AndreasLindholm reviewed Ibitsu by Haruto Ryo
Review of 'Ibitsu' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
How do you feel about gore in horror fiction? I think that is an important question to take into consideration for the prospective reader of Ibitsu. Some may prefer purely cosmic dread. Personally, I do not give gore priority, but grisliness does not have to be a dealbreaker. The main question for me is if the gory bits make me feel nauseous rather than scared. When it comes to this manga I am sitting on the fence.
If you prefer cute monsters in gothic lolita garb, like, say, Shalltear Bloodfallen, this is not for you. There is nothing cute at all about the Demon Lolita that the art student Kazuki has the misfortune to encounter when he takes out the trash and who wants to be his little sister. It is not a far-fetched assumption that Ryo wants to turn the adorable-little-sister trope on its head. In this case …
How do you feel about gore in horror fiction? I think that is an important question to take into consideration for the prospective reader of Ibitsu. Some may prefer purely cosmic dread. Personally, I do not give gore priority, but grisliness does not have to be a dealbreaker. The main question for me is if the gory bits make me feel nauseous rather than scared. When it comes to this manga I am sitting on the fence.
If you prefer cute monsters in gothic lolita garb, like, say, Shalltear Bloodfallen, this is not for you. There is nothing cute at all about the Demon Lolita that the art student Kazuki has the misfortune to encounter when he takes out the trash and who wants to be his little sister. It is not a far-fetched assumption that Ryo wants to turn the adorable-little-sister trope on its head. In this case the monster has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, though we are lead to believe something else for a little while by a fake backstory. In fact, in a side story about an ill-fated test of courage in an abandoned building it is at least suggested that she is not human at all.
Any man who gives any kind of answer to her question “imouto iru” is bound to die horribly. Ibitsu is quite successful when it comes to conveying a sense of growing and suffocating despair. Kazuki’s grisly fate is sealed at the very beginning of the story. He is doomed – along with his family and friends – completely at the mercy of something inhuman and malicious. From the rest of the world he can expect only indifference. The Demon Lolita is not open to any form of reasoning. It does not help to beg for mercy or forgiveness. Windows of false hope are opened now and then only to be nailed shut. At the very end, Kazuki still grasps at a desperate hope that he alone will be spared, just moments before his sickening demise.
Nor is there any justice in this world. Kazuki and his family have done nothing to deserve what is happening to them, while the monster keeps telling her victims that it is she who is the wronged party. To drive the point home, it is Kazuki who gets the posthumous blame for many of the murders.
This is a bleak story indeed.