Random Musings: Picking My Next Monthly Review Project

Now that I’ve wrapped up my Year of Yuri monthly review project, it’s time for me to decide which manga I’ll focus on next. Like last time, in order to help me choose another monthly manga review project, I wanted to get some input from the readers of Experiments in Manga. So, once again, I’m putting it to a vote. Recently, I’ve been in the mood for horror manga. Using a fairly broad definition of horror, I’ve narrowed down my options to five (technically six) manga series that I would be interested in reviewing. After the fact, I noticed that the horror manga that made the final cut coincidentally all had something in common—the creators all happen to be women. (Well, except maybe for Shin Mashiba, whose gender I’m uncertain of, but whose manga has a shoujo flair to it.) For my next monthly review project, I will be tackling one of the following series:

After School Nightmare by Setona Mizushiro
Unlike the other completed options on this list, I haven’t actually finished reading After School Nightmare. I initially borrowed the first few volumes of the manga from my local library and on the strength of those volumes alone I sought out and purchased the entire series. So why did I never finish reading it? Honestly, I’m not sure, but I think I might have actually been afraid to since some of the themes are pretty hard-hitting. Published in English by Go! Comi, all ten volumes of After School Nightmare are now out of print, but fortunately they are still relatively easy to find.

Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida
Dorohedoro is a very strange and weird manga, but one that I enjoy immensely. It’s a series that somehow manages to be both gruesome and charming all at the same time. Dorohedoro is violent and graphic, dark and grimy, but also incredibly goofy with an exceptionally black sense of humor and a cast of absurdly quirky characters. I’ve previously reviewed the first volume of Dorohedoro, so this option will include in-depth reviews of the remaining volumes currently available in English as well as any future volumes that are released.

Mushishi by Yuki Urushibara
Mushishi was one of the first manga series that I made a point to collect in its entirety, but because it was released before I started blogging at Experiments in Manga, I’ve never really written much about it. I love the series (the anime adaptation is a favorite, too), and find its quiet, contemplative creepiness to be especially appealing. Mushishi was initially published by Del Rey manga and is out of print (some of the volumes are now very expensive), but happily the entire series is now available digitally from Kodansha Comics.

Nightmare Inspector: Yumekui Kenbun by Shin Mashiba
Nightmare Inspector began serialization in a shoujo magazine, but when it folded the manga was moved to a shounen monthly. Initially it seems to be episodic, but by the end of the series a heartrending overarching story emerges. With its dark, melancholic atmosphere, Nightmare Inspector is a manga that I am particularly fond of. I wrote a little about the series as a whole for the Horror Manga Moveable Feast a few years ago, but I’ve always wanted to go back and revisit Nightmare Inspector again in order to really dig into the individual volumes.

Tokyo Babylon/X by CLAMP
The first time I tried reading X, I didn’t actually like it much at all and gave up after only one volume. But then I tried reading it again when the omnibus edition was released and promptly became hooked. Tokyo Babylon, to which X is a sequel of sorts, also took a while to really grow on me. So I’ve been wondering if, like X, I might appreciate Tokyo Babylon more if I gave it a second chance. This option will include in-depth reviews of the two Tokyo Babylon omnibuses from Dark Horse as well as the six X omnibuses from Viz Media.

So, what’ll it be? My fate is in your hands.

(The poll will be open through the end of November!)