Kousha no Ura ni wa Tenshi ga Umerareteiru – bonutzuu’s manga archive

TW: bullying, sexual harrassment, suicide, murder

My first thought after finishing all 7 volumes in one go: WTF, can’t you end on a good note?

“There is an Angel Buried Behind the School Building” is the story of… yeah, you saw the TW. Bullying. Nothing can compare to the WTF I screamed when I flipped to the last page of the first chapter. Judging from the title, I thought this was gonna be about a bunch of kids investigating a school ghost legend or some shit, not becoming the school legend.

Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni – bonutzuu’s manga archive

For those reading scans, hey, there’s a chapter 21 of this manga! And volumes 5-6!

TW: Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni has bullying, violence, and sexual assault. If you are sensitive to these content, please refrain from reading the manga. This review will mention those topics.

Also: spoilers for the ending of Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni, spoilers for volume 1 through 6.

Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni vol 1-6

Marie’s elementary school life is a living hell. She is tormented by her classmates during the day and molested by her teacher after school. Hopeless, she turns to the ‘seven ghost legends of the school’, but will the supernatural be able to save her?

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Utsutsu kowashi-hen: there is no chapter 4 – bonutzuu’s manga archive

Soooooo I read Utsutsu-kowashi a long time ago and I thought I’d wait until there were more chapters until I continue. Turns out, there are only 3 before it was discontinued for unknown reasons.

Yuureitou – bonutzuu’s manga archive

Two years ago, an old woman was tied to the hands of a clock tower, and her body broke when the clock struck twelve. The culprit, her adopted daughter, committed suicide afterwards. The clock tower became known as the ‘ghost tower’ haunted by something… or someone.

Amano Taichi was an unemployed man about to be chased out by his landlady. While on a job hunt to earn his rent, he ran into a mysterious person ‘Tetsuo’ who told him about a treasure hidden somewhere within the ghost tower. Taichi paid the tower a visit only to find himself knocked unconscious and tied to the face of the clock, similar to the old woman. Before he was brutally murdered, Tetsuo rescued him, and so together they tried to uncover the truth behind the murder two years ago.

Yuureitou is not a manga I’d normally read, but hey it was on sale (149 baht for 9 volumes, that’s about 0.50 USD per volume). The manga was printed with thick eye care paper and ink that doesn’t smudge, so it was a mighty good deal for a manga this good.

So I read Higurashi in reverse

I didn’t do it intentionally. When I was 12 or 13, I had no clue how to Japanese and could not remember the name of the first arc, so I went with whichever arc popped up first on the search.

final manga volume of matsuribayashi

It was Matsuribayashi-hen’s manga, the final answer arc.

Mijika de Okita Kowai Hanashi – bonutzuu’s manga archive

It feels like another volume of Screaming Lessons. That’s my overall opinion of this manga.

Mijika de Okita Kowai Hanashi is a short story collection of horror tales geared towards young girls. Many stories have almost the same plot as some of the stories from Screaming Lessons, but there are some other goods ones.

Hakoniwa Yuugi: bonutzuu’s manga archive

Six years have passed since grade schooler Shokai Manato disappeared during a school trip. One day, Manatos’ sister, Mari, returned to the city where her brother disappeared and reunited with Azuma, their childhood friend. However, Mari’s return triggered a series of horrifying events. Manato, or whatever is left of him, is back and crying for the truth to be revealed…

I went in expecting a Higurashi kind of manga, and that’s pretty much what I got (although it’s nowhere as complex and compelling). Hakoniwa Yuugi is a supernatural revenge tale with some plot twists that made me go ‘huh’.