horror

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Lenni Reviews: “Call of the Night” Vol. 15, by Kotoyama

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

While on the school trip, Ko’s classmate Saki is attacked by Haruka, a vampire, and Ko goes to rescue her. Meanwhile, Mahiru makes the final preparations before Kiku turns him.

With Haruka added to the roster, we’ve got a lot of characters and a web of connections between Kiku and Nazuna’s mother. And since the entire point of this trip was to find Mahiru, we got some time with him and Kiku along with some insight into Kiku’s motivations. No spoilers but I’m uncertain about how I feel about what was presented as an explanation but maybe more will be added later to justify to me the ruin Kiku has left in her wake. 3.9 out of 5. 

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Lenni Reviews: “The Summer Hikaru Died” Vol. 2, by Mokumokuren

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

After warnings from a local woman, Rie, Yoshiki struggled to resist keeping Hikaru in his life. Meanwhile, there are adults in the village are aware of some unknown entity living in the mountains.

While there is still that feeling of overall sadness, this volume is more of Yoshiki getting to know this new Hikaru while also letting us know what happened to the real Hikaru. There’s also whatever is goign on with Yoshiki’s little sister, Koaru. She can see spirits and isn’t going to school for some reason the small town is gossiping around to figure out. I like this series. It’s building up well. Like “Erased” but with less murder (so far). 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “The Summer Hikaru Died” Vol. 1, by Mokumokuren

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Hikaru went missing in the mountains for a week and while his friend, Yoshiki, is glad he was found, Yoshiki knows whatever came back is not Hikaru despite wearing his body.

While the mystery of the thing currently living inside Hikaru is intriguing and the main reason why I hadda grab this series, most of this is really sad since we’re watching Yoshiki deal simultaneously deal with his grief and the threat this new entity may pose. Sadness just permeates every inch of this volume; even the thing inside Hikaru laments the fact that Hikaru is really dead and has taken his place. And when I say “sad” I don’t mean like Boy’s Abyss where it’s sad and dark. Unless some darkness is on the way in future volumes but this is an interesting start. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Porcelain” by Maria Llovet

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Beryl lives with her aunt and her cat in a ramshackle house in the desert. While on the way to get supplies, she passes a building called Dollhouse that wasn’t there before and visiting plunges her into a trippy adventure through it’s psychedelic corridors.

This could have been so much better. The art and concept deserve to have more time taken to enjoy the story being told. Unfortunately, it feels rushed and incomplete. This could easily be double the page length to give us more world building, time to get to know the characters, and time to get a better sense of the threat at hand. It’s beautiful and deserves that expansion. 3 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Red Leaves” by Massimo Rosi & Ivan Fiorelli

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Tatiana and her daughter, Yari, live in the woods in Siberia waiting for her husband to come back from war. Alone for months in the cold or winter, she has to take great care to avoid multiple dangers. But wolves and bears are not the only dangerous creatures stalking these woods.

While I enjoy the black, white, and red style, the story just didn’t hit for me. Instead of being mysterious and cryptic, it just feels vague and incomplete. There’s the mom and the kid waiting lonely in the woods, there’s a creature, then (no spoilers) there’s some soldiers, then it’s done. I didn’t get anything out of it once it was over which is a shame since it looks great and has an interesting premise. I wish it had more to offer. 2.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead” Vol. 13, by Haro Aso & Kōtarō Takata 

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Shizuka has been bitten and the race is on to treat her before she turns. The facility with the means to treat her turns out to be full of hidden secrets and dangers.

Calling the sinister organization The Umbriel Corporation gave me a giggle. I’ll admit it. Other than that, this volume feels more like a typical zombie story: finding the cure, maybe a vaccine, secret evil corporation, battling manufactured giant mutated creatures made from the zombie virus, all that good stuff. The run part is really the characters that bring some originality and keep this series fun. I won’t spoil things but even the new additions have their unique charms despite falling back into the traditional zombie story tropes. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Choujin X” Vol. 5, by Sui Ishida

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Tokio, Ely, and Azuma go to Beast Isles to train, a place owned by the Yamato Mori. They get attacked and taken to see the founder of the Yamato Mori, Sora Siruha.

This volume was really interesting. There’s plenty of action and some funny moments but I don’t know how I feel about this big chosen one prophesy thing. I like the little twist on it but the previous volumes had the theme of maybe the chosen one thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Tokio is trying hard to find his way  because he always saw Asuma as a sort of chosen one but he got powers and has to work very hard to be competent; much less a golden child. I dunno, we’ll see. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “My Name Is Shingo: The Perfect Edition” Vol. 1, by Kazuo Umezz

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Satoru’s father works at a factory and when he hears from his dad that there will be a new robot there, he can’t help but what to investigate, learning how to use it and even adding some instructions of his own.

Until Satoru gets into tinkering with Marilyn (the name of the robot) he’s absolutely insufferable. I was concerned I would have to deal with this brat the entire volume but once he’s into programming and has something to focus on, he’s so much better. It’s interesting and a bit foreboding that the story infers this is the machine reflecting on past events; which makes me wonder what will happen once it becomes known that Satoru is messing with the machine. 3 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Dark Gathering” Vol. 5, by Kenichi Kondō

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

After capturing the spirit at H Castle ruins, Keitaro and his friends now have a mummified arm as a souvenir and make plans to move on to bigger and more powerful sprits.

This volume ups the gore as the sprit they’re chasing is an axe murderer. As a result, this is a frightening encounter. The sprits of the murderer and his victims are horrid to look at. I actually felt chills. This was well paced, scary, and compelling. An absolute high point for this series. 5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Mieruko-chan” Vol. 8, by Tomoki Izumi

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

After an incident concerning the new student, Michiru, Miko ends up in the hospital; a place filled with a ton of history and an abundance of disturbing spirits.

The hospital part was cool and also sad. Of course there’s a bunch of restless spirits in an old hospital and the art design on them is very good. The real meat of this volume is whatever is up with this Michiru girl and also her older sister. The doughnut shop scene was funny with Miko trying to interact with the human being obscured by the spirit only she can see. The levity around the horror was welcome, especially after the sad hospital story. 4.5 out of 5.

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