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| Halloween: Jamie Lee will stab a guy. |
6000 by Nokuto Koike
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| Art and story (c) Nokuto Koike |
Genre: Horror, Seinen
Length: 4 Volumes – 22 Chapters
I don't know what it is about horror manga that I find the art generally unappealing, because its not always the same problem from manga to manga, but in 6000's case there were several factors. I'm going to start with what I did like, though. At a glance, the art is actually good, though a few things bothered me at first, I saw individualistic characters with a wide range of facial expressions who are well proportioned and who's clothes and hair fit well. The movements are realistic and easy to understand, and the body language is natural. But from there, I started actually looking at the entire manga as a cohesive thing and the little things I was noticing started adding up. For example, some of the characters were drawn more realistically than others, the main characters having a more typically cartoon-ish look overall while others seemed like real people's proportions, and within that there were characters with a sketchier art style than others, too, just to muddle the overall look further. The eyes had this fluctuation as well, and I can't say I enjoyed the assortment. The 'horror' and 'gore' sections weren't entirely realistic nor were they stylized, most often it was just kind of… fuzzy, and there were quite a few panels so pervaded
with the power outages and the darkness of the deep sea that I literally had no idea what I was looking at. It was just a gray blur in a black panel. Also, the facial features, while at first seeming interesting and expressive, at times were just bizarre instead. Its not art that is offensive, just a little confusing and not entirely likable. This coupled with the rest of the things I didn't like (to be detailed in the last paragraph in a long winded ramble knowing me) just left me as cold as if I were stuck 6000 meters under the sea with no electricity. Kengo Kadokura is starting a new job after the last place he worked at was bought out and he and all his coworkers were laid off. One of these coworkers recommended him at place on a platform in the middle of the ocean, though, when he arrives he learns its not exactly on the ocean, but an installation underneath it. Technically, 6000 meters under the water, in a place where an accident shut the facility down for three years but now is quickly being repaired and updated so as to be reopened as quickly as possible. When Kengo goes down the elevator to the depths, though, his one contact is suffering from an accident so severe he is rushed away to the surface, leaving Kengo unsure whether to stay or go. That decision happens to be made for him when another “accident” causes the higher ups to decide to not allow anyone to come into or leave the underwater facility until matters are resolved. As the incidents pile up, though, it becomes a question of if matters are fixed and if anyone will survive.
This manga starts out slow, but it seemed a little promising, so I kept my optimism because is was like a creepy movie where the darkness sets in first before anything actually happens. That’s not entirely how this narrative went, though. When it came down to explaining why the underwater whatever it was facility, I am still not sure what exactly the place was for beyond a place to gather 'resources' from the sea or something, was haunted it was almost nonsense. Spoiler alert, I don't typically give things away in my reviews but I'm going to go a little more in depth than I usually do here so you are forewarned. After nearly two volumes of creeping madness, the explanation is when the first set of people died they were following some ancient Aztec ritual of bringing the sun back by sacrifice and therefore brought the warring Aztec gods of light and darkness to the facility and if the sacrifices don't continue the god of darkness will consume everything. Um, what? So, uh, that’s why there is a giant head wandering around… I guess? Its almost like the author read about ancient cultures' gods and picked the two he liked the most, because there is no logical reason for it otherwise. And while my brain has cobbled together this description, the actual story isn't so cut and dry. There is something involving cannibalism and ghosts, too. Oh, and the reason there are so many monsters around is because they happen to be in the depth
of ocean that is named after hell? Okay, makes perfect sense. I can deal with people going crazy and having hallucinations, but there are simply too many gaps to explain everything. I just found the whole thing problematic and vague, and while that type of plot makes my favorite type of horror movie, i.e. the unintentionally bad and funny kind, it doesn't work in print. I realize its more suspenseful if you turn away from a character when something terrible happens so that you can't be sure if you'll see them again, but the work was less subtle than that. The writing was just 'I wonder what happened here three years ago?' 'Oh shit, run away from that monster thing!' 'This can't be happening.' with out any kind of character development. Remember that one guy from several chapters ago? No? Oh well, he's dead now. I was kind of rooting for everyone to die at the end and the evil to lurk at the bottom of the ocean until another set of people tried to revive it. That is not the ending you are given, instead something confusing happens, though they do escape. If you want a stranded on the ocean thriller, look elsewhere (if you're looking for an absurd one, my personal favorite is a just as muddled movie called Ghost Ship, which I plan on watching myself in the weeks to come). Like I mentioned during my complaints against the art, even the gore isn't that gruesome, though maybe I was just spoiled a bit by Franken Fran's detail, its mostly skull faces and dark splashes of blood and smoke in the darkness. Its more in thinking about what actually all these things add up to that is creepy, not seeing it how the mangaka actually drew it. 6000 might appeal to some people, due to it's atmosphere of horror, but the actual whole of the story put together just didn't work to spook or complete a cohesive plot. Just being spooky or creepy just doesn't work in my point of view, there has to be something more. I hear the thing is being looked into for a movie, though, after reading this I just don't think I'll waste anymore of my time on it. 2/5 Starts out creepy, but has too many flaws to actually hold up.
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| Instead of calmly talking about it, why don't you RUN!? |
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