 Butterflies ominously proliferate as children whisper rumors of a mysterious creature lurking in the tunnel behind the school. To appease its wrath, they decide to offer it a sacrifice. A human one. Hey everyone, welcome to another installment of a week in Geekdom here on YouTube. My name is Giovanna Menendez and today we're going to be talking about something very interesting. This is Nijigahara Holograph, the hardcover edition put out by Phantographic Books. This is easily one of the most confusing reads I've ever experienced. It's an assault on different senses. Now what exactly is Nijigahara about? I read at the beginning that there is sort of like this supposed creature lurking in the tunnels behind a school. Now this is a small spoiler. It's not necessarily true. It's more of an urban legend of sorts. And what this series does instead, it follows the lives of different people affected by this superstition affected by this urban legend, if you will, this story that got passed around. And as a consequence, it built on the fear of these kids in the school and they decided to act upon it. Years later, far into the future, and by that I mean like, you know, they're in their 20s or 30s, things start to happen. This book is, of course, written by Ineo Asano. I am not proficient in Asano's work. I've only read Good Night Pung Pung, which I have not reviewed on this channel yet. And now Nijigahara Holograph. Now Ineo has a tendency to write from, you know, now on my second go around with his titles, has a tendency to write characters that are very flawed. They're very raw and visceral in the way they display their emotions and dissatisfaction with the world. You have a lot of characters that deal with real world issues or problems, whether they'd be physical or psychological, mostly psych, mostly psychological. A lot of these characters have gone through some heavy trauma, some heavy physical violence or depression, stuff like that. So I have to give you guys a warning. If you are not ready to read something like that, I don't think this book might be for you. However, if you do want to go in, you are going to be greeted with a very odd and bizarre, psychological, almost horror-esque thriller with very supernatural elements, but at the same time very realistic ones. I do think that this book preys on the fear of collected hysteria and how a series of unfortunate events for people escalates into something far more tragic. If you're not ready, you're not going to get most of the references or most of what the story is going for from the first go around. I didn't get it. I had to look some notes up. I had to reread a couple pages. I had to look around to see what was happening. Instead, what I do suggest is to take your sweet time reading this. It's a book that demands patience and understanding not only for what the characters are going through, but for what you are about to experience because the set experience can be different from reader to reader. You might react differently from what I did. I'm a very positive person. I do have to admit that books that deal with the subject matter of extreme violence or depression and all that stuff, I don't think I've ever had to knock on wood. I don't think I've ever had to deal with that stuff. I do consider myself a very optimistic person and I really don't think I've ever had to experience something like that. So my perception is from the outside. I can't tell you, oh, I felt this on an emotional level because I've gone through stuff like that. I cannot. I can however tell you that this book did affect me emotionally because these are characters that are doing horrible things and it's like you want to stop that train wreck, but you can't. Do you know what I mean? Whether it's a character getting into a fight, whether it's you know, characters making bad decisions by hooking up with other people that might, you know, they're bad people and you're like, no, don't do that, but they go ahead and do it. That's the sort of mentality for me when I read this. I'm reading it from an outsider's perspective on the dealings in this small town, this very rural town that yeah, it is a city of sorts, but it's very laid back. There's not a whole lot going on in this city. So what is the story about? If I were to tell you without spoiling things, you would have to know that the character of Adie Kimura is a fifth grader who goes around telling her friends a fairy tale about this monster that is terrorizing the village and how God sends a fairy to defeat it before the town is destroyed. In fear of the monster, the villagers sacrifice the fairy to appease it. She then is reborn over and over repeating this cycle while the monster itself grows larger from all the bodies being fed. Now, keep in mind that these are all fifth graders in elementary school. At that age, you tend to believe these things and soon after a collective paranoia or hysteria forms within the class. It also doesn't help that Adie claims the monster is hiding in the Nijigahara tunnel that is close to their school. As a result, her classmates bully her. Fearful of her tale, they push her down a well leading into Nijigahara to calm the monster down like in this story. After this, the children cover for each other and tell everyone that it was an accident. Adie, as a result, remains in a coma. The children then grow up and move on with their lives. However, some of them cannot rid themselves of the guilt of their actions and painful memories that continue to affect them to this very day in their present life. You also have characters such as Kota, the school's bully who grows up cold, emotionalist and sort of aloof as to how he should be acting in modern society. He still feels guilty of not being able to save Adie from the actions the kids took that day and instead hangs out near the dark tunnel, losing his sanity as the story progresses. Hayato, a fellow bully who is friends with Kota and eventually becomes a victim of his former friend lashing out against people. Amahiko Suzuki, he is a depressed and suicidal young boy that has changed schools as a result. His family neglects him and no one really likes him aside from a girl in his new school, Higure and his teacher, Ms. Sakaki. As you can probably tell, this cast of characters is deeply troubled with huge traumas in their lives. I could list more of them like Adie's horrendous father, Higure's dangerous older brother and a jealous Maki who resented Adie and has a massive crush on Kota since they were kids. It goes on and on like this with several of these characters' stories intertwining with each other. A cause and effect over the actions the children took is now manifesting itself in their adult lives. And all of this confusion and misery is where I think the book really shines. It presents sort of this tragic nihilistic view on characters that are trying to find answers without knowing what questions to ask. Nijigahara Holograph is a short read at 12 or so chapters. However, I do recommend multiple readings to fully grasp all of what Asano is trying to tell us. There's more than meets the eye with every single character, and I haven't even discussed how the story teases us about alternate stories, dimensions, and frankly, alternate worlds. Yeah, it can get weird fast if you're not ready. Keep in mind though that the story tends to shift forwards and backwards in the timeline to show us how the events of the past have and do continue affecting our main characters. For me though, the message I took from this is the dangers of collective fear and how it can affect us and mold us into different versions than what we set out to be. I do have to give a big shout out to my good friend Nelson, who was the one that actually gifted me this copy so I could read it and review it for you guys because he's a huge fan of this book. And I'm trying to do the book justice because he had such an amazing review that I really, it sold me on the book. You can follow him on his YouTube page Sequential Consequence when he does all his videos and stuff. Part of what fascinates me about Asano books is that he's able to take mundane things or mundane topics. Like this isn't like the premise sounds more complicated than it is, but it's more like a psychological horror drama, interpersonal drama between characters. And he's just able to get the most out of his drawings from that mundane situation. I don't know if you guys catch my drift. Like there's so much rich detail in his drawings and the way he incorporates real photography and digital effects to create very surreal images. I mean, yeah, you can see the usage of blacks and photorealistic stuff to create images that do resonate with the reader. And they are, it creates sort of like this uncomfortable yet satisfying ethereal experience when you're reading stuff that, you know, has such a style, really skillful usage of composition here with the butterflies and everything. And just, it looks like you're there. It looks cinematic in scope. I loved it. I love the art in this. It's so freaking glorious to look at, man. And there's some really messed up things that happened in this book. I already mentioned it, but I will say so again because I don't want people to look at this review and be like, you didn't mention that that was going to happen. I wasn't ready either. Just saying. You've got characters that are heavily flawed physically and mentally, whether it's the teacher that suffered a blinding attack and how that, as you keep reading the story, connects to other dots with other characters. And when you do find out what the whole situation is and the whole urban legend and it's just, it really does leave a mark. And I do think if you are ready for such a reading experience, then yeah, you have to pick up Nijigahara Holograph. I got to be completely real with you guys. When I first read the book, I didn't understand about 30 or 40% of what I read. The ending left me a little bit bewildered. I had to look at some notes and I still don't think I fully grasped 100% of what happened in the book. But I do recognize the amazingly well-written story here and sort of like the psychological horror elements, I should say. Also the drawings, they're pretty masterful and fantastic. Just be warned, like I mentioned, there is some heavy subject matter. There's blood and violence and brief mutity and a lot of things involved here and there. It's sporadic, but they're there. Just a fantastic example of great storytelling in a wonderful medium that is manga that you can't tell such a sophisticated adult story. Love it. What do you guys think about Nijigahara Holograph? I am sure I am not the only one that didn't get everything. And if you did, then you are awesome. Bless you for getting 100% of what Asana was trying to do. So yeah, tell me down below what you thought of Nijigahara Holograph. As always guys, thank you so much for tuning in. You can follow me on your favorite social media platform, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that fun stuff. Just type a week and geek them and I am there for you guys. Alright, I have got to go. Thank you once again for liking, commenting and subscribing. That is very awesome. But yeah, I've got to go. I will catch all of you on our next episode.