|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||
|
|
Reviewed by Shannon Fay It’s hard to find good horror shojo. Sure, there are plenty of stories that use horror trappings like vampires (here’s looking at you, ‘Vampire Knight’) but rarely are these titles actually scary. ‘After School Nightmare’ is a series that actually manages to succeed as both a horror and a shojo series. After School Nightmare has genuinely creepy scenes (and gore) but also interesting characters caught up in a gender-bending love triangle. Ichijo Mashiro looks like a normal high-school boy, but he only looks that way. In reality Mashiro is not biologically male or female. His body looks like a man’s (broad shoulders, thin hips and a flat chest), but down below he’s a woman. Mashiro’s been this way since he was born and has come to identify himself as male. But when his period starts, Mashiro’s doubts about his gender come bubbling up to the surface. It’s around this time a mysterious teacher tells Mashiro to come a special after school class. The purpose of the class is for Mashiro and other students to sort out their issues so they can ‘graduate.’ In the class they go into a dream world where each student is represented by a twisted version of their inner selves (for example, Mashiro goes back and forth between a boy’s or a girl’s uniform, while another student with identity issues has huge, gaping holes in her face and chest). In the dreams the students’ secret fears and desires are revealed to each other. What will Mashiro do when his classmates find out his secret? Answer: start dating them. While the identities of the students in the nightmare class are secret, Mashiro soon finds out that two of his regular classmates are in the after school class as well. There’s the bubbly Kureha, a cute girl with a dark past, and Sou, a surly guy who changes girlfriends more often than most people change socks. Both of them develop an interest in Mashiro, much to his confusion. Mashiro is having a hard enough time figuring out what gender he is, and trying to figure out which gender he’s attracted to makes things even harder. The series really plays around with the idea of gender. If Mashiro goes out with a girl, does that make him more of a man? Or a lesbian? Or does it just transcend our narrow definition of gender and become something else altogether? The book constantly makes you think and re-think as the characters reveal more about themselves. The story and characters are fantastic, and so is the art. Setona Mizushiro (also the manga-ka behind ‘X-Day’) does some beautiful character designs. While she can draw pretty people and settings, she can also draw disturbing things when it comes to the nightmare world. Her art makes both the light, happy high school setting and the dark dream world work. I also want to give props to Go! Comi, the publisher. This volume contains colour pages, translator’s notes and a page on honorifics, and also a short sneak peek at the next volume. For the most part the adaptation reads really well, though I found Mashiro sounded a little old-fashioned at times (“You vulgar little....!” Doesn’t sound like an insult that any high schooler would use, boy or girl). But maybe that’s just how the character is. It’s been awhile since a manga has gripped me like After School Nightmare. Aside from the draw of the love triangle, there’s also a lot of mystery. Just who are the other kids in the class, and what’s their deal? I have some theories, but I won’t know for sure until I can track down the next several volumes of this series. Comment on this review of After School Nightmare v1 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
|
||||
 |
| home | reviews | news | features | about us | advertise | privacy policy | contact us |
