Murders, limbs, blood and GOTH?!

Do re mi fa…soooooooo I didn’t read any new manga this week…which sux. I’M ON VACATION AND I’M DOING NOTHING AT ALL EXCEPT BEING LAZY CUZ IT’S XMAS!!!

Itsuki to left, Yoru to right

Since I haven’t read any new manga I’ll just tell you about my favorite one-shot manga. The manga is called “GOTH” by artist Kenji Ooiwa and author Otsuichi(Real name: Adachi Hirotaka (安達 寛高)). It was released in japenese version by Kadokawa Shoten in 2003 and came out in english versionby Tokyopop in 2008.

The story is about 2 high school students, who got a weird love interest with bizarre deaths and murders. The teenagers, Itsuki Kamiyama (the “main” guy) and Yoru Morino (the chick), are your normal kids on the block…. except they are a bit smarter than the you and I. Also they, as you probably already guessed, somehow become involved with the murders in each story.

“heh, that’s nothing new…it’s like any other mystery story I’ve read”…yes, I know that is what is on your mind!
The difference here is that Yoru is a pale girl with wrist cutscars and Itsuki is a guy with a tendency to break things just to see whats inside and his latest hobby and first human subject is Yoru! He’s a guy who likes to keep a mask in front of others, so no one can discover his creepy self and with good reason. If Itsuki gets Yoru done or not…well you just have you read and discover it yourself, heh

The girl, the guy and the wrist-cut

Yes, Itsuki's hobby started in a young age

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUT I can guarantee you that while Itsuki thinks of how to best kill Yoru and the killings happening around them you will get a package full of mystery, horror, drama and psychological stuff. “GOTH” may make you think about the people you interact with and maybe also a bit more about your true self.

Yoru is cute :3 Great idea to disguise as the mur-dered girl in the diary

Yep, totally not the murder who got Yoru!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you liked Otsuichi’s story which are mostly psychological and dramatic and want more of those than I will be happy you let you know that one of his other stories, actually a few, has been adapted to manga. It’s called “Kimi ni Shika Kikoenai” released in 2003 by Kadokawa Shoten in japan or in english “Calling You” by Tokyopop.
The first story, which also puts the name to the title for the manga, is the best story in the whole volume (in my opinion) and has in japan been drawn and released by 2 artists; Setsuri Tsuzuki (Tokyopop released this artists book)and Hiro Kiyohara (whose version was released in 2007 in japan also by Kadokawa Shoten). I like Hiro’s version
better than Setsuri’s, mostly because it got only the first story (which I like the best) and because it got
beautiful art which does Otsuichi’s story justice. On the other hand Setsuri’s cover is great.

Lovely girl, lovely art

Girl meets guy...by mind mobile

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you liked “GOTH” or/and “Calling you” and want more from the author, you should read the novels. After all, the novel was used as base for the manga and will tell give out more info when it comes to the characters personality and thoughts. Both of the titles are out in english also released by Tokyopop. I will not say anything about them since I haven’t read them yet (it will be stupid to be talking about something you don’t know about. I’m not that arrogant). But I will let you know that I got the “GOTH” novel at home, just haven’t read it yet. IT’S MINE so I can read it, when I want.

If you look around you may be able find some other stuff by Otsuichi on the net, like a few stories translated from his “Zoo” novel which is a collection of stories which resembles a Zoo with its many short stories covering different topics, settings, and genre. You may also be able to find Hiro Kiyohara’s version of “Calling you” on the net.
If not, tell me and I’ll try to find them for you