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Reviewed by David Rasmussen "For those who suffer nightmares, help awaits at the Silver Star Tea House, where patrons can order much more than just Darjeeling." Yes, it's another title of the supernatural headed your way. First up? Let's once again plumb the depths of Wikipedia for some answers to what we're about to review... The investigator in question, one Hiruko, is a baku… no, no, you're thinking of "baka!" ...never mind. Anyway Baku (a dream eater... like a tapir only without the big honker of a nose) it seems the nastier the dream (nastier as nightmare, not nastier as in Adults Only content), the more he likes them. He'll take you into your nightmares, help you solve them, then he'll eat the dreams in question (though he doesn't seem to quite care if you're 100% satisfied with the results or not as long as he gets fed). Oh, did I mention he sleeps all day (you may have family members capable of doing this) and can't eat anything but dreams (lest he cough up blood). Hiruko had a horrible life himself before becoming a Baku (amongst other little revelations that we probably don't need to go into just to review this volume). He might hang at the Silver Star Tea House, but it isn't his. Mizuki, whose father bore them through his mistress and gave them the place after their mom's death, runs it. She used to have an elder brother (who was the Baku before Hiruko) but he's not anymore... wonder why. Then there's the wealthy boy of weirdo bizarre tastes named Hifumi Misumi (does his name actually rhyme?) who has a thing for Mizuki and likes to piss off Hiruko. He lives at the Tea House as secondary plot mover/relationship muddler... I mean boarder. Then there's the elder brother Azusa, who walked out of the tea house one day and never came back... oh well. Finally we have the man named Kairi who runs a joint called The Delirium in the land of dreams, and Shima, the odd little girl who assists Kairi in the Delirium. Today's menu of meals being served up? First on the menu we have a woman who seems to dream she's tied and bound to the darkness... seems she has this sad life with a sickly older brother (who turns out isn't sickly), and she's apparently tied to him (but she's not) and in the end everything ends happily ever after... yeah, right. Total basketcase, though it'll all make sense (the rope and her being bound to darkness and the circular path she's in and everything). Didn't say I liked it, but it makes sense. Next up is a rich girl who seems to dream in travel monologue of all the places she's leaving or entering or whatnot... yeah, that doesn't end well either, and we have two dead girls in two volumes. Next up freeloading loafer Hifumi uses a fingerless hand-looking vase to break a metal case used by Hiruko holding something horrible and terrible. Personally I would have dropped the heavy fingerless hand vase on the jerk's head. (Oh, madness ensues involving the bending of time and space and whatever just for a metal suitcase... dang, man!!) Next up a scarred-woman who no longer feels like herself comes for help. Apparently she didn't hear about the last two women who came for this guy's help... yeah, this might not be good. Well, in her nightmares she's doing a body part swap with a flawless doll because apparently something is cursing her body, scarring it so she'd have no choice but to swap body parts (then it consumes her so she begins to think she's becoming a lifeless motionless doll)... weird. Oh, apparently it's all in her head and she'll get better (but not before it gets worse, then it gets better... After that, Hiruko is confronted by a rival Baku whose track record actually makes Hiruko's look good, especially since he seems to make nightmares WORSE than better... then you find out the truth about Hiruko's past, and finally Hifumi goes and messes up epic fail time... yeah, so what else is new. So what if the title creeps me out? That's what the title is supposed to do! Creep you out! It is in the horror genre, isn't it? And if you like dark twisted play with your head mind games that leave you wondering what's coming next, and how gruesome it's going to be? Well, here you go. Epic success. Me? Not into it, but that's just me, go figure. Unless you have the same aversion to horror (in manga only, though you and I both seem to gravitate towards survival horror video games), then we'll pass, but for the rest of you this little gem should keep you locking your doors extra tight and leaving the nightlight on until the next great batch of horror movies and survival horror games comes out. B. Comment on this review of Nightmare Inspector v6 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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