Teru and Ako have survived a grisly train crash, the near-fatal collapse of a crumbling tunnel, and the psychological trauma of walking too close to the shadow of death. But as the struggle to survive this heart of darkness continues, they come upon the ghost town of Sakurayama, mysteriously abandoned by the lost souls who tried to escape the terror that now awaits Teru and Ako...
Minetarō Mochizuki (望月峯太郎) is a manga artist. He is best known for his apocalyptic thriller series Dragon Head (ドラゴンヘッド Duragon Heddo), as well as the comedy series Mai Wai. Mochizuki has also written one-shot manga such as Zashiki Onna.
This is turning out to be really good. Things go totally apocalyptic here, and the tension is high throughout. On top of everything else, this ends in a cliffhanger. The atmosphere in this series is also. Claustrophobic, horrific, and unrelenting. You can actually feel the pressure as you read. This is intense material.
Volume 4: Chapter 37-47 Arc 2: Searching for allies
I kind of like this volume. It shows more destruction of the surrounding. I'm impressed with the detail. In this volume, Ako acts like a burden. The storyline getting interesting as Teru "unlock" darkness in himself same as Nobuo did. He was supposed to die by a stone pillar but darkness save him 🤯 Teru is badass in this volume tbh.
Highlight: • A squadron of military helicopters passed above them. • They followed the direction of the helicopters and arrived at the ghost town. • Aboard the helicopter are Captain Nimura, pilot Iwada and crewman Yamazaki and Oike. • Teru gets separated with Ako. • Teru confronts Nimura, Iwada and Oike while Ako confronts Yamazaki. • Nimura beats Teru half-dead and he presumably dead. • Teru faces same thing as Nobuo did: "give in to the darkness". • Oike burned to death cause by Teru's molotov cocktail. • Fire tornado burn the town. • Iwada and Ako save Teru and Nimura.
Ugh, this one was so bad. Honestly, with how the last volume ended, I thought volume 4 would be exciting and action-packed. However, I was so painfully bored. Bored with the plot, bored with the characters, it was just an overall snooze-fest. This installment was so horrendous, I don't even know if I am going to continue the series. I have lost all interest entirely, and I truly don't know what happened. The characters became unlikable, and the mystery did not pull me in. I think the first couple volumes were unique and had a special appeal to me, but volume 4 is as generic as generic gets. I'm going to have to give this a 1-star. Booooo! 😂
It all starts with a class trip on a subway train. All of a sudden the underground railroads collapse beneath the weight of an earthquake and all the students aboard the train are trapped underground where it’s hard to breathe and it’s excruciatingly humid. The few survivors must dig their way out from the labyrinthian tunnels to reach the surface, but the world above might not be as they remember it.
A great concept with a weak execution. The atmosphere is intense and the art is hauntingly bleak. Unfortunately, I found all of the main characters very unlikable. The dialogue is also pretty bad and doesn’t always make sense which could be the fault of a poor translation. The story also drags out way longer than necessary with repetitive drama and the unlikeable cast constantly bickering over dumb issues doesn’t do the plot or the stakes of the narrative any favors.
Not a terrible horror manga, but not nearly as good as it could’ve been. The few solid moments were underwhelming compared to the long periods of monotonous boredom, bland characters and uninteresting villains in between.
Trigger Warning: Hole/Circle phobia, attempted rape, fire, lots of fire
***
They find some people and most of the plot in this one is the group of guys trying to get the girl to do only heck knows what with her. One guy attempts to rape her. Not my cup of tea. I hope the rest of the series isn't like this. So the world goes to shit and people's first instinct is to keep girls as slaves and rape them?
Yet again more attempted rape, Lord of the Flies bullshit. I don't care about that. I want to know the cause, it'd be better if it was just Teru and Ako running around investigating. UGH. But now I need to see how this series ends. But I bet, two volumes later, more attempted rape, more dumbass genre.
Although still interesting, volume four is by far the weakest volume so far. Teru and Ako just can’t seem to get a break and their pursuit to get to Tokyo is severely interrupted. It feels very much like every natural disaster is going to make an appearance in this series! This story of what seems to be the end of the world is very reminiscent of Lord of the Flies. I do like how the story explores the mental toll that a situation like this would have on a person and how each character has to really battle to keep their sanity. So far every survivor other than Teru has been pretty awful and all seem to no only have complete disregard for other people and their lives, but also target Ako with disgusting intentions. This poor girl is just seems to be getting attacked but everyone! If you are sensitive to topics of SA, probably best not to read this series. I’m still invested in the story and interest to see what happens in volume five. ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Minetaro Mochizuki, Dragon Head vol. 4 (Tokyopop, 1996)
Teru and Sato find out they're not the only ones left on the planet, but that may not necessarily be a good thing. A group of young Defense Force recruits have split their helicopter off from the rest of the pack and decided to go scouting for contraband and women. Needless to say, Sato looks a lot like both to them. Not sure the series is going to stay at the quality level it was for the first three volumes now that Mochizuki is bringing in the wider world (and more characters), but it's still good stuff.
Ugh this volume was a little rapey. So in this volume (no spoilers) they meet some not so nice people who are in desperate need of some "puntang", their words not mine.
Anyways, I don't want to talk about where they are cause it's fun to find out yourself. Just know that the kids are lost and in need of some help. What they find is not very helpful.
One of the guys says "You know what happens during war? People start doing crazy shit."
I dug the early volumes of this series, but the second the kids got out of the subway it just got a little too typical for me. I couldn't finish this volume because I just didn't care anymore.