. Blogger is touchy enough without me having to do everything on my smartphone, and the last post caused me so much trouble I don't want to repeat the process.


Nemuri no Fuchi by Ayumu Nakamura

Art and story (c) Ayumu Nakamura

Genre: Shonen, Horror, Supernatural
Length: 3 Volumes - 14 Chapters



           The art is sufficiently creepy, but it's not really that interesting. The best things are the creatures that are seen at the very beginning and again at the climax, they are sort of like a demented Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. The rest of the art is summed up best by a very famous emoji: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The faces look a little squished sometimes, too drawn out and considering the faces are very minimal this does look odd from time to time. Though, the shading given to the main character's face does convey his depression and fear well. The clothes are unremarkable in every way, and while the actions and movements are fairly good, the actual proportions of the bodies are underdeveloped and stick-like. Underwhelming is the word I think describes it best.

           When he was little, Shuuhei liked to play hide and seek with his best friend Kaori, but that ended the day she went missing in the woods during one of their games. Around the same time, mysterious entraces to an otherworldly maze began appearing in closets and other doorways and those who go in are lost forever inside it. Convinced his childhood friend disappeared inside part of the maze, Shuuhei has isolated himself because of his guilt and his mental preparation for the day he finally finds a doorway to enter it himself and can finally save her.

           I'm going to repeat myself here and say again, underwhelming is the word I think describes it best. The plot takes a little too long to set up and get moving, and even then it goes too fast or too slow. Though, I have to say Shuuhei has a very realistic reaction to the maze full of monsters the first time he goes in, running away and hiding in fear. The next time, though, feels like a bit of random side tracking, again taking too long to explain. That really is the problem through out this whole manga, actually, there are a lot things introduced but with out real payout. Some of the time used to introduce various random things and people could have been spent explaing the maze in more detail. The characters themselves are given plenty of depth for the kind of harried story it is, so they carry the the plot through even though they story is weak at times. Shuuhei's estranged best friend, for example, adds extra support to the quest but also enables the author to have more speculation on the maze but not actually answer what it is exactly. Then there's the flimsy happy ending that is the bow on top. I found it anticlimactic, as well as cheap. All in all, it's a little creepy but its not fully fleshed out.



3/5 An okay spoopy read.

Is it Halloween yet?

Darn!