4 posts tagged “japan”
I have a feeling certain people have a type of "eyes" that makes them more susceptible to seeing "ghosts". My mum non chalantly claims she sees them everywhere and every house has them too. I am somewhat sceptical about this. When we were kids once my brother came into my bedroom obviously woken from sleep claiming that somebody was in his room and they had just walked through the wall. When I went to investigate nobody was there !
In the months we were about to move from our previous house, weird things seemed to happen. Sometimes the door would suddenly slam itself, then Dilys claimed she would hear children's voices outside. I don't think that was a ghost or anything, but I don't think they do exist. Err sometimes weird things happen.
One thing I remember in Japan, for some reason most ghost stories about Japanese ghosts have them jumping out of TVs (like ringu). We were staying in this old hotel near Fuji moutain, sleeping on a futon. Suddenly in the middle of the night the TV comes on by itself. It was just static on the screen, I turned it off quickly, but the only way it could of come on was if you physically pushed the power button. At the time it was quite freaky, but now I think of it the TV was really old, it had a coin slot around the side which I whacked a few times the previous night !
The plastic food seen outside Japanese restaurants is so realistic it makes my mouth water. Though it can be a let down sometimes when the real food arrives it doesn't look as good as the plastic version.
It's not just the Japanese noodles and sushi, you have plastic beer, pizza and ice cream too. Next time I make a trip to Tokyo, I'll go to Kappabishi to buy some.
Why the hell am I writing a review ? Well writing stuff will improve my writing and allow me to express myself better. I hardily read any new manga because I am flat broke. I managed to borrow this set because it had the starting three volumes.
Police officer Kurumi Ayaki has to put off her retirement plans on hold due to financial woes and become a special assignment officer with Kouzaburou Himuro, a young genius who is unable to leave his room and has physically lost the ability to feel emotions. With Kurumi, he solves cases too difficult for the rest of the police department. The two share a kind of bone collector-esque relationship.
The first arc is about a murderous clown committing a spate of serial murders. The murders are violent and depicted graphically, very soon we are given fan service of Kurumi, which may not be stoo suprising given her charcater design and somewhat ditzy behaviour. The setup to find the real culprit behind the clown is good but the conclusion is far from satisfying.
In the second arc is a bit more interesting than the first. Leading to same modern Japanese cultural references we've seen before. The fascination with school girls, the dissatifcation grown ups have with Japanese youth and subtle stabs at the downturn in the Japanese economy. Some of the diaglogue between Himuro and Ayaki is good, but there is the cliched time bomb cut wires scenario seen a gazillion times in films and the school cast are the same stock characters. We get to know little about the mysterious Himuro and why the hell doesn't he leave the room. Still Kurumi's fiance injects sorely needed humour into the story and fan service to boot. The art is servicible if not spectacular, but the character design is nothing new.
Conclusion
Some interesting threads but too little character developement, stock characters and too much fan service to be taken seriously.
Books read: Volume 1 to 3
Published by: TokyoPop
